What I Saw Today

Last month, while I was visiting the bus's family down at their lake cabin. The bus and I got his pontoon out one afternoon and we commenced to getting it ready to take out on the lake. We headed over to a spot on Beaver Lake the bus liked.

This is what we saw when we arrived. The lake was so high the bus did not even want to attempt to launch that pontoon.

On the way we saw this and

this. It is okay, these are not homes but municipal buildings in a low lying area where the local government had established parks and ball fields. The second flooded picture is only a pavillion and the building above are restrooms.

Anyway, we arrived back in Rockaway Beach and launched that pontoon in Lake Taneycomo, not flooded as its levels are established by water coming out of the dam at Table Rock Lake.

It was a great time and fun was had by all.

Even not so Lil Jim had fun washing the boat. I got to skip a few rocks with Dan and it was just a relaxing couple of hours. On the ride home, Austin, Trey and I spotted a ton of fish in that crystal clear water.

What does this have to do with What I Saw Today, 1200 miles away at the Birthplace of Speed?, you ask.

Well, on the venture over to Beaver Lake, I didn't ride in the bus's Big Suburban, Trey and I drove the bus's little blue pickup as, earlier when the bus and I ventured over to pick up a battery for the pontoon boat, I had seen some pretty cool stuff I wanted to get some images of for posting on this blog.

Yep, that's me, always thinking of stuff I can get on here for you to see.

Anyway, Trey and I saw the following,


Kind of reminds me of a couple siblings of mine.


Back in this barn, I saw that trailer, made from the back half of an old Jeep pickup. It was full of crap, including the hood of the donor truck. We had one of these made out of an old GMC while living on the Halltown Haven Lee Farm. They are relatively impractical as they are usually still carrying the original frame, axle and suspension from the donor truck and are heavy as hell. I saw a bunch of them while On The Road By The Numbers.

I was wondering if I should tell the owner of this Daytona Beach based truck about it.

And that is What I Saw Today. Some days What I Saw Today is cooler than others.

The Coope de Ville, Revisited

After a fun filled few days with both generations of the Jim and Ganey Lee family down in Rockaway Beach, I headed out to Haven Lee Farm, as I have previously mentioned. You might remember, the week before, the jeep junkie, the Kid, and the horse rancher built the barngoddess a chicken coop. I referenced that visit here. Well, things move rapidly when the barn goddess sets her mind to something. That week, the horse rancher put the fourth wall on that coop, complete with awning and entry door.



the barn goddess wasted no time either. They already had a couple dozen store bought chicks in that coop. the horse rancher told me it was going to be called the "Coope de Ville". I got a chuckle out of that and was, in a way, honored to have been the motivator of that name. When I am at the Turkey Rod Run later this year, I will have to find a nameplate off one of those Cadillacs for the wall of that "Coope".

A little later, the horse rancher got his big tractor out and tilled some more land for the barn goddess to plant more corn.

You can see her spreading the horse shavings from the stalls around, complete with manure. Steph and Jaycee were sitting on their front porch watching. Eventually, I grabbed a shovel and helped out. Sorry no pics of the first time I had shoveled manure since the mid 70's.

Back in the garage, the horse rancher and I put the longroof back on the golf cart. Apparently, Steph must have hit something with it and broke one of the uprights. I never did hear the whole story but the horse rancher got to use some of his new tools he got from the girls for Christmas last year, as well as my Dad's old drill press. It was fun working with him and I am glad to have been able to do something the barn goddess wanted done.

As I mentioned earlier, the horse rancher decided to buy a zero turn mower and he did. He actually thanked me for encouraging him to finally make a purchase he had been thinking about for a long time. While I am, again, honored, I think he was just waiting for someone to go help him pick it out. He did decline, wisely, on the extended warranty.

And he is off to the fields.

But not without topping off the petrol.

Except for the time spent at that delicious dinner table, the horse rancher did not get off his new toy.

Thanks again for a memorable few hours on the farm and looking forward to the next time. Love to all the Haven Lee's.

