I made it back from my trip and all is well, no real problems the entire week, and no one in our group ended up on a trailer so it couldn't have been too bad. First off let me say this isn't the typical car show , we had around 6,500 cars that drove from Kansas City to Newton, Ia. (Des Moines) then Davenport, Champaign, Il., Madison, Il. (STL), Indy, then to Bowling Green, Ky. Yes there are places to park but there are no trophies for coming in first for any reason. It is just a bunch of car guys and a few car girls and their friends, families, or unsuspecting co-workers that get talked into doing this drive. Last year I was on my own but this year I talked my good friend Alex into coming along. We are all packed up and ready to hit the road:
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Nice and clean put putting down the gravel road:
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The first issue came up in Kansas City in stop and go traffic, smoke started coming from Alex's footwell:
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It turned out to be the wiring from the fan relay to the fan, this worked for 6 years, not my best work and not how I did the repair. Luckily I had a spare inline fuse and connectors to we fixed it for the time being and hit the road again. The first stop was in Kansas City at the Cheifs Stadium, there I got to meet OutLawDrifter and his two sons:
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It was great to meet him and his boys went away with a new Hot Wheels, I bought 90 on the bay before the trip to hand out to kids along the way, there were other cars doing the same and some tossing out candy. I didn't think candy would last in my car so the Hot Wheels were our choice.
In Newton I tried the autocross, I didn't get the hang of things and managed to eat a cone on my second try, sadly no photo of that:
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A few days later in Madison I tried my hand at drag racing, long story short they wouldn't let me run without a helmet which as you know I had plenty of room to pack....well I did find someone to let me borrow theirs:
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I slept at the line, spun a little then bogged after the spin, I'm sure with a few more tires I could have gotten it down to below 14 but didn't really care as I've decided the engine probably won't make another year and plant to pull it sometime this winter. Here is the time slip if you are interested:
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I was traveling with my brother's in-laws in their 1965 Mustang, they met a gentleman named Ronnie driving a 1967 Chevelle Malibu that needed a hand, we jumped in and were soon joined by Bart who was camping with Ronnie and his copilot Denny. Here you can see the group:
View media item 71481From left to right is Alex (Photographer), me (Mechanic's Assistant), Bart (Master Mechanic driving a '57 Chevy Wagon pulling a teardrop 2 person camper), Ronnie (Provider of roadside repair opportunities), Dan (Lead Driver), and Denny (Official provider of beer and comic relief). Not Pictured behind this camera is Marna the lead navigator who had a heck of a job and excelled at it, Dan's wife, Dan and Marna are my brother's in-laws, but I call them my in-laws too. Also not Pictured is Al who joined our group later in his 55 Chevy.
After the newton stop I stayed with a friend who showed me his piston stool:
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He made this in a shop class with wood and a 20 gallon drum, I really want one!
During a cool down session a group of kids came out to watch the parade and were given a couple of Hot Wheels by Ronnie and I:
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I thought this was a really cool old truck, check out the engine placement, too cool!
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Continued later...
JB
you were working on the 1957 Chevy?
. I'll have my phone of course and my co-pilot will have a nice camera and a go pro so we should get some pretty cool videos out of it as well. If timing would have worked out better I could have borrowed another friends drone with go pro mount and gotten some really cool video of the thousands of cars, however, it is already booked for another event.
Wish me luck.