I grew up always wanting a Mustang. Unfortunately, fate had other ideas. Really, I can’t complain about all the cars I’ve had, and I’ve had a lot of cars. But none of them was a Mustang, and all I ever really, truly wanted, was a Mustang.

Three weeks ago, I finally fulfilled that dream – at least partially. I got myself a Mustang; a 1989 LX hatchback with just 62,000 miles on the clock, owned by a little old lady. There was hardly any rust (a minor miracle for a Northeastern car), everything worked, and the car, while not perfect, was pretty damn clean. The only problem? The engine was missing half of its cylinders.

Pictures: Chris DeMorro

A four-cylinder Mustang? Who would buy such a thing save for a little old lady? Well, this guy did, and it was for a very good reason. You see, for the next three months, my girlfriend Nicole Werner and I will be driving across country… in a Mustang.

Are we crazy? Yes. Are we cramped? Yes. Is this going to be the adventure of a lifetime? Absolutely.

Such a scheme requires a fair amount of planning, which Nicole and I (mostly Nicole) have been doing for about two months. The Mustang, as we know, is not exactly a spacious car, so fitting all of our camping equipment into such a small vehicle proved something of a challenge. So we had to downsize our lives somewhat, bringing only what was absolutely necessary to our trip. A tent, grill, two small folding chairs and sleeping bags, a medium-sized cooler…there wasn’t much more room for anything else. We were each limited to a single duffel bag for our clothes, which we accomplished by using vacuum sealing bags.

So what is the point of all this madness? We want to see the country, while we still have the chance, and we want to do it in a classic, American car. Sure, we could have found something newer, or nicer, or more comfortable. But where is the challenge, the excitement?

Living out of a Mustang has forced us to reconsider what is truly important to our lives. This trip will also give us a chance to check out local car scenes and famous car shows, things we have heard about but never seen. Along the way we are going to stop at such historic locales like the Talladega Super Speedway, the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, the Woodward Dream Cruise, and many, many more places.

Three months is a long time, and a lot can go wrong. But sometimes you just have to throw caution to the wind. Besides, with the way the world is going, in a few years it might be too expensive to drive a gas-powered car across the country for three months (at least on writer’s wage).

We are sticking to local thruways and avoiding major interstates so we can get a real taste of the local flavor, and we could use your help, dear reader, in finding interesting car events, museums, or even just awesome automobiles along the way. Right now we are in Maryland, just outside of Washington D.C., and we’re heading towards the Blue Ridge Parkway in a few days. So if you know of someplace we just HAVE to see, let us know! We’ll be keeping you up to date with our progress along the way, and if you see our black-and-white little Pony (likely covered in chalk, because we’re cool like that) give us a honk and a wave. We’ll be doing a lot of driving, so we’re sure to run into at least a few of you PowerTV fanatics out there!