by the numbers

Anybody Up For A Parade?

2012-01-30T21:19:00.002-05:00

Well Counters, it has been a h*lluva good time for this olelongrooffan this weekend. Yes, it was the 50th running of the Rolex24 at the Daytona International Speedway and I was around for the parade of the past winners on Friday morning Beachside Daytona Beach until the victory lap at the Speeway on Sunday afternoon. Needless to say, I returned to the Taj Mahal and hit the sack only to work all day today and took another nap this evening.

However, I did want to share with those of you Counting Along With Me some of the over 1,200 images I gathered this weekend. Not alot of commentary in this post but look for more as this sleep deprived olelongrooffan gathers my energy back.

This year, the powers that be gathered a bunch of the past winners of the Rolex24 for the 50th anniversary. Friday morning they all gathered for a parade from beachside to the track. I was able to capture a few of them in the parade.

But before the parade, this olelongrooffan ~~snuck~~ walked into the Ocean Center and saw the lot of them

up close and personal.

Yeah, I have a disease for doing things like this.

But, I especially love the company my ole Comanche keeps.

Here is a quick video I was able to capture with my elcheapo 28 dollar ebay camera.

That's it for this time around. I gotta hit the sack. I did a post over in the Hooniverse about the parade, similar to this one and it can be seen here.

Night night and this olelongrooffan hopes everyone will, as I did this weekend,

Celebrate Life.

What I Saw Today

2012-01-24T19:14:00.000-05:00

Earlier today, an old friend dropped by the shop to show off his newest ride. That's him, RJ, in the above image alongside thejeepjunkie.

It is a continuation car of the Cobra variety.

Apparently, several years ago, Carroll Shelby found some long forgotten Cobra bodies in a warehouse and built them for sale.

RJ picked this one up for a just over a 100K.

Yeah, RJ owns this one along with a vintage 68 Corvette ragtop, a 2006 Corvette Z06 and his daily driver Porsche Boxster.

This olelongrooffan would love to have his toy budget.

This olelongrooffan mentioned it was a nice ride but the top just wasn't long enough.

We all got a chuckle out of that and thejeepjunkie and I look forward to seeing him out at the Rolex 24 at the Daytona International Speedway this weekend. Look for us by the west horseshoe.

What I Saw Today

2012-01-11T20:50:00.000-05:00

Life Is Tough

2012-01-08T16:36:00.001-05:00

Yeah, my fellow Counters, life is tough. While the economy seems to be improving, although at a glacier's pace, world peace seems to be a bit closer, a couple good friends haven't been back in touch with me in quite some time and my social life is virtually nonexistant. Not only that, due to my financial situation, this longrooffan has been forced to get a roommate. And it really sucks. He's super popular, all the girls think he's adorable and he is certainly much better prepared for the cold weather we have been experiencing than I am.

What I Saw Today

2012-01-07T18:29:00.000-05:00

Thought This Is Pretty Funny, Hope You Do Too

2011-12-31T14:40:00.000-05:00

This One Is For thehorsefarmer

2011-12-29T18:34:00.001-05:00

thanks jonco

What I Saw Today: 1969-70 Cadillac Coupe Deville*

2011-12-28T20:24:00.000-05:00

* not thebarngoddess's coop de ville however

My Hoonmas Score

2011-12-27T20:39:00.000-05:00

I suspect those of you who have been Counting Along With Me know this olelongrooffan also does some blogging over in the Hooniverse.

For the past couple Christmas's, a group of us over there have participated in a gift exchange program basically sending some Hoonworthy stuff to total Hoon strangers chosen for us by the Hooniverse Overlords.

Late last week, I received a cool group of stuff from my Secret Santa. Included was this orange longroof seen on the above shelf along with the busted up bearing standing in front of it.

I also got a framed print of a 66 Chevy longroof that Santa took at a car show a couple years ago and a bottle of R-134 air conditioning recharging solution.

Should I ever install air in my ole beater Jeep Comanche!

Hope your Holidays are as much fun as mine.

This olelongrooffan Got The Kenman's Christmas Card!!

2011-12-26T20:41:00.001-05:00

So this olelongrooffan received my annual Christmas card from my buddy the Kenman. The last time we spoke, he mentioned he had sold, finally, a vintage Mustang Shelby he has owned for 41 years. Yes, that's right Counters. 41 years. Of course, the fact he has bought and sold several hundred other cool cars over the years makes this believable.

The Kenman also related the story of the above Suzuki. It seems he and his gorgeous wife, Blondie....yeah, noone in my life is without a nickname....were heading from Blondie's home in Naples up to the Kenman's place in Door County, Wisconsin last spring. Just outside Chattanooga, Tennessee, they stopped to grab a bite to eat and spend the night, and knowing the Kenman, in some ultra cheap hotel. After they enjoyed some southern bar-b-que, they adjourned to the elcheapo hotel across the way. As they were checking in, a severe tornado popped on through, wiped out that bbq place and blew this sign down on the Kenman's daily driver Suzuki. He ~~conned~~ persuaded a couple local yokels to give him a 70 mile ride to acquire a U-Haul so he and Blondie could get the hell out of town. He filed an insurance claim with some roving claims adjuster from his insurance company and did beat it the hell out of there, leaving his Suzuki exactly as you Counters see it in that photo! The Kenman's comment was, "What am I going to do with a totalled Suzuki? Tow it to Wisconsin?"

Did this olelongrooffan also mention "total police state? breaking into an electricity challenged hotel room to spend the night? the long line of tornado refugees heading toward a evacuation required school bus? Well, those of you Counting Along With Me get the idea.

So anyway, back to the Kenman's Christmas card. I know he is a true buddy, and a fellow car guy as well, as he always keeps an eye out on future vehicles for this olelongrooffan. He spotted this vintage Open Road Econoline somewhere in his travels and got this picture of it to forward to me. It just needs a little work to get it into shape and up to speed.

Or this olelongrooffan could get rid of some of my sh*t and just move into it and be done with it.

What I Saw Today: Santa's Sleigh Was Green and Yellow This Year

2011-12-25T16:17:00.000-05:00

A Christmas Dinner, Florida Style

2011-12-25T11:10:00.000-05:00

I hope all of you Counting Along With Me are having a wonderful Christmas Day wherever you may be. As usual, this olelongrooffan had the opportunity to Celebrate Life a bit differently this holiday and, if interested, you can Count Along With Me as I relate my Christmas celebration 2011, longroofstyle.

I have previously mentioned one of my older brothers, thehorsefarmer (yeah, he prefers that over thebeachbiker) and his lovely wife, thebarngoddess (who still loves the beach) moved from Haven Lee Farm up in the Ozarks to sunny historic St. Augustine, Florida last fall. I believe they truly love it there but miss having an extended family around, but not necessarily the resultant chores associated with a farm and all that family.

I did, in fact, ask thehorsefarmer how he likes St. Augustine he mentioned it was nice but other than his job, which he loves, there is nothing really holding him there. My response? "No sh*t horsefarmer, your house has wheels under it!"

Anyway, it sure is nice having them close by and they seem to get down here to the Birthplace of Speed every couple weeks for a visit to the Taj Mahal, a pass thru at Sam Walton's big *ssed store or a trip out to the local flea market they love so much.

So, as always happens when they visit, we tend to gather together for a meal in an attempt by thebarngoddess to fatten up this olelongrooffan.

And usually, it is quite good. For my birthday in 2011, thebarngoddess and I tried a little momnpop mexican restaurant down on Beach Street and the proportions were huge and delicious. This olelongrooffan brought half of the burrito I ordered home and enjoyed it for dinner later that day.

And thebarngoddess inadvertantly left a freaking huge container of spring mix in the fridge at the Taj Mahal and I ate salads every day for a week in an attempt to consume all of it prior to its going bad. (didn't work)

Last spring when they were down visiting prior to moving to the Sunshine State, thebarngoddess insisted I have a sammich while visiting them down at the Daytona KOA.

This was just prior to her cooking up a mess of Ozark beef for thejeepjunkie and I for a delicious home on wheels cooked meal.

Now onto Christmas dinner.

A couple weeks ago, my massive communications system at the Taj Mahal lit up and it was thehorsefarmer asking me to make reservations for Christmas Eve day for dinner for thebarngoddess, thehorsefarmer and this olelongrooffan at a restaurant of my choice. "And longroof," he said, "not at Appleby's or Friday's, make it someplace nice."

Well Counters, if you clicked on that Birthplace of Speed link above, you will have noted in the background of that image is a Bonefish Grill restaurant, conveniently located just a couple blocks south of my Taj Mahal on A1A. Now Bonefish is this olelongrooffan's favorite restaurant, even though it is a chain. Back when I had a real social life, as opposed to the viral one I have these days, I used to frequent Bonefish quite often. Yeah, a trio of appetizers, a couple drinks and a beautiful female companion often made that place very special for this olelongrooffan. But alas, real life has intervened and I had not been to Bonefish in over three years. So, of course this was my restaurant of choice. I warned thehorsefarmer about the prices there and he approved the costs and Bonefish Grill was the home of our Christmas dinner, 2011.

And just to show how much of a newby thehorsefarmer is to the Sunshine State, he called prior to leaving his rolling castle and asked if shorts were acceptable attire at this particular restaurant. I silently chuckled at his question and said yes they are. After all Counters, this is Florida, shorts are acceptable everywhere.

So after spending a few hours with Manuel Labor in the morning (yeah, I have a BikeWeek deadline on that remodel so days off are few and far between for this olelongrooffan), I was ~~taking a brief nap~~ sitting at the Taj Mahal waiting for thebarngoddess and thehorsefarmer to show up in their Bull so we could head out to Bonefish for a much anticipated holiday meal and to Celebrate Life with them.

And we did. I am pretty sure they both enjoyed my restaurant of choice as thebarngoddess said the salmon she had was the best she had ever had, and that is saying alot given the restaurants worldwide she has enjoyed. And thehorsefarmer was thrilled Bonefish had traditional Scottish style fish and chips, something he hadn't had since his pub attending days in Scotland while serving our country back in his submarine days in the Navy. This olelongrooffan enjoyed a tilapia filet with pan asian sauce after we had all tasted some of Bonefish's legendary Bang Bang Shrimp. thebarngoddess even disected the shrimp sauce recipe for this olelongrooffan and I'm going to be putting that sauce on d*mn near everything I cook for the next few months!

So, we finished up a lovely, non rushed, leisurely seafood dinner and headed back to the Taj Mahal. Then it was time for Christmas images and thehorsefarmer broke out his trusty Samsung camera that had served them so well over the years.

If you noted the past tense of that previous sentence, you will note thehorsefarmer's Samsung camera failed miserably for the first time ever and no amount of replacement AA batteries sourced from the Taj Mahal would make it operable. But all is good, my trusty el cheapo ebay acquired Polaroid still works well (thanks Bus) and I was able to capture a couple images for all of we Counters to enjoy.

So after those images were gathered, thebarngoddess headed into the Taj Mahal to grab a short snooze while thehorsefarmer and this olelongrooffan headed off to thejeepjunkie's garage to play Santa Claus for that branch of the extended Lee family.

As it turns out, thejeepjunkie, thesungoddess, the Kid and the Kid's sister were nowhere to be found. We erroneously thought they might be enjoying an adventure like this one but they were nowhere to be located.

Well, thehorsefarmer dropped down the chimney (yes, there is a fireplace in thesungoddess's home) and left that gift under their tree and we headed out for points unknown.

As we had left the Taj Mahal and the sleeping beauty just a few moments prior, we decided to head out to that flea market and see if we could get a cool license plate for one of thehorsefarmer's underwater friends. Alas, 4:45 pm on Christmas Eve day is not the most successful time to find the Daytona Farmer's and Flea Market open for business and we left a bit dejected but not totally disappointed. As thehorsefarmer pointed out, "Just another excuse to come down here again."

We then beat it back to the Taj Mahal and thebarngoddess was her usual bright and cheerful self after her power nap and we all bid adieu to each other. They headed back to their castle on wheels in anticipation of a full Christmas day with some old friends up in Jacksonville and this olelongrooffan reflected on yet another wonderful afternoon spent with some of my family.

Hey barngoddess and horsefarmer, thanks for allowing me to spend some holiday time with ya'll, a visit to a great restaurant and a wonderful time.

Oh yeah, what makes this Christmas Dinner Florida Style? Well, it was seafood and we ate dinner at 3 in the afternoon!

Merry Christmas everyone.

What I Saw Today: Willys Wagon With Barn Doors!

2011-12-24T20:57:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas To All Of You Counting Along With This olelongrooffan

2011-12-24T20:26:00.001-05:00

Just a note to wish all my best wishes for this Christmas and New Years Season. Panoz seems to always come up with some great offerings and this olelongrooffan thought I might share their 2010 greeting image with all y'all.

Happy Holiday my friends.

What I Saw Today: The Silent Edition: Mugs Root Beer VW

2011-12-22T18:42:00.000-05:00

What I Saw Today, The Silent Edition: Ford Raptor SVT

2011-12-21T20:54:00.000-05:00

So, yesterday I was surfing around and found a fairly popular, well at least well linked, blog that showed nothing but cars with no text. Well, this olelongrooffan realized that I had seen a whole sh*tload of similar cars and nobody seems to have linked to By The Numbers. Maybe it is the verbage. So, for the new year 2012, I'm gonna post a bunch of textless images of cars seen around and we'll just have to see what happens.

Merry Christmas To All

2011-12-18T19:40:00.000-05:00

Well Counters, this olelongrooffan finally got out of the Turkey Day duldrums and got my Christmas decorations set up for the 2011 Holiday Season.

But I have this to say about that. Painting that twelve foot tall ceiling next week is going to be a real b*tch using a couple milk crates and an extension pole on that paint roller.

Anyway, wishing all of those of you Counting Along With Me a continued pleasant Christmas and Holiday Season.

Just Another Afternoon Stroll, But With A Mission

2011-12-10T21:23:00.001-05:00

So, a couple weeks ago this olelongrooffan lightly tapped the rear bumper of a newish Range Rover with the front bumper of my Commanche. (Green means go, dammit! But, yeah, ultimately, I'm the dumbass who smashed into a 50K vehicle with my $800 Jeep.) Anyway, the upshot of it was no damage to the pissed off dude's fancy SUV but the front bumper and bumper brackets on my beater pickup truck were mangled. And those Counting Along With Me know what that means?

Why a trip to my local U-Pull-It, of course.

As I usually try to do, this olelongrooffan searches out the coolest old shit in that junkyard which seems to turn inventory every few months or so. Last spring, there were a bunch of pretty cool older imports but they have gone to that great junkyard in the sky and there was a whole bunch of new stuff for my viewing pleasure. That motorhome in the first image is the first of its type I had seen at this place and can anyone tell me a better place for an Aztek than in a location such as this?

This truck cracked me up the moment I saw it. The owner basically took a one ton GM truck, cut the frame at the cab, welded in a couple sections of 4 inch box tubing to extend it, and then welded in some angle iron to rest the plywood deck on. Absolutely no idea why and the quality of the build was sketchy, at best. Might be from Gib-Town over Tampa way but who knows.

This orange Riv was at the end of the row farthest from this olelongrooffan but I had to go check it out based on the color alone. Now down here in the Sunshine State, red cars tend to fade but this one is in no way a faded paint job. A Gator fan maybe?

And just to pay kudos to the Hooniverse Asks Truck Thursday over on hooniverse.com question earlier this week about pickup trucks.

Based on this picked over new Bug, I'm guessing spare used parts for one of these are somewhat difficult to come by.

And while I have owned several Volvos in my lifetime, it sure appears to me this one is fairly new to be resting in a U-Pull-It yard. But then again, I am the olelongrooffan not the newishvolvofan.

It seems to me that one of my compatriots on hooniverse did a post recently about a 525 in his homeland. Just wondering how scarce parts for these things over there are. Can I send you a few bits and pieces? Hell, a couple years ago I parted out a junkyard attained World War II era Ford Jeep and sent more than a few parts to Europe.

I'm pretty sure this is the last year of this generation Nissan 300 ZX before this body style was retired and the newer, and more desirable to me, 300's came along. God, I would do almost anything for an early 90's 300ZX 2+2 in mint condition.

