Nice area, about a half hour away from the eastern edge of the region. Nice show in Penn Yan second weekend of Oct.
Back to Yellowstone... Nice (covered) parking at Lake Hotel. Pays off to travel in something little out of ordinary (and tip valet adequately ;-) Now here's something one couldn't take advantage of just anywhere or -time. Not that one should advocate or participate in such juvenile behavior, especially after being refused to be taken a photo of such a rare opportunity, but right after my wife told me this supposedly being the only lake in the world draining to two oceans, I felt a sudden urge to relieve myself into both while just standing there on the shoreline. Old faithful letting off some steam... Perhaps odd, but we both felt that even with its given history and hype or maybe because of it, this site was the only somewhat of a let-down( ?) experience in Yellowstone. Way too much of "tourist trap" feel to it. After setting up for and taking few photos we couldn't get out of it fast enough. One of numerous, seriously cool sights in Yellowstone and I don't mean just the car...
I agree, although told my wife that I would've built it a lot closer to home so we could visit more often.
Yeah, like these little pools, that look so inviting until you realize they are +/- 200* F !!!... ... or maybe even boiling !!! One of handfull times we had the top up due to brief heavy rains or thunder storms that often came quickly out of nowhere, and went away in same fashion almost every afternoon. This "top up" occasion lasted about 15-20 minutes. Longest was probably an 1-2 hours and it was due to sun beating on us during that first day of travel through Nevada desert. There were several "light rain" occasions we didn't bother stopping to set the top. Nice view from our bathroom window at Lake Hotel...
Was just reviewing your pics. Gotta commend you for keeping the front suspension basically as built, instead of making it look like that other brand. Never understand why folks de engineer their cars to lesser specs.
Thanks. Besides the most Bitchin' body-line styling of any early thirties American-made roadster IMO, one of the other features that drew me to PB Sport Roadster was the parallel front & rear leaf spring suspension, which I suspected to offer relatively easy way to make the car handle better than some of its better known contemporaries. As a youngster growing up in Europe and taking first steps to learn about vintage cars, some of my early influences, along with any and all American iron up to early 1960s, were some pre-war European Sports & Racing cars, including A-F, Bugatti, etc., which none were available to personal viewing where I grew up, at least not to me. While most of my friends I grew up and started working on older cars with were more in to Drag (or Street) racing or slow cruising on the streets in any & all cities, towns, etc (which we did a lot of), I was more intrigued by long distance, at speed travel on challenging, scenic roads and learned that many European cars had focused their chassis and handling engineering to suit this type of driving better than most American manufacturers. Anyway, my Roadster suspension is basically slightly modified from stock by re-setting the OE springs, either by adding or removing leafs and re-arching to accommodate the weight of car in its intended (current) configuration. Only major deviation from original design was the introduction of telescopic shock absorbers in lieu of knee-action, mainly to combine a "cool" and practical way to mount headlights too. Converting rear shocks to telescopic too was sort of given at that point, although some "serious" research(?) went into choosing both front and rear. Any shock model chosen had to be something that would've been available in early 1950s, i.e. even if specs from '59 Galaxie or '67 Toyota would match, they were not acceptable. Most other chassis settings were done by "eyeball" engineering when I built the car nearly 30 years ago and it has always amazed me (and many others) how the car handles much better than its appearance would suggest, especially on twisty mountain (= hill climbing) and countryside roads, which I just love driving with it at speed.
Brings back great thoughts of when my wife and I took our 32 Ford from Nebraska to LAQ and back last year. Great trip and tons of fun for both. Hot rod has been on the road now for 17 months and we have over 20K on it to date.
Count me as envious, my wife wouldn't do such trips and now her legs are so bad she can't do this anyway. Before I built cars, I built bikes, her and I went everywhere on my HD's, even rode one time from Redding California to Vancouver b.c. in one jag, both of us on a shriners special shovel, just windshield and bags, no top box, forgot to put my foot down at the border, too tired but only 40 miles to go, fell over, border guard listened to my tale and advised me to leave while I could. Helped me get up, got home and slept two days, never looked at the bike for a week, good times.
