Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!

[Grizz1963]

Along the motorway I did see a sign..........



After Donnie Wilson giving me that Case knife this was just perfect.

One of my favourite photos of the whole trip.

It brought together various facets of the USA for me.



So of course I went in.........

MY MIND WAS BLOWN !!!

I have always loved pen or pocket knives ever since I was a kid.
In fact, my mum even bought me a twin blade for my 21st birthday. Which I promptly went and lost two days later through a hole in my trouser pocket on my way to work. 32 years later I still have not forgotten or forgiven myself.

I have a small collection of random knives all with stories or emotions attached and still love them.

The knife Donnie gave me lies next to my bed and I look at it, tpich it and use it regularly.

Back to the Case Knife shop.

All types, all prices, all sizes.

I looked and drooled in that shop for an hour, wanted to buy Donnie a knife to replace the one he gave me but in the end realised that Ihad no idea just what was in his collection.

So I formulated "Plan B" and bought Miss Katy a pinkn(coz she loves pink) Buck knife for her handbag. Yes..........??? So what? She is a nurse matron and often uses a knife.

She loved it.



Back to "Plan B"

One of my car and bike buddies in South Africa had asked me for some US license plates for his weekend getawaybb

He also likes knives. So I created a deal with him.
I would get him some plates and a 5'6" black snake skin in the post before I left and he would get me an Okapi knife in the post for Donnies collection

Now Okapi's have the dubious honour of beingknown in South Africa to have killed the most gangsters in drunken and gang fights.

They are real cheap n nasty but they have a special allure.
So maybe one will add a bit of interest to Donnie's collection of higher end knives.



From there I carried on past some more interesting places.





Later in the day at one of my stay awake and have a coffee breaks the internet delivered a lovely message from Clem and Bomp who were clearly missing me much.



One for all the South Africans



And even a Katy's Trail.



The road went on and on.
And I certainly enjoyed myself. Listening to a Satelite Country music station.

NSFW !!

PARENTAL ADVISORY.

EXPLICIT LYRICS.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED !!!

Recorded in the Ozark Mountains.

Bit of true country in The Ozark mountains in...

The roads became narrower and at one point I stopped for an hour after turning back to go investigate a fleamarket shop. Bought a few pieces including some cool glass insulators for dennis.

Beautiful bridges all in use and functional. Some of the old Route 66 roads retain them as well.



Time flew and eventually I made it to Wright City after 5pm so the trip had taken just over 9 hrs and with detours off the motorway had ended around 410 miles.

Interestingly the cars fuel consumption calculation showed a healthy 25.3 mpg

Dennis told me that I had driven like a P#$$€¥ if that was the best I could do.
Well, thats fine too.
Not my backyard, not my car.

[dwcardfan]

I love seeing this trip through your eyes. And yes that Okapi is going to make my collection even better! It will have a great story.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by dwcardfan

I love seeing this trip through your eyes. And yes that Okapi is going to make my collection even better! It will have a great story.

Like you say.
It has a story attached so that changes its inherent value.

I am sure you will like it too.



So when I got back to Dennis it was a bit rainy and overcast so I just filled the car up a mile from his place and took it home without washing it as the roads were wet and would defeat the objective of the exercise.

I parked up and unpacked.



Just as I finished the gravel crunched, the dogs barked and Dennis came in.

So we went straight out to the garage with the new bumper to test out the tailgate he had fitted while I was away.

Perfect - Beer o Clock.

The day was still young at 6pm.

Tailgate worked perfectly.



A bunch of Dennis' friends, son Adam and his lady Hannah all came for dinner.

Very ably prepared by Debbie and Hannah. Dennis did the steaks.

This sort of impromptu family meals is something I noticed everwhere I travelled and it reminded me of South Africa where I grew up.
There was always place and food for one more. Nothing formal. It just happens.

A very good day got even better and despite being tired I loved it all.



"Cinch" is Adams dog.

What an awesome dog again. He seemed to like my company.
Along with Tally one of Dennis' two dogs. Did I mention I love animals?





Did I mention that we had gone over to Dennis' neighbour Ryan a few times on the quads?