Working on the Old CJ, Ozarks Style

Last week, a day or two prior to Mom's Last Bus Ride, I showed up at the bus's house to see what was up for the day. Given the bus and his private nurse and I have many similar interests, and they didn't seem to mind me hanging around, I knew I would have fun. Also, the jeep junkie's family was going down to Arkansas to visit family members, the operators of a store sponsoring Michael Waltrip, so he and I were going to spend the night in their cool old, totally restored Airstream Trailer. The pics I took of it didn't take so you can see it here, on their recent journey to Tulsa.

Upon arrival, I saw the bus and the youngster, Austin, having lawn mower races around the bus's back yard. It was enjoyable to watch, plus, the lawn got mowed.

Now, a while back I posted a blog about the Lee Boys and their Toys, in which I was able to determine some of the origin of our interest in our four wheeled friends. In it, I posted a picture of myself as a kid, seen below.

Well, when I was up there, the bus distributed to the jeep junkie and me two different envelopes containing pictures from Mom's estate. I am thankful for this, as the pics of my family belong to me, no one else. As a side note, I, in turn, took a bunch of photos of my family members up for the bus to distribute to them, Not So Skinny Jane and Ellen, included. But I digress.

Alot of the photos are of me, Jessica and her Mom. I am forwarding them down Naples way for Jess's Mom to hang onto for when Jess is ready to take them into her possession. This collection included a couple of my favorites of Jessica as a toddler.


The cool thing is there were several photos of Jess's Mom's family from when we were all kids. Thanks Jim, I know Maureen will appreciate those.

Anyway, in addition there was a photo album that had only landscapes in it, that's right, no people, no comments on the location or the attendees of that trip, just landscapes, thanks bus.

Well in addition to that was a photo album put together by Ed Dalheimer, an associate of my Dad's. He worked with Dad at the Queen's Work and, later, at the Mirror. I don't know what ever became of Ed but he and Dad had their ups and downs. Anyway, this photo album was put together in the Summer of 1970, alot of which is at Table Rock Lake and contains photos you will see in future blogs.

One of the photos you will see in this blog is this shot of the jeep junkie. He is standing next to BBB's old Jeep. I believe this was the first Jeep in the Lee family, certainly the first one I remember, but knowing the horse rancher and the bus, they will prove me wrong on this one also. Just like, in my last post, I commented on Jay Leno's toy budget and Bus, forgetting the toy budget of the bus and the bus's Crown. I need to stay on my toes around all my big brothers.

So back to the jeep junkie. He stopped by this evening and I showed him some longroofs I am interested in and, also, this photo. He empatically stated, 'That's an M38. I would love to have one like that.'

I must say, this may be where the jeep junkie got his passion. Somewhat similar as to where I got my passion for old European sports and classic cars, in our childhood.

So remember the lawn mower races and waiting for the jeep junkie to show up? Well, he did. The bus mentioned he wanted to put a tow bar on his most recent acquisition, a ?46JeepCJ2A?. As I am not a Jeep Junkie, I don't really remember the years of all of the Jeeps I have seen in the last couple months but it is around that vintage, but I will stand corrected when told what it is.

The bus and neighbor Jack, who also has a penchant for old cars, did a whirlwind trip out to Colorado to pick up this old CJ and, upon return, promptly dropped it off in the Crable Yard, then neglected, awaiting the arrival of the jeep junkie to retrieve it.

And he did. the jeep junkie, the bus, the youngster Austin and myself tooled out to that yard and retrieved it. The following shot is of the bus opening the gate to this yard.

You can spot the bus's newest jeep just beyond the dragline trailer, anxiously awaiting our arrival.

Of course, the first thing the jeep junkie does is pop the hood and determine the power plant.

the youngster, Austin, always smiling, while the jeep junkie putters around.

We all are checking out some unknown aspect of this CJ in this photo. Please ignore my, previously unknown to me, growing bald spot shown in this photo. Upon review of this photo, I asked the bus's private nurse if I did, in fact, have a bald spot back there. Ganey, in her sweet way, said, 'yeah, you do seem to be going a bit thin'. Ahhh, aging.

It is cool to note here. As we were removing the bumper, the bus found a data plate on the frame rail. The best part, to document the authenticity of this old CJ, that data plate showed the same numbers as the title, a rarity not often found in CJ's of this vintage. Excellent find, Jim!

There is the bus, happy to see some activity addressed to this old CJ.