And since I have owned 3, count them 3, 325's in my life, I had to capture this one. It was identified as a 323 though. Can that be correct?

And there is nothing like a vintage Town Cow to make my day.

But hey longroof!! We are looking for a front bumper for a Commanche, get the hell out of the other sections and head over to the Chrysler area to see about a bumper, and don't forget, look at the Cherokees also.

I can tell you, finding a Commanche still around in a U-Pull-It these days is quite a task but today I found not just one

not just two

but three different Commanche pickups in various states of pickedoverness. And there was not a good front bumper on any of them. But this olelongrooffan has this to say about that, in the last one I looked I found a pair of, as I later found out, operable interior lights my old beater truck was missing. A couple snips of the yellow handled wire cutters I had in my tool pouch and those lights are now installed in the truck parked curbside here in the Birthplace of Speed.

A look see at all of the similarly bodied Cherokees turned up a couple possibles but the bumper I ended up grabbing was this morning attached to this Wagoneer. And know this, if this olelongrooffan could figure out how to wire that Wagoneer grill and headlight/turn signal assembly to my old Commanche, I would be out there grabbing it tomorrow.

But, as it stands, that flashy chrome bumper has now replaced that crumpled, rusty old painted bumper and all is cool in my world this evening.

But hey, I got a bunch of cool swag for the Taj Mahal and that, along with that shiny new bumper, really helps this olelongrooffan to

Celebrate Life.

What I Saw Today

2011-12-09T22:57:00.000-05:00

So, earlier this week, this olelongrooffan was asked by thejeepjunkie (I also had to put ten bucks worth of gas in his CJ2A for the pleasure of the ride) to attend the annual holiday gathering over at my favorite parts friends place, Beachside Auto Parts, down in sunny Daytona Beach, Florida. These are the parts friends who, while I was considering it, told me that should I purchase an International Scout I would need to find new parts friends. Yeah, those guys.

Anyway, after enjoying a freshly grilled burger compliments of Robby and the gang, this olelongrooffan stepped out into the parking lot filled with vendors fresh from the PRI show down in MickeyMouseLand and checked out the grass parking lot out back.

It was damn sure worth it as this olelongrooffan spotted yet another cool old car.

Yeah, the god's likeness that adorns the full wheel cover hanging on the front door of my Taj Mahal also was affixed to the rear deck lid of this sweet old coupe.

And this one was the top of the line model offered by this now orphaned blue oval subsidiary. It included a console with a floor mounted shifter for that Merc-O-Matic transmission.

I am confident those studs on the seats must be hot as h*ll in the summer time heat down here in the Sunshine State, especially as this coupe does not possess an air conditioning unit.

Those metal accessorized pedals were a part of the option package that included that console. And the second from the left knob on that dashboard

provided the motivation for this rear window to travel up and down, similar to a traditional station wagon from back in the day.

No my friends, it was not a lowly Monterey nor a mid level Montclair (which I had first thought), no, it was the top of the line Mercury Park Lane with the Breezeway roof line.

And while this olelongrooffan has seen several of this body style vehicles over the years, they have always been Montclairs or Montereys and sedans...

This rough old, top of the line, coupe was sold at this year's Turkey Rod Run for $2,500 and is destined to be shipped off to Germany to its new owner next week.

And while the paint is fresh on this one, the bondo in the rear quarters, the paint on the formerly chrome rear bumper and the overall pitted condition of the body chrome on this one is unfortunate, the frowning rear bumper sums it up best.

But, then again, one man's junk is.......

That's Zyncro Young Man

2011-12-01T15:01:00.000-05:00

So, after spending a couple post Turkey Run days out of town for a small project, this olelongrooffan returned to my home in the Birthplace of Speed around mid-afternoon. I had eaten a sturdy breakfast prior to leaving but had spent the lunch hour, on a rare trip on a portion of the Eisenhower Highway System here in central Florida, without bothering to stop at any of the multiple corporate roadside eateries along the way. Upon the culmination of that road trip and knowing I had almost no food left in the frig at my condo, also realizing how much I can spend shopping an my local Publix when I am hungry, (hummus anyone?) I did something relatively unheard of in my world; I hit up the Golden Arches for a quick, cheap and tasteless sammich and fries prior to doing the whole grocery thing.

Well, I have say this about that, the experience around the acquisition of that McChicken sammich was unlike any other.

As I desolately awaited, in that ubiquitous drive thru lane, for my sustainable, abate cheap, mundane sammich and fries (this olelongrooffan seldom does not have a couple Diet Cokes just a reach away) to be prepared, I innocently looked over to the parking area just a driving lane away.

While there may be a couple vehicles in the next image that may be of some interest to those Counting Along With Me, the above infrequently seen decal was, well, seen on the front of a parked motor vehicle, and it immediately drew my attention. Yeah Counters, it was a Volkswagen Syncro. Rarely seen however there is one round these here parts but it is a bone stock version and, trust me based on experience, "Not For Sale."

Anyway, I saw this treasure and the couple sitting in the front were demonstrating their ability to Celebrate Life as was evidenced by her reading the text as seen on her laptop and his giggling all time.

Well, this olelongrooffan knew at that moment the then hot, quasi chicken sammich was going to get cold while I checked these folks out. And it did.

I circled around those clueless Seabreeze High School kids hanging at Mickey D's after school let out and I parked adacent to that palm tree possessing parking median next to my Holy Grail, that Syncro.

As I approached this laughing, obviously enjoying life couple, Rainier lowered the driver's side window to accept my presence.

I introduced myself and them to By The Numbers and commented I am a contributor to all things Hoon, and he introduced himself and, cordially, allowed his partner, Bridgitte, to introduce herself. She graciously spelled it out for me. She then mentioned she was on a local to the Sunshine State blog looking for a great place to stay the night. As she, the 60 something retired secretary for an "American firm" in "the middle of Germany," had decided on a location to retire for this evening, she was prepared to let her partner, a 71 year old retired owner of a German AutoDriving Instruction company, get them safely to their destination down near Cape Canaveral.

Of course, this olelongrooffan had a couple million questions for them and they were gracious enough to let us all know what they were up to.

"Longroof, we're retired. Can you think of anything better to do than tour the world?"

"After touring the rest of the US and western Canada, we are headed to the West Coast of your States then through South America to either Australia or the south of Africa, It really depends on the next ship leaving the port."

It turns out that Rainier, at a young and enthusiatic 71 years of age, has done a previous "Around The World" trip with his, now 30 something and offspring expecting, son joining in for various segments of that trip.

"It was three years ago," he commented, with some translation from Bridgitte, "that we finished that year long trip. That one was also in an older Syncro through Africa and the Middle East, but not as much fun. I didn't know then what I know now," he shared with me, along with a wink of the eye as he, and his longtime traveling partner, Bridgitte squabbled over the something trivial that is still beyond this language impaired olelongrooffan.

But they are still laughing and she mentioned they had often been approached for photographs but noone had ever asked about their adventures.

"Of course, touring the world in a 1989, somewhat relatively obscure, (c'mon, a Syncro?) machine has to be problematic? Is it not?," I asked.

"This time the only problems," Rainier related, "on this 20,000 km trip thus far, we have had have been with the fuel filler tube leaking and the 'gearbox B-needle' problems. However we have met a couple guys, one here in Maryland and another in Canada who have been instrumental in getting those problems resolved." Rainier did comment on how polite everyone has been thus far about their adventures and the limited number of obstacles encountered. Note here that Bridgette offered a whole damned bunch of translation for this conversation to have taken place.

As we all may imagine, the conversation evolved toward the "when, where, and why" questions my journalist father, TheGentlemanFarmer, always want to know.

Bridgitte and Rainier left "the middle of Germany" five months ago and caught a ship to Nova Scotia. On to Newfoundland, Quebec, Ontario, (or vice versa)then down "into the States" via Minnesota. They spend no set period of time in each locale, it all depends on the weather, the local yokels (yeah that is this olelongrooffan's term) and Bridgitte and Rainier's own state of mind.

One of the many endearing aspects we spoke of during this conversation in the parking lot of that corporate American icon, thus far ignored by our visiting brethren Hoons (other than the free wifi), was the fact they are choosing to stay off the Eisenhower Highway System so as to see the real life sights that our country has to offer.

As a fellow follower of the whole "stay off the beaten path" philosophy, I asked about the overnite experiences they have had.

Although this olelongrooffan does not immediately recognize the most comfortable language Bridgitte and Rainier possess, I identified with Bridgitte when she put her hands in the air at the command,

"Hands up"

when they encountered a constable up in Canada. But it was immediately noted that "they were very polite."

Bridgitte added she thought those officers may have been surprised to see a "couple of such advanced age" enjoying a free overnight spot in their mode of transportation.

Rainier immediately popped in with the comment that the power to that laptop, as well as the frig and lighting, is supplied by the solar panel he installed in the fixed top a buddy of his and he had constructed just above the contoured map of the world on the driver's side of their Syncro. Their heater is powered via propane.

He took me around some more of the modifications including "raising the body" (a lift kit), an "open sleep tent" (that diamond plated folding tent at the rear of that fixed top, and a bypass for the carldan shaft. Rainer even looked that term up in his quick reference book of translations. This conversation occurred when I asked about gas mileage and "do you ever take it off road?" I tried several times to comprehend what the name was but I finally got that it was the forward driveshaft on that highly desirable Vanagon. Yeah, this guy and a buddy engineered a way to disengage the front driveshaft to increase the fuel mileage of this old four wheel drive Bus! And yes, Rainier pulled the old rubber encased VW knob on the dash and mentioned how it is engaged for off road use.

Our conversation then evolved into the inevitable "Why in the hell a Syncro?"

Of course, the bulk of this conversation was with Rainier as the primary spokesman, so it was not a "Syncro" but a "Zyncro". It took me a moment to catch on but then this olelongrooffan figured it out.

His response?

"My first car was a Volkswagen Type II with 15" tires."

"My second one was a Volkswagon Type II with 16" tires."

"Why wouldn't I want my best traveling experience to be around the world with a wonderful partner in a Zyncro?"

After we discussed the means of powering this beast, an intercooled, ssupercharged, fuel injected 2.0 liter motor sourced from a Golf, and the idiosyncratic rules concerned the length of time one can stay here in the States on a government issued visa, we took our leave from each other.

As I was returning to my Comanche, I felt truly happy for this couple and wanted to offer them something for their journey to remind them of our visit. I passed by the rear end of my old truck and noticed the "DB" magnet that has adorned every automobile I have owned since I moved here. I pulled that magnet off, returned to Rainier and Bridgitte and offered my small token of appreciation for their time. Rainier immediately jumped out of that Zyncro and shook my hand. "Thank you very much young man," were his final words to me.

I again returned to my "beater" truck and moved on down the road to my next adventure all the while wish Rainier and Bridgitte all the best on theirs.

Hot D*mn, It's Time For The Turkey Rod Run!!

2011-11-21T12:53:00.000-05:00

The Grand American Road Racing Corvette Daytona Prototype Unveiling

2011-11-19T18:55:00.001-05:00

Enjoy something I posted over at Hooniverse earlier this week.

Well my fellow Hoons, this olelongrooffan has done it again. Yesterday was the official unveiling of the Daytona Prototype Corvette right here in good ole Daytona Beach, Florida. As all I was doing all day long was working with Manuel Labor, I decided to take the afternoon off and crash the gates at that unveiling to see what could be seen.

Yeah, there were more muckity-mucks in attendance than you could shake a stick at. It seemed like every member of Chevrolet corporate motorsports who wears a suit was there as well as all the big shots from NASCAR (they were there for the fuel injection testing out on the track anyway), Grand American Road Racing, Pratt and Miller Engineering (not a suit in sight with that bunch), Wayne Taylor and his Suntrust Racing team, Bob Stallings GAINSCO team (Bob however was AWOL), and virtually every member of management for both the Spirit of Daytona and the Action Express racing teams. That's GM's Jim Campbell at the podium reminding all of us what a great and storied history the Corvette possesses. Hell, he even invoked the name of Betty Skelton.

And all of the team's drivers made it out for the event. Darren Law, David Donahue, Terry Borcheller, Christian Fittipaldi, JC France and a bunch more were out for show and tell. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. even took a break from NASCAR testing to step inside, see the show and enjoy a plate full of salami and cheese.

Several items were mentioned either by Jim Campbell in his presentation or during the requisite Q and A session afterwards with a member each from Chevy racing, Pratt and Miller and Grand Am Road Racing joining Mr. Campbell on stage. Brad Brownell, who broke the story on this release here on the Hooniverse yesterday summarized those points for me in a much more succinct manner than this olelongrooffan could ever accomplish so I'll let him speak to them.

1. The beautiful blue car in the pictures is the first of three that have already been built. Bob Stallings-Gainsco Racing and Wayne Taylor-Suntrust Racing have already taken stewardship of their cars (first in line, likely because they have been loyal to GM for years, with both having run Pontiac and Chevrolet engines in the past). There are another two cars being built right now, as Action Express Racing will be fielding two cars and Spirit of Daytona Racing have committed to one full season entry.

2. The new Corvette DP chassis was a joint development between Cheever Racing's Coyote manufacturing and GM's de facto racing squad of Pratt and Miller.

3. Talks between GM and Grand Am began nearly 18 months ago, and the three chassis have been in the works for about 8 months from design concept to finished product.

4. Nobody knows exactly how well the car will perform, as it has never been on track before today's test session. We shall soon find out, I suppose.

5. Dyno testing has been completed, however, which shows the Small Block Chevrolet engine produces 530 horsepower at 7,000 rpm and 450 lbft at 5,500 rpm. The engine has been equipped with aluminum heads and a dry sump oiling system for a lower center of gravity, and to eliminate the slosh effect on an oil pan under g-loading.

6. No estimates have been given on the actual cost to purchase and run a new style Daytona Prototype, though I would suspect that the new chassis are slightly more expensive to build than the outgoing set of chassis (most were originally designed and built in 2003). However, even with a price increase, it is unlikely that these four teams would have paid full price anyway due to heavy subsidies levied by Chevrolet Racing's marketing budget.

7. As GM increases their presence in Grand Am, it is unlikely that their successful GT2 program will be going away any time soon. GM wants to see another class victory at the 24 hours of Le Mans before they put a bookend on that section of their racing history.

Thanks a million Brad.

After the Q and A session, the floor was open to photographers and, of course, this olelongrooffan stepped right up on that stage and captured some close up images of it for my fellow Hoons.

While I was up there, I approached one of the Pratt and Miller dudes and asked him if any of the technology from the much acclaimed ALMS Corvette had found its way to this Daytona Prototype.

He commented that yes some had and that most of the latches, hinges, tiedowns and other such items from the ALMS Vette had been utilized on this DP.

And trust me, regardless of the mediocre advertising team running the ads geared toward those potential customers who do not follow Hooniverse, the team that came up with the color of this beautiful car and its contrasting engine compartment did a fantastic job.

Now if my fellow Hoons know anything about this olelongrooffan, you know I didn't just stay around for the show but I had to stay until the bitter end. Plus, my elcheapo 28 dollar ebay acquired camera works a helluva lot better outdoors than indoors. (that there is a giant hint to whomever gets my name for Hoonimas this year!)

Oh yeah, while I was out there waiting for this to show up, I wandered over to the pits area to to check out the NASCAR test session.

And I'm here to tell you, whatever aero changes they tried on those NASCAR machines didn't work and "two car drafting" was in effect all day long.

That Pratt and Miller engineer also mentioned the headlights were exactly the same at those on the ALMS Vette. Imagine a who know how many hundreds of thousands of dollars race car that is an exercise in parts bin manufacturing!

Yeah, the designers of this DP were able to incorporate a bunch of the street version of the Corvette's design features into this new body style.

And as much as this olelongrooffan despises "Lambo doors," on these Daytona Prototypes they are pretty damn cool.

The taillights were flat across the top just below the lower spoiler. I have seen mention around these webs they are reminiscent of the tail lights on a new Camaro.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to hear this SBC sing but I am confident it possesses a wonderful, throaty melody when at speed. I can't wait.

The first split window Vette since 1963!

