Great early car road trip, Dave! We did our "epic" journey in the 73E a couple of years back. Your comment about the seats was interesting. On our trip, my wife actually felt the Recaro Pole Positions in our car were comfortable. I figured that I'd have days of complaints, but that didn't come to pass.
We're going to do a coast-to-coast trip shortly, but in our Jetta. We're taking the dog we recently adopted, which means the 73E is not the weapon of choice. Oh well.
OK, back to you...great trip and pictures. Keep 'em coming!