Conrad: King of the Highway

Conrad is my ride. He is a dark green 1995 Lincoln Continental and has served me well since my grandpa kindly sold him to me in 2001. Conrad has logged 116,000 miles in his lifetime. Before setting out to Alaska, I will put him through his paces - about 2,600 miles worth of paces - on a roundtrip from Minneapolis to Princeton (TX), Shreveport (LA), and Houston to see friends and family.

Conrad weighs in at 3,911 lbs. He is 206 inches long, 73 inches wide, 56 inches tall and has a 109-inch wheelbase. He has a 4.6 liter, V8 engine that develops 260 horsepower. It’s a very comfortable ride. Kinda like driving a boat across a glassy lake... in heaven. I am counting on that big wheel base to smooth the bumps on the thousands of miles of road north of Vancouver to Alaska. With any luck, I’ll get 17 mpg in the cities and 25 mpg on the highways.

I plan to bring Conrad to the doctor for a checkup while I am in Texas. I would like to have done that in Minneapolis, but alas the Teamsters Union Local 974 decided to strike on April 17 – and the union represents local auto mechanics! The poor service manager at my service garage, Dean, was distraught when I spoke with him; He doesn’t expect the teamsters to be back on the job until at least mid May! http://twincities.bizjournals.com/twincities/stories/2006/04/17/daily11.html

I installed a new JVC CD deck a few weeks ago. I was not as interested in the CD player as I was in the auxiliary input that will allow me to plug my iPod into the sound system. (I've got a 4GB Nano, for you iPod buffs. "1000 songs ... in Conrad".) Please tell me about any cool music! I’ve got lots of room on my iPod for more songs.

I will join AAA before I start my journey. Just in case.