Sunday, August 8, 2010

Another Day In The Life Of This olelongrooffan

As there is such a dearth of full time employment opportunities down here in the Birthplace of Speed and the greater Daytona Beach area, this olelongrooffan is doing pretty much anything to make a buck to keep my daughter adequately supplied with mobile means of text and voice communication with her nearly 120 facebook friends, of which I am honored to be one.

One of the things this olelongrooffan has been doing is traveling all over greater Volusia County, Florida visually evaluating residential properties for a real estate investor out Californey way. Today I did just that.

But first, this morning as I was utilizing Google Maps to find said locations, the extremely complicated communications system here at the Taj Majal started going crazy notifying this olelongrooffan the answering of an incoming phone call was desired.

And I did.

"Whatcha doing longroof?"

And I told him, and you jeepjunkie?

Heading up to TomP's place to check it out, wanna go?

Sure jeepjunkie.

And we did. Once we arrived we realized the lawn did need mowing and I jumped on that lawn tractor so this olelongrooffan would not have to deal with the business end of a gasoline powered weedeater.

We finished up that endeavor and headed back to the Taj Mahal. I got back on these tubes to complete the geographical mapping of my day and thejeepjunkie enjoyed at least 12 ounces of his favorite cold beverage on the veranda of the Taj Mahal.

Now sometimes the requested viewing of the desired homes is in a desirable neighborhood
but most of the time it isn't.
So, after my four and a half hour, 117 mile windshield time and another 2 hours blogging my finds, the massive communication system in the Taj Mahal lights up again.

And is the case most of the time these days, it is, once again, thejeepjunkie.

"Whatcha doing longroof?"

Just finishing up my review, you?

Heading to the beach in the 2A, you wanna ride along?

H*ll yeah.

See ya in a few.

So this olelongrooffan fills an appropriately sized cooler with some of thejeepjunkie's favorite beverage, plus a few of mine for this olelongrooffan and I settle in my huge barco lounger and wait for thejeepjunkie to show.

He does and I walk out the impressive front door of the Taj Mahal and he voices his appreciation at my choice of accompanyment.

This olelongrooffan lumbers into the passenger compartment of the civilian version of the Willys MB and we head off on that ardeous trip to the World's Most Famous Beach, some two blocks away.

After some humorous wrangling with the beach access dude, we finally get through that Homeland Security Nightmare and get down on the beach.

Now remember, this olelongrooffan is being transported in a 1946 Willys CJ2A and it is bright yellow! As a result, and this happens every time thejeepjunkie and this olelongrooffan traverse this crushed shell beach, dang near everyone, well except those morons who choose to cross the traffic lanes without looking sideways to check for traffic, most of those beach visitors who of a certain age or a certain "It's A Jeep Thing" notice us.

Well, thejeepjunkie, in his advanced age, has developed a certain adage of talking to himself. I am not sure if anyone is listening and this olelongrooffan has quit listening a long time ago.

But, in almost Rally Driving Fashion, I have gotten into providing some navigational advice to my driver as in "Kid on the left, not looking at all....Don't speed throught this area....Watch out for that whale paying no attention to what is around her"....well you get the idea.

And then thejeepjunkie launches into a tyraid about how "You Can't Fix Stupid."

So there we are on the beach, relaxing and enjoying a cruise, me listening to thejeepjunkie going on about the stuck tourist in the Cadillac SRX and the guys trying to get him out.

"Hello, did you not see the 4WD vehicles only sign just a hundred yards previous? Dumb*ss."

It was cool though. I mentioned to thejeepjunkie not to say a word and let's see what happens.

Well, let's just say those Hoons finally got that front wheel drive recent vintage Caddy crossover unstuck with no help from thejeepjunkie and this olelongrooffan but we sure had a good time watching them.

We also experienced the Caddy CUV driver trying to get a couple tens for a twenty to compensate his tow crew with a ten spot when a commercial crew would charge a buck fiddy for it.

And, oh yeah, that Caddy driver was stuck, once again, just a few hundred yards up the beach.

With no Saviors in sight.

While we were cruising along, we spotted this taxivan in the distance. (sorry about this olelongrooffan's feet in this image, but after all, we are cruisin')
I mentioned to thejeepjunkie that it must really be expensive to take a taxi to the beach for the day. I mean, why not just have the taxi drop you at a beach access and walk on down. But judging by the sight of the "just a biscuit shy of 400" pound woman in the adjacent beach chair, this olelongrooffan thinks the only place she walks is to the kitchen.

Down the beach aways, we spotted this sweet 86 Caddy Fleetwood and stopped to take a look at it. That's thejeepjunkie in the background talking with the vacationing owners of this highly desirable classic automobile while this olelongrooffan was checking out that huge vehicle.
It turns out the owner of that Caddy has a son who just finished restoring a 1946 CJ2A also! He is an old car guy and we chatted it up for a bit prior to returning to that yellow classic to cruise on down the beach. thejeepjunkie hops in and fires it up. (check out the water line in the above image) We back out into the traffic lanes, thejeepjunkie puts it in first and the motor sputters and dies. He cranks it back up and we move about 10 feet before it dies again. He tries to start it again without success. He jumps out, removes the gas cap and shakes that ole buggy.

"Sh*t, longroof, we're out of gas."

So thejeepjunkie whips out his cell and makes a phone call.

And the totally opposite of this occurance occurs, the Kid comes to the rescue. By the time the Kid was able to get out of the house, apparently dinner is more important to some in that household than rescueing family, the tide had really started rolling in.

As the Beach Patrol had closed the beach due to high tide, the Kid had to park at a beach access and carry that can of petrol down the beach.

While we were waiting for the Kid to come to the rescue, that Caddy owner came over and we chatted it up all the while watching morons getting stuck on the beach. Upon approach, he asked thejeepjunkie if he wanted a ride to a gas station? thejeepjunkie's response? "Naw, I got a 17 year old son."
the Kid handed that red can to thejeepjunkie who transferred it to his 2A and it fired right up and we had a damp ride back to the Taj Mahal.

But Man! It was fun!

And it is having family to come to the rescue, wet rides on the beach with thejeepjunkie and not having to wash that Willys that evening that really allows this olelongrooffan to

Celebrate Life.

3 comments:

Jesse said...

You always make me smile with a great story John... thanks!

Busplunge said...

great story!

Busplunge said...

ps--- it's 97+ degrees here this afternoon, I was painting a rent house.