Big Olds' Ego-Rama Adventure Day 1-3

What an adventure it has been already. Let me back up a bit first. I'd really like to take the opportunity to publicly thank a few of my buds who helped at the last minute to get Big Olds ready for the trip. Roadstar, Beatnik, and 62Wgn, and my non-HAMB bud Jim, all helped to make sure Big Olds was safe, reliable and with everything working properly. To them I say, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I'd also like to publicly thank all those that chipped into the gas fund. It was totally unexpected but greatly appreciated. To you guys I say thank you very much. You've made the trip that much more pleasent for me.

Day One, Thursday Sept 22nd
Livonia to Joilet, IL
Today's fuel "sponsored" by "Big Al" Cook

We left at 5pm after I got off work. Our plan was to get just to the other side of Chicago to avoid the traffic jams in that area during rush hour. About an hour into the trip it started to rain. No big deal as it's happened many times in the last 44,000 miles. Shortly thereafter though it started to sound like marbles hitting inside Big Olds and instantly I said to myself, Oh Shit, OUCH, Ouch, and brought my left hand up to try and protect the top of my head. Yep, you guessed it, HAIL! I had to take my hand off my head almost immediantly because it hurt worse coming down on the top of my hand then my head. I changed lanes and slowed down looking to dive under the first vidock I saw but the hail only last a few minutes so on I trucked trying to catch up to my folks who didn't even slow down. The red welts on the top of my hand are gone now. Sorry I don't have photos of the top of my head or my hand for you photo whores. Got a room on the other side of Joilet and crashed for the nite.

Total miles into the trip thusfar 300 miles

Day Two, Friday Sept 23rd
Joilet, IL to S. Sioux City, NE
Today's fuel "sponsored" by Fab32

Started off pretty uneventful.



Just cruisen right along I80 at about 70-75 MPH when Dad said his coffee mug started to vibrate. He keeps his filled mug on the glovebox door as he drives (Dad drinks at least two pots a day and has two huge themos' filled in his car at all times on road trips). Anyway, for Dad's 56 to vibrate is very unusual. He placed his mug on the floor then noticed just a slight vibration in the steering wheel at which time he started to change lanes to the right and heard a pop. He continued to move onto the right shoulder and at about the same time his Olds came to a stop the front passenger side dropped to the frame.

I'm behind him at this point not knowing what's going on. I followed him tot he shoulder, parked and got out on my passenger side and noticed the funny angle of the front of Dad's car as I approached. I looked at the front wheel thinking I was going to see a flat tire but only spotted the funny angle the tire was sitting at, kinda toed in at the top. HOLY SHIT! The brake caliper is about 2 inches from the ground and the inside of the wheel is all chewed up.



Dad took the center cap off and all the lug nuts were attached to the studs, BUT the studs weren't attached to the hub! All five had sheared off We came to the conclusion the studs sheared off (why we don't know), then the caliper dropped onto the inside of the Budnik wheel which forced the dustcap off (first pop). The caliper rode on the inside of the wheel till just about the time he was almost pulled over and thats when the caliper came off the wheel and the car was riding on the frame. The wheel stayed inside the wheelwell with no damage to the fender at all.

 

Dad got on the phone to AAA while I got out my HAMB Helper Pages. We were 30 miles east of DesMoines so the first person I called was CarKiller on his cell. He was in KC, KS at the GG show but gave me the number of his pal Justin who works at a local salvage yard that has a shop there as well. He said get it here and well see what we can do to get it fixed. I met Justin at the HAMB Drags this year. AWESOME guy!...and he does smile when the camera's not pointed at him.

While we waited for the towtruck, Dad and I had to come up with a plan to try to get the car up on the flatbed with as little damage as possible. So far, no body damage and just slight gouging on the inside of the wheel and the caliper alittle scraped up, not damaged though.

