Rambling through PA

I didn't stop for the tour but for those that love chocolate...here are the Hershey Towers

Just pictures here...well sort of. Pennsylvania is a massive state and to see some of the more gorgeous parts I would have had to of gone further northwest than I did....if I had of gone NW I would have felt tempted to drive another few hundred miles back to Toledo to give hugs to the Parkers and to make sure Abe was still doing his pushups....but I was on my way east and I had to keep moving.

 At this point I was dying from exhaust inhalation and had to get this thing taken care of. Not bad considering the only thing that has gone wrong with it since I did the repairs in Detroit (and again in Toledo) was the ignition module dying while in St Augustine, fl. In other words...this Chariot rocks!

A fitting title for such a road warrior of a machine

Santa drives a pink van...and you really can't tell where his belly ends and his chest begins...he was a wild character!

Everywhere you look in these small PA towns there is a notion that at one point people were doing great. Little business signs like this, now fallen derelict and pointing to a row of equally shoddy looking houses, stand everywhere. Whatever Henry is doing now I hope he is stabbing big market box stores in the eyes every chance he gets!

Haha! I will indeed!!

The blues brothers in the background....each statue was $995...now what the hell? Who would pay a thousand dollars for such a trinket? Well...no one. They have been in the store for nearly 10 yrs

In Strousburg I decided to get my tailpipe fixed...this sticker sealed the deal that I was at least on the right track with a shop that knew what they were doing. You have no idea how crazy it is that people don't know how to work on a van as old as mine these days.

New exhaust. I could have just replaced the tip but the muffler was on it's way and so was the joint connection from the y pipe to the muffler. So I popped on a new magnaflow muffler and ran 2.5" pipe from the Y back. I wanted 3" but...it was a lot more money and after doing some research there would be little advantage as 2.5" is rated for 500hp and for this beast with no engine mods it should be plenty of throat

Perfect fit...it's huge compared to the tiny sucker that came out of it. At this point I was fearful that it would be too loud...

I brought the pipe out just in front of the rear tire (drivers side). This way I won't break it off again if I back into a hole

Some proper mounts compared to the rubber mount that was there before

A little heat to finish it off so it can be bent around the pipe

Many many thanks to Tom Stark from Trophy Tire who never showed that my endless barrage of questions was getting on his nerves :) Great guy, single dad whose wife left the kids. This was the second guy in PA I met who was in that situation

After it was all said and done...ahhh...A-Treat Sarsaparilla...you know how to hit the spot!

So there I was in Strousburg, wondering what came next when I saw on my map that the Pocono International Raceway was just up the road......destination...Long Pond and the home of the 3 turn (not 4) track