30 Cents A Day

Okay, it's another rambling post from this olelongrooffan. But this time instead rambling all over the place, this one is about my olestationbus.

You Counters remember my olestationbus, don't ya?

It is a 1963 Ford Falcon Station Bus built in Lorainne, Ohio in October, 1962 and adorned in Corinthian White paint.
It sports 13" tires powered by a 170 cubic inch inline six cylinder, an engine utilized by Ford Motor Company from the early '50's through 1974.

My relationship with my olestationbus began two years, one month, and one week ago.

This olelongrooffan, after having spent a memorable couple weeks with my fantastic relatives in the Ozarks, well, I was Jones-ing them about all the cool stuff they have, as well as the Kid and his cool old CJ5, was surfing around ebay looking for something cool.

It was during the third week in July, 2008 that I stumbled upon the olestationbus at auction out in San Antonio, Texas. This olelongrooffan, who has to get all of his automotive purchases approved by thejeepjunkie, promptly called thejeepjunkie directed him to that auction and asked if it could be acquired for two grand can I get? Please? Please?
Well Counters, he approved that purchase and just a week or so later, this olelongrooffan had his fat *ss sitting in the back of a Lincoln Town Car heading to the airport down in MickeyMouseLand to catch a flight to The Lone Star State to drive my new longroof home to The Birthplace of Speed.
And while that adventure was not as much fun as my On The Road, By The Numbers experience a few weeks prior, this olelongrooffan was still able to Celebrate Life on that road trip and even consumed a couple "Tommy Lee" sandwiches and a Diet Coke or two while updating my On The Road, In The olestationbus series of blogs.

I have to tell you, this olelongrooffan sure enjoyed my adventures with my olestationbus. I am thrilled thejeepjunkie was able to get it a Shiny New Coat after my adventures with Manuel Labor right at a year ago.
And a chuckle is emitted every time I think about my olestationbus and its Lug Nutz.
And fondly remember its time as a jeep parts warehouse and visiting with the, sadly no longer with us, Original Jeep Junkie, Grandpa George in his field of dreams.
I also appreciate having family around to come to the rescue of this sorry *ss olelongrooffan more than once.
And the memories of the times at Belaire Plaza with the Kid and thejeepjunkie will last this olelongrooffan the rest of my life.
Nestled closely with the Kid's CJ5 down under the big bridge fishing, swapping stories and watching hoons from Georgia on vacation.
And, while you Counters might have, this olelongrooffan will always fondly reminise about my adventures chasing ckickadees down
on The World's Most Famous Beach.
Well, I am confident you can digest the past tense mood of this post.

The reason for this is that this olelongrooffan sold my olestationbus on Craigslist on Saturday.

Yeah Counters, after 757 days of ownership, the olestationbus has moved on to find continued adventures with a new owner.

Now, just a little background.

Hold on, thejeepjunkie just called and needs something this olelongrooffan has around the Taj Mahal and I'm heading over to bring it to him. I get some images for ya. Be back soon.

Okay, I'm back. A blog about that will be available shortly.

If You Have Been Counting Along With Me, you know this olelongrooffan's home, the Taj Mahal, is located less than two blocks from the Atlantic Coastline here in the Birthplace of Speed. As a result, rust is a commodity well known to this olelongrooffan. Since the olestationbus has gotten a Shiny New Coat with the newly painted wheels and the chrome hub caps, it has been a source of pride and joy for this olelongrooffan.

Recently however, I have noticed it was starting to regain some surface rust and on its nose, a small hole had rusted through the metal.

Well, reluctantly, this olelongrooffan decided to put my olestationbus on that ever wonderful website known as Craigslist.

It had previously been listed on Craigslist with no success so I dropped the price and listed it again, just over a month ago.