I always carry a floor jack with me and Dad carrys a scissor jack. I said to Dad we need to use my jack as the support and just have the frame resting on my jack with the wheels pointed forward. It took jacking the car up in a couple of different places and stuff before we got my jack in the right position. We then place a wooden board under the bumper on the passenger side because we knew it was going to be scrapping on the flatbed as it went up. We put a second piece of wood under the caliper incase the floorjack gaveway. That way we could at least continue to drag it up there with as little damage as possible. To make a long story short, got it up on the flatbed with no damage except a couple of scrapes on the rear bumper.





Got to Sunset Beach Salvage Yard in DesMoines and had a bit of trouble getting it off but finally did. Broke my floorjack in the process but I suspect Santa will probley deliver a new one at Christmas time. The owner of the yard sent me (with "Jaybe" an RRT buddy who showed up for moral support) to a tire place to get the wheel balanced and sent my folks to the parts store for new studs and lugnuts while Justin starting taking everything apart. Didn't take long before everything was back together, bill paid, many thanks given and we said our goodbyes.

The moral of the story is no matter how high dollar or low buck your car is, no matter how much you do to prepare your car for a roadtrip, shit happens on the road and there is nothing you can do to prevent certain stuff from breaking. You just have to keep a level head, and do what's necessary to get it fix..... having friends to call in case of emergency helps too.

Me and Justin


Me, Jaybe and his son in the salvage yard

 

We're now 4 hours behind schedule and the BBQ that was planned in our honor at Daryle ("40" on the RRT) is well under way without us in S Sioux City, NE. Of course we had already called and everyone knew the situation. We continued on and got to Daryles place intime to do alittle visiting before bed.

Day Three, Saturday Sept 24th
S. Sioux City, NE to Mitchell, SD
Todays fuel "sponsored" by FlatDog

Got up this morning, said our goodbyes and thanks to "40"


and headed out for a quick 3 hour drive to Mitchell, SD where Bo Huff was scheduled to be a guest at a local car show. Not more then 5 minutes outta town it started to POUR. No big deal, only lasted an hour or so. Got to the host hotel, registered, chatted a bit, then the police showed up to give a escort the 5 miles or so to the little downtown area, right by the corn palace, for those that are fimiliar with the area. It just so happened that we pulled in line at the same time Eyeball, TomH and the other "Suade" which meant we parked together once downtown. It was a very nice show, except for all the flys. Very traditional in flavor although all cars were welcome. We did a poker walk which was kinda neat because you drew cards inside a number of local businesses, some of which I probley would't have visited otherwise.

Met up with Bo Huff. He remembered me from my visit to his place two years ago. I showed him Big Olds and he really liked all the bodymods and especially like the color. I was bummed my camera was in my purse and my purse wasn't with me at the time. Sometimes I could just kick myself.

Anyway, shows over. I was too tired to do the poker run/drive in movie thing tonight. Instead I'm sitting in the Comfort Inn lobby, on the HAMB, on a Saturday nite. For whatever reason I haven't been able to get the wireless laptop my boss let me borrow online. This was the first opportunity I've had to a desktop.

We're off to Rapid City in the morning via the Badlands

Total trip milage so far 1,010

TomH and his lovely wife


Eyeball on the right, and his brother Chris and wife Jen


Eyeball's

 

a couple of the "Suade's" cars




Some of the other cars at the show

 

More details of the roadtrip in a few days.

 

Hello Miss Denise, your coming through the Badlands you say? Look for my 55 at the Cedar Pass Lodge.

Have a safe trip.

 

Glad to hear everything is alright with your dads car, that could have been a real mess.

Wish i could be in mitchel, looks liek they had a pretty good turn out. any idea how many cars?

nice to see my Fellow suedes members down there.

cant wait to see this continued. have a great trip Denise

Aaron

 

We will stop and say "HI"

I was #58, Dad was #59, and I'm guess there were another 40 cars or so after we registered for a total of around 100.

