big Hornet trip

[Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>]

Took a little 1000 mile jaunt this weekend in the Hornet, got back
about 7pm today.

The nominal goal was to attend a han radio swap meet in Livermore
with some friends and palm off junk I mean goods on unsuspecting
fellow fools I mean never mind.

Friday, drove from Los Angeles to Oakland, via 99, through the
Central Valley. Poor choice -- well over 100 and high humidity the
whole way.  I have A/C, but it's in parts in boxes still. 70 - 74
mph the whole way, got an easy 21+ mpg for this leg. This, with a
trunk full of heavy junk, the car un-level from the weight in
back.

Saturday, drove to Livermore, picked up friends, drove to SF to
pick up an R390 (military radio) and surplus junk in Silicon
Valley, in a nice air-conditioned SUV. Back to Livermore.

Sunday, 5am to the Livermore swapmeet, made only $80, not enough
to break even for the trip (eh, nice, but not required :-), then
headed to Carson City NV to a friends house. Over 100 again the
whole time, the only car trouble was fairly heaving pinging around
Placerville, 3000 ft altitude (and climbing towards 5000), 106
degrees, water temp on the hot side of normal.

Monday, drove back home, down route 395, through Nevada and
California, eastern side of the Sierra Nevadas. A spectacular
drive, one of the best routes I've ever done, and I've done a lot
of Western highways. 2/3rds of the way back to LA is well over
6000 feet (100 miles 7000 and up) so it's cool, mid 70's. Two to
four lane open highway (not limited-access interstate), small
towns every 5 - 50 miles, spectacular views, basically zero
trucks.

I hate carburetors. All set for sea-level, it's rich at 7000 feet.
I had some heat soak/vapor lock/gas boil issues after parking in
the hot stuff, and flood at start, and poor idle, but the Weber
was much better than the 4 bbl Holley, the last carburetor I did
this highway in, damn thing had no power and stunk of gas the
whole time.

Coming home I got 23-24 mpg (over 500 miles, two fillups), and I
still have 250 lbs of unsold junk in the trunk!

Next time the A/C will be working!