And just to reassure my fellow Hoons these are original images (hell, I don't even know how to photoshop!), I got a member of the Spirit of Daytona race team to capture this image just prior to his applying their decals to this beauty.

Oh yeah, I must once again thank Brad Brownell and a special note of appreciation to General Motors for the plate of food and the cold Diet Coke and to the security dude at the Turn 1 entrance of the Daytona International Speedway who, once again, let this olelongrooffan slip by to gather even more trivial information and experiences to share with my fellow Hoons.

Yeah, It's Been Quite A Couple Months

2011-11-16T19:41:00.000-05:00

In the words of the infamous Johnny Carson, MORE TO COME.

Click here for more on this one.

Click here for more on this...

Yeah, I'm Back.

Yeah, I've Been Busy

2011-10-05T21:03:00.000-04:00

Well, maybe not so busy as just uninspired. Since returning from the Mile High City at the beginning of September, the highest point, and it was high, of my life was the day just last week thebeachgoddess came down and we spent it together just screwing around. (Thanks again T & V)

Well, Counters, as the end of hurricane season is upon us, this olelongrooffan is gonna take a respite from those supplies,quit spending nearly every waking moment on these tubes and take the time to read a few old school books for a change. I have several around I have been meaning to get to and now I'm going to take that opportunity.

Plus not a whole h*lluva lot of cool stuff, at least to me, has been happening around these here parts lately. But don't worry, Biketoberfest starts in a week and a half, the Daytona Dream cruise follows two weeks later and the Turkey Run two weeks after that.

I'm still around but just will have my nose in an old school book and work on trying to find something to do employmentwise. This olelongrooffan has been searching high and low for meaningful employment, three and a half years now, and having no luck. Although thebeachbiker did send me a link to a job opportunity in Gauntanamo Bay, Cuba. God knows submitting 350+ web based applications isn't doing it for me.

To paraphrase something Einstein once said, 'Continuing to do things in the same unsuccessful manner and expecting different results is insanity.'

And as much as there are many who believe this olelongrooffan is insane, sometimes I even agree, "something'll come up, it always does."

Don't worry though, this olelongrooffan will still

Celebrate Life.

A Great Day After Birthday

2011-10-02T12:25:00.000-04:00

So Counters, this olelongrooffan had a quiet 52nd birthday and pretty much just surfed around these tubes on Thursday.

However, Friday was anything but quiet. This olelongrooffan has blogged many times about my sister-in-law, newly christened thebeachgoddess. The image of her above was taken a while back during a fateful afternoon back when she was thebarngoddess and a bunch of us built her a Chicken Coupe de Ville out on Haven Lee Farm up in the Missouri Ozarks.

This is an image of her with her team of miniature horses and her Springfield wagon during one of the many parades she and thehorsefarmer participated in back in the day. She is always smiling, isn't she?

Yes, I just had to include an image of that aforementioned Chicken Coupe de Ville and

like their horses, their chickens are miniature also.

Now last spring thebarngoddess and thehorsefarmer ventured off the cow path to come down to the Birthplace of Speed and spend a wonderful couple of weeks hanging with thejeepjunkie, the Kid and this olelongrooffan.

And the ever so sweet beachgoddess made sure this olelongrooffan had something to eat all the while they were here.

Well, as this olelongrooffan has previously mentioned, thebarngoddess and thehorsefarmer had so much fun down here in the Birthplace of Speed they decided to divest themselves of a bunch of horses, tack, wagons, trailers and tractors and move to the ~~blue hair~~ Sunshine State joining three of his four brothers.

And thehorsefarmer, now thebeachbiker, traded his big *ssed zero turn mower for a beach bike and barbeque grill.

And it should be noted thebeachgoddess will be needing that sweater and scarf should she decide to venture out onto our Atlantic beach this coming January.

So by now, this olelongrooffan can hear those Counting Along With Me, what the h*ll do thebeachgoddess and thebeachbiker have to do with my 52nd birthday and the day after?

Well Counters, refresh that cocktail and this olelongrooffan will relate the happenings of Friday, the last day of September down here in the Birthplace of Speed and its surrounds.

And Away We Go...

After thebeachgoddess and thebeachbiker had made their decision to join their fellow family members down here in the Sunshine State, they decided to have their ~~factory fresh~~ lightly used 2003 Ford Taurus (you know a car had to factor into this blog somehow, didn't you?) receive a service update at their local Ford dealership. This dealership had performed service on this sedan since the day it was driven off their lot and their service performance had been stellar. However, on the last visit that Taurus made to that dealership, something went awry and, unfortunately, this problem was not realized until after the Bus had delivered that car to thebeachgoddess and thebeachbiker down in the oldest city in the United States.

A couple weeks ago when they were down visiting this olelongrooffan at the Taj Mahal, thebeachbiker mentioned the Bull was not acting correctly and this fact was mentioned to thejeepjunkie when we finally caught up to him. Of course, that conversation evolved into the isomerics of air pressure in tires with regards to hot versus cold measurement of the same. My eyes kind of glazed over at that point, by the way.

So, anyway, it was determined thebeachgoddess and thejeepjunkie would coordinate their respective schedules and get that Bull down here to the home of the World's Most Famous Beach so thejeepjunkie could get a look at it in his new shop. Well, they set that visit up to coincide with this olelongrooffan's 52nd but due to a scheduling conflict with some of thejeepjunkie's best customers, that meeting was postponed until the following day.

thebeachgoddess and this olelongrooffan determined it would be best if she swung by the Taj Mahal and pick me up prior to heading to thejeepjunkie's shop. We were going to utilize thejeepjunkie's pickemup truck while the Bull was getting diagnosed as to what was up with it. thebeachgoddess had a few specific things she wanted to do but the rest of the day was left up to this olelongrooffan to figure out what to do. She did, however, comment that she was, once again, feeding this olelongrooffan as she is trying to "put some meat on your bones."

So we got to thejeepjunkie's shop, picked up his pickemup truck and thebeachgoddess mentioned she was starving. Of course, the first thing I mentioned was that we should head over to the Boot Hill Saloon on Main Street and grab some Bloody Mary's and a burger. Well, I must say thebeachgoddess has a great sense of humor, as well as being extremely attractive, but this wasn't what she really had in mind and we just grabbed a quick eggamuffin from Ronny's place.

Now, here I must interject this point. As I have mentioned at least one time previously, this olelongrooffan has been known to be the tour guide. As such, I always strive to provide guests or travelling companions new and interesting destinations and try to venture onto new avenues so as not to get my guests bored with the same old scenery.

Well, Counters, this olelongrooffan, try as I might, failed miserably in my task as a tour guide that day as we drove past these five different times that Friday. thebeachgoddess knows their entire history as well as the location of The Best Damn Garage In Town.

So anyway, we headed out to Sam Walton's big box store where entry requires a little blue card and did us some shopping. Now this olelongrooffan can't remember the last time I was in a big box retailer that didn't specialize in home improvement products but I do know it has been at least ten years. I mean a single guy doesn't really have a need for a 48 pack of toilet tissue or a twenty pound pork tenderloin no matter how inexpensive the per unit cost is. Yeah, I was in sensory overload that is for sure.

After that we again passed by those vacant towers to return to the Taj Mahal to put a bunch of that stuff in the massive refrigerator to keep all that stuff fresh for thebeachgoddess's return trip to her new home town.

We then headed out to the Daytona Beach Flea Market to see what could be seen. I have lived here for three and a half years and only have been to that market once previously. As we were leaving, I related this fact to thebeachgoddess and she commented that she could see why.

While we were there, thejeepjunkie called with the prognosis on the repairs to the Bull and, after consultation with thebeachbiker, authorization was provided to thejeepjunkie to perform the necessary corrections to get thebeachgoddess's daily driver back up to snuff.

In the meantime, lunch was in order and as we were passing the Daytona International Speedway, I recommended we eat at some Mom-n-Pop place down on Beach Street rather than some restaurant chain there on International Speedway Boulevard. thebeachgoddess concurred and we ended up at a great little Mexican restaurant that I have previously seen but had not previously frequented.

It turned out to be an excellent decision as the food was abundant and delicious, even if the hot sauce was a little to hot for thebeachgoddess. The portions were so gigantic this burrito came home with this olelongrooffan and I thanked thebeachgoddess for the birthday lunch and dinner!

Over lunch, we had an excellent conversation about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. thebeachgoddess commented on how much they enjoy St. Augustine and that she wouldn't mind getting a cheap fishing pole to use in the lake at the place they call home.

After a quick trip through a nearby over priced antique mall, we decided to head back to the Taj Mahal and take a break. Upon arrival, we spent a few minutes on the massive veranda enjoying the ubiquitous ocean breeze and soon thereafter, this olelongrooffan could see a nap would be welcome in thebeachgoddess's world and suggested one. She commented that she didn't want to be rude and I admonished her that she still had to drive home and this olelongrooffan was not offended in the least.

I spent some time on these here webs and then divided up some of those Sam's acquired provisions as thebeachgoddess had instructed me to do. Shortly thereafter, the massive communication system here at the Taj Mahal lights up and as it is thejeepjunkie, I answered with "Is it done yet?" "Come and get it," was the not unexpected response.

And we did. thebeachgoddess was thrilled at how well the Bull ran and the fact the air was, once again, ice cold. On the way back to the Taj Mahal, we stopped and topped off the fuel for her hour long trip home. We got back to the Taj Mahal and loaded up her provisions and got her on the road to be reunited with thebeachbiker.

A little while later, this olelongrooffan was getting a cold sodie pop out of the frig and noticed that I had forgotten to load this in the box for thebeachgoddess to take home.

Now I don't know how I missed it and even worse, how long will it take me to eat a pound of organic baby spring mix lettuce?

And the final cool thing? While thebeachgoddess was enjoying that much needed rest, this olelongrooffan headed out to pick up some more sodie pops and as I was driving down the street, I spotted this fully functional fishing pole beside the road awaiting pick up by the big green truck that travails my street twice a week. I remembered our conversation over lunch and snagged this for thebeachgoddess. After all, my favorite four letter word is "free".

A wonderful day was had by thebeachgoddess and this olelongrooffan that day and even though we never did make it to the Boot Hill Saloon we certainly did

Celebrate Life.

Hot D*mn! It's

2011-09-21T18:20:00.001-04:00

Clever Chevrolet Europe Ad

2011-09-17T18:04:00.001-04:00

While this ad didn't get a whole lot of good reviews over at carscoop (it was included in their "bizarre" category), I thought it was pretty clever.

But, after viewing it a couple times and linking on connected YouTube videos, I found this even better unedited one...

However, no matter how edited some websites choose to be, just the fact that Chevrolet and General Motors are still around lets this olelongrooffan

Celebrate Life.

Decision Made

2011-09-17T16:56:00.001-04:00

So yesterday, this olelongrooffan blogged about the decision my brother and his beautiful wife made to relocate from a small farm in the Missouri Ozarks to St. Augustine Beach, Florida.

Well, today they came down and visited this olelongrooffan in the Birthplace of Speed and treated this soon to be birthday boy to lunch at a yummy mom and pop restaurant just up the beach. We figured it would be better than the last time we had lunch together in April as the parking lot was near capacity and they were celebrating their 25th year in business.

My stuffed tilapia was delicious and their fried haddock was equally as good.

We had a wide ranging conversation about their new life here in the Sunshine State and it was an extremely enjoyable lunch.

Afterwards, we headed over to thejeepjunkie's garage to chat it up with him a bit about his new gig. Seems he really likes it and looks to have some big plans for his future.

So anyway, after jawboning for awhile the decision was made that they needed to head on home so they could hit Happy Hour.

"What time does Happy Hour start?" I asked my brother.

"As soon as I get home," was his response.

D*mn straight brother!

One of the things he talked alot about was getting out and riding down on the beach on his new bike he received from his lovely spouse.

And that lovely spouse mentioned how relaxing it was just hanging on the beach and watching the kids play in the shallow surf.

After they had dropped this olelongrooffan back at my Taj Mahal, I was reflecting on our visit and was able to make a decision.

thehorsefarmer and the thebarngoddess have officially left the building.

Henceforth they shall be, herein, referred to thebeachbiker and thebeachgoddess.

You are now christened.

And earlier this olelongrooffan mentioned they treated me to an early birthday lunch. (I turn 52 on the 29th of this month)

Well they also brought me an early birthday present.

Knowing my interest in all things automotive, earlier this year while thebeachgoddess was in good ole Saint Louey...hey Bus and PvtRN...she spotted this at a closing Borders book store and snagged it for me.

It measures 9"x11" and is nearly an inch and a half thick. thebeachbiker mentioned he was just going to leave it on the coffee table at the Taj Mahal while this olelongrooffan was still in Denver but realized both the Bus and thejeepjunkie had access to my place and this thing might "grow some legs". The first thing I did was write my name inside the front cover!

I have this to say about that....this olelongrooffan has many enjoyable hours ahead reading that new treasure and that, along with seeing the newly christened thebeachbiker and thebeachgoddess today, really allows me to

Celebrate Life.

Decisions, Decisions

2011-09-16T18:04:00.001-04:00

You may remember thehorsefarmer and thebarngoddess from their mention in some of my previous posts here on By The Numbers.

Well while this olelongrooffan was working my sweet *ss off out there in the Mile High City, thehorsefarmer and thebarngoddess

decided to quite making decisions like this one, sell all their farm stuff and move to sunny Florida, the retirement mecca of the eastern United States. Technically, they aren't retired yet. thehorsefarmer is still pulling a post Navy retirement stint with the VA institution up there in the oldest city in North America

Yeah, a major life changing decision to vacate this big ole garage, 4x4 diesel Bow Tie (they still have another one with six wheels) and that sweet gen 1 Bronco and join three of his brothers down here in the Sunshine State.

I think it was the day on the beach back in April that really sealed the deal for them.

Oh yeah, the title of this post? These previously made decisions did not prompt me to name this post "Decisions, Decisions".

You see earlier this evening thehorsefarmer called this olelongrooffan to invite me to lunch on the morrow down here in the Birthplace of Speed. And of course, the quasi absent minded TheGentlemanFarmer look alike called me back just a few minutes later to ask about certain siblings birthdates.

As we were finishing up that conversation, he mentioned he had yet another serious decision to make.

"longroof, I can't decide if I want to crack open a beer or fix myself a gin and tonic."

Yeah, honest to God true story and I thank thehorsefarmer for cracking my blog writer's block I have been recently suffering with by offering up that comment.

And as much as I am looking forward to seeing them tomorrow, once this olelongrooffan is able to come up with some new, now more appropriate names for thebarngoddess and thehorsefarmer, then there will really be a reason to

Celebrate Life.

On The Road Denver Edition: The 16th Street Mall Addendum

2011-09-04T13:49:00.001-04:00

Dateline The Birthplace of Speed, Florida: September 4, 2011

On the last full day this olelongrooffan was in the Mile High City it occurred to me that I had picked up no Denver, Colorado souvenirs to return to the Sunshine State with me. (Well other than the cool orange thing I got during this adventure.)

So I asked cribbs where I could find a cool ball cap or t shirt to snatch before this olelongrooffan vacated the Mile High City, possibly forever.

He suggested I take the nearby pedestrian bridge over to the 16th street mall in downtown Denver.

And I did.

In downtown Denver, and I am sure other cities as well, they have these rent a bike stations all over. You can rent a bike and ride it all over downtown and drop it at any of the 16 or so rental stations such as this one which are dispersed around the downtown business district. It's pretty cool.

Outside the JET Hotel, a cool old piece of architecture, one of many around the downtown area, I spotted the dress code for entry on the front window of this night spot.

And as always, another big *ss animal following me around.

The 16th Street Mall is a sweet outdoor mall that was bustling during that Tuesday lunch hour. It is closed to all vehicles except the free buses that traverse the 17 blocks that make up the mall.

It begins at the Platte River and extends to the State Capitol Building.

And in that 17 block stretch, there were no fewer than seven Starbucks, none of which were visited by this olelongrooffan that day.

I did, however, make it to this cool park I had driven around several times early on in my visit.

I also spotted this facility and it, along with the JET Hotel, reminded me of thejeepjunkie and I stopped to text him to remind him to pick me up at the airport the next day.

