Thursday

Let me back up to Wednesday again.....when we left Madison it was 36 degrees...chilly!! I had a t shirt, then a nylon pullover windbreaker, a hoodie sweatshirt, and another windbreaker, a blanket to cover my bare legs, seat heaters on and the heater on....then I was comfy. We left Kankakee this morning it was 55 degrees...what a difference. We had a nice 150 miles to Carmel, IN to the Indy race shop of Dreyer and Reinbold....cool shop. We had a fabulous lunch too. The next stop was Ganassi Racing...more Indy cars, Scott Dixon and Dario Francetti cars, another awesome place. Then it was off to the Indy 500 track to register and to see the museum there. Today was another great day. We skipped the kickoff party tonight and instead bought our own dinner at the Library across the street. I have eaten there several times and is always good. After dinner I replaced a burned out brake light bulb, so far that is the extent of the problems.

Wednesday

We left early Wednesday morning for Heidts Rod shop in Il. We were served bagels and coffee and had a cool shop tour. When leaving there we had a police escort to The Roadster Shop, sure helped with the traffic!! Roadster shop is an outstanding place...huge...busy...many many projects, mostly muscle cars, but really a cool place!! We had an awesome lunch again.............the next stop was Billet Specialites. On the way to Billet Specialities we were on the exit when just a few cars in front of us a work van hit the guard rail and flipped over several times.... tools, parts, stuff all over the road,

of course it closed the exit. Finally the cops let us make an u turn, go back down the exit about 1/8th mile and do another u turn and get on the other hiway.....fun!! Had a nice tour of the shop...cool. The next stop was Rad Rides by Troy's in Manteno. Awesome shop, many projects and several finished projects in the show room. We had fried chicken dinner, beer, cookies....more free food!!

More photos

More phots of Munz's place

Tuesday

No blog last night..............we went to the hotel bar, they had a drink special, buy one get one free...we kept buying one and the free ones just kept coming......by the time we quit, I was too blurry eyed to type anything !!! LOL ********************************************************************* We left Ankeny, Iowa about 8 AM and headed for Madison, Wisconsin. We stopped at a private collection of vintage sports cars in Blue Mound, WI. It was a very interesting place, not my kind of cars but I enjoyed seeing them. Shortly after Blue Mounds, we were driving on four lane Hwy 151, speed limit of 60, we were cruising about 70ish when we spotted a trooper, backed off, then a blue van came flying by us.....next thing we knew the trooper was coming behind us, but went by us and got the van. We were not sure for a couple of minutes who he was after. We stopped at Culvers for lunch...the first meal we had to buy on the trip. It started to rain, I ran out to cover the car, the rain had turned to clear ice pellets, not

white like hail, just clear ice. At 5PM we took the big shuttle bus from the hotel to Richard's Munz's private collection....a 3 story old brick building in downtown Madison. You can drive to all three floors. Full of hot rods, mostly 32's, 40's 36's and a few race cars. All hot rods. signs, collectables. He had catered a great BBQ pork with all the trimmings, birthday cake, beer, cookies. A great party!! I saw old friends from Madison and met several new ones. Al has a killer deuce phaeton highboy.....wow. John showed me photos of a B400 that he is building from a tudor...really nice. A fun evening. Back to the hotel, the bar and to bed.

Monday

We woke up to clouds and a cool drizzle, luckily Speedway was only 5 miles from the hotel. We arrived at Speedway, went to the parts counter and bought a moon disc, will be a neat autograph deal. Neat it was, I got almost all of the biggies to sign my disc, will get a few more tomorrow. The Smith collection is outstanding, cars, toys, pedal cars, lunch boxes, LP's, engines all real neat. We had a great free lunch of salad and pizza and drink. The second collection was awesome. The downer was the sign..."No Photos" He has the real Monkee mobile, back to the future car, munster coach, one of the General Lees, hot rods, Great American race cars, bonneville cars, many many Mopar drag cars, a full size diner, speed shop with shelves stocked, a bar room with a pool table a 30ft wood, marble and mirror bar from a cafe in New York city from 1906. What a place!! Cookies and drinks were served. We than hit the road and drove 200 miles to Ankeny, IA to Dennis Albaugh's chevy collection. We got to park on the 19 hole golf course, right on the grass! Dennis has one of every Chevy convertible made from beginning to 69 or so, many vettes, signs and more. He fed us dinner...a steak filet dinner with

all the sides, and pie for dessert. He knows how to entertain. It was a great day, saw so many neat things and people, cars, places. In the morning its 300 miles to Madison, WI to another private collection.What a trip!!

Cool pictures

Some cool action shots that Ron Hickman from Florida took

Day One Rod Fathers Tour

I left this morning at 7:45. It was cool, some where in the high 40's. Seat heaters and the hot air heater felt good on my bare legs. The sweatshirt felt good too. I stopped for gas in Lakeville and again in Clear Lake IA. The sweatshirt came off about noon in Ames. I got to Dave's shop about 1:30, right on time. Ron from Florida showed up about 30 minutes later. After a short tour of the shop we left for Lincoln. We had a late quick lunch at Mc Donalds somewhere west of Des Moines. It was a good drive. Dave led to set the pace, this is his first out of town trip in the roadster. He took off at about 65, then 70 quickly settled in at 75 or so. The car ran fine. We arrived in Lincoln, got gas, checked in at the hotel and wlked across the lot to Carlos O'Kellys. Before we got toO'Kellys I called buddy Roger Nunn to see if he wanted to join us....guess what, he and others friends were already there. Rich, Diane, Jerry and his wife. We joined them at their table and 5 rodders from AZ walked in. More deuce guys. We had a great dinner and BS session. Before we left another car with four gys from Kansas came in. That was Roger Ward and his buddies. I had met one of them on the way home from CA last June, that was great to see him again. I had a nice conversation with Roger Ward. I had not met him before but have admired his deuce and his work. He is an awesome painter and builder. He has a beautiful ivory deuce roadster that is always in Des Moines. Todays trip was 500 mles, nice weather, lots of fun, good friends an great day. in the morning its over to Speedway

to meet the tour gang...gonna be fun