One of the times he and I went digging around in some derelict buildings.
We found some cool old tims etc as well as Dennis Paul cking up a short dry snakeskin at about 18 inches. He handed it to me and said we should maybe be carefull. I don't like but certainly don't fear snakes.
Anyway, I noticed the thick end had a large lump to it and started to unravel the STILL WET skin.
Whoooopps!!!
It turned out to be 5'6" or 1.65m long. Head skin and eye lenses stuill attached.
Of course we then did vacate the building, beers in hand.

I carefully rolled it up, tucked into my new John Deere hoody front pocket and took it home later.

This was dried out when I got back to St Louis.

Beer for size perspective ;-))



Some pics of the 66 as well.

Dennis is trying to use as much as possible from the original NASCAR in his build.

Note the safety fuel cell out back.







Slightly wider than standard rubber and lightweight control arms.

Dennis wants to drive this truck to Clems in 2017



Eventually the evening drew to a close and everyone went home.

I went to bed. Tired but happy.

[flashed]

Yiu have got me thinking real hard about going in that direction next year .

[NevEno]

Looks like you had a great time! It was cool hanging out again!

[Bomp]

It'd be cool to get to cruise around with and see the sites.
Started planning next year now.
See you next year.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by flashed

Yiu have got me thinking real hard about going in that direction next year .

John
If you plan it well, in advance then it can be a great trip.
There are a lot of good people to meet out there.

Ultimately the choice is yours.

Originally Posted by NevEno

Looks like you had a great time! It was cool hanging out again!

Certainly was.

Sadly holidays are just that.

A break from reality.

Two weeks back in England and I am ready to get back on the plane.

Originally Posted by Bomp

It'd be cool to get to cruise around with and see the sites.
Started planning next year now.
See you next year.

You have no idea buddy.

[Grizz1963]

Well, Thursday morning arrived.

Two weeks had flown by at a massive rate.

Admittedly, I had been quite busy and not slept much inbetween.

So we got up, got ready and Debbie made us a serious breakfast with a load of extra bacon thrown in as a final farewell to me.

Once packed in the car the three of us set off to a couple of stops.

I had more parcels to post out to the world and typically the closest post office was shut so we drove all the way back to Wright City and got them sorted.
Then off to the race car shop as Dennis had to pick up some bits to paint.

Remember this mangled truck we saw less than two weeks before after it had hit the wall very hard and needed a serious rebuild?

It was getting a lot of attention and a lot of new parts.



Can you see the difference??

Dennis magic again.



Left and right spindles. Different on each truck. Different for each track.
New for the rebuilt truck.





Lightweight and again custom made.

Money Money Money. Possibly destroyed the next time the truck gets out on the track. Seems its the name of the game.



Once we were done at the race shop it was off to O'Fallon where Dennis has his shop.

He had saved the best for last.

Ethyls Restaurant has been an eatery for as long as most people can recall.

The last change of decor saw Dennis do a lot of the work and there are pieces of his own history in there. As well as a lot of his personal hours making furniture and decor items.

Have a menu for now.



Dennis and Debbie outside before we went in.

The rest should be a treat when I get back to posting up.




Back in a while.

Git work to do now.

Later.

[Palf70Step]

Don't look Ethel.........but it was tooo late, she been.....



Oh, wrong theme song

[flashed]

That place is too cool .

[Grizz1963]

Saturday afternoon late Miss Katy came over to visit.

It had after all been three weeks since we last saw each other.

Our Nomance based on an easy friendship meant that I had made some extra effort by going to the Turkish shop and bakery to buy flat bread, Puck spreading cheese and other treats.

So we could have an easy dinner with no fuss.



The Turkish bread is always a winner.

Katy was happy to see me and she looked lovely.



Harley was very happy.



My left over Dollars were about to be converted to Sterling and stuck back into the mortgage that had become a priority earlier in the year.



My baggage was delivered on Saturday evening just afyer 10pm.
So of course I needed to unpack and get the bits I brought for Katy out for her, including the pink Buck knife that made her laugh.

Sleep continued to evade me as my biological clock was now so screwed up that Saturday night delivered about four hours sleep.

On Sunday we had a reasonable day. Lazy start and walk about then a walk down the Medway river from Upnor.

Thankfully the tide was out but the windy day meant loads of Lazer class sailing boats on tbe river.



Sunday night I got almost no sleep and up at 05.30 on my way to a team meeting in London for the day meant I really suffered to jusy stay awake.