Out in front of the Sheraton Hotel were these

odd looking ballerina statuettes and I had to capture a couple images to share with those of you Counting Along With Me.

And, again, another large animal following me around.

There also were several old school pianos scattered around the mall and anyone with, or without, any piano playing skills were welcome to have a seat at those keyboards and do your best Ray Charles impression.

The is the marker on the 13th step on the west side of the Colorado State Capitol Building marking exactly 5,280 feet above sea level. I did wonder if that was at low or high tide but no one was around to answer my inquiry.

And this is the view looking to the west from 5,286 feet above sea level.

That park I mentioned I drove around several times earlier? There was a beautiful flower garden in the center of it along with some huge brass statues of a cowboy and and Indian, each on their own horse. Lousy images though so they aren't included.

Do you think this olelongrooffan could do a blog without a reference to an automobile? Me neither. I spotted this Nissan Ford Transit fighter leaving an alley in the mall area. I had earlier blogged about this truck and it can be seen here.

More large animals following me around, once again.

As I was crossing over one of the bridges back to Filmore, I crossed over some active railroad tracks filled with coal laden train cars.

This is an image of the park between downtown and the Platte River. Incidentally, the building just to the left houses the McLaughlin House, one of the places frequented by cribbs and this olelongrooffan later that evening.

Just outside of it was this pretty cool sculpture that looked even cooler at nite with uplights illuminating it.

I gathered an image or two of some rapids on the Platte River as well as

a self portrait of this olelongrooffan standing on that bridge.

I also got this image as I was crossing Eisenhower's Highway System number 25. I wonder if it will be featured by Hemmings 50 years from now?

Now by this time this olelongrooffan would suspect those of you Counting Along With Me are wondering if I was able to locate a souvenir on the 16th Street Mall that day.

I can confirm a Denver, Colorado ball cap is resting comfortably on the front seat of the Indian awaiting its journey to Palm Beach Gardens later this afternoon.

But even better, if all ya'll remember the tragedy that was described here,

you will be happy to know this olelongrooffan got the Deal Of The Day on my replacement sandals and please join me and my new sandals as we

Celebrate Life.

On The Road Denver Edition: The Finale

2011-09-02T12:50:00.001-04:00

Dateline Daytona Beach, Florida: September 2, 2011

Should one of these notices show up in the front window of a project you are working on, you know it is probably a good time to head to the beach.

But not before having three invoices such as this one presented to you and a buddy in one three hour stretch then

this dude, cribbs, decides we should stop at a liquor store for some red bull and vodka to tide us over the rest of the evening.

Well Counters, this olelongrooffan is finally back home in the Sunshine State. Thanks to cribbs for the drunkedness and the shuttle to the Denver airport and to thejeepjunkie for a late night pickup at the Daytona Beach airport.

And know this, now that this olelongrooffan is once again resting comfortably in the Taj Mahal, I am really able to

Celebrate Life.

On The Road Denver Edition: An Unexpected Update

2011-08-25T00:54:00.003-04:00

Dateline Denver, Colorado: August 24, 2011

So, this olelongrooffan is still in the Mile High City and things are rapidly progressing on the project which brings me here.

Meanwhile, all four of my brothers are down in the Sunshine State dealing with yet another woman, this one in the form of Hurricane Irene. This olelongrooffan is really bummed that I am not there with them as I have Hurricane Supplies. Well, regardless of how famous and somewhat fatalistic the Bus is these days, I am sure we will all hook up once again.

Now this olelongrooffan asks for a bit of your indulgence here as I share yet another hurricane related story.

It was 1992 and the Hurricane was a dude known as Andrew, to my recollection, the last Category 4 hurricane the Sunshine State has seen. My not yet conceived daughter's Mom and this olelongrooffan were in France with some fantastic friends visiting a sister and her then husband. My Mom and several of her friends were down from the Sho-Me State enjoying our Naples home; thejeepjunkie and his family were living in the greater Fort Lauderdale area; and this olelongrooffan was in western France oblivious to the fact a Cat 4 hurricane was headed for south Florida. So Andrew decides to pay south Florida a visit and my Mom and friends head north to MickeyMouseLand to ride the storm out. thejeepjunkie and his family decided to evacuate to our home in Naples and end up partying like rock stars with my buddy Dr. Dudley and his family. I wake up that fateful day to my brother in law telling me a Cat 4 just hit South Beach and was heading towards my place in FantasyLand. Well, needless to say, this olelongrooffan was stressed more than Brad Keselowski with Carl Edwards on his tail. I mean my aged Mom and friends were in harms way, thejeepjunkie and his family were in the eye landfall area and no communications were available for me to contact them.

So what is an olelongrooffan to do? Well Counters, my doctor brother in law hooks me up with a couple little blue pills (I'm not talking Viagra here) and we four vacationers in that wonderful country caught that previously scheduled afternoon flight to Paris.

Yeah Counters that's right. I evacuated Hurricane Andrew to Paris, France. And know this olelongrooffan will forever tell the tale of how I evacuated Hurricane Irene to the Mile High City, no matter how premature that evacuation was.

Yeah, that's how I rock.

And that forbidden white masking tape was still on the windows of that home when I sold it!

Meanwhile back in Denver,

Big J spent the entire evening after his garage slab was poured spreading abundant amounts of H2O across it in an attempt to prevent the concrete from cracking. So far success is showing its presence.

The next phase for his efforts was spraying out the interior of the Port Royal to evenly coat the fresh drywall with a base layer of paint.

Yeah, this olelongrooffan was able to capture yet another image of my feet during yet another image taking process.

During the same image taking process, I captured a shot of the window I had installed earlier.

Note the paint particulates in the air on this interior shot? Needless to say I beat it the h*ll out of there rather quickly I might add.

In the meantime, this olelongrooffan was out and about and captured these two beauties on Sheridan Street just around the corner. A '63 Ford longroof country sedan as well as a '65. The '65 is for sale for a mere twelve hundred bucks. Good thing for all of us that twelve hundred bucks is not in my possession on this road trip.

So after the fumes had cleared it is now time to for Big J to lay down his first ever floor tiles.

And, much to his, and my, pleasure that experience was an extreme success. Laundry room done, now on to the kitchen.

And that kitchen will be painted one of these colors prior to that flooring being installed.

Meanwhile out back a super huge garage is being installed and I don't believe these garage framers suspected they were going to be on a tree trimming crew before it was all over. But that worm drive circular saw works excellent as a chain saw.

Two white guys got the roof raised and the sheathing on the rafters in less than two days.

Yeah, room for Big J's BMW X5, girlie's Volvo X70 and my current Denver based Taj Mahal inside Big J's only requirement for his new Port Royal. Pics on Saturday!

Now if those of you Counting Along With Me will note, all of this construction based activity is super fantastic as it allows this olelongrooffan to return to the hurricane laden Sunshine State to resume some of my previous activities and I sure look forward to it once this project has come to fruition.

But if you have, in fact, been Counting Along With Me, you will remember the sighting of these two old cars that reminded me of my Dad, TheGentlemanFarmer, just a few short weeks ago, also here in the Mile High City.

Well, on my return from yet another visit to the big box retailer that loves the number 48 NASCAR racing team, this olelongrooffan spotted this

lovely offering at the intersection of Pecos and 38th street, just a few blocks from Port Royal.

And the fact this olelongrooffan was able to spot the very same old Mercury ragtop driven by a youngish bearded and pony tail bearing dude with his even more youngish daughter in the passenger seat really allows this olelongrooffan to

Celebrate Life.

On The Road Denver Edition: The Anatomy Of A Colorado Concrete Slab

2011-08-19T00:07:00.000-04:00

Dateline Denver, Colorado: August 18, 2011

As those of you who have been Counting Along With this olelongrooffan will remember I am spending some time here in the Mile High City working with some buds, no pun intended, renovating their new to them home.

And if you happened to have read my last blogpost, you will remember this is what the backyard of the Port Royal looked like after someone had stolen that Teva filled dumpster.

Well Counters, yesterday afternoon at about Japanese Dental Appointment, you know tooth-hurty, this bobcat comes rolling around the corner from the alley out back and commenced to tearing that formerly nearly pristine backyard all to h*ll.

As you can see in the previous image the subsurface of that backyard was filled with all sorts of junk, chunks of concrete, asphalt and I don't know what all. But there was no septic tank! Once that skilled skid steer operator had reached clean soil, those no longer needed dump trucks were dispatched elsewhere and the backyard was then set at two distinct levels. One level was recessed for the garage slab and the other was set at nearly the preexisting elevation and set aside for the outdoor living area of the yard.

The operator of that skid steer then attached this device and penetrated the earth around the perimeter of the slab location to loosen the soils so he could then

dig the footer portion of this monolithic slab with the bucket of that Bobcat. This olelongrooffan has most recently seen this same feat performed with shovels by a crew filled with individuals of the Manuel Labor persuasion.

Once those footers were excavated, the form boards and grade stakes were installed.

Seeing this guy on his hands and knees using a 2 x 4 as a rake to even out this subgrade reminded me of a great story.

Go ahead and refresh that cocktail...I am.... then on with that memory.

And here it is.

Around about eleven or twelve years ago, sh*t, this olelongrooffan is getting old, anyway I was living down in FantasyLand and looking for a new place to hang my hat. That Sunday I was hanging with an old friend and meeting some new friends at their pool in a swanky area of town. Some of my new friends, Terry and Debbie, were getting buzzed as we all were and were bummed out as they had to leave to show "The Little House" to some potential tenants. We started talking about the Miami style bungalow they owned adjacent to their "Big House" and it sounded extremely desirable to me. I mentioned I would be interested in renting it from them and the pool party continued on in full blown mode.

Anyway, I ended up getting that place, cleaned it up, painted it with some design assistance of my at the time girlfriend and it turned out super cool, if I do say so myself. At the time I was working for a pretty high end building contractor and we had a model home on our hands that had been around for a while. We found a buyer for this multi million dollar home but the buyer wanted a different paver brick driveway installed. My boss balked at the $5,000 cost but finally relented so we could move on from that spider web filled model home.

Those pavers? Well they ended up in the front yard of "The Little House" awaiting installation. Terry finally got around to finding an installation crew comprised of a bunch of Manuel Labor's friends. As they were installing those paver bricks, the lead guy used a machete to sharpen a carpenter's pencil to mark some cuts on those bricks.

Terry looks over at this olelongrooffan and made the comment, "A Mexican Utility Knife." To this day we still call a machete that and we laugh about it every time we see each other.

Well Counters, you have seen, in the above image, a Mexican Yard Rake. And like that utility knife, this olelongrooffan will never look at a four foot long 2 x 4 the same ever again.

Now you know why I mentioned you should refresh your cocktail for that story.

And finally after that diversion it's time to get back to The Anatomy Of A Colorado Concrete Slab.

So the slab area was prepped and the the wire mesh installed in an attempt to prevent future cracking.

The footer preparation is a bit different than this Sunshine State based olelongrooffan is used to but it appears to be effective here in this climate.

So in the meantime, this olelongrooffan had to run an errand and while out and about a 65 Ford F250 stepside was spotted out in the wild. All ya'll can read more about that sighting here.

Shortly after my return to Port Royal, the slab inspector showed up and approved the efforts provided by Manuel Labor and his crew and now it's time to

hang with Carroll Shelby's infamous creation.

The foreman of the concrete finish crew showed up and started watering down the dry soils we have here in the Mile High City as there has been no rain here since the first couple weeks this olelongrooffan arrived.

Got Concrete?

The crew to finish the concrete was running a bit tardy

so the concrete truck drivers started filling those footers with that rapidly hardening, in the truck, mix.

The finish crew finally showed up and got the job done and we now

are ready to get some walls up on that garage and that is an excellent reason for all of us here at the Port Royal to

Celebrate Life.

On The Road Denver Edition: A Port Royal Project Update

2011-08-17T19:31:00.055-04:00

Dateline Denver, Colorado: August 16, 2011

This olelongrooffan has posted previously about the progress of the project which brings me to the Mile High City.

Well over the course of this past few days things have moved along rapidly thanks to the abilities of Big J and Girlie and we have been able to schedule the required subcontractors in and get their portion of this project completed.

On top of that Teva filled dumpster, the drywall dudes piled the remnants of their phase of renovation while

this olelongrooffan finished up trimming out those newly installed front windows. Once that was completed, one of the drywall dudes came out and mentioned they needed a couple more boxes of "hot mud" to help in their attempt to straighten out the crooked *ss walls in this 110 year old home. So this olelongrooffan set off, once again, to that big box retailer that loves Kobalt tools so much to get them some of that "hot mud."

On the way back to the Port Royal, Big J's name for this project, I spotted this ole Dodge truck parked out front of a boutique beer joint resting comfortably as its mascot.

When I returned, I was able to capture an image of the nearly completed kitchen area of Port Royal,

and out back I noticed that someone had come in and stolen the filled to the brim mini dumpster as well as the fence that formerly traversed the rear property line. That can only mean one thing. Garages R Us must be on the way.

However, in the meantime, this olelongrooffan will be reinstalling the mail filled mailbox out front. And those two occurences really help this olelongrooffan to

Celebrate Life.

On The Road Denver Edition: Just For thejeepjunkie and the Bus

2011-08-15T18:44:00.000-04:00

Dateline Denver, Colorado: August 15, 2011

As you can surmise, this olelongrooffan is still in the Mile High City and spotted something today I know thejeepjunkie and the Bus would appreciate.

Frequent Counters may probably remember a post I did way back in January about a couple of trailers thejeepjunkie had acquired through somewhat dubious means.

The intent of thejeepjunkie was to restore that old U-Haul trailer and tow it behind his yellow CJ2a when he takes his family to the beach on Sundays. It will work great once it is done and all of his beach cr*p will fit in it nicely.

However today, while out and about near the big box retailer that likes Chad Knauss so much, this olelongrooffan spotted a much more appropriate one to be used behind that 2a.

To bad I can't fit this in my checked baggage on my flight home. FYI jeepjunkie, it is at Mile High Jeep Rebuilders on Federal Avenue near downtown Denver.

Spotting that toy trailer and the fact drywall is finally being installed at my project house is an excellent way this olelongrooffan can

Celebrate Life.

On The Road Denver Edition: The Blowout Edition

2011-08-14T19:18:00.002-04:00

Dateline Denver, Colorado: August 14, 2011

As those of you who are Counting Along With this olelongrooffan may recall, I have spent that past few weeks out here in the Mile High City helping Big J and his girl renovate their new to them 110 year old home.

While out here I have been able to do some pretty cool stuff and see a boat load of cool old cars and trucks,

some of them are even topless. In addition to seeing all that stuff, touring Coors Brewery, seeing Tim Tebow in action, hitting up a great concert, this olelongrooffan has been

hanging with Tripod, a really cool mellow little puppy dog. While I'm not a huge house dog fan, this one is extra special and a fun companion.

Not only that but I have also been tearing a bunch of cr*p up and filling that mini dumpster to capacity.

I also removed a bunch of windows and

installed some new ones. Big J is finishing up the electrical phase of this project and Girlie is cleaning up the remainder of the fence and helping fill that dumpster as this olelongrooffan is taking a break and getting this up for your, hopefully, enjoyment.

Life hasn't been all fun and games though. A serious tragedy occurred yeasterday and this olelongrooffan is still pretty bummed out about it.

See that Teva sandal in the fence filled dumpster? This olelongrooffan has been wearing those suckers for nearly 15 years and yesterday while picking up the drywall for this project at the big box retailer who loves Jimmy Johnson, this olelongrooffan suffered

a serious blowout on the strap of one of them and no amount of duct tape would repair it.

Those beloved Tevas will be spending the remainder of their days in the Denver county municipal dump and this olelongrooffan will miss them dearly.

However, the fact that Filmore, my mobile Taj Mahal here in Denver, was parked just outside the door of that big box retailer and contained a back up pair of shoes for this olelongrooffan allows me to really

Celebrate Life.

On The Road Denver Edition: How About Some Football?

2011-08-08T15:14:00.001-04:00

Dateline Denver, Colorado: August 8, 2011

So last week this olelongrooffan was chatting it up with the land surveyor for the project in which I am engaged here in the Mile High City and the subject of the Denver Broncos arose. Seems his daughter is some big muckity muck within the Broncos organization and had obtained he and his wife VIP tickets to a Broncos practice session down at their practice field about 45 minutes south of here.