Thanks. Well, maybe it's time to start making them yourself ? I'm sure you (and others) know that there's only one thing stopping you (and them).
I like the idea of staying in older hotels/motels...but really hadn't thought about it much until this past week, on the way home in my (later model) hot rod. We stayed in a couple along the old Route 66. The neon signs draw me in....and the old fashioned keys clinch it. I was thinking about starting a thread on the subject.
Would love to see some video footage of the winding road navigation with the bit of aggression you speak of...it would be priceless.
I hear you and I'd like to see some too. Hate to admit, but I've been wanting to/procrastinating on buying one of those GoPro things for couple of years already, ever since that opportunity to drive around Laguna Seca (see my avatar) at "freeway speeds" for 30+ minutes. I have some pretty cool on-board and roadside footage shot in & around wineries of SantaMaria/Santa Ynez valleys by friend few years ago, but being he's a professional video photographer, journalist + tv documentary/film maker and has asked me not to share any of his footage publicly, can't do it here. Wife was shooting some hill climb footage (with her eyes closed and screaming !!!) during our visit to Virginia City, NV on this trip, but we haven't had a chance to transfer any of it or her photos to my computers.
TTR @MoparMontana did a cool and clever little video. Have a peek and perhaps something along those lines. Being a director/cameraman is a challenge I understand...and hey the wife is along and perhaps strategically perched she can catch some footage. I wouldn't think you could take a bad pic or video of your Hotrod. Link below and its one cool mopar... https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...a-31-desoto-coupe.845033/page-5#post-11249397
Most phones today will well enough for video to make it fun... but my guess is you're still using pay phones, since you take traditional very seriously. Which I love.
Quick cursory look at your post count/stats, Sir, suggests you've done very respectful amount sharing already, but if you care to share any travel experiences while driving your "(later model) hot rod"(?) or other vintage rides, I'd imagine this would be as good place as any to do it. My initial idea behind this thread was to focus the effort to pre-war vintage Hot Rods, but if anyone wishes to offer stories traveling with post-war vintage car(s), that's OK too. Or if someone wants to start a thread focused on some other era or genre appropriate for this site, I'm sure we'll read those too and I, for one, having accomulated few hundred thousand miles with variety of vintage cars since I was granted driving priviledges nearly 40 years ago will do my best to contribute in anyway I can.
Yes, I'm known to be somewhat old-fashioned (traditionalist ?) in many ways, but can also appreciate some "modern" aspects of life, like the iPad I'm fiddling with my finger right now, but I don't do text or other popular "social media" things. Although I had a cell phone already back in the day when they were mainly associated with drug dealers and alike or their lawyers (though never had interest being involved with either trade), I was "shocked" few years ago when I discovered my trusted old (later model) cell phone can receive (+ take and send !?!) photos/pictures. A client had sent me photo of his '27 Moon Roadster, but upon initial glance at the phone I thought the screen was broken or misbehaving. When people ask me why I don't have a "smart phone", I like to reply that I'm not smart enough yet for those.
The drive from Sacramento to Tampa was done when the NSRA did what they called the Iron Man Run. When my wife and I were in Lake Tahoe just before that I had the same experience with the parking valets as you did. Up front celebrity style parking with cones to use to save the spot when I left for a while. Tipped he well when we left Other road trips have been another trip to Ca., three trips to Fla. two to Vermont and on one of those we continued on to Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. Been several shorter trips car now has just north of 96K on it.
It’s takes a lot of “huevos” to take a ride like that especially with the wife..... Kudos to you both for achieving your goal. I’ve done a similar trip in 93 in a 34-(Ford). My gal & I had the time of our life!!!!