Monday night I turned off all electronic gizmos in the house and slep for 9.5 hours dead. The last time I slept that much, I must have been 10 years old.

From Tuesday it was back to the day job.

Suited up.



Man, I miss my shorts and flip flops.



By Wednesday evening it was late meetings and training again with London at night being my song.




Last photo is a map made up by Elwoody (Michael) in Germany.

Trying to capture all the routes and detours I used is not easy.

So this map is a very basic representation of the 2500 miles I did either with other people or in the Dodge Hemi Challenger that Dennis gave me to use.

I was amazed at the 25.3 mpg that it returned on longer trips like to 400 miles a day I did returning to Missouri.




There are a few small things I still need to complete and record. I will come back to them when I get to it.

Now its back to normal.

Thanks for riding shotgun.

I think there are around 550 photos in this thread. I could be wrong though.


And Yes, unfortunately I have started planning next years trip already. It may include Blues, Bourbon and Beads.

2017 invite has also come from Colorado.
This has to be considdered as I always like Colorado for its nature.

Now relaxxxxxx.

[Palf70Step]

[Bomp]

Incredible.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by flashed

That place is too cool .

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Originally Posted by Bomp

Incredible.

Its an amazing place.


And when you speak to various people including Dennis, you realise just hos much work and time he put into creating a petrol heads dream restaurant.

After much more looking around and just drinking in the atmosphere and decor, I made it back to the bar to order a drink and lunch from Kelly our amazingly tallented waitress.

She had been waitressing and bussing tables since age 15 and runs her own graphic design company. Using the waitress job as a way to make extra cash for herself.
She clearly is the best they have at Ethyls as she runs the bar and a bunch of tables.

Friendly, bloody intelligent, cute and sharp as a rapier she was onto my instantly, loving my accent but also playing me like a fish.

That to me is one of my favourite parts of travel and meeting people.....that special connection you make.

I will certainly remember her for more than one reason for a long time.

I ordered Catfish and sweet potato fries with caramel sauce with onion rings and a bottomless glass of Dr Pepper. Thats another thing I love about the US. Drinks getting refilled and refreshed as long as you need them to be refilled.

Dennis and Debbie had good meals too.



My last meal. Perfect.




Kelly.......... Perfect.

Playing me the way I love it.

Just how perfectly could I end two weeks spent with amazing friends and making new friends in the US ??

These two weeks will once again be forever printed in my mind.

A massive thank you to every person who touched my life.



Once we had eaten, chatted had our fill I asked Dennis if I could pay.

He called Kelly over to where were sitting to ask for the bill and she replied "No need to pay, its been taken care of already" Kent Eisenbath the owner at Ethyls had picked up the tab.

I kid you not !!

Even to the last moment, random kindness and generosity poured out to Dennis (remember, I am just the guest there)
When we were at Harry J's before and had an awesome meal splitting a mind blowingly large and good two inch Prime Rib and drinking a lot of beer with Dave they refused payment from him too. Dave Howell owner at Harry's J's And Dennis go a very long way back too.
He is clearly respected and loved wherever he goes.
An amazingly easy guy to get on with.

After lunch we headed the last 20 miles to St Louis Airport for them to drop me off as Dennis had work to go do for a customer and Debbie was going to see her grand daughter.

I was early by four hours. Check in took about 3 minutes.



Then a not so boring few hours of people watching, Starbucks coffee and Delta Airlines again being delayed.

Had I known this was just the start........

Headed for Detroit where I would change planes for Heathrow.



Raining when I left St Louis.

It was the first bad weather of my whole trip. Blessed or what??



With Delta's 45 minute delay in St Louis it meant that the Detroit change over was litterally as fast as I could get from one terminal gate to another. Walking straight onto my UK bound flight.

All the Delta staff at this point except for one guy were misserable and unfriendly in my opinion. Enough to warrant avoiding future flights with them if I can help it. Funny how the Virgin crew were the opposite on the way out.

Sad really.

Uneventful, sleepless flight got us to Heathrow the next morning.

Welcome home.......... to Blighty.



Get off plane. Fast lane Passport.

Bagage collection........ should be a breeze.

30 minutes later.

No suitcase........ WTF ??

Impressed.

