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Driving to N Dakota in a Square!
By Keith Park
Well, here's the trip report for my journey to N Dakota from NY that I
drove last June, A bit late?? Just a bit!
It all starts with preparing my 71 Square to spend 6 days in. The kit
of spare parts normally includes such items as: Fuel pump, pressure sensor,
control unit, trigger contacts, fuel injector, points, condenser,
regulator, generator, brake pad, rebuild kit for the master cyl, coil,
fuses, clutch and throttle cables, and the addition of spare front torsion
bars for the long trip. Everything else I can rig up till I get to
Radioshack or home.
I headed out on a Thursday morning at 7:30 AM, an uneventful trip
across NY, PA, OH and into Indiana to the Motel 6 in Southbend. Well..
when Motel 6 says they will leave the light on for you, in Indiana its a
RED light! I parked it nose up (OOOPS!) and the line of thunderstorms hit
a half hour later at 10PM. I slept despite all the activity in the other
room and woke to a sunny morning.
Day 2 I left the Motel and took my 2nd shower of the day when the
poo½¸v r in the sunroof gutter came raining down on me. NEVER park a T3
with sunroof nose up in the rain, there is a spot in back where the water
can pool and not drain out the tubes until you drive off and then the
torrent overflows the gutter. 8AM and I headed for Chicago, Hmmm· whats
that smell?· Oh.. its Chicago! Got through the city without getting into
problems and drove out to Madison WI.
I met our Guru of all things Type 3, Jim Adney here. Boy if it has to
do with a type 3 he's done it and has the spare parts to do it again. A
really nice guy who I could have chatted with for hours but just to see his
collection of T3 stuff alone, all nicely boxed, cleaned and reconditioned,
ready for another 100Kmi of reliable service, WOW! Jim's is also where I
learned that the late T3 seats are not in fact NOT supposed to recline into
the back seat, they did in my old 73.. I really miss the feature.
I then headed uneventfully for St. Cloud MN where I found a much nicer
Motel 6 and settled in for the night. Up again for day 3, drove to Fargo
ND, now its getting boring and windy, WOW the winds in ND and the COLD for
the end of June were mean. I love my Late Square and all but it is like
driving a brick into the wind and it was a nasty ride across the grassy,
hilly prairie country. About 6 hours to cross the state and then up the
west side to Williston, in the middle of nowhere! 1910mi from Albany NY!
Its interesting knowing that your the only Type 3 in town, some of us
experience that but knowing that you likely to be the only T3 EVER in
town·.!
Anywho we set off for the Yellowstone tour part of the trip the next
morning in my Buddy's 93 Escort, 5 of us crammed in the horrible little
car, wonderful scenery, blast of a trip even with the stop to hotwire the
cooling fan, "oh.. that hasn't worked in a while", a tranny that needed
convincing to go into gear a couple times, a plugged cat converter, there's
nothing NOTHING worse than driving through speedlimitless Montana in a car
that wont go over 65!EL¾È and lastly it cant be good when you notice
your foot is nearly floored going DOWN a hill!!
Back in Williston, good nights sleep, and I'm ready to head back to NY
after doing a quick oil change in the Sqaure and getting the twins stuff in
the car (there coming to visit me). Thirteen year old twins, Nathan &
Glenn, one is 4'8" and the other is 5'9"· I must have the smoothest working
plastic seat rails on the passenger seat of the whole list!! Al, when will
the repro's be avail??" We head for St. Cloud MN again just before noon.
Long about Bismark we hit a head wind again, Bummer! But the lightening
displays were spectacular! From one horizon to the other. Little did I
KNOW·.
We hit Fargo and it started to rain, no, it started to downpour and
when the gust front moved through I pulled over, I'm a weather nut but
80-90MPH straight line winds scared the tar out of me! It started to lift
the car, and incidently, vent window seals don't work too well under
these conditions. After 5 mins or so the winds were down to about 40-50 so
we pressed on slowly, occasionally stopping under underpasses when I
started hearing hail hit the car (glad it wasn't a 73!). This went on for
FOUR hours.. unrelenting drownpour, I finally decided I wouldn't make it on
the remaining gas and stopped at a station before its power went out and
was so desperate I put 91 Octane in it! I never use less than 92 in the
summer and finding it in the mid west is a real problem, don't they have
muscle cars out there?? And 85.5 Octane· I wouldn't run my lawnmower with
that! During the last hour there were tornado warnings and a touchdown just
5 miles outside St. Cloud so the kids were looking for funnels when the
lightening lit the sky up and I was tuned into the AM radio weather
reports. FINALLY at 11:30 PM we pulled into the Motel 6 in St. Cloud MN!
OF course the rain was letting up now and I haven't slept that well in a
long time!
Day 2 the Sun came up and so did the floor mats, what would normally
only be a leak of aT+1 2 becomes an annoyance when there is a blinding
downpour for 4 hours. But we did stay basically dry. 9AM and we were off
to Ann Arbor MI, or so I thought, as the day wore on so did the heat and
the car seemed to be flooding when I had to restart it. Nathan spoke up
and said "the fuel pressure went to 45 PSI when you started it" Ohhh that
would do it! should never be over 31. The fuel pressure regulator was on
the fritz but the pressure did come down as the car ran so all was OK for
the rest of the trip. As we approached Chicago there was a heat emergency
as it was 101 downtown and the chance of more thunderstorms so with the hot
kids and flakey regulator we decided to ditch it just before going through
Chicago.. relax· and cool off in the motel.
Day 3 begins on a sunny note too and we make it through Chicago
without problem (Yep! It still smells), and off to Ann Arbor to meet the
Great Type 3 Listmaster Greg Merritt. Along the way we saw the ultimate
redneck hangout.. way off the road there was a shack that had a big banner
on it that simply said "Cigarettes, Beer, Fireworks" nothing like getting
drunk so you can accidently light off all the fireworks with your
cigarette! A couple lines of thunderstorms made me nervous but they
weren't really a problem.
I pull into his lot and now mine makes 3 Squareback's in a row· this
qualifies as a show on the East Coast. It was really great to finally meet
the man that brought us all together and what a nice guy he is. Bitten by
the same type 3 bug as all of us he has a wonderful collection of
literature some of which I have never seen. And the 69 we have followed the
story on· Ohhh its sweet, the cleanest floorboards I've ever seen and the
FIRST automatic I've ever driven. I was impressed, it felt solid like the
low mileage car it is and the automatic is smooth· an eerie and strange
feeling after all these years of driving standards. Nathan felt honored to
play a game on the "computer where it all began" while we spent time
looking in, over an[éõ each others cars. Nothing but NOTHING makes 3
hours go faster than spending them with a type 3 buddy. Finally 5 PM and
its time to get the hammer down again on the way to Buffalo NY.
Across Canada this time, (much better route) and it was fairly
uneventful except for the big pileup on the Queensway but fortunately it
was in the other direction. I didn't quite make it back into the states
without needing gas so I pulled out the Canadian bills I had in my wallet
since the Carter administration and got a couple gallons to make it to the
Falls. OH, one more thing, if I put down the map and say "Hey! I remember
all this" pick the map right up again and Smack me with it! 10:30 PM and
we come to rest at another Motel 6 in Buffalo.
Day 4 was a straight 4.5 Hour run home from Buffalo, a trip I have
made many times in my Square. We got home about 1PM. Whew! What a blast!
Now the moving into my new house began and the 25+ trailerloads of crap
that were dragged over there by the good 'ol trusty Square!
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