Raging Floods Reported At The American Road Garage

[Keep the Show on the Road!]

It has been a couple of weeks since I was at the Garage. The boss knew I had some house guests and gave me the time off. I had to show up for work at 6 AM because the regular opening guy, Mobilene , was buying furniture for his new house

 

When you open our 1957 station you go through a regular check list. The main circuit board is in the compressor room, on the wall. The office lights are left on all night to discourage thieves, so you unlock the office door and then go into bay 1 and pull up the overhead door. The door is on chain pulleys so it has a characteristic rattle has you raise it.

 

Then there is enough light from the street lamps, and office, to illuminate the bay enough to find your way to the compressor room without stumbling over the hydraulic rack, which is all the way down.

 

You don’t turn the island lights on yet because that attracts business and you aren’t set up to handle it. They come like moths to light.

 

You turn on the bay lights, the compressor, and the pumps. Then you go back into the office and get the cash box, carry it out and slip in into the slot on the post on island 1.

 

Next you get the metal windshield paper towel boxes and check that the spray bottles with the windshield washer juice are full, and add paper towels where necessary. You hang the metal boxes on each post on each island

 

You get the keys out of the office desk drawer and go around and unlock the restrooms, and the oil can display racks, still in partial darkness. Now you are about ready for customers so you go back to the compressor room and turn on the island overhead lights. You leave the lights on the lower island off because you really don’t want to go run down there unless you have to.

 

It is only seconds after the lights go on that the first customer pulls in. He is driving a 55 Caddy with the Dagmar bumpers. You have to be careful because if you pass too close to the front of the 55 Caddy you are likely to get your shin bruised on one of those huge bullet shaped bumper protrusions.. And even if you never heard of Dagmar.....you young guys..... you can now guess her famed assets.

 

The hours between 6 and 8 when the gang starts to drift in go by very quickly, because you never stop running. The first guy in is Roadhound with the last of his Lincoln Highway photos, spectacular as usual. The one at road level looking down the ribbon of asphalt with the US50 sign in the mid distance is another prize winner. It cries out “Loneliest Road.”

 

DennyG, Roadmaven, and Mobilene all came at a trot from the Donut Shop across the road where they had their morning coffee and were planning a trip for the end of the month along the Pikes Peak Ocean to Ocean Highway in Ohio and Indiana. Mobilene had his trusty 1924 Midwest Automobile Blue Book in hand and was holding school on old alignments. DennyG had interpreted the old guide and map info into GPX files and was ready to go. Keep threw in a few old maps and guides and the group settled in the office with their maps spread out on the counter. Good thing the boss wasn’t around!

 

Roadmavern also brought in his photos from the 18th Route 66 Association of Missouri Motor Tour. He got his share of rain, and even claimed to have faced raging flood waters. He got some nice shots of small towns along his route, no doubt enhanced by his new digital camera. He is still looking for the latch to release the film spool, but he is slowly getting the hang of the 21 century technology.

 

Alex- Hester Nec added some recollections of his travels along 66 when he was a “youngin”.

 

Dave Reese pulled up in his Triumph and asked if anyone wanted a 1927 Auto Kamp folding tent trailer...a classic. It sounded like the perfect rig for DennyG.

 

Wisguy, one of our Yellowstone Trail pros, shouted out a heads up on the Greenville Wisconsin celebration of the trail. And Jeff from Tucson made a rare appearance. His website is always worth a visit.

 

Keep (me) mentioned he toured the worlds largest auto collection on Saturday and promised a posting in due course.

 

Another week at the American Road Garage...ya all come back!!! And keep the show on the Road!

[Alex Burr - hester_nec]

Saturday (15th) the phone rang at 7am - who's awake at 7am, except maybe God, and he never sleeps. I stumbled across the living room and heard this cheery voice saying "you going to the car show down in Tunica". Huh!!! It's one of my Hudson (car, not name) buddies. I'm not even awake yet and he's raving about going to a car show in Tunica (43 miles south of Memphis, give or take a couple cotton fields.

So I say, yeah, whatever, maybe. Oh sure. Maybe I'll see you there Cloyd (Yeah, that's a real name).

Now it's about 10am and I'm chatting with KC telling her about this 7am phone call. I'm more or less awake, and she's asking me when I'm going to leave. I hesitate - and she talks me into it. Ok, put on the walking shoes, grab the camera (hint for going to any place - make sure you take spare batteries for the camera, didn't.) wallet, oh, yeah, keys to the car and off we go.

Headed down the I-240 on the west side of Memphis and when we see Elvis Presley Blvd turn off we remember we were supposed to take the I-55 west ramp to U S 61. Aww, to heck with it. We've heard the new I-69 connector is finished between 55 and 61 - we'll go that way.

And that's what we did - here's a trave tip. I know, I know, it's an interstate. But, if you find yourself headed for the casinos in Tunica (actually they're in Robinsville, but who the heck knows where Robinsville is??) take I-55 south about 20 miles, then take the I-69 extension over to U S 61 - you can't miss Sams Town and the Hollywood resorts. The extension takes you right to the front door - now, you think maybe the casino owners influenced this road, just a little!!!

Anyway, we get to the show and there's got to be somewhere near 1000 cars all over the place. About 95% are street rods, but there are some beauties that recall the days of the open road - like an drop dead gorgeous 1932 Studebaker street rod, but the body is original - man is that thing huge. Probably have trouble getting it into the garage!! - along with a 1935 Ford pickup that is, I think, original. We also spotted a beautiful 1940's Lincoln Continental convertible - I think that also was a street rod - next to a late 40's Packard, a beautiful early 50's Caddy and several Corvettes from the Route 66 era TV program. Buzz might have been hanging around, but I didn't see him.

I could go on all day about all the cars - 'cudas, Packards, hot rod Fords and a chopped, lowered and mean looking '41 Willys coupe. Fortunately I was able to get some pics before the camera died completely. Just had to wait about 10 min between shots for the batteries to recover. I'm going to post them over on my web site - just as soon as Freewebs gets back to me and tells me why I can't upload pics.

Anyway, I had considered a run back to Memphis up 61, but one look at the traffic decided to make this an Interstate run. Could have come back up old 61, no traffic on that one, but been there done that. Another day with somebody else sometime, maybe.

I'll let everybody know when I get the pics up on site. And before you ask, yes I tried a couple other pages on the site and got the same problem.

 

Ok, I put some of the pics I took, up on the web site @

http://www.freewebs.com/yankeetraveller/ - Click on Car Show - Tunica, MS - Some I tried to post didn't, but what's there is not to shabby. Enjoy.

 

Safe traveling.

 

Hudsonly,

Alex Burr

MemphisTraveller

Edited September 18, 2007 by Alex Burr - hester_nec