I had not had anyone email or call me about it until Friday evening when I received an email from the ultimate buyer and we struck a deal. The new buyer wanted to come up from Melbourne, Florida (about 90 minutes south of here) on Saturday afternoon to look it over. I told him fine and that Benjamins were required to cut a deal. No problem and what about delivery. I mentioned I could meet him about half way there for a certain price and he countered with a larger number to deliver it to Melbourne. No problem was my response and we signed off.
Lo and behold, Saturday afternoon Nick, with his Mom and wife in tow, shows up and turns over several Benjamins to confirm the olestationbus was really to be his and we were set.

So they take off and this olelongrooffan calls thejeepjunkie and the conversation goes something like this:

Hey jeepjunkie, whatcha doing?

Just cleaning under the lid of my washing machine. You?

Wondering if you are up for a road trip to Melbourne this afternoon?

Why in the h*ll would I want to go to Melbourne except for one of Taylor's ball games?

To shuttle this olelongrooffan's sorry *ss home from the new home of my olestationbus.

You sold it?

Yea and got pretty near what I wanted out of it.

Longroof, are you going to drive it down?

Yeah, don't really want to but I guess I can leave a couple hours before you and head down US 1 and we should get there about the same time.

You want to trailer it down instead?

H*ll yeah, jeepjunkie, that roadtrip would certainly be blog worthy.

longroof, let me make a couple phone calls and I'll get back with you.

So thejeepjunkie calls the guy who drives one of these and also owns The Big Red Truck

then he calls the guy who drives one of these and also owns a cherry flatbed car hauling trailer.
A few minutes later, thejeepjunkie calls me and tells me to meet him in the Walmart parking lot at Beville and Nova road. "I'll get the truck and the trailer is located three blocks from that Walmart. That way we don't need to double back to pick your olestationbus up," he commented.

See ya then jeepjunkie.

So, at the appointed hour, after google mapping our destination, packing a cooler filled with our favorite carbonated beverages and making sure my el cheapo 28 dollar ebay digital camera was in operating condition, this olelongrooffan jumped in my olestationbus for the 25 minute drive down to that WallyWorld.
Our original plan was for thejeepjunkie to stop and pick me up and we would go get the trailer together.

As is usual in typical Lee Boys fashion, plans are always subject to change.

While this olelongrooffan thought he had another 25-30 miles of gas left in that gaugeless fuel tank, my olestationbus proved me wrong.

Well, I was able to coast into that WallyWorld parking lot and find a cozy resting space.

I called thejeepjunkie to apprise him of matters, grabbed that plastic red tank from the rear cargo area and hoofed it over to the corner gas station for five dollars worth of petrol.

I returned to the olestationbus started to pour the gas into the tank and realized this, never before used by me, gas can had a broken collar and as much gas was pouring out on to the macadam parking lot as was going into the tank. Eventually, I got about two thirds of the contents of that can into my olestationbus and got in to fire it up.

Normally when the olestationbus is warmed up, it takes awhile to crank back up. In this case it wasn't starting at all. I popped the doghouse cover to see if there was any fuel in the carb and noticed one of the radiator hoses had come loose.

Holy Cr*p Batman!

I promptly called thejeepjunkie to twitter an update as this olelongrooffan was heading into the horror of horrors that is Walmart, to buy a screwdriver (ended up with a set), some coolant and a new gas can as one was included with the sale of my olestationbus. thejeepjunkie said no worries, get it running, I'll go get the trailer and come on back for you.

And I got it running and thejeepjunkie got the trailer.

Upon driving up he asked "Is it running?"

Yep.

Good let's get it on this ultra deluxe trailer.
And we did.

And we set off for the Eisenhour Highway System and got southbound and down.

After getting thejeepjunkie and this olelongrooffan a cold sodie pop, I noticed we were cruising at almost 80 miles per hour.

"Sh*t dude," I exclaimed! "We are almost going 80!"

No worries longroof. This Big Red Truck can handle it. I just hope the windshield of your olestation bus doesn't blow out.

This has got to be the fastest speed your olestationbus has ever been!!
And we laughed for about 10 miles!!
He then looks over at me and says, "H*ll, this is probably the fastest speed YOU'VE been in ten years."

