Woohoo! I drove The Wonder Falcon 6,118 miles in 2016 without a single breakdown. :)
The Falcon is my daily driver and it makes the trips to and from work fun.
Miles in 2015: 4,305
Miles in 2014: 4,280
Miles in 2013: 3,999
Miles in 2012: 291
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Woohoo! I drove The Wonder Falcon 6,118 miles in 2016 without a single breakdown. :)
The Falcon is my daily driver and it makes the trips to and from work fun.
Miles in 2015: 4,305
Miles in 2014: 4,280
Miles in 2013: 3,999
Miles in 2012: 291
That really is a "Wonder Falcon." If I put on 60 miles a year it's a good year, but I'm hoping to do more this year. Maybe 80 miles!
:rocker:
Hello, Roger.
My goal is to put 100,000 miles on the The Wonder Falcon. It will take maybe sixteen more years at the rate that I am going. I am 55 now, so I need to hustle!
My wife and I drove a pleasant 230-mile round trip From Tampa to Silver Springs on Florida Scenic Highway 301 to attend the "National Parts Depot's 23rd Annual Ford & Mustang Roundup 2017". We drove up on Friday afternoon, spent the night, attended the show, and drove home yesterday afternoon. The temperature dropped to the mid-fifties and I got to use my heater! It worked very nicely and kept us comfortable warm. The car ran smoothly and quietly. Perfect. I felt like I was driving a luxury car. :)
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The awards were given based on "people choice" ballots. I selected the following car as "Best Mustang". It is my ideal Mustang, completely stock with whitewall tires, wheel covers, and a 260 V-8. What a beautiful little car!
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For "Best Ford" I chose the black Model A. The green and tan ones were cleaner and in better shape, but the black one was a little dirty and looked like it had been driven. Anyone who drives their Model A to a car show is a hero and deserves an award.
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For "Best of Show" I bowed before the Wonder and the Grandeur of a 1960 Lincoln Continental. Oh, my gosh.
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... and I loved the 1929 Model A speedster. Dang, I would enjoy taking that little car for a spin.
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We enjoyed the show!
A car show in January!
What a great state you live in.
Yeah... but what's up with all that wetness and people wearing coats? I didn't think people wore coats in Florida.
:rain:
I have not posted for a while because nothing has gone wrong that I needed advice on to fix. My last breakdown was three years ago when the fuel pump quit. I drive my Falcon to and from work every day and all that happens is that the car starts instantly. The automatic choke works perfectly. The Ford-O-Matic transmission performs wonderfully. The car rides smoothly, it handles great, it runs quietly and smoothly, steers effortlessly, and accelerates instantly. The car performs perfectly every time. I marvel at how well this car performs. It does everything that it is supposed to do. The Ford engineers did a fantastic job on the design of this car. It is is an absolute joy to drive. Falcons are wonderful little automobiles. I really really really like my Falcon.
Dennis,
I think you forgot to mention something important..........
it's a BEAUTY!
Great to hear Dennis. :BEER: :D:D
(Funny thing is I was just wondering about that.)
....but there's got to be something to tweak?...??
You may need to get another falcon or maybe a ranchero as a project.
[thumb]
That can be a dangerous thing to wish upon someone...
:NERVOUS:
But Dennis, your daily travels may seem mundane to you, but your writing about them and posting the various pictures of the car parked here and there are great. They exhibit life connected with the Falcon you love to drive. I post a lot of picture of things I'm doing to bring cars back to life, but your pictures are of the life lived with the car. Far, far, better and more interesting to me. [thumb]
Hello, Roger.
I pass this Day Care Center sometimes when I drive home from work, depending on the route I take, and always enjoy seeing the art work. I made it a point this past Friday to stop and take a picture of it:
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My little Falcon continues to run perfectly. The car is so low-slung that I look up at all the traffic around me. Sitting behind that 260 V-8 makes me feel like I am driving a sports car.
I like to think about who the original owners of this car might have been. It was probably a young married couple because of it having an automatic transmission and bench seat. The wife probably wanted something small and practical but sporty. The husband must have had a good income to be willing to spend the extra money to get it in the the fancy Futura trim and with the new small block V-8. They must have thought that they were on top of the world with their new Falcon back in 1963. :)
It is such a nice little car.
I love hearing these stories about daily driven Falcons. I bought mine in 2015, and have put 18,000 mile on it since then. I can't afford to have a car that doesn't start, stop & run well every day. It has to be reliable and do it's job; no yard art or trailer queens for me.
My wife's car is a brand new Honda, and it's really nice- the base model has more bells & whistles than we really need, it's absolutely reliable and averages 39.5 mpg. But it has no soul, sound or history like the Ranchero. When I want a fun drive, the Ranchero is always the first choice.
ew1usnr, I thought it was interesting that you wondered about the original purchaser. I've thought the same thing. Many Falcons & Rancheros I see advertised seem to be 6 cylinders with automatics, yet someone must have been feeling fairly sporty to order my Deluxe Ranchero with a 289 & T10 4-speed. It's certainly the options I would have ordered (if I could have) as a car-crazy 15 year old!
Enjoy the ride :)
There has been a controversy in Tampa over a Confederate memorial statue that is in front of the Hillsborough County Courthouse. The County Commission is anticipated to vote to remove it to Oaklawn Cemetery this July 19. My wife and I drove The Wonder Falcon downtown to see the statue before it was moved:
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Then we drove to Oaklawn Cemetery that is about six blocks north of where the statute presently is. Oaklawn cemetery is the oldest cemetery in Tampa. This marker commemorates the Battle of Fort Brooke where Tampa fought off an attack by a US Navy warship:
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We also saw the grave site of some 2,000 year old Indian remains that were reburied in Oaklawn. The Indian graves are under the slab ringed in red brick. The other two markers in the foreground are grave makers for unidentified soldiers and settlers from Fort Brooke. They date back to 1825 and the Seminole Indian wars.
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The plaque reads:
Here lie the buried remains
of a small band of
Native Americans who perished
about 2000 years ago.
These remains were discovered
in 1987 during construction
of the Tampa Convention
Center.
Let us honor the memory
of these and all Native Americans
who have lived and cherished
the land we call Florida.
I like your outings. Makes me wish there was more posts like these from us all.
Interesting about the statue. Though I think there is a lot of "baby out with the bathwater" knee-jerk issues ("It upsets me, therefore it needs to go"), but I don't agree with that sort of mandate. I feel there will always be controversy until people finally decide to let history be history for history's sake. Observe and learn from the lessons of history. If you erase history, we may find ourselves repeating it. We only have problems when history, or what should be relegated to history, if bad, evil, unfair, is still held up as a banner for how we should be today.
But then, of course, who decides what is bad, evil, and unfair. I can think of only one answer... the greatest of these is love.
Love, love, love. (add musical note here)