I just got home with the blue beast. I'll post photos of the trip and the car tomorrow.
The trip was full of firsts for me. First Uber ride to the station, first train ride anywhere, first hemi car I ever owned (I owned a 2014 RAM 1500 briefly). Tickets from OKC to Ft Worth one way were only $34/$37 if you wanted refundable tickets in case you cancelled. There were seats facing front and back. There's a fold-down tray table in front of each seat with a depression for a cupholder and a nice adjustable footrest. I don't see how people were sleeping on the train, even though it was a 4 hour trip, the horns blew every 15 minutes at every crossing. Pretty comfortable ride. Lots of swaying side-to-side. Everyone walking around like they were 3 sheets to the wind. The seats lean back pretty far, unlike an airliner with 1 centimeter of travel. I took a seat in the upper level. You had to use the stairs to go from the passenger cars up front to the snack bar in the back of the rear car. I got a cup of coffee. The server said they roast their own beans; Pretty tasty. The restrooms were on the lower level. You had to make like an octopus squeezing into a wine bottle to go up or down the extremely narrow staircase between levels and a shoehorn would come in handy for some people to fit inside the micro restrooms. Stops along the way included several towns most never heard of. OKC-Moore-Norman-Purcell-Ardmore-Ft Worth. There's a lot of history in these towns that sprang up along the old railroad line. I took photos of the Ardmore station since we stopped for tobacco addicts to get a 2 minute fix. They have a static display of an old steam engine that was pretty cool. I took photos of the combination Bus/Train station named Ft Worth Central Station where the ride ended. It seemed to take a lot less time riding the train for 4 hours than the 3 hour drive home.
The car ran great and wanted to do more than 70 or 80. I managed to make it home without having to meet a local law enforcement officer. It was after 7 PM when I got home; "It will take 30 minutes or an hour to do the paperwork", the sales person said. NOT! This was an internet purchase. I was told after submitting all required info via email the paperwork would be there waiting for me to sign and go. All I had to do was inspect the car, which I did thoroughly, (there were a few hiccups which I'll talk about in a minute) take a test drive and give them my cashier's check. 3 hours later...I was ready to head home.
I won't go into all the problems. But here are the more frustrating ones: The car was a 2-3 owner car counting the dealerships. Somewhere along the way one key FOB, the tire inflation kit and the factory locking lug nut key was lost. Try as I might, all I got out of them was a "We Owe" in writing for the inflation kit. I'm not holding my breath for that. After all, the car was $9,880 under NADA and a good bit under what the first poor sucker forked over for MSRP or more. Oh, and someone decided the car looked better with a totally "de-badged" exterior; going for the sleeper motif, I suppose. They wouldn't spring for any cash for replacement decals, either. Overall it was a great adventure. I took a chance of getting all the way there and getting stuck if I decided not to buy the car but, fortunately, it all turned out pretty good.
I woke up this morning to watch the entire weather team showing up to work at News9 in OKC tracking several tornadoes and a forecast of our normal rainfall for the entire month of November in just one day. Here's a few more photos of the trip. Notice the swollen creeks and the Washita river. I failed to get a shot of the Red River at the border between OK and TX. Which reminds me of a joke, "What's the best thing that ever came out of Texas?" Interstate 35.
I'll wash the bugs off tomorrow and find a suitable place to take some glamour shots of the Challenger.
