Home again

Well last night was fun at the Stillwater car show. About 200 cars parked by the river, right by the draw bridge. You could sit on the grass, watch the boats on the river, watch the draw bridge go up and down and look at cool cars.....cool place. Every Wednesday this happens.
I met a young kid that is an awesome artist. He does pencil sketches of your car for $10. He was booked up for the night, so he took a photo of the Buick and will mail the sketch to me.
The B&B was a very nice place. The only problem was that I could not get on the Internet there.
This morning it was a little more shopping and then we headed for home. It is good to be home. I will only be here for about 2 weeks and then its off to Bonneville with Rodney.
The trip was just shy of 1800 miles. The car ran great. It is really nice to get that power steering leak fixed.....finally. The AC really worked well...good thing with the hot days that we had.
I will post a couple of photos of the show and the artist.
This will be the last post until August 12th, from Reno, NV, the first night of the Topless Tour return trip.

pics

Tuesday...Red Wing, MN

We made it to Red Wing today. Shopped at several antique stores along the way. Bought nothing.
Boy was it hot, in fact, it's still hot. 95 wih an heat index of 105 someone said. Now for the storm warnings...I hope there is no hail, the car has been wet before, it won't melt, but hail??
The speedo turned 10,000 miles as we droe into Red Wing, pretty cool.
Johnsone left this morning for home, it sure was nice traveling with them. Tomarrow its Stillwater for the Wednesday night car show.

More KKOA pics

Johnsons trophy winner
John's ElCamino from Mpls
54 Chevy
VooDoo Larry (not shooting flames)
Nice Caddy

KKOA pictures

here are a few pictures
Larry from TX
Denise & Megan
Flames
Milner & 55 Chevy
Pinups!

Monday in Windom, MN

We left Lincoln late (on purpose) and headed north. Today was a hard day.we are all tired. Stopped at an Antique store somewhere at lunch time for a break. I scored a tin hot rod toy car. While the rest were shopping I took a nap on the front porch.
Tomarrow the Johnson's will head north, Elvis and I will drive east towards Rochester and Red Wing. We hope to find some antiques stores. Wednesday night is a car show in Stillwater, MN. We have a bed & breakfast reserved there. It is a very neat old big mansion. We stayed there last spring and thought it would be fun to go back....and there is a car show...win win deal.
That's it for the night.............oh, maybe I will get a couple of pictures on here.

KKOA Leadslead Spactacular

Well its over, an awesome show. No blogs because of the WiFi at the hotel sucks. I got on two times for about 5 minutes only.
Anyway, hot weather on Friday, hot like 105 degrees, but a cool show and cool customs. The final count was over 1500, that's 500 over last year!!
We all went to a great steak house for dinner Friday, all meaning 14 of us, a bunch of friends from Witchita. When we got back to the hotel, we barely got a place to park. All night is crusing and parking lot partying. A real fun place.
Saturday was back to the park for a cooler day, the high was 85, felt real good. Plenty of vendors, a swap meet, pinup contest, music, rockabilly bands, pinstripers and over 1500 cool cars. It was back to the steak house again and then the hotel party. Saturday was even a fuller house. Several flame throwers in the lot. VooDo Larry and his 47 Lincoln custom blew them all away. Talk about flames, he went on for at least 20 minutes, a neat sight. I will post some photos tomorrow.
We saw lots friends this weekend, TX, CA, NE, CO, PA, KS, MN, I think that about covers it. Sure was good to see them all.
Jerry and Doris won a "top 25 award" congrats to them! Needless to say, we stayed for the award show then it was on the road to Lincoln for the night.We arrived there about 7 PM.

Made it to Salina

We arrived in Salina about 2 PM yesterday. A good drive, great road. I80 to York, NE then south on 81 to Salina. Four lane but not interstate.
I figured out the magic speed/mileage deal. Cruise at 60 to 65 and turn out 20MPG with that big Caddy engine.
We had the AC on, blowing ice cubes...that Vintage Air unit really works nice. Elvis had to cover her legs, she was cold.
Temp in Salina was 95 and dew point was 65. Today is to be 100. We drove to the park last night to check it out, a new park this year. Lots of grass, trees, a really beautiful park.There were Over 900 preregs this year, last year just over 600. Looks as if this year will be an even nicer show.
The power steering fittings are holding tight so far. It seems to take 300 miles or so to loosen up. I did zip tie the hoses to a bracket, I thought maybe they were flexing and loosening the fittings, so far so good.
The customs are starting to roll into the Hdqs hotel, I will send some photos tonight.

