Looking the rear view mirror…

There was a double milestone for me recently- I turned 40 years old on September 5th, and more importantly, just over a month ago was the one year anniversary of when I posted on the Jalopy Journal for the first time. Ryan called me up out of the blue one afternoon and asked if I knew anyone who might be a good fit to post on JJ a few times a week. “I really need somebody who will just stick with it for a while…”, he explained. Without giving it much thought, I replied, “What about me?”

It’s harder than one might initially think to come up with two posts a week (roughly 104 posts a year) for the Journal, trying to deliver something relatively interesting and semi-original. My hat is off to Ryan!! I definitely wasn’t an English major in school, and between work and family schedules, it’s a challenge to get the ‘desk time’ needed for the quality level that the posts and you, the reader, deserve.

All this being said, I guess I just wanted to look in the rear view mirror at the past year, and get myself fired up to keep heading down this road with you. Since the birth of our second child 9 months ago, I haven’t attended even half the car events that I did last year, so the Jalopy Journal (and the HAMB) have been a great way to stay connected to what’s going on out there with your car projects, barn finds, the good shows/ road trips, and the mechanical innovation & inspiration that seems to come up out of left field by some mighty talented folks on here.

If the good Lord’s willing, and the creek don’t rise, here’s to another year of Jalopy Journals, and hopefully another 40 years of hot rodding around…

photo courtesy of Ryan Cochran