The Mustang Project

Category: Travel

  • Tuesday, September 30th, 2025 – Arrival

    “I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.” – Maya Angelou

    Finally! We made it back to the house and were were able to get the mustang into the garage. Tow dolly has been returned, Jeep unloaded and happy to see the kids again!

    The last 6 hours of the journey was mostly uneventful. Loads of early morning traffic in OK, we stayed right in city limits and drove with the early pack into work.

    The tarp I purchased to cover the mustang didn’t look great but made it. I was very eager to remove the tarp and tally boxes, luckily everthing I remember packing or having observed was packed in was still all there. In the words of Chit “Success!”. Unfortunatley, I have work for the rest of the week and plans over the weekend, I am not sure how much I will be able to get done. It’s time we clean out this garage to make room for all three vehicles and reoginize everything!

  • Monday September 29th, 2025, Long Road Ahead

    “Without frustration you will not discover that you might be able to do something on your own. We grow through conflict.” ~ Bruce Lee

    Today’s trip was incredibly long but this was to be expected. The original intent was to have arrived in Arkansas by midnight, or maybe between 1 and 2am.

    Unfortunatley, the tarp was completely shredded by a thunder storm in Texas. Two of the straps broke and the rope used to secure the tarp under the body had vanished, I assume somewhere on the road. I took every strap remaining, including the two broken straps and reapplied the straps with some additional blue rope I had purchased from a gas station earlier in the morning. This in an effor to limp along to the next larger gas station where I had intended on purchasing another strap.

    The vibration from the poorly kept roads rattled the bolts holding the trunk lid to the spring loaded arms right off. The only thing holding it and the bumpers zip tied to it was a small hiking rope which I used to keep the lid closed. Luckily nothing was lost and I didn’t see any additional damage done.

    The gas station we stopped at had a classic car musium, which I didn’t have time to walk through, and absolutly zero additional straps to use. As frustrating as this all was, there was a 40ft line of paracord in my armrest that I kept for a rainy day. This came in handy and was used to secure the remainder of the tarp, tatters and all, back down and hopefully for the last time. In total, we spent arround an hour or more addressing the tarp situation that placed us well past the originally intended arrival time. We were now scheduled to arrive somewhere after 5am. The dicision was made and we quickly found a hotel in Oklahoma and checked in at midnight. 1 more day of driving, but only 6 hours.

  • Sunday September 28th, 2025, The Trip Home

    “A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.” -John A. Shedd

    Today, we loaded the Mustang onto the tow-dolly, which I had picked up on the 26th. The car is surprisingly light without the engine and the transmission, but fully loaded with all of the parts we could find. Door liners, random bolts, screws, new carpet, new mufflers, new headers, all original seating, among other various new and removed parts.

    The loading of the mustang and departure was incredibly quick. We strapped everything down, said our goodbyes and headed south towards LA where, 40 miles or so north, we would turn east and begin the remainder of our 1100 mile journey back to Arkansas.

    Before making it to our first of three nightly hotel stays we discovered the tarp I had purchased the day before was not holding up to the strong winds produced in the Mojave. We pulled over at a Loves gas station where I purchased a 5-pack of bright orange tow straps. I used every single strap to secure the cover/tarp to the body of the Mustang in hopes that it would hold for the remainder of the trip.

    We arrived at the first hotel arround 1am the next morning for our first stay. A well kept branch of the hilton chain of hotels. Too exhausted to enjoy the room, we fell asleep almost immediatley.