Salina!!

Salina!!

Tuesday...Lincoln, NE

We left the hotel about 9 AM, after a quick repair to the power steering fittings. The %#$@%&%$ thing started to leak again. We got to Lincoln about 11:30, I called Deuce buddy Roger for a tire shop so Jerry could get his tire swapped back to the good wheel. He advised us where to go. The guy fixed him up quickly. Then it was off to lunch and to the Speedway Museum. That was a 3 hour guided tour. This was my third trip to the museum, but this time the tour guide was really good. He had stories about every car and engine there.
After the tour, I went to the parts department to buy some new fittings for the power steering. The new ones I think will work better.
Attached are some photos of the Worthington collection and some from Speedway Mueseum.
Tomorrow it is off to Salina, KS.

Monday...Sioux City, IA

We left Johnson's house this morning at 9 AM. We drove south west on Hwy 23, then onto 71 towards Worthington, MN. As we were getting gas in Worthington, a nice lady came over to talk to me about the Buick. Then she asked if I had ever been to Spomer's. She said it was an old dealership in town with cars and many signs. It sounded very interesting. She gave me the mans name and I headed for the phone book. I found his number and called him and asked if we could come by. He said sure! Away we went.
Wow what a neat place. About 2 dozen cars and 100's of neon signs, all porcelain type. Most were car brands, but a few hotel, tractor brands and the like thrown in. They were all restored. He gave us the grand tour for about 1 1/2 hours, could have spent more time. Every sign had a story about where it came from. Clocks, signs, dealer stuff, pedal cars, scooters..............cool stuff.
I took photos but the camera cord is in the car and I don't want to go get it, I will post them tomorrow.
We took off on Hwy 60 towards Sioux City...85 miles to go. I heard a pop and saw rubber blowing off of Jerry's rear tire. He had a blowout. Boy did it destroy the tire. We changed to the spare and was back on the road in a few minutes.
Next stop was in Lamar, at the World Famous Blue Bunny ice cream shop and museum. The ice cream was great.
We arrived in Sioux City about 6:30, had a beer and went to dinner. A good day, maybe Jerry doesn't agree, with the blow out, but overall a good day.
Wat5ch for photos tomorrow.

I forgot to mention last night, the total drive was right at 2400 miles. It was a good time. Saw so many friends and neat cars and shops. Had some special menories like the Roadster Shop, the Chicago Skyline Drive at rush hour, Troy's Shop, just to name a couple. I might have found a better room for Bonneville thru a friend of a friend that I saw in Columbus and might have picked up a co-pilot for the trip home from Bonneville, Rodney will be copilot for the trip to B'ville, so the whole two weeks really paid off.

Made it home!

We left Madison this morning after watching the weather to see that most of Minnesota was in a severe storm watch...oh good!
We stopped in Osseo, WI for an early lunch (Doris Johnson recommended it) the Norsk Nook...speciality is homemade pies. The big problem was which pie to order. Boy do they make awesome pie there.
At Eau Claire we headed north on 52 towards Cameron, WI and then was going to go left towards Cambridge, MN on 95. As we were driving towards Cameron the sky got darker and darker...lightning stikes in the sky.....I decided to make a UTurn in one of those "No Uturn" lanes and headed back to 29 and over to I94...will go thru the twin cities after all, the sky was lighter that way.
Just north of the cities on Hy 10 we stopped at a red light and the car died....and would not start. I jumped out and pushed it off to the side, thankfully a guy behind ran up and helped me push. The battery was dead. I emptied the back seat, removed the back cushion to get to the battery, I had a new spare battery in the trailer and a set of jumpers, hooked it all up, fired it up and drove home. I worried about the battery before I left, had it checked at CarQuest and they said it was good. I still put the spare in the trailer just in case. Glad I did. It would not start in the drive way either, but now in the garage and all cooled down it starts with the old battery ?????
We got home just in time to hear the tornado warning for Rice. That storm soon blew over...we were home safe and sound.
Monday morning it is off to Salina KS in the Buick.more fun.

