Drove it off the showroom floor, started the trip two weeks later, and when I got back to Florida on July 4th in time for the fireworks the car had 13,000+ miles on it. Best summer of my life. Kept a diary of the trip and every once in a while I will pull it out and relive the adventure, and there were some real adventures during that ride.
I owned the exact same car. Like you, I drove it off the showroom floor in '76. Four on the floor, four cylinder demon.
I put 121,000 miles on it before selling it ti my brother-in-law. Loved every mile in that car.