An idea popped in my head that this would not be a bad gig to attend so I pulled up the Broncos website and realized that on this past Saturday, the Broncos were holding a scrimmage at their game field, Invesco Field at the Mile High Stadium.

Well Counters, you know what this olelongrooffan did, don't ya? Yep, I finished up working round the "Port Royal" about 1, showered and headed the six blocks to Invesco Field to catch me some National Football League action. Did I mention it was free admission to boot?

It was a pretty cool gig and, although I was seated facing the western sun, I enjoyed myself along with around 10,000 other folks that afternoon.

I had pretty decent seats and lots of room to spread out. The opposite side of the field was mostly shady and packed.

After a series of field goal practice kicks, the blue and white teams sided up and commenced to getting at it.

It seems the Broncos are pretty strong on the passing plays but their running plays left something to be desired.

And let me tell you folks, pro football cheerleaders look alot older on the boob tube than they appear live and in the flesh.

And I have this to say about that. I was not at all impressed with young Tim Tebow. 24 plays, 3 interceptions, 4 sacks and ZERO first downs. I imagine that kid's learning curve is pretty steep these days.

After watching those plays, this olelongrooffan decided to call it a Broncos day and headed on out. Just outside gate 4 the powers that be have installed a series of horseshoe pits open, free of charge, to the general public. Broncos...Horseshoes...Get it? Pretty clever this olelongrooffan thinks.

See that parking lot at the end of the walkway to Invesco Field. As I arrived, the cops had the entrance to this not yet full parking lot blocked off and were directing us fans to a lot several blocks away. I decided to head back to the main drag and try and find something a little closer. As I was turning onto Federal Road, I spotted a gap in the cable surrounding that parking lot and followed an Audi A4 through it into that just across the street parking lot. Yeah, this olelongrooffan is not known as "Create A Parking Spot John" for no reason. FTW.

So anyway, out in that walkway portion the Broncos have some pretty cool sculptures, all football related. Here is a mouthpiece that was about 15 feet long.

Here is a neckbrace...

A chinstrap...

Knee pads...

A section of a cleat...

And a tee used for place kicks...

And although there was not an oversized jockstrap in sight, this olelongrooffan did receive a Broncos keepsake on my way out that, even today, allows me to

Celebrate Life.

On The Road Denver Edition: The Mobile Taj Mahal

2011-08-02T00:17:00.001-04:00

So, over the course of the past couple evenings, this olelongrooffan has had a few conversations with some east coast time (yeah, I miss it) friends of mine who have absolutely no idea what a Westfalia Vanagon is.

Well for those unknowing Counters, (of which there can only be the ones I spoke to recently) this is a 1980 Volkswagen Westfalia in all its glory.

It is a factory approved camper conversion of a basic Vanagon with a gas stove, refrigerator, slide out table with a seat that converts to a bed and a pop top that is also another sleeping area.

But, more important than that, Filmore, as it is affectionately named by its owners, is also the chosen home of this olelongrooffan for the duration of my stay here in the Mile High City. And this vehicle signifies the desired lifestyle of its owners. The above image captures it all on the day after my host's 30th birthday party.

Newly acquired, but unseen, first home behind the image taker of this picture: Check

Newly acquired blown up pool, inflated by the 45 dollar air compressor purchased to apply yet to be applied nails to the walls of this 1901 constructed home: Check

Large trash pile of food wastes accumulated while the urban trash collection schedule was decifered: Check

Even more recycle ready items: Check

Construction waste dumpster nearly filled to capacity (but thankfully without foodstuffs): Check

The Denver based minature Taj Mahal with the pop top in the background: Check

Legal here in Colorado cannibas in the foreground: Check

I am fairly confident that might explain to you the situation here in the Mile High City.

But know this Counters, my dad, TheGentleManFarmer, used to call this olelongrooffan JD, short for John David.

And if any of you are cruising I-70 near the Pecos Street exit in the Mile High City, stop in and enjoy a cool one with this olelongrooffan as Filmore and I continue to

Celebrate Life.

On The Road Denver Edition: What I Saw Today

2011-07-30T19:35:00.000-04:00

Dateline Denver Colorado; July 30, 2011

Kind of a lounge around day today for the crowd this olelongrooffan is running with these days so I figured I would update those of you Counting Along With Me on some of the cool cars I have spotted around the Mile High City.

When I first arrived, I almost freaked out about the number of original older vehicles that could be seen around town. It still seems as if there is an interesting vehicle parked in a driveway or out front every other block. It's pretty cool.

Check out this International Harvester Scout I saw the other day. (Seems to be a trend beginning here.) Its got a spare tire, spotlight and it's a 1/2 cab!

On the day I misdirected myself all over downtown Denver, this olelongrooffan sniffed up a late 70's Mustang II. Sweet and a still nice interior.

And while this olelongrooffan is done with BMW's for the time being, I certainly lusted after this very period correct BMW 2002.

Just down the street from Big J and Ellie's condo there is a high rise assisted living facility and this is always parked out front. When I finally quit slacking and stopped to gather some images of it, an older gentleman who had been sitting on a park bench under a nearby shade tree ambled on over to chat it up with me. If memory serves this olelongrooffan correctly, it is a 1972 Mercury Montego with 50,000 one owner miles on it.

These cars and trucks, among plenty of others I have seen, have a certain panache this olelongrooffan enjoys and it provides me great joy to share these sightings with all y'all.

However, a couple of vehicles I have seen recently require a bit more of an explanation as I was reminded of a great memory when I saw these two.

Like the vehicle I spotted that had this original AAA sticker affixed to its trunk lid.

And that trunk lid was attached to a mid 60's Mercury Montclair 4 door post sedan.

Judging by the condition of this rare beauty, those AAA privleges have probably been utilized to the max during the life of this car.

The Club is a nice touch.

Yeah, this thing has been used and no exception was taken when something got in the way of this beast.

"That's what I'm talking about Willis."

The passenger side rear window was broken out and that sunscreen was the only protection for the interior from the torrential rains we were having here in the Mile High City that week.

This model, however much it is beaten up it is pretty cool, well to this olelongrooffan anyway, in that the rear window is retractable just like the rear window on a station wagon tailgate. It was supposed to provide an offset breeze while on Eisenhower's Highway System.

And like the hubcap hanging on the front door of the Taj Mahal, the grille on this old sweety pie possessed a profile of the god Mercury. Nice.

I spotted that Mercury while out one day with Big J and we were checking out a local Big Lots store in the suburbs.

So, a few days later I am downtown checking out some more of the sights and Lo and Behold, I spotted this almost pristine mid 60's Mercury Montclair rag top that I absolutely had to stop and get some images of.

It was parked in a pay by the day lot in downtown Denver. It was in nice condition but did have some rust in front of the rear wheels.

I thought that the location of the rust was in an interesting place as my experience with that in snowy climates was the rear of the rear tires rusted the worst. Oh well. Still a nice car and about 20 feet long.

No car, no matter how nice and desirable, parks for free though.

It was really surprising to me to have seen, what to me is a rare model vehicle, then to see two different versions over the span of just a few days was pretty interesting and enjoyable for this olelongrooffan.

Seeing these two vehicles reminded me of my dad, TheGentlemanFarmer, who owned a 66 Pontiac Bonneville convertible as well as a 66 Pontiac Catalina 4 door post sedan at the same time back in the day.

And any things that remind this olelongrooffan of my Pop will always allow me to

Celebrate Life.

On The Road Denver Edition: The Birthday Edition

2011-07-29T21:07:00.001-04:00

Dateline Denver, Colorado; July 29, 2011

So, this olelongrooffan is still in the Mile High City and working on my buddy's "John Lee" house. The past couple days I have been trying to source a unique sized window for placement in the kitchen so as to allow the upper cabinets desired by the new owners of this home.

And, of course, while out and about finding this window, this olelongrooffan spotted this uber cool old International Harvester step van and just had to gather an image of it for those of you Counting Along With Me.

Now, on to the Birthday Edition. Today Big J turned thirty years old. To me it's pretty cool as I bought my first home at 30 and that is when Big J, then Little J, and I met. I was mowing the lawn of that first home of mine and absolutely hating it. Mowing Sucks and that's all there is to it. Anyway, as I turned the corner of yet another row of grass to be mowed, I spotted this nine year old kid standing on the sidewalk watching me. In typical Tom Sawyer fashion, I stopped that mower and extolled the virtues of mowing grass to Little J and offered him ten bucks to complete the job.

He took me up on that offer and we have been friends ever since. Twenty one years and on going. It is fun to be here with him and a dinner out hosted by his partner Ellie is forthcoming. I am sure we will Celebrate Life.

In an effort to clean up our jobsite for this inprompto party site, the tools got shuffled off to a location near some discarded stove pipe. After this blog is posted, this olelongrooffan is going to move those tools to their proper resting place.

And what birthday is complete without the carbonated beverages of choice. Unlike at the Taj Mahal ( I miss that place), here the canned beverage of choice is either Pabst Blue Ribbon or locally produced Coors Light.

This is a window I raised in the kitchen to clear the cabinets and backsplash upon their installation. Vinyl and double insulated, definitely worth reusing.

This past week after installing that slightly dropped ceiling in the kitchen, this olelongrooffan installed some insulated flexible duct work. Ready for wiring and drywall to be installed.

And the window sitting on the floor is the one I have been searching for this past couple days it was located just after seeing that International Harvester step van. I am pretty sure karma was involved there.

More ductwork, this time in the living room ceiling heading to the guest bedroom and the master bedroom upstairs.

And with those former kitchen cabinets now located out of the way in the living room, we have a place for all of the odds and ends to settle. And yes, jeepjunkie, that is a gen-u-ine Goodyear air hose this olelongrooffan scored at Harbor Freight for a mere twenty bucks. Murican Made.

I also framed out this wall in the laundry room on the rear porch area. Big J balked at the twenty bucks for the recessed washer box but this olelongrooffan insisted and here it is.

Well Counters, that does it for a project update. Ellie is summoning me to join them as we all head out to Big J's birthday dinner and to

Celebrate Life.

On The Road Denver Edition: Rocky Mountain Street Rods

2011-07-26T00:06:00.002-04:00

So, last week while this olelongrooffan was still on vacation here in the Mile High City, I was out and about and on a viaduct over some roadway and I spotted this sign painted on the side of a building.

Well, I am certain those of you Counting Along With Me know exactly what this olelongrooffan did.

Yep, I whipped around the corner, well as fast as I could while driving Filmore, a 31 year old Volkwagen Vanagon Westfalia, and parked in the lot of the Rocky Mountain Street Rod shop and after checking out the busy shop area, I strolled right on into the showroom.

While there were a ton of nice old, and newer, street rods present, the first vehicle that caught my attention was this sweet Corvair Monza.

And even though it had those donky *ss wheels on it, the overall stock appearance was extremely appealing to this olelongrooffan.

Of course, being a street rod shop, they had a bunch of vintage looking, but modern, street rods available.

When I entered the showroom area of the Rocky Mountain Street Rod enterprise, I was approached by a salesman who was interested in putting this olelongrooffan in the driver's seat of one of these pretty almost show car looking street rods.

After it was revealed that i was from the greater Daytona Beach area, the conversation quickly turned to the subject of street rod gatherings in my part of the country and I extolled the virtues of the Turkey Rod Run, which I have blogged about many times previously, as well as the Daytona Dream Cruise.

Finally, that sales dude realized this Vanagon driving olelongrooffan was not a viable customer of his and just let me wander around that showroom and gather some images.

But I do have this to say about that. They sure present some extraordinary vehicles with lots of chrome and meticulous attention to detail.

And there are some pretty spectacular street rods readily available via their showroom or

you can start from scratch with this super nice original 53 Chevy.

As I mentioned earlier, their restoration shop was full up and at least some of their nearly completed projects over flowed on to the showroom floor. Although this olelongrooffan doesn't remember the defined make of this ragtop, I am going to go with a 41 Mercury based only on the placement of the turn signal indicators on the one the Kid and I had seen a while back.

Oh yeah, some reassembly required.

However, you could drive its near twin out the door almost immediately, should you so desire.

And just to demonstrate the Rocky Mountain Street Rod's ability to produce near anything, here is an Offy powered street rod frame just waiting for your bodywork to be attached.

But know that around these here parts, even relatively late model Corvettes are much appreciated.

Of course, the one ride that really caught this olelongrooffan's attention had the shortest roof of all of them.

This bright blue FOMOCO product of the late 30's, with an undoubtedly modern drive train, is one I would totally Hoon on my trip back to the Birthplace Of Speed.

As this olelongrooffan realized that was way out of the question, I decided to take my leave of the showroom area of the Rocky Mountain Street Rod showroom and see what was up out in the shop area...always the best spot and today was no exception.

While I didn't venture far into that restoration shop, I did get far enough inside to see some of the stuff they were working on.

Yeah, I do recognize a 55 Nomad on the ground in the distance, an early Ford up in the air and another in the foreground and I believe that is a first gen Charger right up front.

And just down the row is a bullet nose Studebaker. Yeah, this was quite a sight to see for this olelongrooffan who just stumbled upon this shop of beauty.

On the way out, I spotted a dude working on the braking system of yet another old fun ride.

And, on my drive away from the Rocky Mountain Street Rod shop, I spotted their daily driver parts carrier framed by a Chevy SportVan in the background and that really provided an opportunity for this olelongrooffan to

Celebrate Life.

On The Road: Denver Edition: The Reason This olelongrooffan Is In The Mile High City

2011-07-24T11:18:00.000-04:00

Dateline Denver, Colorado; July 24, 2011

As I am sure those of you who have been Counting Along With Me are aware, I have been in the Mile High City for just over two weeks now. The reason this olelongrooffan is hanging out where pot is legal and a right turn on red isn't is because a great friend has purchased a new to him home and he called me last month and asked me to come on out and help he and his girlfriend renovate their first "John Lee" home.

So I did a rare thing. I got on an airplane for only the second time in ten years and headed out to this fair city to be of whatever assistance I could be.

While Big J and Ellie were at the long delayed and much anticipated closing on their home, this olelongrooffan headed over to their new pad, utilized those tin snips in a way that I am confident their designer never thought of, and set those newly clipped roses in a vase on a the portable table on the covered patio out back.

Yeah, in that cooler are a bunch of PBR's, IPA's and a cold bottle of bubbly to Celebrate Life in their new home.

Now this olelongrooffan has to tell you, Big J is all about value. See that fancy dancy green Werner fiberglass ladder he is holding? Thirty nine bucks at the local ACE hardware store. Regular retail? Sixty four bucks. Yeah, "that's value".

Their new home, originally constructed in 1901, is an interesting mixture of architectural finishes and modernizations. There was a commercial style drop ceiling in the downstairs covering some fixed metal duct work and the kitchen cabinets are barely affixed to the walls. The sink was not even hooked up to any plumbing.

And of course, by the end of the first day of possession, Big J had injured himself but it's okay, we have Duct Tape!

And above that metal grid drop ceiling was this falling down plaster ceiling.

This olelongrooffan, after a hot shower over at Big J and Ellie's condo, needed to utilize another tool in an unusual way. I manned that sawzall to trim a branch from the neighbor's tree so I could pop Filmore's top and create a mini me version of the Taj Mahal. That is Ellie's pup, Tripod, at the base of that el cheapo ladder. Look closely and those of you Counting Along With Me can determine how this Jamaican born canine got its name.

Like many of the vehicles in the possession of this olelongrooffan, Filmore is having an identity crisis this day.

See this man on the right in the above image? He was sent from God.

No, this olelongrooffan is not responsible for the consumption of this bottle of Mohawk Vodka during the construction of this 110 year old home, nor any of its previous renovations.

Ah, the 2 x 4 less Filmore is an excellent resting place for this olelongrooffan once the top is popped and a cocktail is in hand.

ACE is the place of the helpful hardware man. And their wheelbarrows make an excellent grill stand.

Remember just a moment ago when I mentioned the man sent from God? Well that man, Tim, spent an afternoon of his vacation out from Delaware helping Big J and this olelongrooffan put in this drop ceiling in the living room and extra bedroom in This Old House.