Tuesday

We should be home tonight but are still in Madison, WI. The vicky had a problem. It sheared two bolts in the rear that connects the lower control arm to the center section. When I discovered the problem, I called an old friend (we used to live here), he called a friend that now lives in Denver and they got a hold of another friend that runs a shop in Madison. Sure is nice to know people. The shop called me at 8 AM this morning, told me to come in and they would help. The shop was about 20 miles away. I told Nystroms and Johnsons to go on home and we took off for the shop. Archer Automotive, real nice guy. we got the car on one of his lifts and surveyed the problem. Had to dissemble the complete right side suspension to get to the bolts to drill them out. One was a real bugger, but he finally got it. Now, find new bolts...7/16-14 about 2 inches long...with a tapered head, that was the problem. Joe from Archer called several places, even a Toyota place because they use something similar, no one has any! I suggested using a tapered cone washer, he could not locate them either.
Elvis and I decided to go to lunch, a couple of blocks away, next door to the CarQuest that he called. After lunch we went to CarQuest I asked about the washers and the counter guy said no......the other counter guy overheard and said yes we do! and they did have. I bought two ($3) and walked them back to the shop. Dumb counter guy!! He must have answered the phone too.
Joe and I finally got it all back together, its a bitch to put together, you need at least four hands and two jacks.
I paid the bill, $300.00, not bad for that many hours.We drove out of there at about 5PM, headed back to my favorite hotel (LaQuinta) and got a room. No reason to drive in the late afternoon hot weather. We will head out early in the morning, 350 miles to go. The joys of "ya gotta drive'm!" but it sure beats trailering any day.

I have to get home to finish the Buick's brakes so we can leave Monday morning for the 30th annual "KKOA Leadsled Spactacular" in Salina KS. We will be driving with Doris and Jerry Johnson, will be another fun trip.

Saturday/Sunday

Saturday was a beautiful day. We arrived at the fairgrounds about 8AM, we had "special parking" with the cruisers that drove over 300 miles. I checked out the swap meet, the pros pick area, some terrific cars there, millions of dollars worth. I also spent some time in the big vendor building.
Saturday night we went to Columbus Fish Market, a wonderful place to eat dinner. We have been going there for years. My good friend Jake and his wife Pearl, Jake's brother and wife, and the four Ruh's and Lonnie and his wife Michelle from Iowa, we had a great time and a great meal.
We went back to the fairgrounds Sunday morning about 9AM. Another nice day. Doris Johnson won a juke box in the women's world drawing. Congrats Doris! We had to figure out how that was going to get home. Luckily friend Tom Wahl was there with his truck. We loaded it on a golf cart and went off to find Tom's truck. He was in the parade to the awards ceremony so could not guide us there. (He won a top 10 pick.) Can you imagine how many white Chevy trucks and white trailers are parked in the trailer lot?? Well we did find it loaded it into the truck and then we all took off for the start of the trip home.
Tonight we are in Lafayette, IN. We always stay there and have dinner at Cactus Jacks, another Columbus trip tradition. It was only 240 miles here.
tomorrow we will head to Madison, WI. The women are planning some shopping along the way. It will be a short 300 or so miles.

Ed's truck, misc pics

Friday/Thursday

I forgot to post a picture of Ed's blue Chevy truck, so I will tonight.

On Thursday I needed to be at registration by 4PM to meet a guy named Larry from Canada. He has a Cadillac two fours manifold with him that he sold to some guy in Mpls named Igor. I told them that I would transport it. I met them on the HAMB internet site. I found him, stuffed it into the trailer and headed for the big party at the hdqs hotel. We had special parking, a t shirt and free BBQ and beer.

Friday morning we headed for the fairgrounds (one exit down the road) under cloudy skies. By 10 AM the skies opened up and it poured for several hours. We spent most of the dasy in the vendor building, and the swap meet building. I think I dried the car 3 times. I found several things at the vendors that I needed, and some neat pedal pads in the swap meet...a good day. I sold a few key chains too.
Our hotel puts on a BBQ for us, so more free food tonight. Burgers, dogs, salads, pop, cool deal. I saw many friends from all over, always so fun to see everyone.
The weather says cooler and less humid and no rain for the next few days.

Thursday

We drove to Springfield, OH to visit Early Ford Store. A short 60 mile drive down the 4 lane. We got to tour their place, I was eyeing all those deuce fenders stacked up on the top shelf in the warehouse.
From there it was a short drive to Mershons World of Cars, a classic car dealership. Dan the owner has eight 32 Fords at his house, my kind of guy.
As we pulled up, I noticed antifreeze on my hood sides, upon opening the hood, there it was, the water pump was leaking big time. I suspected it a couple of days ago, but could not tell for sure then. I even had a couple of other guys look at it. Well today there was no doubt. Dan came over to see my deuce and saw what was going on. He said, pull around back, the guys are in the shop, we can replace it right now. He was feeding us a pizza lunch today, he said go to the showroom and have some pizza, when you are done the car will be ready! Well it was not quite that quick, but it was done quite fast. I did go back to the shop to help. While we were all there, they replaced a voltage regulator on Chad's Nova also. He was charged the same ridiculous price that I was charged.......zero!! Did not even charge for the pump.
We continued our short 50 mile journey to Columbus to register. My entry number is 4052 and this is Thursday. This is always an awesome show. Keep in mind all the cars here are rods,customs, and the new fad of protouring muscle cars, There are NO stock cars here...all are modified. The quality of cars here is outstanding.
We drove to headquarters hotel, parked in our special parking for "cruisers", ate our free BBQ and drank our free beer.........life is good!!

