Good Ol' Fashion Hot Rod Road Trip!

This is going to be epic, I subscribed. Be safe, have fun, make memories.

 

Thanks...it is a lot of fun "hangin' with the cool kids"!

I should add, that one of the members (@wstory, we respectfully call him the Colonel) spends a lot of time in advance of the trip organizing the lodging, events, route (checking for unexpected road closures), providing us with GPS coordinates so even if someone gets separated, we all know where we're going and points of interest along the way, sending emails to the group etc...all so it appears quite seamless.

Others have also organized the routes, lodging etc. to and from the various meeting points before the whole group assembles or after we separate (thanks Wayne).

This is a very fun crowd to hang with...and I can't help but smile as we roll miles, get waves and thumbs up from other motorists, roll into the gas stations and get asked "what's going on, where's the car show" etc.

 

Well documented outing & some finely crafted vehicles...

 

I mentioned the antics of fellow Curmudgeon Kenny Green, aka the "Reverend Green" earlier, and said I would post a photo as an example. The Reverend met us at the mancave and had to head back home to BC that evening.

The following morning, when I exited the hotel and went towards my car...this is what I saw.

So, you might not see what I saw, so here's a closer shot.

And, just in case you still can't tell what "it" is...

 

Guess you’ll know when your air pressure is up lmao

 

Before I write about the boat races, I thought I might share a story or 2 about some of the Curmudgeon cars. Here's a photo of Ron's '32 Plymouth PA sedan. He's from southern California.

Here's some of the cool back story. His grandmother bought the car new in 1932. Ron bought it from her in 1955 with 35,000 original miles on it as his first car and has owned it ever since (69 years!). When Ron first got the car, he hopped up the banger and went 89mph in the quarter. The car has been driven a total of 135,000 miles and has remained in one family for it's entire life.

 

Here's another Curmudgeon car owned by Wayne of Abbotsford BC.

Wayne has owned the '36 Ford cabriolet for 26 years. The odometer is approaching 180,000 miles since he built it as a hotrod.

Then there is one of our gal pal Curmudgeons, Connie also from southern California. Connie owns and drives a drop dead gorgeous '56 Chevy nomad.

She's owned the car for about 30 years and has rolled over 250,000 miles on it! It's usually the cleanest car in our group during road trips.

 

So, today was the Sprint boat races at Webb's Slough.

The weather was all over the place! When the sun was out, you could almost convince yourself that it was warm, but when the clouds rolled and the wind came up...let's just say the ice cream vendor trailer was a lonely place!

There are 3 classes of sprint boats...Modified, 400 and unlimited (they range in horsepower from around 400 up to 1500ish...in a 10' boat!)! And all 3 classes were running today. I have some videos that I'll download to youtube after I get home and will attach the links...but, in the meantime here's a few photos.
The driver takes direction from a navigator who's job is to hold his hand up and point the way. The G forces must be incredible as these things accelerate from zero to on step in less than the length of the boat (10 feet!) and turn on a dime with the power plant at full song.

The Webb family own and operate the venue and once again we were looked after very well. They are organized and the facility is very well run and nicely manicured.

There were however periods of rain and lightening delays which prompted the question, how many Curmudgeons can fit under a 10x10 canopy?

It was another fun day with lots of racing excitement, great discussions had and stories told.

Oh yeah, and a roadside 1930 model A quadraport sedan for sale in St John.

 

One of the local blokes has raced these for quite a few years in the unlimited class. He took me for a 'sedate' spin around the local lake to do some tuning. What a ride. As you say, they are quick. I think he told me 0-200 KPH (0-120 MPH) in 3 seconds.
I might add, no helmets, belts or common sense was used for this joyride.

 

That’s quite the track! I wonder how the create a thing like that.

 

Also really like the “member car bios” nice touch

 

I am surprised you would think it was the Rev. Green, a pillar of the community, and a great friend of the Hot Rod community. I would suggest you get a DNA sample from the steering wheel of a chopped 1956 Ford Sedan Delivery and compare it, history does repeat itself.
T/F

 

Lol...indeed I'm aware of the original source...but I just happened to see the "Rev" skulking around the parking lot with a baggy full of bright green "gummie wieners". I stand by my original statement.

 

Caught green handed!