And even though this olelongrooffan has done a "John Lee" house so many times that process possesses my name, I am renovating this home with an engineer and an electronic technician. Sometimes I even get to put my 3 cents in.

And even though this olelongrooffan is not getting rich on this project, finding those 3 cents and putting them in allows me to continue to

Celebrate Life.

On The Road, Denver, Colorado: The Do You Remember It Edition?

2011-07-19T00:05:00.001-04:00

Dateline Denver, Colorado; July 18, 2011

When I was a kid back in the 1960's, I distinctly remember visits to my paternal grandmother's home while we resided in the Gateway to the West back in the day. At Moo's home, kids were better seen than heard and if we weren't seen at all, that was even better. As a result, thejeepjunkie and this olelongrooffan spent a lot of our visits to that Giles Avenue home in the dark and dank basement playing with some cool old toy cars while our sisters were upstairs in the parlor visiting with Moo and the folks.

One of the cool things about that house, other than my Uncle Frank's wide track Pontiac convertibles, was the fact my quite elderly grandmother was still sporting around in a 1953 Desoto Firedome, yes with a hemi. It was maroone with a grey cloth interior and the semi automatic transmission of the time. You used a clutch to get underway and stop but when it was time to shift gears, you just lifted off the accelerator and it shifted automatically. It was pretty fascinating at the time although I rarely rode in Moo's car back then, only to learn to drive it much later in life. It was the same body style as the one in the above pictures. This olelongrooffan will never know how I came to be in possession of those images but I am sure they were saved so they could be utilized in this post.

Later, after it was determined that Moo was unable to drive herself any longer, that old MOPAR product, now extinct, came to reside on our Halltown edition of Haven Lee Farm.

One time an older sister, who had recently gotten her driver's license, and I were traversing some country road out in Lawrence County, Missouri, had to be 1971 or 72 and when we crested a hill, that gravel road also took a blind turn down to the left. My sister over compensated and we bounced off the adjacent embankment severely damaging the left front quarter of the old beast, which had by now been painted a bright orange by one of TheGentlemanFarmer's buddies.

Well, needless to say, when we returned home, the proverbial sh*t hit the fan for a couple days and then it kind of blew over. And my Dad, in one of his many travels around the countryside, stumbled across a 1952 Desoto 4 door post sedan parts car and, of course, drug it home. And it was a parts car for the repairs to Moo's car so this olelongrooffan could hoon it around for a while.

So by now this olelongrooffan is sure those of you Counting Along With Me are screaming at the tops of your lungs..."WTF longroof, you think we are here to reminisce the ole days with some dude who is hanging in the Rockies for the month?"

Whoa?...Where did that come from?....But I think it was pretty funny considering...

So anyway, this afternoon while out scoping out suppliers for this remodel project I am involved in and which solely represents the reason I am here.....anyway, until a couple days ago, life in the mountains had left me disoriented with respect to north/west/south, etc. "If you see the mountains, you are looking west." Yeah that's great if you can see the mountains!...sh*t where the h*ll was I? Literally and Geographically.

Oh Yeah! So this olelongrooffan was out and about and on a street which I knew and in a location roughly where I thought I was and I spotted this while travelling north on Lowell.

Yeah, it's a 1952 Desoto Custom two door post. Looks to be nearly original and I had to teach Filmore, the Vanagon, how this olelongrooffan likes to whip ueeeys just for this reason.

And in my world, seeing this old classic and not gathering some images to share is beyond my comprehension.

I mean Counters, when was the last time you saw a manufacturors name, trademark and design flair all on the same car? H*ll not just the car, this was just the rear emblem.

So, I guess it is time for this olelongrooffan to put his foot in it again and share the absolute next image after the trunk emblem I captured. Yeah, Klutz could be my middle name.

Having said all that, this sweet old beauty had the exact same transmission set up as did Moo's '53. I drove Moo's car (as it was known until the day it was sold) up and down that mile long driveway out at the farm many times to "check the mail" as it were.

That multi-toothed '53 sedan, the '53 turn signals were moved outward to the chrome in the fender and Chrysler was able to squeeze in a couple more teeth on each side, anyway...Moo's car would haul *ss, in the hands of a 16 year old Hoon and on a gravel road, well let's just say I had a couple Lightning McQueen incidents before this olelongrooffan met my Doc Watson.

To my mind, even the front emblem on this automobile is nearly asspectacular as the rear. This olelongrooffan would love to have one of those hanging from the wall of the Taj Mahal. Not this one though, it is in its proper location, hopefully forever.

I don't know if many of you Counters Out There follow we Hoons over in the Hooniverse.com but over there is a Mystery Car Contest, usually on Fridays...anyway, I thought about submitting it for a post in that category but those Hoons can guess a mystery car by its freaking shadow at night, so that image remains here on By The Numbers, for now.

After this olelongrooffan had gathered those images of that two door,

of course, I had to take a peek out back. The fun ones are a 54-55 Ford Ranch Wagon, a baby Jaguar of some indiscriminant designation, a couple beige vehicles, an early 70's Cutlass, what I'm gonna call a 50's era Olds and behind that Ford pickup was the nose of a '56 Chevrolet. It was quite a sighting, not unlike most days here in the Mile High City thus far.

But it was when I sneaked around the other corner and spotted this

ole flatfender to share with thejeepjunkie, the Kid and the Bus that this olelongrooffan really remembered how to

Celebrate Life.

On The Road: Golden, Colorado: "Howdy Folks"

2011-07-16T01:05:00.000-04:00

Dateline Golden, Colorado; July 15, 2011

So I'm still dodging lightning strikes here in the Mile High City and yesterday this olelongrooffan ventured out to Golden, Colorado to see what could be seen other than Clear Creek Park. I started to head up the mountain to see Buffalo Bill's Enternal Place of Rest but at the first picnic area, just up the hill, I pulled Filmore into a parking space, had a sandwich and my favorite carbonated beverage and contemplated driving a 31 year old air cooled Volkswagon Vanagon up that steep, long road. And I decided against it. Sorry to disappoint those of you Counting Along With Me but this olelongrooffan decided there were much better places to see with that old Bus than straining to climb that mountain with this olelongrooffan in tow.

So Filmore guided me into downtown Golden, Colorado, a bustling area this Saturday.

We did a drive by in downtown and headed over to the MillerCoors Brewery for a free self guided tour.

This sign greeted the group of tourists waiting for the shuttle bus to show up and get the bunch of us to the other side of the brewery for the beginning of the tour.

All of these van front shuttle buses were vinyl wrapped and advertising their products. Incidentally, they offer a beer called Colorado Native and it's sold only in Colorado.

Once we got off the shuttle bus, this olelongrooffan noticed that out front they had a pretty cool themed water tower and

This cool copper mash kettle. Once inside the reception area, we were issued a headseat telling us what was going on as we proceeded with the tour.

One of the things it didn't tell me, however, is the year of this cool old Chevy truck.

Nor did it tell me who took that Coor's cooler on its first picnie.

And a shoe box Mustang gave its life for this display in the reception area.

Once inside, it was pretty disappointing. We went through a series of hallways with lots of Coors memorabilia lining the walls and displays. Once we got through that, we came to the mash room with many of those kettles I had seen outside. These were in operation though.

And across the way is the one guy here on this Saturday to ensure things ran smoothly that day.

And that dang headset didn't know what this guy's wife cooked him for dinner that day.

We finally got to some action but all it was was the packaging plant where they were putting cans in to cardboard boxes.

It was cool for what it was but it wasn't much. The last time I was at the Anheuser Busch brewery in Tampa, we got to see the bottling plant, the area where the cans were formed. The lines where the put lables on bottles. Just a whole lot more goodness.

However some good did come out of it. When I showed Big J these images, he casually mentioned he built those blue electrical panels to the left in those wider angle shots of the packing plant machine.

And I'm going to guess Coors got into racing long before NASCAR.

And a pretty cool monument in memory of our Defenders of Freedom.

So this olelongrooffan decided to hoof it back to downtown to see what was up.

On the way, I captured another image of Mount Table. See that Subaru Forester in the foreground? The day I spent driving around downtown, I counted 51 Subaru Outbacks and that was once I started counting. Ah, just another number here on By The Numbers.

And another one of Clear Creek from the bridge on the main drag. Yeah picnic tables and chairs on the bridge. Pretty cool in my book.

And of course, another huge animal lurking just around the corner.

So, as I was leaving downtown, this olelongrooffan spotted a sign suggesting Filmore and I turn right and head toward the Colorado Railroad Museum. It was just down the old highway running alongside Highway 6, a major traffic moving roadway but not a member of that exclusive Eisenhour Highway System.

It was pretty cool to see. They had various gauged railroad cars

A bevy of boxcars

and these cool old passenger cars. Now I had seen pretty much all this olelongrooffan was interested in seeing and decided that paying the $12 admission fee was not going to occur so I may gain admission to the esteemed Colorado Railroad Museum.

However, as this olelongrooffan returned to that cool old highway that would take me back to the Mile High city I spotted this snowplow laden railroad car and I just had to get Filmore to stop so that I could capture an image of it.

That museum was actually the third museum this olelongrooffan didn't get into that day. Well, that is if you don't count the MillerCoors museum.

You see Counters, due to fiscal constrants, not only did this olelongrooffan not get into the Colorado Railroad Museum, earlier I had been denied admittance to the Golden History Museum for exactly the same constraints.

The third occurence with respect to museum admission happened earlier while that buffalo was chasing me around downtown Golden, Colorado

You see Counters, this olelongrooffan was to busy running from that buffalo to stop in at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum thus avoiding the Golden, Colorado version of the proverbial "bull in a china shop."

My Sincerest Apologies to all of you Counting Along With Me.

But you can bet your bottom dollar this olelongrooffan was still able, that day, to

Celebrate Life.

On The Road: Denver, Colorado Edition: Bear Creek Park

2011-07-13T23:00:00.001-04:00

Dateline Denver, Colorado; July 13, 2011

So after a fantastic trip through the Rocky Mountain foothills with Big J on Sunday, Monday presented itself an opportunity for this olelongrooffan to get out and misdirect myself all around the Mile High City.

Well Counters, I was successful in that endeavor and found myself in Bear Creek Park in southern Denver, Colorado. It is a pretty cool spot.

And of course there was a huge statue there, totally in line with the taste of this olelongrooffan. This semi submerged, sombrero wearing cowboy sure captures all that is good in my world.

There is a brief ballad on the wall surrounding the largest cowboy boot ever seen.

And as Elaine from my favorite sitcom says,

"It's a Dingo Baby!"

The sombrero serves as a children's slide and I was lucky enough to capture a rare moment without a kid sliding down it.

And this olelongrooffan thought my knees were knobby!

So after checking out that huge statue, I decided to get out and wander around and check out Bear Creek.

I absolutely love all of the snow related signs around these here parts. I spotted one on Saturday that stated "No snowplowing between 7 pm and 6 am."

Anyway, Bear Creek was very scenic and the gentle lullaby of the rapids held my attention for quite a while.

Now I am confident those Counting Along With Me who live in areas that possess these type of water bodies won't have a second thought of these views.

However, this olelongrooffan is from the central Florida area and waterfalls and river currents are almost none existent and these are certainly some enjoyed views.

Yeah, I am trying to pull a Kris here and get all artsy fartsy with my image taking abilities.

There was a nice pair of waterfalls just down stream and this is the upstream view of them.

And from the downstream angle they looked even better.

And it appears Bear Creek is a runoff for the adjacent Colorado Highway 285 when needed. Based on the downfall received in the Denver area last evening, this pipe must have been filled to capacity.

And this olelongrooffan sat on the shore of that creek and justed enjoyed the serenity

and peacefulness of that set of rapids sure allowed this olelongrooffan to

Celebrate Life.

On The Road Denver Edition: Just Hanging With Big J In The Mountains

2011-07-13T14:48:00.001-04:00

Dateline Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Colorado; July 12, 2011

So, this olelongrooffan is still here in the Mile High City and having a freaking blast. After a kick *ss day at the BFE GP 24 Hours of LeMons (BTW, kick on that link or Murilee Martin's blog on my sidebar for more) and having an early night on my first Saturday here in Denver, afterall Friday nite kicked this olelongrooffan's b*tt, Sunday morning came bright and early.

As my hosts had had a late night out at another outdoor concert in downtown, Sunday morning was a bit lethargic round these here parts. Finally around 1pm, Big J recognized this olelongrooffan was chaffing at the bit, looked over at me and said, "Let's go cruise around and you drive."

Of course this olelongrooffan was all over that and we climbed in his X5 and set out for an adventure. And we had one.

We headed west towards the mountains and at the first opportunity, I stopped and grabbed this image. Big J told me there were lots better opportunities coming up but I still popped that 5 speed SUV in neutral, set the hand brake and captured my first Rocky Mountain image. Ever.

I continued to capture images the entire drive. Yeah, I know pixting and driving is a No-No but I think I might have it down by now.

The entire landscape so reminded me of CARS that I even commented on it to the Big J.

Our initial destination was the Red Rocks Amphitheatre as the dateline suggests.

It was a super cool journey that even included traversing through the hole in the stone formation seen to the left of the above image.

Yeah, those rock formations were immediate and huge.

Again, off in the near distance were these CARS style formations that were truly amazing. Pictures, well at least these, don't do them justice.

So, we arrived at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre and this is one of the stalwarts of it. That formation is truly magnificent..

This is the view from the top row of the seating amphitheatre with the vista of the rolling hills in the background.

A closer up view of the sides of the seating area reveal even more fantastic stone features.

And the above image is of the downtown skyline of the Mile High City over the stage of Red Rocks.

Red Rocks was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps back during the Great Depression and has been continuously updated since that point in time. Currently, there are plans to extend Denver's Light Rail people mover system out to Red Rocks and my hosts are excited as h*ll about that. "Just think John, we could go to a concert get blasted and have the Light Rail drop us less than a ten minute walk from our home." Okay...

The image above is an image of a picture of Red Rocks lit up at night. The bright lights on the left are of the rock formation featured earlier while the white lights in the background are of the skyline of downtown Denver in the distance.

By The Way, the Most Ferocious Thunderstom is passing through right now. I've not seen a storm this full of lightning and thunder in a long time and this olelongrooffan lives in coastal Florida, home of some pretty wild storms.

Big J and I then headed out into the wild to see where his X5 wanted to go.

Apparently to Evergreen, Colorado, a quaint little town nestled in the foothills of the Rockies. On the way we stopped and I captured this image of a roadside creek

and one of this exposed rock wall just across the roadway.

All in all a pleasant couple hours just cruising during which Big J and this olelongrooffan were able to

Celebrate Life.

On The Road Denver Edition: In The Lot At The BFE GP

2011-07-12T17:34:00.002-04:00

Dateline Denver, Colorado; July 12, 2011

Once again, another post I did in the Hooniverse about my trip to the BFE GP live last weekend while here in Denver.

As always, when this olelongrooffan attends an auto related event, the wandering around the parking lot is something I cannot pass up.

After watching King Jay and Judge Phil ~~harass~~ instruct a participant, this olelongrooffan

returned to my workstation for the day and popped a few images of what I saw in the lot.

Gotta go for now, a bunch of cars just came into the Penalty Pavillion. More Later.

On The Road Denver Edition: At the 24 Hours of LeMons

2011-07-12T17:28:00.001-04:00

Dateline Denver, Colorado; July 12, 2011

This olelongrooffan found out quite by accident that there was the BFE GP, a 24 Hours of LeMons race just an hour east of Denver this past weekend. I attended that race and this olelongrooffan was treated rather nicely by the powers that be, including free admission! Yeah it was a blast. I did a few posts live over in the Hooniverse and thought I would share them with those of you Counting Along With Me.

Dateline Deer Creek, Colorado; July 9, 2011

So unbeknownst to this olelongrooffan when I arrived in Denver, the BFE 24 Hours of LeMons is this weekend. Once I found that out, I knew that attendence at that afternoon open air concert in downtown Denver was out the window. I headed east on I-70 to find my way to High Plains Raceway in Deer Creek, Colorado.

