Thursday

400 miles today and made it home. The trip was 2990 miles, I will just round that off to 3000 miles. The drive today was good. I35 to 494 to I94. I94 from Plymouth to Rogers is about like Oklahoma....rough ! After Rogers it was nice again.
We stopped by Fat Joe's to check the RPU, it looks good. Now there is room for a gas pedal and the tranny hump is a hump and not looking like a console. I hated that look ! The shocks worked out great and the new headlight bar is perfect. Good Job Joe !
I will add some RPU pics and of the award we won for Long Distance.
I will continue to blog at least once a week updating the build on the 3w and on the RPU.

Wednesday

We left this morning to drive the 40 miles or so of windy roads again to Rogers, then hit 71 north to Joplin, a short 120 miles.I dropped Elvis off at a large antique store and headed for Bob's I arrived at Bob Massey's "Metal Werks" shop about 11AM. He has some real nice projects in the works there.
A short time after my arrival, My Omaha friends, Doug and Karen showed up in their 32 5W coupe, they were on the way home also from Lost Pines.
I borrowed Bob's spanner wrench and adjusted my rear shocks about 2 turns, that really help the bottoming out problem. The last 300 miles was much better.
I checked out Wally's new 3w that Bob has been building, it was looking good. He is from Houston. I got a couple of ideas from that.
Then it was on the road towards home. Got as far as Bethany, MO, stayed there on the way down. Tomorrow will be another 400 miles to Rice.
FatJoe called today, I left the RPU with him last week for some work. He says it is all done. A new cab floor and tranny hump, installed the friction shocks and built the headlight stands that I wanted. I am excited to get home and check it out. He does such nice work. I will post some pics of it as soon as I can.

Monday/Tuesday

Monday morning we left Texarkana and headed for Hot Springs Village. We were going to visit a good friend of mine and his wife. He was my boss in the early 70's for a few years in New Mexico and again in the early 80's in Wisconsin. We had a great visit, talked about old Walgreen times for several hours. They fed us a fantastic meal. it was a real treat to spend the night at their beautiful home.
Tuesday morning it was off to Eureka Springs. We planned to drive rte 7, I'm not sure what we did but we got on rte 23 instead. It is also known as "the pig trail" because it is like s pig's tail.....windy is not even a close name. It was 20 mph to a high of 35 for miles and miles, about half way we found a road that headed straight west to the freeway, took that north and then rte 62 back east. We finally made it to Eureka Springs...what a trip!
I parked the deuce, got on the trolley and took that to the downtown area for lunch and some shopping. The whole town is built on sides of rocky mountains, windy, rough roads, twisting up and down.....pretty cool.
Found a hotel for the night. Tomorrow its off to Joplin. I will visit a friend's rod shop there. He has a 3w that is almost done for another friend of mine, need to check that out.

Deuce Reunion

It was a great weekend at the Deuce Reunion. The Hyatt Lost Pines Resort is beautiful. We all parked on the grass by the rooms, next to the lake. There were 120 Deuces registered. The weather was hot and so humid......like 85% and 95 degrees.
It was great to see my old deuce friends. There were cars there from CO, NE, FL,TX,and of course MN. I did manage to win the long distance award again, 1450 miles the way I went, 1325 according to mapquest.
The AMBR contender deuce pickup of Don Smith was there, sedans 2 and 4 doors,3w,
5w,roadsters,closed pickups, phaetons, roadster pickup...all types and colors !
We left Sunday midmorning for Texarkansas, AR for the night, tomorrow it is off to Hot Springs Village.

Thursday...San Antonio

The first order of the day was to catch the trolley and go see the Alamo. We were there in the late 70's, that time we drove to the front of it, jumped out and snapped a photo with the "Wild Turkey" and took off. This time we walked thru it and the grounds, very interesting. My plan was to drive the vicky to the front and do another "drive by shooting", but the street right in front has been all blocked off....darn !
We rode the trolley to Market Square, looked around the shops, had lunch and then walked back to the hotel.
We headed for Austin, a short 85 miles back north. Found our new La Quinta and checked in. Tonight we had dinner with sister-in-law at a Texas BBQ called Salt Lick. Good food.
Found a great bumper sticker in a parking lot..............I honked as I went by !

