Missoula Trip (1)

While traveling to Missoula, my fiance', Julie, asked if she could drive.. so, while she was driving, I plugged my handy little 12V - 120VAC converter into the lighter socket, fired up the laptop, and plugged in my black and white Connectix QuickCam and start taking some pics.. (and a few BIG AVIs) Sorry the pics are only 64 grays, but my color QuickCam chews up a LOT of CPU, and besides.. I was busy taking the B/W Cam out to my friend Dan, my Scout's former owner, so I had it handy..

I made some AVI files, but.. like I said.. HUGE.. 8MB to 12MB.. If I can find a way to compress 'em, I may put them up.. Nothing impressive, just Julie driving (that wheel looks *so* big).. and I set the QC on the dashboard and recorded as we passed a Trans-Am.. I'm thinking of duct-taping the QC to the dash, and then hitting some mud.. "This is what you would see, if *YOU* had the world's greatest 4x4, and Tom was driving"... :-)

Here's Julie, acting childish again.. :-) Notice the QC is on the dashboard.
There.. now she's laughing. Also, you can see the aftermarket (factory repro) roll-bar (with that awesome chrome colored paint). The white splotch on the left is me (the QC doesn't like bright light).
My "console." I wanted to show how I had mounted my head unit below the ashtray. The CB was there when I bought it.. four screws through the underside of the dashboard.. not how I would have done it, but the damage has been done. Also note that the 3spd and transfer case levers work great to hold large drinks (at least on long drives.. around town they still dump pretty easy). Oh, and that's my NIKE on the right..
Another shot of the console, a little clearer, and no drink in the way.
A straight-away rearward shot. See the rollbar? Not much else to see.. (unless you've never seen the inside of a Scout before). I'll try to take another pic, with my Calvin sticker and my Oakley logo in the side windows.. the Calvin is my favorite (both were provided by Dan, the previous owner). I need to add my KC Hilites sticker after I get my bumper made and my daylighters installed. Oh, BTW, Montana allows me to use a maximum of 4 spotlights in excess of 300 candle power on the road.. so yes, I can use 4x 600,000 candle KCs.. or 2.4Million on the road.. scary, eh?
I just wanted to show my CB antenna solution (which, I found, the first owner had done too.. much to my chagrin after I cut the wire..). I have my CB antenna mounted on the roof (for winter use anyhow) and have a coupler located just inside the cab, below the headliner. When it's time to take the roof off again, I can just disconnect the antenna at the coupler (NOT cutting the wire like last time) and reconnect the CB to a different antenna.. probably mounted on the front bumper.
I mentioned I had some cancer holes in the floor.. actually, just in the lower right corner of this pic is where the spot is (I wasn't thinking or I would have included it).. but, this is the result of my hole and a bit of Mudding a week ago.. Yuck. Julie complains my Scout is so dusty now.. *shrug*
Last shot, of us together, me staring at that d@$# laptop screen (yes, *again*!) and Julie cruising down the road..

Tom's Scout Trips