What I Saw Today

Over the weekend, a friend, who lives down Mickey Mouse way, was in town visiting a co worker and called me to join them for, what I thought was cocktails at 8, but was really dinner at a restaurant called "The Deck Down Under".

Just down the street, there is a restaurant called "The Ocean Deck", which Lil Mom, Lil Jim, the youngsters and I dined at during their visit this summer. Now that particular restaurant has three levels, one of them an oceanfront deck at the beach level down under the two other levels of restaurants above. When queried as to whether I knew "Where The Deck Down Under is?", I replied in the affirmative, about 8 minutes from my home. So I arrived fashionably late and they were not there. I called and was informed "The Deck Down Under" is located about 45 minutes away and got its name because it is located down under one of those high bridges.

So I set off and by the time I arrived, they had finished eating, which was alright by me. I had already had dinner as I did not know this was a dinner invitation. In total there were 7 of us and I guess they had gotten talked out because once I arrived, I was pretty much grilled about everything and got, almost, the third degree. It was okay, you know how I am, just pull the string on my back and I will just go.

And I did.

It turns out the three guys there are all car guys and we had much in common. Turns out one of the dudes owns, not one, but two 1979 Lincoln Town Cars. For those of you unfamiliar with that body style, I have included an image I lifted from AutoTrader of one. Think HUGE.


After dinner, some of us went to a beach bar near the Taj Mahal for a cocktail and, as my friend from Mickey Mouse land said, 'Why not, we are at the beach after all?' It was nice. One of the dudes, Don, who lives quite near the Kid, got to talking to me about my cars and of course I had to relate my On The Road adventures this summer.

Anyway, it was a very pleasant evening and, at its conclusion, I gave Don a card and told him to call me and we could do something. As this was only the third store bought meal I had had since I moved to the Birthplace of Speed, it was a nice change of pace.

Don called me today to tell me about a neighbor of his who has a vehicle I would like and to come on over.

Guess what I did?

Of course, I had to drive the olestationbus, I mean, if you are going to look at cool cars, you just have to drive one.

And this is the vehicle Don was adament I would like.

And he was right. A 1983 Dodge Rampage, very similar to the one I referred to here, but a whole lot nicer.

This sweet old truck is owned by Fred Meridith, no relation to Don Meridith, you know me, I had to ask. Anyway, as Fred is getting up in age, he has decided to liquidate some of his vehicle collection and asked me if I was interested. I told him yes but, unfortunately, I don't have the toy budget the bus and the horsefarmer have so I would have to pass at this time.

It is a bummer, I have lusted after one of these rare shortroofs for, well almost, ever. Certainly since I drove Patti Hunter's Dad's way back when. I have not even seen one of these in years, and believe me, I would have remembered it.

Ole Fred treats his vehicles as did my Dad. If something broke, was near broke, or not a stock piece of equipment, it gets replaced. I mean, just yesterday, the fuel supply was in question and Fred replaced the fuel pump. Can you imagine how hard it is to find a fuel pump for one of these? Well actually not hard, it is basically an early 80's Chrysler product.

Replacing that tailgate would be an adventure to be remembered.

This is a good clean truck. He had owned it since 92 and has repainted it twice. A couple small rust bubbles at the drip edge but I almost didn't even see them when Fred pointed them out.

He was laughing as he told me he replaced the standard transmission with an automatic so his wife could drive it, which she has, three times in 16 years.

The odometer shows 29,000 miles but Fred admitted he replaced it when the old one quite working and he is unsure of the mileage on it. I will tell you, I could see he had replaced the struts, shocks, all the rubber bushings underneath and the tires have a ton of tread life on them. All for $3,000. Bummer.

And that is what I saw today.