KKOA Salina ’09 or “Getting there is half the fun…!!!”

I’d been working on my ’55 Caddy for a couple of weeks solid, neglecting the T-shirt designs I was supposed to be working on…all in preparation for a tires-on-the-highway trip in my Caddy with the ‘untested’ engine… (read that – used 500” engine that hadn’t had a 8-10 hour continuous trip on it). I really didn’t know what to expect on this trip to Salina, Kansas, about 420 miles from Denver….but I'd hoped my guardian angel that rides with me would help out a bit...



Surely you’ve seen the build thread on this…??? If not, check it out at : http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=329070&highlight=the+best+55+caddy+build


Wednesday nite, I packed the suitcase and tossed it in the trunk, checked the fluids in the car for the final time and got a call from my pal, Walt Leeman, from Delta, ColoRODo saying he was in Aurora and what time were we leaving….???

Six AM was the prescribed time…it’s cooler around here in the morn…we can put on a few hundred miles by the time the Kansas heat gets unbearable…and without A/C in my Caddy…that’s of prime import. It drops to around 55 or 60 degrees around here at nite…good sleeping weather and at six AM, shorts and a T-shirt are not de rigeur…it was a bit too cool after enduring a few 90 degree days we’ve had. I was forced to keep all the windows rolled up until about 9:30 AM…besides, I can hear the stereo better.



My bro, Dan, in his ‘54 and our friend Ron Brown in his ’56 at speed.

Walt told me he and his wife had to eat breakfast before he left Aurora, but he finally caught up with us about 50 miles east of Denver.



Walt Leeman and his wife in their Fleetline, at speed.

At about 7:30 we rolled into Limon, ColoRODo to meet up with Dave Pareso…he hauled his survivor Studebaker truck down to Salina…this truck was built in 1962-‘63 in Greeley, ColoRODo to promote “Dicks’ Auto Body.” (This photo was shot at the Salina show).



It took about an hour before everyone was fed enuff to continue…so we lit out again…Dave’s wife, Chris, got a great shot of all three Caddys at speed.



The first part of the trip was uneventful…the Caddy seemed to be running fine, although I had to put two quarts of oil in it at Limon…it’s 85 miles from Denver to Limon…I’m thinking the engine needs an overhaul…but it’s not blowing blue smoke out the exhaust so I’m thinking it must be sneaking past the valve guides. No matter at the time, it ran smooth and there was lots to see out the windows.



Got to see Kansas “mountains”…

Why is it that most of our interstates are deluged with construction…??? An old saying popped into my head: “The straightest line to a destination is always fraught with road construction.” It’s gotta be a government conspiracy to slow down everyone…why’d they build interstates then…doesn’t make much sense to me.



“The shortest distance between two points is always under construction.”

I hate interstates…and had we not wanted to get there reasonably quik, we wouldn’t have put up with the 18 wheelers, SUV’s, mini-vans, BMW drivers that think an interstate is their personal ‘cannonball run’ road, the Kansas Highway Patrol and the general traffic that have no business using a cell phone in the middle of nowhere.…a two lane, with some scenery is my first, second, third and fourth choice.



More of Kansas’ great scenery…

Flying thru Wahkeeny, Kansas, I noticed this in the city park…we hadda go back and shoot some pix…local attractions are always best.



…why they placed a Navy F-14 Tomcat in the city park is a mystery to me…no signs explaining who what when why…I surmise one of the city father’s finest flew the aircraft…or it’s the government’s program to secret away military surplus in case the general public needs to defend our country some time in the future…I just don’t know. Yep, I just figured it’s another conspiracy…


After the gas stop and two more quarts of oil in Hays, it was lunch time… A couple of people in our entourage visited that local fishery -- Long John Silver’s…so we went to one of the higher quality restaurants along the way..



Angus is now served…

Satiated, for a while, it was back on the highway…arrival time has been extended to about 4 now…when you stop to see the Kansas sights, it eats up time…



Kansas’ duplication of California's multi-layered highways.



There’s always great scenery in Kansas.