Now, I must interject here to comment on something, the bus later shared with me. Ganey, his private nurse, has put up with many things from the bus, multitudes of VW's, Jeeps, Army Trucks, Buses-both long and short, big trucks, small trucks, basically everything but longroofs. The bus said to me Ganey thought he bought a pig in a poke with this CJ. I need to share this, the jeep junkie, upon seeing this old CJ told me, ' I could get the Kid to trade even up his CJ5 for this one. FOB'.



Me just standing back, trying not to get upset with the jeep junkie for wanting to do everything!

So, the bus, being as insightful as he is, sent the youngster Austin and me off to find replacement bolts for the reinstallation of the front bumper after the installation of the towbar. While we were at O'Reilly's waiting for the parts dude to find the bolts we needed, the youngster Austin is exploring the store. He comes up to me and tells me

that although this hammer is labeled "Made in China", it should be "Made in Mexico". I inquire why and he shakes it. It is a hammer with sand in the head of it and sounds like an instrument a spanish mariache band would play. Needless to say, I laughed my butt off and had to take this pic to remind me of that moment. the youngster austin has a great sense of humor and will continue to make us all laugh for a long long time.

So we got that tow bar installed and

the jeep junkie hooked it up to that Florida based Expedition

and then we all stepped back to admire our handiwork.

After a trip or two around the block, we got that CJ into the bus's sideyard and the jeep junkie and the bus got to, again, looking under the hood.

While the jeep junkie was working under the hood, the bus got the roll up windows in that rare half cab working. Sorry about the quality of this pic but you can see the joy on the bus's face.

And the jeep junkie

and the bus toiled into the darkness to get this CJ running. And they did.

the jeep junkie spent the next day rebuilding the carb and it was running fine, albeit with gas from a portable gas can.

On the day of Mom's Last Bus Ride, the jeep junkie was never far from that old CJ. I had to continually admonish him, 'Don't get dirty'.

But with no success. the bus and the jeep junkie ventured off to work on that old CJ while the youngsters, Trey, Austin, Blake and the Kid and I cleaned up and relegated all of the lawn chairs and tables to their original resting places.

the bus and the jeep junkie got that gas tank reinstalled on that old CJ and she fired right up.

As the jeep junkie was working on this old CJ, I kept telling the bus and his private nurse, "Ed will get this thing going." The Kid agreed with me. I am confident the bus and Ganey didn't believe me, but once it was going, I could see the glee on their faces.
Jim, just want to let you know, you got a helluva jeep there and it is worth every cent you have invested in it. And Ganey, thanks for being so great as to recognize it.

Have fun with it and, no, I won't come up and plow snow for ya'll but I do look forward to the blog on it.

Cars Seen On The Road

If you have been counting along with me, you know this past Friday, I returned from a nearly 3,000 mile (2,964 to be exact) trip up to the Ozarks from my home here in the Daytona Beach area. On this trip, I took over 900 images (908 to be exact) and over 230 of them were of cars I spotted along the way. I thought, as I am still recovering from all that driving, I would post the images of the cars so they can be enjoyed by the world. I will try to identify as many as I can. If you have been along On The Road, you will recognize some of the first photos in this blog as I have posted some of them previously. Others will be seen in future blogs. The first is my Volvo 850 on Ormond Beach, the day my adventure began.


The red CJ 5 I spotted in St. Augustine, entirely by accident.

These Air Force jeeps were spotted in Green Cove Springs, Florida, as was the old lincoln and the 28 Plymouth.

This is an old junkyard I spotted in southern Georgia, along US41.






This Ford I spotted along side the road, forgot which one. This International I spotted in the woods just down the way.

I saw this old Ford Econoline on down a ways and then in the next town, I shot this old Dodge driving the other direction.


I spotted this old bug at a petrol station near the end of the day.


The next few shots are at Old Car City just north of Atlanta. Today, I saw a restored suburban such as the one pictured with a $28,000 bid.











When I first posted this pic of the railroad bridge, I did not notice the CSX truck on the tracks above.




Then on to the Towtruck Museum in Chattanooga.






I saw this Bug/Trike across from the windmill blades I referenced in that post.


On my European excursion, I saw these in Dresden, Tennessee.













Trey helping me unload those truckster doors.

Mike and I are off to check on where to launch the old pontoon.