And we got a laugh for another ten miles.

And yes, we hit the ubiquitous Florida summertime thunder storm.

Four different times.
As we were driving through "Historic Downtown" Melbourne, thejeepjunkie spotted this bell outside a church and briefly pondered grabbing it for a certain farm or impliment filled backyard up in the Ozarks.

We decided to pass. As this olelongrooffan pointed out, "If I'm going to hell, it is gonna be for stealing a billion dollars, not an old bell no matter how cool it is." thejeepjunkie agreed.

So we got to the new home of my olestationbus and this olelongrooffan climbed into the driver's seat of that cab forward creation and cranked that massive 170 cubic inch motor over.

Well not really, it turns out I hadn't really gotten as much gas in it as I had thought and it was Out Of Gas.

The Honest To God Truth!

So I turn to the new owner and ask if he has any gas. Nope. He then mentions he'll go get some. I pull that virgin gas can from the cargo area and start to walk to his car. He says, "Don't worry I'll get it. After all, I'm going to be using it."

So I started walking around my olestationbus looking at it for one last time and reminising about the blast it has been to own.

I noticed that small rust hole on the nose
did not fare well under the onslaught of near 80 mile per hour winds.
And that San Antonio, Texas Pep Boy acquired stick on driver's side mirror
was totally AWOL and its current location will never be known by this olelongrooffan.
thejeepjunkie did manage to get the final image of me and my olelongrooffan while Nick was out getting gasoline for it.
He returned and I gassed it up and started it up and removed it from that mack daddy trailer.

Just after Nick handed me the remainder of the Benjamins to finalize this transaction, this olelongrooffan got an image of the happy new owner of my olestationbus.
thejeepjunkie and this olelongrooffan beat it the h*ll out of there and returned the borrowed vehicles and got back to the Taj Mahal around ten o'clock on Saturday evening elated but totally exhausted.

thejeepjunkie had himself one of those beverages he likes so much while this olelongrooffan iced down some of my favorite beverage and we congratulated each other on a job well done.

Now I am certain You Counters Out There are wondering what the title of this post is referring to.

Well, it is like this. If you take what this olelongrooffan had invested in my old olestationbus and deducted the sale price of it from that total, the amount equals $227.26. I owned it for 757 days.

That means, Counters, this olelongrooffan drove my old olestationbus for 30 cents a day.

Overall, a d*mn fine investment that allows this olelongrooffan to really

Celebrate Life.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

If you have read this, you Counters know why this olelongrooffan is talking about two weeks ago.

So, after having a fun filled Saturday, yeah, that blog is coming, be patient, this olelongrooffan rose rather early, around 7:30 am on that Sunday.

Yeah, it is a pretty rare occassion these days that I get out of the sack that early but, for whatever reason, I did.

And is this olelongrooffan glad he did.

So I head downstairs to the dining room table at which Kris and I had shared a couple delicious dinners, fired up my trusty daily driver laptop and enjoyed my now normal ritual, a Diet Coke.

Yeah coffee and this oleman don't really agree anymore. I always lose.

Sorry for that visual Counters.

So anyway, this olelongrooffan is strolling around these tubes when my ultra compact, state of the art cell phone rings.

It is thejeepjunkie.

"Hey jeepjunkie, what's up?"

In an unusually strained tone of voice, thejeepjunkie responds, "Are you still down in MickeyMouseLand?"

I reply in the affirmative and again, "what's up?"

"Well, thesungoddess's big white truck popped a spark plug rendering it unoperable."

"Where is she?"

"thesungoddess, the Kid's sister and I are in a BP parking lot somewhere on US 441 near a pedestrian overpass down here in MickeyMouseLand and I sure could use a hand."

"You got it jeepjunkie. I can be out of here in ten minutes but this olelongrooffan is fairly certain we are across The Big O from each other and I doubt I can get to you in less than 45 minutes but know I am heading your way."