My upholstery guy, Ed Banes, flew by us somewhere around Hays…he left Denver about an hour and a half after us…and caught us…and went right on by…needless to say, he drives a bit faster than we do…



Ed and his wife “flying low”…

Just outside of Russell, Kansas, I had to turn down the tuneage…could hear some strange rattling over the music…took my life into my own hands and pulled to the side of the interstate, right next to the sign that said “No stopping unless it’s an emergency.” I convinced myself that my engine rattling and making noise was an emergency…I opened the door cautiously to avoid it being removed from the car and made the way to the hood. Hmmmmmmmmmm, no oil on the dipstick…my poor Caddy engine sure isn’t thinking with its’ dipstick…wait, maybe it is, but I had the tuneage too loud that I didn’t hear it…!!! Was I driving that fast…I’ve noticed I can usually make it to the next oil stop on one tank of gas…this time I was short by about 30 miles…guess I’d better slow down a bit…I tossed in a couple more quarts of oil and motored into Russell for gas…we ran into Tom Pagano with the “Mountain Pearl” F-100 Kustom and his brother hauling his black and white ’57 Ford Fairlane.



Here's a tuff shot...

Back out on the interstate, only 70 miles to go…revise arrival time to 5:00 PM now (6 Kansas time) …my pal Ron Brown is leading now…just outside of Salina they’ve erected huge monuments to the Gods of Wind…wait, maybe those things are what’s propelling the planet, keeping it spinning…No doubt, yeah, there’s a story line in there, lemmee see – here: another government conspiracy, disguise these things as wind power, tell the public that, they’ll believe anything the government says, slowly move the earth out of orbit and toward another solar system cuz that’s what the aliens want. Yeah, that’s a good story line, I’ll have to work on that one …



I hate Interstates…too many trucks, too many cars…too many idiots on cell phones…!!! Shoot, along the way, I even saw a place that was advertising adults…



I’m not quite sure what was going on there, but there’s no denying they had “adults”…

Once into Salina, we popped into our motel, and went to Bright Built’s hot dog and popcorn feed…no doubt, they’ve got a great new place and plenty of room to build cars…



Friday it was up early to wash the Cads and then out to the park…what a great start to the event…it was already crowded…I predicted record participants…I wasn’t proven wrong…and my bro found me a button that read: “Let’s just save time and assume I’m always correct.” Fits me to a “T”…!!!

We waited until 5 :45 PM to head out to the drags…figuring the road clog to get in would be over...I was correct again. Problem was, there was already way toooooo-oooo many Chevelles, Firebirds, late model trucks and way tooo-ooo serious for-real drag cars…made participating by kustoms a bit tuff…my bro and I made only one pass. The ol’ Caddy got extremely hot waiting on the “return road” after my one and only pass…so much so that I finally had to go around all those waiting to race again, to go park…I know that pissed off a few of those waiting to race again when all three of us in the Caddy’s made a beeline for the front, but I’d rather overhaul a ‘good’ engine that one that seized up from heat exhaustion …

Long toward dusk, which would end the drag racing event, we stopped to eat. After eating, we made our way back to the motel and the Caddy developed a miss…something I didn’t need since I was 420 miles from home…at the motel, I replaced the plugs and checked the carb fittings and choke…figured then it was the floats screwing up, or the accelerator pump…and since I’m not a carb guru, had no way to fix it…got out the hammer...and tapped on the float area, hoping to dislodge whatever was stuck…Plan A, B and C was to drive it home no Sunday, miss or not.

Saturday morn, I drove it to the event with the miss…but it made it. On Saturday afternoon, after the event, after everyone was gone, I drove it to my motel and let it cool off …after eating at another fine Salina establishment I went back and pulled the distributor cap just to check it…lots of dust inside, but nothing looked out of the ordinary — no cracks that I could see. I cleaned the rotor end with my thumbnail and blew out the dust…put it back together. I rode to the host hotel with my bro for the Saturday nite hang…

At the host hotel I was asked several times if I’d gotten it fixed…”No” was the answer…one Cadillac aficionado told me not to worry, Cadillac’s “fix themselves”…I secretly hoped he was correct…!!!