I wish to thank everyones nice comments, contributions and support. I'm also very pleased to read so many of you have done some serious driving with their rides. I hope they and others will continue to do so and all of you will share those experiences with the all of us. In the meanwhile, back to our regularily scheduled program... Just breathtakingly beautiful scenery... Next was our first "real close" (think of few arm lengths) encounter with the American Bison, as they are technically supposed to be referred as (but who has ever heard of Bison Bill ??? Or even more correctly, in Latin reference, Bison-Bison Bill ?!?). It was a big'n too ! Moments before this photo, we were just driving and saw this guy (or I assume it's a "guy" as I didn't look or reached into the "undercarriage" to confirm ;-) casually strolling to same direction as we were headed. By the time I managed to slow down to his speed, I found us a lot closer than this picture suggests and he suddenly stopped, turned his entire probably 1500+ lbs body 90 degrees sideways, right there in the middle of the road. Then turned his head another 90 degrees facing us and just stared for quite a while, at which point both wife and I started to get little nervous. I initially thought this "guy" being just enamored by the low rumble of the old Hemi through the straight pipes or something to that effect. And yes, I told my wife to keep shooting photos, no matter what happens ! Eventually, he appeared to loose interest (not truly a vintage car Bison, I guess ?), turned back to his original direction and continued strolling. We followed slowly from little safer distance and eventually, coming upon that wider spot seen in the photo further down on the road, I snugged up closer in attempt to pass him quickly, only to find that as soon as I was almost next to his hind legs, he stopped and started to stare at us or me (?) again. By this time we were just few arm lengths away of this individual belonging to species not known for their strong intelligence as much as they are for their size, strength and ability to move really quickly if/when needed. Besides, they're also known tosometimes attack almost without any provocation, even large inanimate objects like cars, etc. Fortunately for us, there was a larger, suburban type SUV behind us operated by a courteous driver who decided offer his vehicle as barrier between the beast(?) and us, allowing me an opportunity to sneak past it and out of potential harms way. I thanked him by waving as we took off again soon after. Yet another breathtaking view...
Thanks, but I have to admit it was one of very few pre-planned and "staged" accordingly (parked on the side walk, etc) as soon as I realized the opportunity the location presented. Took several others (better?), more personal, right before this. While this shot captured the intended effect you mention, by the time I got to take it O.F. was loosing its potency rapidly and nearby background individuals had stopped at that inconvenient spot. As mentioned earlier we weren't about to wait another +/- 90 minutes for potentially better shot(s) just to see the place getting likely much more crowded, evidenced by lines of large buses rolling in by the time we were leaving, before 8am !
Thanks for the link, that's cool. I like the innovations on this car. I, in my younger years when I was still invincible and knew everything, had this completely hair brained idea of a "different" engine for my Roadster, but was fortunate to have a friend who basically offered to lend me the Hemi it still runs with. His offer was that I could take my time with the "real" engine build and once done, I would just give the Hemi back, but apparently I was smart enough (duh, obviously) back then that I insisted on paying for it instead, mainly for not being quite sure how long building your own "DOC inline 6" engine from scratch would actually take. Next thing I know, nearly 30 years has gone by and I haven't even got beyond initial sketches I made back then.
@MoparMontana really knows his Mopars. He races with a team of like minded people at Bonneville. Check his thread out and check out some of The Montana Dodge Boys speed racing on youtube. Your Hotrod is cool as is or would be equally cool with a warmed over 6 but why change now. It has proven its reliability and has power to spare. Hope all is well on your Journey...
P.S. I learned a little more about the craziness of my "idea" when 26+ years ago I opened my shop and one of my new neighbors, also moving in at the same time, was setting up his private shop to build dry lakes competitor. He wanted and succeeded to build a fairly revolutionary engine utilizing some innovative (crazy ?) ideas that I, along with many others, thought couldn't or wouldn't work at all. Or actually I thought it's either complete waste of time and energy or it's going to go like hell, which it eventually did and won him a record(s), which I believe he managed bumped up more than once and might still hold today. It took him close to 15 years to build the engine and the car (both which also I help him with any chance I got). And he started with an existing engine ! I wanted to build mine from "SCRATCH" !! and I mean design and fabricate my own block and head, design my own cams and pistons, etc..., not just "warmed over" something. Obviously for some stuff, like hardware, etc. I was going to use existing items. Like I said, hair brained and not quite so "traditional" idea !
The Jalopy Journal