Even though Kris and this olelongrooffan had no firm plans for that Sunday and she was still nestled comfortably in her bed in that off limits master suite, I knew I had to get going. You just have to do it.

So while this olelongrooffan was enroute to thesunngoddess's fallen ride, thejeepjunkie and this olelongrooffan exchanged several wireless communications.

It seems they were less than 20 minutes from the softball fields the Kid's sister was to perform on that day and, in an apparent indication of the talent the Kid's sister possesses, one of the coach's wife was dispatched to bring that star ball player and her mother to that day's games.

In another communication between thejeepjunkie and myself, I came to the realization he was stranded in downtown Opopka, Florida, a bedroom community in the northwestern section of MickeyMouseLand.

During another, thejeepjunkie reveals he had pulled TheGoodAttorney off his beloved links to commandeer the Big Red Truck owned by a friend who drives a Black and Tan Car to get over to U-Haul and rent a car hauler to get thesungoddess's ride home for repairs.

By the time this olelongrooffan had arrived on the scene, thejeepjunkie had hoofed a the 1/2 mile or so up 441 to the local Advanced Auto Parts, purchased some tools he already owned was in this position as this olelongrooffan pulled up in my oleragtop.

As it turned out, roadside repairs were not going to happen this day.

Then TheGoodAttorney calls and informed us that U-Haul's lawyers and insurance companies tell us that the Big Red Truck is not big enough to haul thesungoddess's daily driver.

A note to you Counters out there, and this olelongrooffan does not condone lying to anybody, but every time, but one time, that I have rented a car hauler from U-Haul, this olelongrooffan was hauling a Honda Accord, no matter what.

thejeepjunkie called his local rolloff truck provider in the Home of the World's Most Famous Beach and the best that dude could do is $450, round trip.

Well, we decided to head on back home and thejeepjunkie would work on transportation arrangements on the way.

"There is no f*cking way I am paying $450 to get that truck home," I rightfully quote thejeepjunkie as saying.

We even saw a flatbed rolloff at a gas station down there in Opopka and this olelongrooffan told thejeepjunkie to jump out and see what he wanted to haul that busted truck home to Daytona Beach and this olelongrooffan circled around to pick him up.

300 bucks was the answer but he couldn't get to it for at least three hours.

So, we jumped on that Eisenhour Freeway System and headed north with thejeepjunkie making tons of phone calls trying to locate a personally owned carhauling trailer.

He even called thehorsefarmer to get his flatbed but, understandably, thehorsefarmer chose not to answer as he had his own freezing *ss cold project going on. I believe you, at least this time, as you have learned to get pictures.

In the meantime, either thejeepjunkie or this olelongrooffan came up with the Commander In Chief down there in that town at the end of the island the Taj Mahal is located on and is so famous for its lighthouse.

Thejeepjunkie rings him up.

Well, it turns out he does possess a trailer but he is up in Jacksonville working on Homeland Security practices with the Coast Guard.

thejeepjunkie says "The H*ll with Homeland Security, I need that trailer!"

This olelongrooffan can still hear the Commander In Chief laughing through thejeepjunkie's phone.

So, another trailer is located behind a garage this olelongrooffan holds near and dear to his heart but it is located a thirty minute drive north of the Taj Mahal and we had not planned on going anywhere near my Castle.

About 90 minutes out of our way, there and back, to borrow that free flat bed trailer.

Me, this olelongrooffan didn't care, I knew a blog was in the works but thejeepjunkie was pretty stressed out as the main woman in his life was going to be driving his new ride the next day if that big white truck was not repaired on this Sunday, and it was now just after the noon hour on that fateful Sunday.

Just after we picked up that Big Red Truck, thejeepjunkie's cell phone starts emitting that irritating BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP that is his ringtone.

It was the Commander in Chief heading home from practicing Defending Our Homeland and would be at his homestead in about twenty minutes, just about how far we were from his place and we were welcome to his trailer.

