Home for a couple of days

Home from the "TopLess Tour" 4893 miles on this trip. I have not added up the gallons of gas yet....later. Thursday its off to Goodguys in Des Moines and then on to Columbus. The last two days I have been getting the two cars ready, I am driving the Deuce Delivery and Rodney will be in the "Live Wire Transfer S

pecial" RPU. This will be a fun weekend

Saturday/Sunday

We spent the weekend at the Back to the fifties show, a good time. Erica liked my roadster, had to have her photo taken!! Dave Shaub from the 49in7 drive fame, spent Sunday night at our house. That was a great time. Dave and his wife Carol drove with us from California to the 50's show. That was a great trip. For those of you that may not know, Dave drove his roadster in all 49 states in 7 days...for the Ronald McDonald House charity....what a trip! Check out his adventures at www.49in7.com We had a great dinner and wonderful conversation, hated to see him leave Monday morning. For a $100.00 donation you can add your name to a louver and go for the ride....I did and it was fun. I actually drove with him in my roadster a few miles when he drove thru St Cloud on the venture last fall.

more pictures

Some more photos.............................

finally a new post

After a few days without internet service in the hotels, and having to download a new browser to work with the blog...I think I'm back in business. We left Kingman and headed for Albuquerque. A good drive. We stopped first in a little town of Williams, a cute tourist town. We took some pictures and looked at some stores. Since Elvis was not with me, I had my picture made with the other Elvis!! Next was Kingman AZ, we "stood on the corner" there and sang the song. A real cool place. We had lunch at a hotel, a great eating place, good thing Dave and Carol knew of the place, we could not have ever found it. Then it was back on the road to Albuquerque. We had dinner in the famous Owl Cafe, had a great mexican chille relleno...um good. The next morning it was off on I40 towards Wichita. There was a terrific cross wind for a hundred or so miles. We drove thu Greenberg KS, stopped for gas, coulod hardly stand up in the wind. In 2007, I drove thru the same town just a few weeks after the tornado blew it away. You can still see the damage five years later. We made it to Wichita and the wind was still blowing. We had a great dinner at the Hanger steak house. Its all done up in aircraft decor....neat. The next day was onto to Des Moines. A no eventful day. Dave drives with a radar detector, that was a big help, it save us a couple of times. We had dinner at Texas Road House with friends Dave and Sandy, that was fun. We left Des Moines at 6AM to get to downtown St Paul by 11 AM. There was a 50's kickoff party that Dave was invited to, next was registration for the 50's, we hung out there for a while seeing friends and having a beer. Then it was off to the Scavangers car club picnic. That was real nice. Finally it was to the La Quinta hotel for the weekend.

Sunday

Back to the show Sunday morning for more fun. We got to park under the palm trees again in the shade. I saw more friends and made some new ones too. We walked the indoor vendors again and checked out the parked roadsters. So many nice cars. Found my friend Cowboy Dave. We had a nice visit. Rodney noticed a for sale sign in the front seat of his roadster..Hmmmmm. That is one of my all time favorite roadsters. It was built by Jim Ingelese of Connecicut. I remember seeing it in York PA Nats East several years back. I always drooled over it. I think Dave put the sign in there just to tease me!! LOL In the vendor bldg I found the perfect shift knob for the 400. I will order it next week. Comes from Jacks Garage, he happens to be one of my key fob sellers. At the Brookville booth I checked out a new steel phaeton body, looks like they are testing the water with a sign up clipboard to sign if you interested, Darn, a new phaeton body, Inglesse roadster, saw the new steel 5w body...so many temptations!! We meet Dave Schaub and his wife at noon for lunch and took off at 1 PM. Jack decided to stay till the end and drive on later. We went I15 to Barstow then I40 to Kingman AZ for the night. We arrived at the hotel at 5:30, 300 miles not bad. We gassed up in Needles, just 50 miles from Kingman. It was HOT. The thermometer in Daves car said 120. (It's a dry heat tho.) We drank lots of water, my tshirt was wet, it was hot, but it was fun. At the hotel the pool really felt nice, then it was off to dinner. Check out the pics........Happy Fathers day to me!!!!

Saturday

We left the hotel by 6:30 and headed to the Fairplex. Many roadsters had arrived on Friday and still had their covers on. We were directed to a nice shaddy spot between building 4 and 6. The swap meet was first on the list, we walked for several hours. Lots of cool things, many very expensive. John found a set of hood sides with hot rod louvers for a steal!! I thought about them but knew I did not need them at this time anyway. We walked the specialty parking next, probably 2000 cars thers. This is where the non-roadsters park. Many neat cars. We toured the new vendor building to cool off, the AC felt good. I bought a couple of little things I needed or maybe its wanted. I saw more friends. Meet Cliff and his son from Dassel, had to drive 2500 miles to meet someone 45 minutes from my house. They brought their just finished new deuce, had 12 miles on it.....very nice. Had a sign on it for sale 34K, a great price and a very nice car. A picture of one of my favorite RPUs. Saw my friend Dave from LA cars but could not find him. He has a real cool and famous roadter and a real nice 34 phae ton. I also saw and talked to Bud Root. He is the one that had my red vicky built. It was real neat to talk with him again. I saw him one other time in 2003. At five we attended the free BBQ. What a sprfead! BBQ beef tips, brisket, sausage, reibs, corm, beans , bread cake and a drink, free to roadster drives. Quite a deal. After dinner it was back to the hotel for party in the lot and to repack the pickup bed to amke all the stuff fit. I think it will. Tomorrow we will leave about 1 PM for a short 300 mile drive to Kingman AZ.

Friday

Today's first stop was the Early Ford Store in San Dimas. This guy has parts!! Everything you would want, very few repops, all NOS or good used. Fenderss hanging from the ceiling, shelves and shelves of brake drums, generators and what ever. I saw a deuce fire wall, very nice shape for $1100. A deuce dash panel and tunnel for $750, a SCOT blower for a flathead for $15,000. Cool stuff, bring money! My buddy from CT, John, called at 11AM, he had arrived on the plane. Jack, Rodney and I headed to Thumper and Flo's BBQ. I dropped them off and headed to the hotel to pick up John, found him and ran right back to the BBQ. Hot rods were parked up and down all the streets for several blocks, people everywhere, what a BBQ. Beer, pop, margaritas, burgers, and fixins and a great time. About 1 PM it was off to SoCal open house. We had VIP parking, so drove right into our numbered spots...pretty cool. Lots of rods, people, a good time . I can't believe how many friends I saw from all the world...y es world. Greg was there from Australia, sold him some key fobs, Glenn from TX, Gary from NE, Ryan Mapes from AZ. He brought me a magazine from 2003 with an article on my B400 build of the chassis, several pages and pictures. Thanks so much Ryan and Joe!! It is so great to have the wonderful friends that I have. There were so many others, I can't even begin to list all of them, so good to see everyone. About 6 PM we went to Bobby Waldens Open House. His projects are just outstanding. I saw even more friends there. Sold some more key fobs. Saw more neat cars. Today was just a perfect day, friends, hot rods, BBQ, more friends and hot rods....good time.