In the mean time I think my case that was just over the 23kg mass allowance, zipper closed in layers of motor racing grade Ductape as the airline or handlers managed to break the zipper open and lose some of my gift stuff on the way into Detroit.
So I thought that maybe internal security had possibly rumbled my baggage or even worse, detained it.



Go to Delta Lost baggage.

Helpful guy clearly knows the drill.

Whips out form and pen.

Fill this in and bring back.

I give him my baggage tag and he is on the computer.

Yup, your baggage was left behind in Detroit as the flight had been delayed.
They would not waste time finding it.
Return form and pen.

Guy tells me my baggage will be delivered on Saturday or Sunday.
Which was confirmed on Saturday by text to say my baggage would be delivered between 21.00 and 23.00
In fact it was at 22.05 on Saturday the doorbell ended up ringing and my unopened Ductaped bag was unceremoniously plonked in front of me.

So I headed for the Purple parking bus stop to go get my car, only to be told the bus is full and I need to wait for the next available bus.

Car collected, onto a thankfully eady M25 to do the 85 miles home.

Got home and unpacked hand lugguage, showered and made cuppa Tetleys tea. Heavenly.

Friday Night I took a Piriton antihistamine that normally knocks me out to try get some sleep. Katy had also decided wisely to give me time to catch up on sleep.

Of course most pleased to have me home on Friday was my Garage Thug cat Harley who must have missed me according to my lodger and house/cat sitter.




I managed to sleep about 8 hours dead.

First time in three weeks.

Saturday was filled with running around getting food, milk etc as my Nomance with Katy continued and needed some food to impress her.

Later for the close of this story.

[Palf70Step]

Harley's face belongs on one of those meme's or a commercial for something!

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Harley's face belongs on one of those meme's or a commercial for something!

This pic is probably more appropriate.

Formal mortgage application starts tomorrow. Agreed a price with seller. Need to sell AMG, Motorhome, house in MK, etc, etc

[flashed]

What an adventure this trip was ,thanks for taking us along .

[dwcardfan]

Thanks for the ride!!!!

[Palf70Step]

[Bomp]

Whew, Glad you made it over the pond in one piece.
How many days are you shooting for on the next trip?

[53Sparky]

Reinforcing the Colorado invitation on this site in addition to the Garage Journal invitation.

1) It's only an 11 hour drive to Fayetteville from here. You could probably hit a couple of other members on your way down there you wanted to.

2) There are many flight (either direct or indirect) options from London into Denver International Airport. Just saying.

3) The Pikes Peak Hill Climb is a combination of rally racing and hot rods.

4) 300 days a year of sunshine.

5) I know of several junkyards in the area where you could get nearly rust free spares.

Have I made my point yet?

By 2017 summer, I hope to be done with my '62 project.

[uber cool]

I read all your trip reports, excellent to read and see what you did. We have just come back from 2 weeks and 1500 miles around California and Nevada, took us a few days to get back into sleep and this awful cold & damp weather, cant wait to go back again.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by flashed

What an adventure this trip was ,thanks for taking us along .

John

Its guys like you who make me report and enjoy these trips.

I absolutely love to immerse myself in local culture and really enjoy the learnings that come my way.

People everywhere I go are generous with their time and love to share.
So the least I can do and enjoy doing is to Pay it forward by sharing.

The more I get to know people over there the more I wish my life was not so screwed up.

Originally Posted by dwcardfan

Thanks for the ride!!!!

Donnie !!

Thank you for the ride.

The pleasure was certainly mine.

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Good stuff ehhh Bill ?

Originally Posted by Bomp

Whew, Glad you made it over the pond in one piece.
How many days are you shooting for on the next trip?

Bomp, we cannot take more than 10 working days absence.

This year I managed 13 working days because I had got permission from my contract agency.

I would love to have two full free weekends over three weeks but that wont be happening.

Originally Posted by 53Sparky

Reinforcing the Colorado invitation on this site in addition to the Garage Journal invitation.

1) It's only an 11 hour drive to Fayetteville from here. You could probably hit a couple of other members on your way down there you wanted to.

2) There are many flight (either direct or indirect) options from London into Denver International Airport. Just saying.

3) The Pikes Peak Hill Climb is a combination of rally racing and hot rods.

4) 300 days a year of sunshine.