Once I got on State Road 36, the BFE name for this race became abundantly clear.

And as I further progressed, I thought I might have missed the track so I pulled a Ueey in that old Westie I am driving. I had gone less than a mile in the reverse direction when I spotted a vintage Mini Cooper wagon, an Audi R8 and a Porsche Caymen heading in the opposite direction. Well, spotting those cars made me realize I was mistaked so I whipped another Ueey and contined east and just over the next hill was the raceway.

So I pulled Filmore in line to gain admission to the craziness that is a 24 Hours of LeMons race. Thanks to a well placed email to a certain editor of a really cool blog, he was able to obtain a free pass for this olelongrooffan to gain admission to this event and a pit pass. (thanks Tim)

And trust me my fellow Hoons, this event is just a zany as you think. I missed the tech inspection yesterday but even today, bribes were still being offered to Judge Phil and King Jay.

There are just not enough words to describe it, so I won't, just enjoy a few images.

The drivers of this machine showed up to the drivers meeting sporting old school orange life vests.

As I was standing watching the cars line up to get on the track and I struck up a conversation with the crew of this longroof. They are cool as hell and thought it was fantastic this olelongrooffan was able to lose my 24 Hours of LeMons virginity at this event.

And this Celica has a serious case of identity crisis.

One of the other longroofs sported a Space Shuttle theme and once they were able to get that leak in the fuel tank stopped, they headed onto the track will all the other drivers.

Even Dale Earnhardt, Sr. did not escape notice in all this Hoonage.

And if this '56 Renault 4CV doesn't win the IOE, something is seriously wrong.

And Jay so wanted this Model T truck to be the pace vehicle.

I am sitting in the Penalty Pavillion totally enjoying Murilee Martin and Jay Lamm administer the multitude of penalties these drivers deserve.

I was hoping to put up a few posts from the track but bandwidth out here in BFE is about as wide as a human hair. I'll get some more stuff up later today, once I get back to civilization.

Hope my fellow Hoons enjoyed this and if you ever get the opportunity to attend one of these races, you have got to do it.

Now back to the craziness.

On The Road Denver Edition: The Clear Creek Concert

2011-07-10T23:07:00.002-04:00

Dateline Golden Colorado, July 10, 2011

After misdirecting myself all over downtown Denver ( and having a total blast doing it)on Friday, my wonderful hosts allowed this olelongrooffan to be the fifth wheel by attending a great concert in a cool park in downtown Golden, Colorado about a 30 minute drive away.

That evening, we arrived at the beautiful Clear Creek History Park to hear Bill Nershi and his wonderful partner, Jiliane, sing some great bluegrassy kind of music from a small pavillion on the grounds. Just in case those of you Counting Along With Me are as ignorant as this olelongrooffan, Bill Nershi used to play with a band called the String Cheese Incident. Yeah, I know, I'm an old dumbass.

Now if those of you Counting Along With Me remember, this olelongrooffan got me a new touch screen cell phone last October. Well that new fangled phone's ear piece speaker has bit the dust and the only way this olelongrooffan can communicate, other than texting, is if the speaker phone is utilized. Now on the way out to that cool riverside park on the Eisenhower Interstate System Highway 70 in the back of a sweet Volvo station wagon, this olelongrooffan received a call from my great friend down in Palm Beach Gardens wondering how my On The Road Denver Edition is going? I got on that speaker and asked if I could return her call in just a few minutes once we arrived at Clear Creek.

Well, Counters, we did arrive and I promptly commandeered that cooler containing hurricane supplies and told my hosts that I would find them in that massive 8 acre park. I returned that phone call to Kris and we had a wonderful 25 minute conversation while I was listening to that wonderful duo in the background. Now usually telephonic conversations by this olelongrooffan are about 3 minutes max in length but it seemed Kris and I had a ton of things to talk about, many of which seriously affect this olelongrooffan's future.

But that is not what this blog is about. It is Bill Nershi, Big J, Elle, Luke, Emily and this olelongrooffan and I will get to it. Right Now.

After concluding that conversation with Kris while sitting in a peaceful herb garden, I headed off to explore that bridge I had seen earlier.

Yeah, the bridge over Clear Creek (no you're not that buzzed, this image is blurry). As I have mentioned, probably over on Facebook, yeah I know---first texting and now Facebook updates...anyway, it has monsooned every day since this olelongrooffan arrived in Denver from The Sunshine State and as a result, Clear Creek was swollen and had a helluva great current going. It was the first current driven river I had seen in years and it possessed a wonderful sound.

After that enjoying that wonderful nature driven symphony, this olelongrooffan decided to head over and enjoy an equally fun human produced symphony.

Bill and Jiliane are under that metal roofed pavillion to the left while those of us enjoying their fruitations are on the hillside to the right. That log cabin in the distance is totally legit and if the placard out front is to be believed, it was built in 1866.

That's Jiliane in the red dress wailing out some great vibrations while member of the crowd move around expressing their enjoyment of Jiliane and Bill's wares. And there were at least 20 or so hola-hoops in attendance. The first I have seen in quite a while. I thought they were all melted down to make Barbie's cars.

Behind that log cabin up there was where all the 420 friendly folks hung out for just a bit and then came on back to visually enjoy the entertainment. My commentary on that Jeep in the foreground is reserved for another post.

So there is Bill and Jiliane and I am confident the hay bales in the rear of that pavillion were there just for effect, unlike those seen out on Haven Lee Farm.

And this was a fun event for this olelongrooffan. I had not been to one of these family oriented old school events in over 20 years and while not really my kind of event, I really had a blast. Tons of youngsters running around and great vistas in the background.

And even more statues down by Clear Creek. Is it just this olelongrooffan or does everyone seem to attract these these days?

So, like my arsty farsty friend Kris, I set out to explore other vistas to share to help to more explain the beauty of this park. I spotted this view which show a killer look at a far off mountain and butte which I thought was pretty enjoyable. This olelongrooffan also walked up that hill and spotted quite a few vegetable garden local citizens had planted to provide natural goodies to their kinfolk.

So, after that sojourn into that entire wholistic environment that is Clear Creek Park, Golden, Colorado, this longrooffan started experiencing some that Sunshine State enduced rainfall and headed back to the maincamp and realized that Luke had been around awhile and had brought a tarp to cover all of us in the event of rainfall. Of course, he was complimented by all and we stayed relatively dry while others attending this show with us had a great time dancing in the rain.

Now Counters, twenty or so years ago this olelongrooffan had a blast enjoying the same action but today? Having the ability to Celebrate Life under that tarp presented no problem for me.

But I have this to say about that. That cute blonde in red was having a total blast no matter what the rainfall amount was.

However, with this kid I can't say the same. But he and his stroller riding sister sure had a fantastic time earlier.

Later, after the skies had ceased from providing that much needed rainfall, the performers commented on the double rainbow and after crawling out from under that Luke provided tarp, we all enjoyed it also. God is Great...you know the rest.

After the rains left, a dude that was hanging with us was enjoying a 16 ounce Bud from a can which this olelongrooffan has blogged about earlier and will again. Stay Tuned Counters.

After the performance, Big J, Elle and Bill got together for a photo opp and a

little bonding time. It seems the String Cheese Incident band is big in their world. Those two certainly seemed to enjoy their interaction.

Me, well, this olelongrooffan was down by the river just enjoying Clear Creek and, yes, I was still in a position to

Celebrate Life.

On The Road Denver Edition: The Downtown Drive About

2011-07-09T22:24:00.001-04:00

Dateline Denver, Colorado; July 9, 2011

So as this olelongrooffan has shared with those of you Counting Along With Me, I am spending a few weeks here in The Mile High City to help Big J and the even Bigger Elle do some renovations on their new to them home.

Well, I arrived late on Hump Day this past week and spent most of the day Thursday hanging around their cool ass garden apartment but I was able to get out and about and find the World's Largest Concrete Cowboy while cruising in Big J's Westfalia, Filmore.

As an aside, Big J's Westie did not derive its name from the CARS movie, although that reinforced that decision, it was named after the dude from whom it was acquired, Filmore. Fitting.

So anyway, I spent Thursday recovering from that travel day and spent a brief time becoming acquainted with Filmore.

On TGIF, which doesn't really mean alot to this olelongrooffan as every day is a Friday or a Monday or a Wednesday to me these days....but anyway on Friday I set out to find the building department for The Mile High City to get some questions answered about the property that I am afixing to remodel. All of the google-ing I could find sent me off to a particular address in the downtown district of The Mile High City. So this olelongrooffan set off with Filmore leading the way....

As always, this GPS deprived longrooffan had absolutely no idea where I was going, notwithstanding a brief google maps search. I am of the opinion that any map is only as good as the person preparing it so I tend to allow myself sufficient time to "Misdirect Myself", not get lost but to just settle in and get my bearings as to where I am and what is in close proximity to what I am looking for.

So, of course, I get to the downtown section of The Mile High City and one of the first things this olelongrooffan spots is this giant purple bear leaning against the wall of, I think, the Denver Civic Center. Of course, I had to whip into a city owned parking lot, beat the ticket master and grab a parking spot to walk across the street to gather this image. Somehow, I think God, whoever She may be, will not banish me to Purgatory for that three free minutes of parking time.

Just down the street I come across this cool sculpture in front of the actual building I was looking for. And, no, I am not talking about that ubquitous fire hydrant.

So, this olelongrooffan and Filmore are still cruising around downtown and spot this duo wielding niece Sarah's favorite means of transport. Those equines looked pretty buff and I quickly made my leave of them.

And in front of another municipal building, the Denver Art Museum maybe, I spotted the cleaning woman's special sculpture.

And this olelongrooffan thought it especially appropriate that the Great Wall Chinese Food restaurant was located in this classically restored building in the greater downtown area.

I did spot this cool old Cathedaral...yeah, it's been awhile since I have spelled that word...in the area. It was so huge I missed capturing the complete steeple of it. My sincere apologies.

And just after I spotted those two horsemen for the second time, I spotted these two bovine resting comfortably on the lawn of yet another public building.

But by far the sweetest sight this olelongrooffan had seen that day, thus far, was overlooking Sloan Lake at the Rocky Mountains off in the distance. And this is three short blocks from Big J and Bigger E's place.

And again Counters, hanging here in The Mile High City is cool as h*ll and I know this olelongrooffan, while I am here, will be able to

Celebrate Life.

On The Road Denver Edition: Yeah, This olelongrooffan Never Changes

2011-07-07T14:26:00.001-04:00

Dateline Denver, Colorado: July 7, 2011

Those of you who have been long time Counters remember that in addition to taking nearly 7 hours for an under 2 hour drive, this olelongrooffan finds some pretty off the wall crap to share with those of you Counting Along With Me.

Stuff like the stature of Minnie Pearl in the square of her home town, the car wash in the shape of a riverboat in St. Augustine, the site of Patsy Cline's fatal plane crash and the Muffler Man down Tampa way.

Well Counters, today this olelongrooffan was out in that old Bus I am sporting for the next few weeks and spotted this and I knew I had to get a couple images to share with all y'all.

And I'm sure that by now you Counters know find sh*t like this and sharing it with you is the way this olelongrooffan does

Celebrate Life.

On The Road Denver Edition: 5,280

2011-07-07T12:13:00.002-04:00

Dateline Denver: July 7, 2011

Well Counters, awhile back on one of my rare Facebook postings, this olelongrooffan mentioned I would be heading to The Mile High City to spend a few weeks working with Manuel Labor remodeling a good buddy and his girl's new to them home.

Yesterday I made the trip out here to Denver arriving around 9:30 Mountain time, that would be 11:30 Eastern time so it was almost a full 12 hours of planes, trains and automobiles. Thanks to TheGoodAttorney for the airport shuttle ride, the smart 12 year old kid from Daytona Beach that made the journey from Hotlanta to Denver so enjoyable and to Big J for the stopping off to pick up some hurricane supplies on the way back to Ellie's condo.

They aren't scheduled to close on their new place til next week thanks to the swift action taken by HUD on relieving our government of yet another foreclosed home. I swear the Federal governments actions are really starting to piss me off. Wait, wrong blog. I am not knuckdragging.

Anyway, since my flight was booked already and it would have cost a small forture to change it, here this olelongrooffan is adjusting to Mountain time, the relative coolness in the weather and living with a small active dog, Tripod.

Having said that, since I have a few days of Hoon time, I am going to make the most of it. While Big J has a BMW X5 as his daily driver and Ellie has a Volvo wagon, that leaves this olelongrooffan with this to Hoon around in.

It should be fun Hooning around The Mile High City in this old bus and really being able to

Celebrate Life.

Chapman Super Maverick

2011-07-07T10:09:00.001-04:00

Dateline Denver Colorado; July 7, 2011

Last weekend my nephew, the Kid, and this olelongrooffan paid a couple visits to the Daytona International Speedway for the Subway Nationwide event on Friday as well as the Coke Zero 400 on Saturday. As usual, we spend most of our time wandering around the garage and pits leaving just after the first round of pit stops to get to the best place to watch a NASCAR race. On TV in the Kid's garage.

While we were out there, in the garage area at the entrance to pit road, I spotted this truck that TNT utilized to serve as a camera platform.

I thought it was pretty damn cool and gathered up a bunch of images of it as I had never seen one previous to that Friday.

This truck is based out of MickeyMouseLand down here in the Sunshine State and made the trek to the Speedway for these events.

The big guy on the right in the above image operates both the crane and drives the truck to and fro.

I peaked at the invoice on the windshield at Saturday's happenings. TNT paid Chapman/Leonard Studio Equipment $6,000 for the time period of 9:00 am on June 30 to midnite on July 4th. Soon serious cash this olelongrooffan thinks for what was a few hours racing on Saturday and a three hour round trip from Orlando to Daytona Beach.

The truck is built on a deuce and half chassis and has an electric motor that can power it up to 6 mph while the gas engine gets it to about 50 mph.

Its overall weight is 26,000 pounds and has six wheel drive and six wheel steering.

When I saw this beast I knew a blog about it was somewhere in my future. I did a little research on this and

was able to come up with a link to the Chapman-Leonard website outlining the specifications and capabilities of the Super Maverick. You can check them out here.

I couldn't find out anything about who designed or built these beauties but I am confident one of my fellow Hoons knows a ton about them. The operator did mention about 25 of these were built in the late 50's and early 60's. He also mentioned the central pivoting mechanism is from a USS Constellation but mounted inverted.

While the operator told me it was built on a deuce and a half chassis, it did possess a Chevy truck steering wheel circa early to mid 1960's. It seems my 66 one ton panel delivery Chevy had one just like it.

This truck also has unique body panels that are obviously designed just for this application. Try as I might, I could not recognize any of the panels being used on other vehicles this olelongrooffan is familiar with.

It has a removable fiberglass roof and the doors are merely frameless canvas and plexiglass panels ala early Jeep CJ's.

And trust me, these were the only Firestone tires inside the garage area of the Daytona International Speedway that weekend!

And this truck was so cool to me, I just had to add another image of me with it.

Another Day At The Races With the Kid

2011-07-05T15:27:00.000-04:00

So, the Kid and this olelongrooffan are out at the Daytona International Speedway for the Sprint Cup version of racing this 4th of July weekend. On Friday we saw the Nationwide racecars out and about and the Kid decided we needed to come around for the "Big Boys" racing action on Saturday.

As those of you Counting Along With Me saw a bunch of race cars in my blog about Friday's activities, I thought I would mix it up today and include some images of the "war wagons" utilized on pit road. The big yellow one seen above belongs to Roger Penske's Kurt Busch #22 team.

I didn't really note who the drivers of the Roush Fenway or the Hendrick Motorsports teams were represented by but the Target Wagon off in the distance belongs to the Juan Pablo Montaya Target team.

And just a whole bunch of NASCAR tires and rims were seen and recorded by this olelongrooffan.

If memory serves me correctly, the above images are of a couple Toyota teams, one of which I am sure is of Michael Waltrip's number 56 team.

And these? I have no clue but they did have the covers on those wheels that the Kid so wanted to put in this olelongrooffan's Continental Tire backpack. But as I related to the Kid, "If I am going to Hell, it is going to be for stealing a bunch of billions of dollars, not a NASCAR wheel cover that will bring me maybe ten bucks on ebay."