He was…

My friend, Ron Brown, found an old pal there from Hays, KS, that said he knew quardra-sucks and would take a look at it…we went to my motel and he told me to “fire it up, let’s hear it”….I did and the miss was missing…gone…went away…my Cadillac fixed itself…I still don’t know what the problem was/is, but since I’m back home now, I’ll replace the cap and rotor and have the carb overhauled…at least for the rest of the summer.

The Caddy ran smooth to the event Sunday morn and the trip home was uneventful…just more of the gorgeous Kansas scenery. The engine sucked up six more quarts of oil to get home and a quart of tranny fluid...I don't think it's using oil, I think it's going out past the valve guides...it doesn't blow blue smoke out the exhaust and the trunk of the car is covered with oil spots when I got home....

Sure glad it wasn't as hot in Salina this year...we left the event around noon, it was warming up, so, time to hit the road…around Oakley, KS, we ran under some cloud cover...and once past Colby it cooled off real well...around Limon, ColoRODo I had to roll up the windows cuz the temps had dropped to 65 degrees. At about that time Denver and Colorado Springs was getting pounded with rain and hail and streets were being flooded...Ft. Collins and Loveland to the north was getting dumped on too...we drove right between both storms and didn't even get a drop of rain on the windshield. The weather forecast for around here is only supposed to be about 70 degrees all week...cold front coming down from Canada...quite a difference from the weekend in hot and humid Salina.



Back home…

I got to meet some great people that weekend…and I even got to talk to Ryan more than 30 seconds this time –it was prolly close to fifteen minutes standing among “Beatnik” cars…I even introduced him to some of my pals. Among those I met for the first time were Fritz and CadillacCoffin. PovertyFlats I finally got to spend some time with…thanx Paul. Then at noon, I even attended the HAMB meet and greet and put some faces with “user names”…I think Denise was happy, especially after that radio “jab” I got Saturday morn…I do suffer from CRS…but me and CarKiller (Cal) got there…I’m right on the front row if you get to see pix of the meet…

Now you’re prolly expecting me to post up pix of all the ‘well known’ cars and others there…nope, I’m not doing do that, besides, there’s already been a butt-load posted…just search out some of the other posts and enjoy them…

One last thing.

I just want to say it was a real joy meeting some of you for the first time…and seeing others for the second, third or fifth time…it’s now time to get back to work on my Caddy…better and better, ya know…??? The 30th Anniversary of KKOA and the 6th event in Salina will be on me before I know it…damn, I’ve got a lot of work to do…

C Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa


R-

 

40studedude:
I have seen your posts during my lurks and tried to make an effort to meet you Saturday about time the skies opened up and dumped. Spent some time under a tree and missed you when it stopped. Maybe next time.

Great story! We saw similar "sights" along the way. Prefer the view from your vantage point rather than ours in a SUV. Hope to change that perspective next year...and will definitely say hello...rain or shine.

Tom

 

I've always looked forward to reading your post and this is another kool
post. Driving a fresh kustoms that far is sure a test of faith. I thought the
green fast back was a trailer car. Not because iot runs a Ford engine, it is
because of how clean it is. Very Kool to see it on the road. Your Caddy is
way too kool and if you hadn't had such a detail post on all of your changes
I would have over looked some of them. When you get the rest of your grill
in please post some more pics....I'll look forward to seeing ya guys in Mokan.

Happy Trails,

Mick

 

Saw your cars in salina, got a great pic of the backs of all three lined up, looks great, had a great time there also. Brought our 49 chevy pickup. We trailered ours, didn't think the 216 would handle the trip well. Our first time there got to shake hands and get a autograph from Bill Hines, what a guy! Said he just celebrated his 87th birthday. That will go up in the shop!!

 

western kansas is beautiful and there's lots of it.

 

The same could be said about western ColoRODo, Nate...but eastern ColoRODo isn't much different from western Kansas...and there's a lot of both...!!!

It's all tongue-in-cheek ya know...

Mick: thanx...I figured the trip would be a challenge...but it wasn't. I will update the thread with the rest of the changes...

S.O.L.: Put a later six in it...then it will make the trip...