5) I know of several junkyards in the area where you could get nearly rust free spares.

Have I made my point yet?

By 2017 summer, I hope to be done with my '62 project.

All great points, noted.

Thank you for the invote and offer.

I guess everything still has to shape itself around Clems Tuba Trucks Big Charity drive.

That makes it slightly awkward.

Of course nothing stops people from coming to where I am at.

Originally Posted by uber cool

I read all your trip reports, excellent to read and see what you did. We have just come back from 2 weeks and 1500 miles around California and Nevada, took us a few days to get back into sleep and this awful cold & damp weather, cant wait to go back again.

Homesick for the USA was the worst along with jetlag

Looking forward to the next trip already. If I can manage it all.

[Grizz1963]

Well it seems the road trip keeps on giving.

One of the parcels I posted to South Africa went to a friend Jacques and contained a bunch of license plates and a 1.75m long snake skin for his break away cottage.

He saw that both Donnie Wilson and I like and collect knives.

So he arranged for some Okapi knives to be bought and shipped to him for distribution to various people.

Karma...... did I mention it before?



The last two weeks have been busy in the nomance and personal spaces.

Katy saw her older daughter graduate this week.

Great going for being a single parent for 16 years. Her daughters are certainly headed in the right direction. With the younger just starting at Bournemouth University.



Last weekend she planted the water feature bed with a few plants.





CLICKY LINKY:

Katy's Quirky Water Feature. - YouTube

My week was a bit rough so Friday night saw two of these being swiftly dispatched. Honey Brandy and Pepsi Max. Pint at a time.



Not sure it fixed anything. But certainly tasted great.

On Tuesday on the way home from London I saw this lot in a skip outside my local station. The South Eastern Railway Hotel pub is being converted into over priced flats. So all the original wood and fittings get ripped out. There certainly were planks with borer beetle too.

Anyway.........

Time for the guessing game.

Why would I skip dive these out of a dusty skip?



Saturday morning the last of Nicolas stuff got collected from garage and loft.I am thankfull I had the sense to do two full carloads earlier this week for her. She has a surprise waiting at her place with all the stuff I took there on Wednesday and Friday nights. NOT MY PROBLEM. I am sure she will search sort it ruthlessly and dump what she does not need.
Saturday morning she was over by 08.15 and I took her into garage loft, thankfully found one more bag I had forgotten the other night. Then room to room and cupboard to cupboard in house to let her pick over stuff again despite us previously "sharing" stuff. Took what she wanted and was hers in kitchen etc. Left a load of lovely white Sunday best crockery behind that mate Martin will take over. Into loft and brought last of her boxes down then let her look as well to make sure she had it all.
Packed her car in rain and she asked me again if I was coming over to help her unload and get stuff in her loft. I said no, (as she has a perfectly capable 6'6" ex military boyfriend) I had already asked Jeremy the cat sitter to help her. Puts that one firmly away. Last step probably now just divorce at some point.
I hope that will be a painlessexperience for both of us.
Then finished up raking back yard in the rain, which was a mess and then showered, packed car and went shopping etc. Then to Katys place overnight. With me cooking us dinner. Its nice to give back to her. She has just been so kind to me since Nicola left and I met her. A really lovely friend.

As Nicola was gone by 10.15 and Katy was not going to be home before 6pm and it was raining......
What better to do then than get the pressure cleaner out the garage and clean up the planks?





Once done I took them into the house to dry again when the heating comes on.



Plan is to try cut two sections from the long piece and one each from the shorter ones. Sand them down a bit but keep all the wear and scars.
Then create a frame from more still to be found scrap wood.

Once this is done the bits of crazy stuff I brought home this year and last year that makes people shake their heads will be mounted on the board and hung inside the house as a reminder of two awesome toad trips.

Crazy??

Yes.

Do I care ??

Watch this space.


Probably not the best position in a post to be looking for a favour.

I am looking for someone who is returning from the USA to the UK as soon as posdible that would be prepared to bring along a parcel of new replacement brake shoes for my truck.

I did not think about it while in the US in October.

Anyone who can help. Please PM me.


In other news..........

Got this in the post this week.

More about it later.

[flashed]

Those boards cleaned up nicely ,the knives look cool too and the water feature with the plants was even cooler.