 

Here's the backstory on another Curmudgeon vehicle. This is one of the Bill's (we number them Bill-1, Bill-2, Bill-3 etc.) '34 roadster. He purchased the car as a basketcase in the mid 70's and built it for his wife (it's her car). He's driving it on this trip because his '34 3-window coupe (that he's owned since the late 60's) was undergoing some updates and wasn't finished in time. Her roadster has about 55,000 miles as a hotrod. Bill is also from southern California.

Today was a travel day...the goal was to go from Colfax Wa. to Deer Lodge Mt. spending as little time as possible on the interstate(s). As part of the early drivers meeting discussions and emails, we're given addresses as waypoints for entering into our GPS, Google Maps, hard copy maps or whatever we use as a navigational aid. The instruct given is to not blindly follow the car in front of you as they may not know where tgey're going either and, they may be turning off to look for a restroom, gas or?...Trust your navigation device of choice!

The weather was beautiful as we departed Colfax on our way to Lewiston Idaho (Lewiston was chosen as a point along the route to "trick" our GPS' into the staying clear of the interstate(s) as much as possible). As I had the Lewiston address programmed in, I lead the convoy (if you look in the rearview mirror, the row of hotrods is barely visible as we come around the curve.

We made it to Lewiston...and that is where the navigation devices showed that there's more than one way to skin a cat! The object after Lewiston was to stay on hwy 12 until it intersected with I90...and then take I90 the last bit into Deer Lodge. My Garmin GPS along with a few others (a 4 car break out group) was either too smart to be "tricked" or too stubborn to follow the route we intended...so we, trusting our Garmin, followed the pinky purple line as we re-traced our steps back a bit on 195 until we could get onto 95 to take it up to Coeur d'Alene. Then it was I90 interstate all the way. Nothing like the Montana interstate to roll miles quickly (85mph to be exact)!

Others managed to stay on 12 or find a way to get back to 12 involving a number of U-turns and Curmudgeons watching other Curmudgeons coming towards them. This finely orchestrated dance might have appeared a bit Keystone cop like to the uninformed bystander on the street. There indeed was some confusion finaly resulting in one of the Bill's breaking out his old school folding paper map on a picnic table for everyone to huddle around and figure out what they needed to do.

The bottom line, we all arrived at the destination hotel in time for dinner and nobody ran out of gas, but there were some puckered seat cushions until the gas station was located...now I'm not suggesting it was a race, but the 4 car breakout arrived first and probably drove the furthest...just saying. Those that took hwy12 said they had the better road and scenery.

So far, I've rolled 975 miles...and at least that many smiles!

 

Epic!! Thanks for taking us along...

 

I'm going to tell a couple stories on myself...yesterday, while heading south of Kellogg, the road goes through a number of quick switchbacks as the elevation drops. After a couple quick switchbacks I hear a strange creak as I go into a left curve. I thought it was a particularly strange sound and in my head, I'm rattling through the suspension components to figure what might make that particular sound. A few more rapid switchbacks and it does it again, this time on a right curve. The sound is a quick single creak almost like a fastener is coming loose and the component it's supposed to be holding is moving to the limit of it's travel and then suddenly stopping. Again my mind and ear are trying to locate the area it's coming from...maybe exhaust is flopping, but the sound isn't quite right?? A couple more switchbacks, and then it happens again on a straight section. I then looked down on my seat to see my self crumpling almost empty plastic water bottle as it compressed again. Disaster averted, the tools can stay in the trunk.

The second story, my car has a very good heater and it's not uncommon to need to turn it way down or shut it off completely after a very short time to avoid becoming too hot. Yesterday, while motoring at 80+mph in the cool Montana air with the heater on max...it was still uncomfortably cool in the car! I looked in the rearview, and thought wow, Dave in the topless rpu is hardcore. I noted that I better not complain about how cold it was in my closed car, with the windows mostly up and heater on max. I draped a jacket over my legs (Roadkill "homeless Dave" style) and carried on. I concluded that A) it's colder and windier than I usually have the car out, B) at 80+ mph there must be a lot of heat loss, and C) the heater does have a limit and simply couldn't keep up. Anyway, long story short, when I stepped out of the car at the next gas stop, I realized I had left the cowl vent open. It was at the first setting which is too low to see through the windshield. Lol

The roadster guys still have my respect!!

 

Thanks for sharing! At least I am not the only one that does stuff like this.

 

I have nothing but great respect for you guys! Great planning, great execution and great bunch of cars. Hard to get a bunch of cars together of that caliber with guys that aren't afraid to drive them.

 

Looks like a great time! The “wheel Willy’s” are pretty funny.