 

Hey Denise,
Sounds like you're having a good time despite a few little glitches. Your Pop's car sure is a pretty Olds too. I just love all the BOP '55's and '56's. Sure wish I could be out at the HRR next weekend, but we're going to try to make do with Day at the Drags at Temple (gee, what a sacrifice ). Have fun out there in Bakersfield.
Don

 

Denise, sounds cool AND eventfull already! See you tomorrow night. I cant get messages on my cell (hone yes). We will be out at teh new house all day. Keep calling my cell, reception is bad out south. We should be back to town around 5 or 6.

We doing dinner? Forecast is for warmer weather.

 

Dinner sounds great. Right now I can't find my phone charger but one way or another I'll get ahold of you.

 

lol go figure i move out of sioux city and denise findaly shows up

good luck on your trip

 

Is your phone dead or off, I have been trying to call.

 

BOTH!


Missing me on a Saturday nite???

xoxoxo

 

What do you think. Well I left a message anyway.

 

Nice to see the road trip is yeilding up some great moments and memories already Denise........look forward to reading more of your exploit's in the coming days.........take care.......and quite having so much fun!!!

 

Wow!! Your Dad is very lucky!! Sounds like a cool trip so far. Take care and good luck!!

 

only 100?

wow they were expecting 6-800 is what i was told.

 

Chris (62wagon) told me about the wheel incident Friday night Glad no one, and nothing got hurt. Stay safe, have fun and keep us updated.

Gus

 

Hey Denise - Your road journal is already great reading(!) - thanks for doing it. Hope to see you at the HHR. Will be cheering you on at the Egorama - tell Tim B. I said HI when you get there, okay? I'll be following this thread...
Scotty

 

Stop touching yourself

Glad to hear everything worked out OK with your Dads car... Justin is a great guy down there at sunset salvage... did me and Kenny a huge favor with a HAMB relay when i bought a scooter from Kenny and hauled it up to desmoines... he's got a few pieces of nice old tin layin around down there and access to more from the sounds of it... lookin forward to the next "installment" Denise

 

Denise- You never cease to amaze me...Your right,,,stuff does happen when you drive them no matter what you do to try and prevent them from happening....But sometimes it just adds to the excitement of the trip & stories to be told in the future...I'm totaly shocked that there wasnt more damage to your dad's car but at the same time it gave me a chuckle cause i had the very same thing happen to me once....If you run into Bo again tell him the Pack Rats said Hi....Have fun and a safe trip!

 

thats to bad about your dad's ride, Has he calmed down yet or still getting nervous over every noise he hears now. Cross country with no Top, you Rule Denise.. Enjoy every moment, its an adventure.

If this story does not inspire someone to take a road trip nothing will.

 

Be Safe...See ya at Autorama...

 

Glad to hear your back on the road, keep the reports coming and hopefully we will see you in Bakersfield! Viva La HAMB!

 

Denise, thanks for taking the time to update your HAMB buds on the Ego-rama trip. Wow, your dad's little adventure could have been a real disaster I am really glad that, other than a little time inconvenience and a hit to the pocket-book, it turned out as a road memory that can be told without a very sad ending.

I'll second Boone's opinioin-all those miles in a topless car makes you more of a rodder than ANYONE I can think of, past or present.

Please keep up the journal. Kind of almost like being there.

 

Denise,
Nice accounting of your trip. Sorry to hear about your dad's problem but it's good to know there are people out there willing to help. I'm relatively new to the hamb but can seen here why it's such a good place to visit. Your trip looks like a lot of fun. Enjoy!

 

I can't think of a better person to represent the HAMB or hot rodding in general, than Denise. Hope you are well and have fun. Then again you could have fun anywhere...

Keep us posted!

Spike

 

Denice, Just my luck. Im at greedy guys in KC so Justin services ya. (oops I mean helps ya) Glad you were able to catch him and damage was limited. Have fun lady.

 

Hey I miss you every saturday night! Hopefully the rest of the trip goes good, but a good road story is always cool too, part of the fun of going places. I'm real glad nothing happened to the olds. I didn't know your dad had such a classic, one of my favorites of all time( I do like 57 better though). The taste in cars must run in the family. Good luck can't wait to hear more and see ya in the mags.