1931av8: Too bad I missed you...maybe next time, around here and not so far away...

R-

 

This show every year makes me realize my 2nd car love.... Caddys! Your cars were hard to walk past without thinking what I would I have to sacrifice to get one. Oh...my first car love is my 63 Galaxie Sportsroof that is parked out in my garage now

Thanks for bringing your rides all the way down here through the oh so exciting western KS scenery. Hope to see you again next year!

 

They say, half the fun is getting (driving) there. You have just confirmed that. Cool pics of the Caddys, just like Landsharks cruising across the sea (of wheat) !

 

we made it to salina for a few hours and had a great time.. and I'm serious about the plains of kansas.. Colorado mountains make me want to go hike and bike do donuts in the snow and the plains make me want to set up a hammock out in a field and take a nice peaceful nap

 

Sweet driving Pics. Dont see enough of those

 

Awwwwwwwwww, surely you meant "Cadillacs"...???

R-

 

Always good to see you and your brother. Hope to see you at the HAMB drags in a few weeks. Gary

 

Now Roger you know I respect you, but I gotta ask......why are you complaining about all the drivers talking on their cell phones when YOU are taking pictures with your camera while driving? My inquiring mind wants to know. Thanks for selling me the cool book. I enjoyed talking to you and Dan.

 

LOL Paul...there's a huge difference between pulling up a digital camera, taking a quik look at the picture on the back of it and pushing the button...it'll self focus and clik the pic in one smooth move, without any interuption on the driving process...something anyone on a cell phone cannot do, especially while concentrating on both the phone conversation and concentrating on driving at the same time...besides, a 10 second shot is easier/quiker than a 30 minute conversation on a phone.

R-

 

Well ok, but if I see a 6,000 lb. Cadillac coming at me and the driver is taking snapshots of other cars......I'm getting the hell outta there!!!

 

Great pics and story roger. I will not let anything get in my way next year. This event and the trip out should not be missed. And for the record that caddy would prolly run out of oil before it hit you poverty, or glide right over ya. Nicely done roger.

 

LOVE seeing those three stunning Caddys together.

Before you overhaul, dump a couple quarts of tranny fluid in the engine and drive the heck out of it for 15-20 minutes. Change oil and add at least a quart of Lucas. Use 15W-40 oil, too. Many times that treatment regiment will soften seals and clean the engine. Try it just for the heck of it and let me know how it worked for the 500

 

Great pics and story...I seen all the Caddys parked together and thought they were killer...have to do me a caddy someday...glad ya made it home safe

 

Always great to talk to you and Dan.Glad you mad it home safe and "sound".
Mike

 

great pics roger, looks like you guys had a blast.

 

Never figured you for a lavender guy Roger, something your not telling me?

Seriously, great looking car. Are you bringing that to Joplin or the Stude?

 

Cars that fix themselves........Wow! That's what I need.

 

You're the second HAMBer that said to use Lucas...so, guess I'll give it a try...couldn't hurt, right...???

GV Gordon: I have absolutely nothing to say about Lavendar ...or anything else. However IF McPhail can put lavendar on his new car and El Jefe can put lavendar on his Cadillac...then I'm in good company. The Caddy will come to Joplin.

Povertyflats: I told you my guardian angel was riding with me...isn't that enuff...???

R-

 

Great pics of the trip!

 

The Caddys were eyecatchers, i loved looking at the line of them from the rear.

 

great story, read like a novel-felt i was there with ya.

 

Roger, glad you made it home OK without having to invest in an oil co. Good to see both of you again. If needed we could pass the hat for oil at the HAMB Drags to get you home again.
Don

 

Great to see you in Salina and glad you made it back okay. We had a blast hanging out with you and Dan. See you again soon hopefully. Royal Purple oil is the best I have found but it will either help an engine or show you all of the problems your engine has (bad seals and gaskets). The color would match your Caddy too.

 

Oh hell yes getting there is the fun but going home is much more exciting !! I'm crusing along in the 62 No/Roof Caddy and I run up on a herd of deer and I swear one of em was coming in the damn car with me !!!! >>>>.