 

Looks like snow forecast for SW MT tonight. Hopefully you guys are out of the area by then.
Safe travels!

 

Next Curmudgeon car is Dave's rpu...without a top.

He's owned the car for about 15 years and has about 30,000 miles on it. Dave bundles up in all weather (today it was about 40 degrees with rain) and never complains about it. His travelling companion Barney is low maintenance and also doesn't complain.

Both Barney and Dave have a set of stones on them!

Our day started today with a short ride up the road to the Old Montana Prison and Auto Museum.
Which included a couple pretty cool train engines to boot!

The prison portion of the museum was interesting and mimic pretty much every prison movie ever made. It did reinforce the benefit of making good decisions and staying on the right side of the law!

The car museum housed a very impressive collection...and was quite a bit larger than our first impression. Just when we thought we were reaching the end, another room appeared.
After a few hours, we were ready to roll the 250 miles to Laurel Mt.. The weather was less than perfect with cool temps and and dark ominous looking clouds.

Just about the time we were wondering what the clouds would bring, we got into road construction. And, about 10 miles of another pet peeve.

When we wash the cars we'll see if or how bad the damage might be. It's going to happen if they're driven.
If you zoom in on the left side of the road just ahead of the red deuce highboy, you can see the remnants of the snow from last night at the summit!

After one gas stop, we made it to Laurel in time to check into our hotel.

 

Thanks! Hangin' with the cool kids.

Thanks for the heads up! Fingers are crossed.

 

Still wishing I was traveling along with the guys even though I don't own anything with a heater. Lol. Good job documenting the trip Tim!

 

On U.S. 212 south out of Laurel about a mile there's a place called Fat Fender Freddys on the east side of the road. It's a bar and casino

 

We have only one husband and wife Curmudgeon pair on the trip with us, Bob and Carol. Wives are welcome to come along on the Curmudgeon trips, but the rule is, they must drive their own hotrod.

Bob's car is a steel '32 Ford 3 window that he's owned for 7 years and has rolled 17, 000 miles on the odometer. Bob was quick to point out that he puts most of his mile on his roadster. Bob's 3 window is not overly HAMB friendly for various reasons. It however is a proven road warrior!


Carol's other car is a beautiful '70 440 'Cuda (one of one car), but that car doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the Curmudgeon rolling iron, so she found and purchased a '56 Ford Ranch Wagon.
She, and the car fit right in!

 

The plan for today was to drive from Laurel Mt to Lovell on hwy310, and then take the twisting secondary hwy Alt14 into Casper Wy. With the weather this morning, a group huddle was held over breakfast and "the Colonel" called a lasf minute audible thst we should stay on the interstates. Speaking of rain, with the amount of rain in the forecast, Carol offered Dave a shower cap as a potential new top.

Everyone prepares for "Wheels up" at 8:30.

It wasn't too far down the road when it began to rain hard...as our Canadian Newfoundlanders would say..."it rained beef buckets"!

And, a little further down the road (about an hour or so), we saw our first "roadster sucker hole".

For those that never heard that term before... it's the first sign of blue sky peeking through a bank of clouds. Roadster owners use these to confirm the weather is breaking and it's safe to take the roadster out (roadster owners are often fooled by sucker holes!).

Our first stop was Sheridan Wy at the Don King Western Museum. I've never been a horse guy, but it was a cool place to see.
They also manufacter and sell ropes for roping which was fascinating to see and learn the process (no wonder I could never laso anything with my yellow polypropylene rope!).
There were a lot of saddles (dating as far back as the 1800's) and tooling and cowboy stuff in general.

An old blunderbust...amongst many other early firearms.

Anyone else build a model of the Boothill express? Here it is pre-hemi!

After gassing up and lunch in Sheridan, we carried on down the road towards Casper Wy....hotrods playing in traffic...note the weather is clearing (WOOHOO!!).

We stopped at a paved rest stop to stretch our legs...some watered the grass as it appeared parched.

And another photo of hot rods on the interstate.

So far, I've gone 1525 miles....and have enjoyed every minute of it! I feel very fortunate to have connected with this group...btw, this happened as a result of and through the HAMB. That's a story for another post.

 

Glad the weather broke for you guys. Those last few photos of the hot rods and the big open sky are hard to not be a part of. Lol

 

Man what a fun time, I’m sure the stories created on a trip like that get told for a long time.

 

Enjoying going along, great trip so far!