Yeah, it is all about Karma.

So we get down to the Commander In Chief's place and he is decked out. We were in too much of a hurry to check out what was on the inside of that four stall garage but in the carport adjacent was a cool pontoon boat, a hydraulic dump trailer and a mack daddy Honest-To-God car hauling trailer. Not a flatbed but a real car hauler with an electric winch, retractable ramps, real over the wheel straps and working LED side marker and tail lights.

Inside the small garage under this carport was a four wheel steering John Deere lawn tractor and a vintage restored Wheel Horse tractor.

And, as the Commander In Chief commented, in a totally unassuming way, when this olelongrooffan pointed out how nice his stuff is, "Yeah, I like my toys."

BBB, the Bus, thehorsefarmer, thejeepjunkie and this olelongrooffan could be related to this guy.

So anyway, we bolted down that Interstate System and thejeepjunkie mentioned that, even at 75 miles per hour, the trailer hardly seemed to be there.

Well, upon arrival at that BP in downtown, thejeepjunkie fired up the pop-pop-pop-popping engine on thebarngoddess's ride pulled it right up onto that super deluxe trailer while this olelongrooffan was gathering images.

And we got back on that Eisenhour Interstate System, for the fourth time that day and headed back to the Haven Lee Farm, Jeep Version, up there in the Birthplace of Speed.

Now, Counters, it was a bit windy that day and even that Big Red Truck was close to its limits.

This olelongrooffan kept pretty quiet during that ride other than noting thejeepjunkie was doing a great job and listening to his comments on his ride situation, the wind, and wondering how the Kid's sister was doing at softball.

The biggest problem on the whole trip was the Son Of A B*tch who tailgated us the whole trip home.

Oh Wait!!

Anyway, we got thebarngoddess's daily driver back to the Kid's house and commenced to returning that mack daddy trailer to the Commander In Chief. Yeah, that's his detached garage in the background.

So, with that mission accomplished, we set off for the Kid's house so thejeepjunkie could make sure thejeepjunkie had a ride to work the next day.

Well, this olelongrooffan dropped off thejeepjunkie, hung for a bit and then set off for the Taj Mahal, after returning that Big Red Truck to its rightful owner.

Later that evening, the massive phone system lights up here at the Taj Mahal.

It was thejeepjunkie.

"What's up, jeepjunkie?"

"Just looking for a Donor Car."

"C'mon over."

"See ya in ten, longroof."

Unfortunately, thejeepjunkie was unable to perform the necessary repairs and ended up sending that Big White Truck down to the local Ford repair specialist where this olelongrooffan spotted this and it was running by the end of the day Monday.

So, this olelongrooffan commenced to showing the Kid all of the idiosycrasies of my oleragtop-easy since, after all, the Kid cut his eye teeth on a 67 CJ5, thejeepjunkie had a couple cold pops and we all were set so far as transportation was concerned.

And all was cool, even though the Kid's New Ride was getting the spring back in its step, this olelongrooffan was able to loan out my slightly disabled oleragtop to him, thesungoddess was driving thejeepjunkie's new ride, and thejeepjunkie still had TheGoodAttorney's Bronco to drive.

Plus, thejeepjunkie paid $140 to have thesungoddess's Big Truck repaired, $70 in petrol for the Big Red Truck and the combined cost was less than a ride on a roll off and we all get to share in the adventures of thejeepjunkie and the olelongrooffan on a Spring Sunday down here in The Sunshine State!

And with that experience, we are all able to

Celebrate Life.

This olelongrooffan Loves Life's Adventures.

Oh Yeah, Saturday, March 13 is coming soon.

Man, I gotta blog more, this olelongrooffan is waaaaay behind.

And in the words of my favorite comedian, Rodney Dangerfield, "My second car is a tow truck!"

And, Man, does he know how to Celebrate Life.

Just like the rest of us.

You Can YouTube Him Just For Fun

And Continue To

Celebrate Life.