Pictures

Wednesday

We woke to clear blue skies. That was nice. We all left the hotel and drove towards the Indy 500 museum. We stopped for lunch at Flo's dinner, somewhere in Indiana. My AC was not working and making noise. It was decided that it was overfull of freon, let some out and bingo...cold air! On the drive Terry's 40 died again, we thought it was a vapor lock. Could not get it to start, after checking further, discovered it was getting gas but no spark, he changed the coil and it fired right up.
The museum is a great place. we all had a good time there.
Tonight we are in Greenfield, IN at the Holiday Inn Express. We just returned from Montana Mikes for dinner, great food, even if we had to pay for it. Tonight just like last night is a parking lot party, drink some beer, tell some stories, talk over the day, fun time.
We lost about four cars and picked up a couple. My good friend Ed in his beuatiful blue Chevy pickup joined up with us yesterday, always good to see him again.
We are on the east side of Indy, tomorrow it is Columbus!
I think I forgot to mention the great kickoff party at Dav's shop in Des Moines on Sunday night. Tons of food, lots of fun.I'll post a pic of the party, a couple of the Roadster Shop, and Troy's

Goodguys cruise 2010

Thursday morning, we met with Johnsons and Nystroms and headed for Des Moines. We drove south on Highway 15 to Mankato and then over to Albert Lea. A good choice of roads, no city trafficc. A real nice drive on mostly 2 lane roads.
At Albert Lea we met with Dick and Ellen from Britt, MN. After a short lunch the four of us continued towards Des Moines. In Akeny, IA we stopped for a "cool one" and some freshly made potatoe chips at "Chips". This has become part of the Des Moines tradition.
Terry Nystoms transmission decided to stop shifting at Albert Lea. He got it to shift into third after a bit and nursed it onto the hotel. We talked with Des Moines resident and friend Dave Ruhs, he called a friend that knew the tranny shop owner, pulled some strings and got Terry into the shop early Friday. After about four hours it was all fixed. They had to remove the valve body and unstick some valves and what ever.
While Terry was doing the tranny, I was replacing my brake light switch in the Vicky. It was a 4 minute job, but finding the correct part was about 3 hours! NAPA had a booth at the show, the counter guy finally found a switch for me at Car Quest in Akeny, drove his personal car there, bought it and brought it to me at the fairgrounds....that's customer service!!
We had a great time the whole weekend at the show, nice weather, warm on Saturday but it is July!! Over 3500 cars, and all are very nice. Rain cut Sunday short so we took the wives to the mall....what a nice guy!!
Monday we took off with aboout 20 cars for Clinton IA. Had a real nice drive, attended a cruise night there, did some shopping in the afternoon, a nice day.
Visited the American Pickers (from TV )store, neat to see.
Tuesday we left for Mundelein, IL to visit the Roadster Shop. Had a great adventure getting there, found dirt roads, took a detour, but had fun. The shop feed us lunch...wow what a spread. Wow what a shop!! Huge, many many projects, every tool you could think of. It was far better that any shop I saw in LA last month. They build beautiful cars.
From there it was off to see Rad Rides by Troy. Talk about an adventure.....the route took us right thru downtown Chicago....no other way to get there. It was a little white knuckleing drive. Traffic, then some rain and 22 rodsa and customs trying to stay together. Terry's 40 vapor locked twice, but both times was a quick exit out of traffic. I was holding my breath as we drove thru the tunnel and the few miles that had no shoulders. We had removed the hood louver pan before we left, but did not help. A quick bottle of cold water on the fuel block and we were off again. That was a drive that none of us will foget for a while, and one that none of us want to do again.
Troy feed us a great Mexican dinner, two free meals in one day...what a deal!
His shop had some awesome projects, all 50 and 60's cars, most with turbo charged engines, big engines. Awesome machines. They really have some great talent there.
In the morning we head for Indy. That should be a cake walk after todays drive.