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May 7-8, 2005 For Mother's Day this year, my wife and I decided that this would be a good opportunity to drive the car out to see her mom this weekend. It is 128 miles each way - a long enough trip to test the car's highway worthiness, without being an extremely long trip. The car performed great! The engine ran fine. There was no overheating. But there was a lot of noise. Creaking, squeaking, and whistling. I found that the steering was now good enough to handle higher speeds, and didnt really have any trouble keeping the car going straight down the road. Without AC, the windows need to be wide open on a warm day, and the howling noise can get old after a few hours at 70mph. All in all, it was a good trip though. I got to take some photos at a few scenic places near my wife's hometown of Warren, IL - including a local gas station (very rustic), the chapel where we got married last year in the town of Apple River, IL - and some shots at the local state park - Apple River Canyon. The odometer added 315 miles in total, after all the sightseeing!