By the time we arrived out at the Speedway, all the NASCARs were lined up on pit road.

Meanwhile, the Kid and this olelongrooffan beat it over to do the obligatory signing of the start/finish line.

Luckily, the Kid left out my growing bald spot in the following image.

On the stage set up in the infield area, Martina McBride was putting on a great show.

And she, like the weather, is hot!

After listening to her awhile me and the Kid decided to head over and take a break on the pit wall.

In the Jeff Burton pit stall was this box with used lug nuts and lug bolts in them.

A dollar per lug nut and five bucks per lug bolt was requested to be donated to charity. I pointed them out to the Kid and reminded him of the lug nuts this olelongrooffan got from Dale Jr.'s pits a couple years ago which are resting comfortably on a cool wooden flatbed semi trailer I got as part of a traveling museum from the Bus a while back.

I was so excited that Mark Martin got the pole for the Coke Zero 400 this weekend.

the Kid and I meandered over to Robby Gordon's pit stall and the Kid pops open a drawer in his tool box to verify its contents were what was labeled on the front.

They were as labeled.

While we were at Robby's pit box, I captured an image of the helicopter that lingered overhead all afternoon.

Just to make sure I remembered whose pit box it was.

the Kid and I headed back to the Fan Zone and on the way to purchase a four dollar pen to make some notes on a truck I had seen earlier, I spotted this t shirt that I found rather humorous.

the Kid allowed me to capture this image of him next to Dale Jr.'s GT Vodka ~~race~~ show car.

After driver introductions were complete, the Kid and this olelongrooffan were standing in the garage area, just outside of the pits, a bunch of drivers were headed to the nearby restrooms.

While the Kid and I don't really see the need to capture any autographs, a whole d*mn bunch of touristas did.

We found it humourous and the Kid commented the place to be was in that restroom when driver introductions were finished.

And I was able to capture the flyover of the jets.

Not as cool as the image the Kid got a few years ago with the jets and a flag in it, but cool nonetheless.

And who says racing is all about the cars?

the Kid and I were sitting in the Crown Royal bar stools just outside their pit box and I saw these two hotties and even the dude guarding the gate to the pits commented on them.

Shortly thereafter, we spotted Trevor Baine pull his wrecked Wood Brother's machine off the track for the final time that day.

the Kid and this olelongrooffan skedaddled around to his garage to see if it was terminal. Unfortunately it was. I felt really bad for that kid and his team.

And the truck I sacrificed four bucks for to take notes about? This is it. More to come on this vehicle shortly. And sighting this olelongrooffan in a t shirt is pretty rare but this one from the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix was sent to me by a fellow blogger and I thought it only appropriate to wear it to a race! Thanks again kashgar.

And spending another day with the Kid and having fun doing it really lets this olelongrooffan

Celebrate Life.

A Day At The Races With the Kid

2011-07-02T22:31:00.073-04:00

This olelongrooffan mentioned in an earlier post that thejeepjunkie had, once again, hooked me up with a killer pass to the Daytona International Speedway for the NASCAR happenings this weekend.

Unfortunately, thejeepjunkie is road tripping his mother and father in law, along with a sister in law, back to the Ozark Mountains this weekend and won't be able to make it out to the Speedway for a little Hoonage this weekend.

As an aside, his MIL had a pretty major stroke a few weeks ago. She and her family were down here in the Sunshine State watching the Kid's sister play in a couple hard core softball tournaments. On their way home, she suffered that stroke while waiting for a flight at the Orlando International Airport. Yeah, all kinds of traumatic stuff going on there. Luckily, an extremely competent neurosurgeon was around and MIL Mary Ann received excellent care and was released to return home late last week. thejeepjunkie and The Blonde Bombshell were recruited to get those folks home via a $2,600 rental Town and Country minivan and that is thejeepjunkie's 4th of July weekend. Glad all those prayers for that family were answered.

In the meantime however, the Kid was the lucky recepient of the same ticket this olelongrooffan got and he was texted, yes, I am doing that these days...I blame Kris...about the possibility of hooking up and heading out to the Subway 250 Nationwide race on Friday.

He agreed to spend some time with his olelongrooffan uncle out at the track and I swung by thesungoddess's home to pick him up and head out to the Daytona International Speedway for some Nationwide action.

After revealing to the Kid my favorite parking spot at the entrance to the new NASCAR headquarters he was concerned about the possibility of getting towed. I told him the second time I parked on the median to that entrance that when I returned Daytona Beach's finest were sitting there on their Harley's and I asked if it was okay to park here. "I don't care where you park as long as it is not on the public right of way." was the response this olelongrooffan received and I have successfully parked there ever since, just across the street from those $50 per spot guys.

So the Kid and I snagged a ride through the tunnel that is as old as this olelongrooffan on one of those stretch golf carts that shuttle folks around and made our way into the pits to see the first Chrysler/Fiat products I have seen at the Speedway in many years.

Now I must share this with those of you Counting Along With Me. I hate to be jaded about attending a NASCAR event that many spend years planning on attending but after having attended a whole d*mn bunch of these events over the past couple years,

it is tough to have a non-jaded take on this experience.

After standing in this position with a Hot Pass for many years, watching these khaki clad NASCAR officials doing their tech inspection has become a somewhat "been there done that" experience.

Even the Kid commented on it as we were watching Tony Stewart being interviewed after qualifying for the Subway 250 race on Friday nite.

And all these cars lined up for tech inspections. Yeah, been there and done that also.

As the Kid commented, "Yeah, there is Smoke" and we headed out to see what else was up.

One of the pretty cool things we did see was Mike Wallace's car.

The entire wrap was a collage of photos and looked pretty cool. I am going to guess Cowboys & Aliens is another movie this olelongrooffan will never see.

Before we left the Nationwide garage area, I captured this image of the "Challenger" body style

as well as this one of the "Mustang."

the Kid and this olelongrooffan did something extremely rare for us and purchased some grub in the FanZone. The fish and chips were pretty good and at $10 pretty reasonably priced. However the $3 water and $4 Diet Coke were a bit much though.

As we were taking a last walk down pit road, the Sprint Cup cars were lined up getting ready for qualifying and I captured this image of Kevin Harvick's Budweiser machine in yet another paint scheme. I posed the question to a crew member sitting on the pit wall, "you guys change your paint scheme every week?" "Man, it sure seems like it," was his return comment.

And as a final act, as we were leaving, we headed over to the carnival to score some swag, which we did and this olelongrooffan captured this image of the Kid next to that 66 Bus we both loved more than any of the new cars in their display booths.

Just know Counters, spending a few hours with the Kid and realizing what killer passes we had to that race session really allow this olelongrooffan to

Celebrate Life.

thejeepjunkie Hooks Up This olelongrooffan Once Again

2011-07-02T09:49:00.000-04:00

Last week while this olelongrooffan was down in toney Palm Beach Gardens, I received a text from thejeepjunkie asking for my Florida driver's license number. Well Counters, knowing this weekend is all about NASCAR here in Daytona Beach, Florida, I knew something good was coming up for this olelongrooffan. And sure enough, my first stop upon returning to Daytona Beach

was the NASCAR transporter out there on Dunn Avenue. Once I had complete the appropriate paperwork, I stepped inside that semi trailer and was issued

yet another killer pass to pretty much anywhere inside the Daytona International Speedway this weekend.

Except the grandstands.

But know that this weekend this olelongrooffan will continue to

Celebrate Life.

Can You Come Be My Wife?

2011-07-01T20:26:00.059-04:00

Yeah I know. It has been awhile since this olelongrooffan has posted anything here on By The Numbers. But as the Bus says, "Hey, I've Been Busy."

A couple weeks ago, this olelongrooffan was on the receiving end of a distress call from a great, long time friend who needed some assistance from this longrooffan. Yeah it was my friend Kris, who I have previously blogged about. If those of you Counting Along With Me remember, while a great friend, she is not just that into me.

As it turns out, four months ago Kris had accepted a position as the Operations Manager for her brother's upscale cosmetic surgery practice down in toney Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Regular Counters will remember what else happened down in that super high end community.

For the first three months she was there she stayed with her brother and family in their McMansion, finally getting a condo of her own about 6 weeks ago. She moved a couple beds and a couple dressers down from her place in MickeyMouseLand leaving the remainder of her furnishings in the care of one of her five sons in that condo. Now Kris is working 9 to 8 every day of the week and prior to getting her new place, she commuted back to the Big O for the weekends. Since she moved into her new place, she has spent her weekends furniture and car shopping.

Yeah, her brother thinks an 03 Acura TL with a few teenage boy dents in it is not befitting her position and wants her to "step up" to a Mercedes or BMW.

Now, after living there with no furniture, barely a TV and a solitary life post work, Kris was at wits end. She invited her daughter in law, Ali, down for the weekend and while having a picnic in her vacant living room on Sunday afternoon, Ali suggested Kris contact this olelongrooffan to see if I could come down and help her make some decisions.

Ironically, on that fateful Monday evening during Happy Hour on the sprawling veranda at the Taj Mahal, this olelongrooffan was lamenting to thejeepjunkie that I needed a couple weeks work prior to heading out to Denver to work on my buddy Justin's new "John Lee" home. (More on that trip in another post.) So anyway, thejeepjunkie and TheGoodAttorney head out to do whatever they do after Happy Hour and this olelongrooffan heads in to fix up a bit of grub and check out these interwebs.

A little later the massive communications center of the Taj Mahal lights up and it is my friend Kris. She fills me in on her life, or lack thereof, and asks me what is going on in the life of this olelongrooffan. I filled her in and then she drops a bombshell. "Can you come down and be my wife for a couple weeks? I really need some help." Well as those of You Counting Along With Me will know, you just do things when friends or family is in need.

As an aside from this tale, this olelongrooffan is listening to the Nationwide race on the MotorRacingNetwork and just heard our National Anthem sung and stepped outside to catch the two Air Force F-5's do their fly over of the Taj Mahal. F*ck Yeah!

So I commented to Kris this olelongrooffan would be in the Gardens the next day around 3 or so. And I was. She was floored that I was available so quickly but in all honesty, I was excited to see her again. It had been too long.

Upon arrival, I dropped Kris a text and she and I met up outside the Barnes and Noble I was hanging at then went to her new condo. She spent a few minutes showing me around the place and relating her ideas about what she wanted to do and was looking to me for my input. We chatted it up a bit more then she had to head back to the office. But before she left, she pressed a cool grand in my hand. I was shocked and asked her what this olelongrooffan was going to spend a thousand dollars on. "Oh, you'll need it, here is my list."

And like the dutiful wife I was to become, I checked the contents of her frig and pantry and headed over to BBB's favorite Whole Foods competitor to stock up on rations for our nourishment, as well as some organic wine for Kris and some hurricane supplies for this olelongrooffan.

That first evening when Kris arrived home from work around 9, we got fully caught up with each other over a delicious meal of blackened mahi, parmesan cheese covered asparagus and a loaded tossed salad.

And Counters, this olelongrooffan spent the past two weeks at Kris's beck and call. The first week I spent buying, picking up, assembling and returning the furniture she had picked out over the past month. And cooking dinner every night, preparing her morning coffee, cleaning her dusty condo, ironing her slacks, doing laundry...just doing the old time wifey things she needed to get done so she could deal with her stressful job. It was a blast!

The next week I spent buying clothes for her approval and this olelongrooffan had a batting average of .307 approval rating so I felt pretty good about that average.

That is my old Comanche hanging out with an Audi A6, a Range Rover and a Mercedes while out picking up some Father's Day cards for Kris's approval for her dad.

While down at Home Goods looking for accessory pillows, I spotted this sweet Mercedes and at the local

gourmet market picking up some organic corn chips, I spotted this 67 Caddy daily driver for the chef at that boutique restaurant.

Last weekend we spent test driving Audi's, Mercedes, BMWs, Cadillacs, and Acuras. While Kris decided to postpone her car buying decision to a time in the future when she has fully settled into her new condo,

This olelongrooffan would be very happy with this vintage Toyota Cressida longroof.

And know this, being in a position to help a friend this past couple of weeks prior to heading to the mountains to be of assistance to another really allows this olelongrooffan to

Celebrate Life.

These Interwebs Ain't All That Big

2011-06-10T22:12:00.000-04:00

This olelongrooffan has mentioned a couple different times that I do some posting over at Curbside Classic as well as in the Hooniverse.

Well, this evening over at CC, I commented on a comment by Mr. Tactful on the post about the Buick Century coupe. He is from my hometown of Springfield, Missouri and I mentioned that in my comment. He replied that he had inferred that from some of my posts and that he is facebook friends with the Bus. I thought that was pretty wild and thought maybe you would too.

And just so this short post will have an image, how about one that shows what will be here sooner than we would like?

And this summer when out playing mini golf or selling F1 owner's manuals or feeding the chickens or mowing the back forty or taking care of the kids or saving lives at Costco or working on old CJ's or attending Formula 1 races, remember to

Celebrate Life.

What I Saw Today

2011-06-09T20:22:00.001-04:00

Last night at Happy Hour on the massive veranda of the Taj Mahal, thejeepjunkie finally came to the realizasion that he will never utilize that power take off he salvaged off a 1946 Willys CJ2A and told me to swing by thesungoddess's house, pick it up and put it on line for sale.

As these have a rather limited audience, ebay or craigslist isn't really the best place to get the highest dollar so I surfed these tubes for a few hours last night trying to find better sites to put it on. willysforsale and ewillys seem to be the two most promising.

So today this olelongrooffan finally got my sorry *ss out away from this laptop and dropped by thesungoddess's house to pick it up, along with a big black bag of aluminum cans to exchange for some shop supplies at a time to be determined in the near future. Well, the Kid was there getting ready to grill him up a steak and I was able to connive him into loading this rare artifact into the bed of my Indian. We chatted it up a bit about his latest engagement with Daytona Beach's finest and his mother's reaction to it. (It was not good!) Luckily thejeepjunkie has a few connections there and it appears all will be well. However this is strike three for the Daytona Cubs groundskeeper Kid and he knows it. Well, at least he's not smoking pot or doing other sh*t that this olelongrooffan and thejeepjunkie did back in the day.

Well this olelongrooffan bid the Kid adieu to enjoy his steak and beat it on down Nova Road to Metro PCS to keep myself in vocal communications with the outside world for another month. It's pretty cool there. They have this ATM like machine out front available to accept payments and it was utilized this day by this olelongrooffan. And Metro PCS is a pretty good deal. They don't give away phones but my $47.00 per month gets me unlimited voice, texts, internet access and insurance. Oh yeah, and no contract. When I first switched to them after my move here from Slocala three years ago, they had limited coverage in just a few spots across the nation so I kept my Nextel for my Road Trip For Mom. Now, however, they are pretty much nationwide so it's a pretty good deal and will come in handy should this olelongrooffan spend the month of July in Denver.

After ensuring that this olelongrooffan has the capability to be in vocal contact with those near and dear to me, I headed over to thejeepjunkie's shop so this olelongrooffan could ascertain just what I had picked up from thesungoddess's backyard and the Kid's garage. Now I am fairly certain I have blogged more than one time about thejeepjunkie's ~~ability to BS~~ client relation skills with many different entities, both public and private.

Well, Counters, I have to tell you that when I turned the corner off of Seagrave, where I had previously spotted this, and turned onto Bay Street, this olelongroffan spotted this parked in back lot of thejeepjunkie's shop.

Yes, that's correct. The mobile offices of the Grand Am Racing Series. It appears those who work for Jim France's organization choose to purchase their tires from thejeepjunkie's shop!

I have seen this transporter on more than one occasion but it was usually inside the gated confines of the pits out at the Daytona International Speedway but never out in the wild. It was a pretty cool sight, at least to this olelongrooffan.

So, now, I am off to these interwebs to determine the relative value of a sixty five year old archaic device that appears to be highly desirable. Well, should you own a Willys CJ2A or the like.

And Counters, seeing that transporter out in the wild and having a rare moment with the Kid really demonstrates the way this olelongrooffan likes to

Celebrate Life.

Generally Speaking

2011-06-06T15:17:00.000-04:00

I'd have to say this is not going to turn out well for someone.