Down on Haven Lee Farm, trying to remove that table.





















the jeep junkie and the Kid spotted this on the way back to town and called me to alert me of its existence.










At the bus's house.




and at Lil Jim and Lil Mom's house.


On a quest to get jim's new Jeep to its new home.















One of several Volvo longroofs in Jack's family.

Jack's 55 Belair sedan.

And his cool old Chevy Fleetside.


For the 4th of July weekend, due to the bus's need for some stuff to be delivered to the cabin, I parked the 850

and drove ole blue, jim's s-10. First stick I have driven since my original oleragtop years ago.

Austin the youngster rode with me to the lake cabin. Jim mentioned not to take the first exit to Rockaway as it was a twisty windy old road. So, of course, we did. On the way, Austin spotted this old Travco motorhome.

Austin also spotted this old skateboard themed bus. We shot a pic to show Trey.

Down the road a piece I saw the rear 1/2 of a Porsche 914, does that make it a Porsche 457?












I also spotted this old Midget and Spitfire along with a couple Jags and a Corvette.










To the corner of Laughing Lane and Beach Street in scenic Rockaway Beach, Missouri.












Down on Beach Street they were setting up July 4th festivities for the youngsters and were using this fire tanker to fill the dunk tank.












I saw this old Bus down the street. Pretty cool and, if i had Jay Leno's toy budget, I would have one, as he does.











This is another of the cool longroofs in Jack's family.













Trey and I rode together in old blue to attempt to launch Jim's pontoon boat. Along the way, I spotted the following at scattered locations between Rockaway Beach and Beaver Creek.












My friend, Jami Young, the Kenman's wife, actually used to have one of these old Ford Granada based Lincoln Versailles, along with big hair, back in the late 70s and early 80's. She actually admitted this to me and I saw the pictures!















I was wondering where this fold up hood belonged.














Then I looked around back an saw the remainder of that car.









I saw, what I thought was a Cushman van behind that old Buick but the bus corrected me. It is an Onan Westcoaster.













After an enjoyable few days with both generations of the Jim and Ganey Lee family, I headed out, in old blue, to Haven Lee Farm to pick up the stuff I delivered to BBB. Along the way, I spotted this old Ford Wrecker as well as a whole row of Blue Oval trucks.





In Crane, Missouri, I spotted this old electric truck from Mt. Vernon. It must have been sitting awhile, based on those tires. The phone number on the passenger door was just 3 digits.






In Marionville, near Haven Lee Farm, I spotted this old place with some pretty cool cars. When I was 19, I dated a 41 year old woman who owned a Continental Mark III like this one. They both were fun and educational.



These two Dodges appear to be of the same vintage but the rear chrome treatment makes me think not.


This is the same vintage Cadillac as Hank Williams last ride, but his was a ragtop.



And a Nod of the Head to CDM.


While out at Haven Lee Farm, the horse farmer decided he needed a zero turn lawn mower to go with the rest of his equipment. So we went to that big blue box with the number 48 on the side and got him one.




On the way home, I detoured over to Halltown way and traveled about 25 miles on old Highway 66 and shot these pics.





















I got On The Road and heading down Highway 13 and 7 into Arkansas and saw this "shortroof".



and this old coupe.


the mascot resting comfortably on the dashboard.
Down in Russellville, Arkansas, I spotted this old graveyard.







I especially like this old pontoon Mercedes.










The next day, I got stuck, for a short time behind this and then blew by and headed to the Museum of Automobiles at Petit Jean Mountain, Arkansas.









Sorry about the quality of some of these pics. Still figuring out that Polaroid.












A little later I saw this
and this

and this.
I am not sure what this is, I think it is a Mopar, possibly a Plymouth.


The next day in Montgomery, Alabama, I saw these cool old aircooled specials.










And just down the road a piece, I saw this old sedan delivery, a couple flatfenders and a bunch of Cutlasses.

















On my way to BBB's I saw this old Nova.


A gratuitous shot of the 850 included here.

I also spotted this old army truck with a new bed. $7,000.00.


At BBB's I saw this race car.
and these models.






and I saw the Airstream Ranch.




Got that stuff delivered to the jeep junkie
and a shot of the 850 on the beach.

and that mascot permanently in its new home.

That's it for now. Hope you enjoyed seeing these as much as I did finding them.