Mercedes-Benz Diesel Road Trip - Ohio to New York - Feature

LEG 4 - St. Louis, Missouri To New York, New York

By sunset, we arrive in Caldwell, Ohio, to see North America's first (accidental) oil well. While drilling for salt brine in 1814, Silas Thorla and Robert McKee kept encountering a nasty black goo, which they sopped up in blankets, wrung out, and bottled as "Seneca Oil," a topical liniment and purgative. The next morning, we top off the radiator, watch the glow-plug indicator coil on the dash heat to its finger-searing cherry red, and depart for the birthplace of the global oil industry, Titusville, Pennsylvania. It was here, on August 27, 1859, that "Colonel" Edwin L.

Drake drilled the world's first commercial oil well, inventing the concept of driving a pipe down into the well hole to prevent collapse or contamination. Sad to say, neither he nor his assistant, salt-well driller "Uncle" Billy Smith got rich. Neither did the town-Titusville looks nothing like Dallas or Dubai. The Drake Well Museum is well worth the 80-mile detour north off I-80. The functional replica of the original well and the working engine that powers numerous widely dispersed pumps from a central location via rods, levers, and turnbuckles will enthrall Rube Goldberg enthusiasts.

Our last oil-trail stop is 13 winding miles south in McClintock, Pennsylvania, home of the world's oldest producing oil well, drilled in 1881. From the rock-steady ML's cockpit, the 190 seems to list precipitously on its 13-inch Dayton Thorobred tires, but long suspension travel was the norm back then, and everything feels quite natural from the old girl's broad, cushy driver's seat.

Back on I-80, it's a straight shot into Manhattan, where our 1959 predecessors ended their odyssey at the now defunct Luchowski's restaurant. Our Mercedes hosts treat us to dinner at the similarly foreign-sounding but perhaps swankier Bar Boulud, which leaves us wanting for nothing-except perhaps a Manhattan cocktail. Our hotel bar obliges us, validating an old adage about the city's namesake libation: "One's too many and three aren't enough."

Our Wednesday-morning finish line is 30 miles north at MBUSA's headquarters in Montvale, New Jersey, and even the noon call for lunch and a presentation seems ambitious on this morning after. We arrive a tad late, but rally in time to grip, grin, and reflect quasi-coherently on Mercedes-Benz's 50-year history of selling reliable, economical diesels in America. We gush about the 190's exemplary stamina and impressive 29.7-mpg economy, and laud the ML's exceptional power, comfort, 27.2-mpg performance and 600-plus mile range. We thank everyone at MBUSA and the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center, then collapse into airport limos vowing to attack our next cross-country adventure with greater moderation.
-Frank Markus