Wednesday............San Antonio

After a quick breakfast in the Happy Days Motel breakfast room, we headed south on the now famous ROUGH Hwy69, OK still held up to their history of America's roughest roads. Finally as we arrived in Texas near Dennison, the road smoothed out.
South of Temple, TX we blended into I 35. That was a breeze to drive on. We took a picture of the entrance to Texas, a large brick monument, not just a sign.
As I said last year, Texans have such great pride in their state. The flag of Texas is every where, small, big, and giant size...like Perkins' American flags.
We drove across Dallas and suburbs, that was just shy of 60 miles, a big city. We hit Austin at 4PM rush hour, that took a while. We arrived in San Antonio about 5:30 found the La Quinta hotel downtown, checked in and caught the bus to the famous downtown river walk for dinner. A couple of margaritas and a Mexican dinner on the river walk while feeding the ducks at our feet......fun. A boat ride thru downtown, hearing about all the history and the buildings was fun too. 440 miles today brings the total to 1350 so far, now we will head back to Austin and then east to Lost Pines, TX for the reunion.

Tuesday .....Mcalester, OK

We left Bethany, MO this morning and headed south on I 35 to Kansas City. I 435 around the west side of town and picked up 71 south. The first planned stop was Pete & Jakes in Peculiar, MO. I picked up a couple of posters and the front spring plate that I needed for the RPU. Then it was south on 71 again to Joplin, MO. Lunch at Steak and Shake in Joplin. I44 out of Joplin to OK.
Plans were to stop at Starbirds Rod & Custom museum in Afton OK, I checked the Internet and it shows closed on Tuesday,darn..... we would have been pressed for time anyway, so maybe on the way home. From I44 it was hwy 69 south to Mcalester.
Boy, Oklahoma gets the award for the roughest highways...except for I44 the toll road. Hwy 69 was so rough! Every 20 ft they had sawed a stripe for a patch, not one of the patches were even with the road surface, they were either higher or lower. It was like driving on a washboard. The the wind was still with us all day too, from the south. So it was a strong headwind, felt like driving with the brakes on, when going west, it was a cross wind, tried to blow me off of the road. Finally the last 40 miles or so, the wind slowed down and the road smoothed out.
We are staying at the "Happy Days" motel, (Rodney and I stayed here a few years back on the roadster trip). Now there is a new diner out front called "Angel's Diner". The food was good, (not free) but we did get 2 coupons from the motel for "Free Beer"....that works!!
Tomorrow its another 400+ mile day to San Antonio, TX.......Alamo, here we come!

OT but great news

Friday night we attended the MSRA Friday Night Picnic in New Brighton, MN. There were a lot people there, probably 400 rods and customs. The event is a "voting event" for car of the year nominees. The good news is the "Fine Wine" Buick was nominated for Custom of the year ! Wow, what an honor ! We are both on cloud 9 yet.
It is so exciting. The awards banquet is January 15 in Hinkley, MN and for the first time is several years it is not during the GNRS show in California...we can attend both events.

On the road again.....Monday 9/20

We left this morning, cloudy skies and drizzle until we stopped for lunch in Mason City, Iowa. Then the skies cleared and it got hot. It was 52 when we left Rice, 87 in Iowa. From sweatshirt to AC.
We took hwy 15 out of St Cloud all the way to Albert Lea and then hwy 65 south. 65 had good and bad areas, finally I got tired of the headwind and bumps in the road pulling me all over the road,I headed west toward I 35, We hit I 35 north of Des Moines about 60 miles and stayed on it until we stopped tonight in Bethany, MO. The days travels were 420 miles. Mileage was all over the board, it was 18 in MN doing 60mph on 15, dropped to 14 in the strong headwinds in Iowa. The car is running fine. Hopefully the winds will be less tomorrow.I have to decide the route tomorrow, I 35 to KC or try hwy 65 again.
I plan to stop at Pete & Jakes to pick up a couple of things I need, then on south to OK.