Travels with BillyBob Log

TRUCK LINKS including vendor sites for old parts, custom parts, and tools as well as sites for classic car and truck organizations

STORE Operating in association with Amazon.com, books, recordings and tools can be purchased.

PLANNING for the restoration including project schedule and cost estimates.

TRAVELS WITH BILLYBOB With apologies to Steinbeck, this area of BillyBob's Garage will be used to log the trips BillyBob and I make together.

WORK-IN-PROGRESS is the restoration of parts of BillyBob that I can accomplish without a garage.

PRE-RESTORATION includes log entries of minor repairs and and adventures between time of purchase and the time when I started restoration, a piece at a time.

JR'S KORNER JR's Korner is the history of BillyBob before I got him authored by my brother, Wm. C. Kephart.

BILLYBOB MAINTENANCE Ever changing detailing, oil change, lube, etc. maintenance routines specifically developed for BillyBob, including required tools, materials and procedures.

STEALTH SHOP Urban residence design with large integrated shop and separate living quarters for a relative or renter.

1. Beach Cruise

SITREP

This first "logged" trip is a short one down the beach road (Florida State Road A-1-A) from the Krash Lab here in downtown Boca Raton, Florida to Fort Lauderdale's Port Everglades, then west a mile or two to Fort Lauderdale's Andrews Avenue, then north thru downtown, east to Holiday Park, north again to 13th Street and west to Old Dixie Hwy which will be followed back up to Boca Raton and back to the Krash Lab. This will allow me to visit some of my old haunts to see how they've changed since I've lived in Fort Lauderdale. I think it's about a forty mile trip and will give me a feeling for BillyBob's performance on a trip longer than his daily six mile runs between the Krash Pad and Krash Lab. The Florida "Gold Coast" is all one megapolis now from Palm Beach to Homestead between the Atlantic Ocean and the Everglades. BillyBob and I will never be out of an urban environment but these are the towns and cities passed through: Boca Raton, Deerfield Beach, Hillsboro Mile, Lighthouse Point, Pompano Beach, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Fort Lauderdale, Wilton Mannors, and Oakland Park, Florida.

PRE Check

1.	Date and Time	October 12, 2003 7:45 AM
2.	Odometer	7,756
3.	Emergency Supplies	Cellphone, AAA+ Membership, Reading Glasses
4.	Prep	Clean Windshield

Engage

At the end of my work session with BillyBob yesterday, I ran my left knee into the rear bumper which left me with a limp. I wasn't home in the Krash Pad for very long when I ran my bare foot into the corner leg of my sofa. I heard the fourth toe snap like a fresh stalk of rhubarb. ~!@#$%^ Today, the knee and toe both are purplish and I'm hobbling along like I probably will thirty years from now If I'm still here. Other than that, it's a great day for a short road trip. Started out In Boca and headed for the beach. This shot is East Palmetto Park Road just before it intersects State Road A-1-A.

Headed south on A-1-A. This is the way I come to work so nothing new here. Stopped at the Deerfield Beach Fishing Pier for breakfast. This used to be a greasy spoon type restaurant and I was looking forward to this stop. Alas, nothing remains the same and this place has changed for the worse. It is now a limited cafeteria style eatry where you have to do most of the work yourself at high prices. I won't be back. Parking enforcement guy was writing me a ticket when I left. This used to be the restaurant parking lot but now it's fishing pier parking and I don't have a permit. Two big signs at the entrance but I missed them the way you do when a stop sign goes up in your neighborhood where one didn't exist before. Twenty-five dollars. Now I know I won't be back.

Still heading south in Deerfield Beach now on the beach access road. This road runs two blocks east of A-1-A and I pass the enforcement guy again spreading good cheer to others. I didn't even know this road was here when I first moved to Deerfield. A lot of other people don't know it's here either. it's one of the most pleasant and least crowded of the public beach areas I know of.

Back heading south on A-1-A. On Hillsboro Mile now, a one-street town, literally. To the east are mansions on the Atlantic Ocean. To the west is the Intracoastal Waterway. These residences straddle the road with docks and tennis courts on the Intracoastal side. The property limits and the city limits are the waterlines on both sides. The city is only one building lot wide! It would be a gated community if they could find a way to gate a state highway. The road is really nice in this area with lots of overhanging greenery and gentle curves. OH! OH! Bicyclists ahead, more unpredictable than deer when traveling in packs. Gotta put the camera down fer awhile.

At the south end of HillsBoro Mile is Lighthouse Point. This is Hillsboro Inlet (Ocean access between the ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway). We're crossing the drawbridge and that's the lighthouse in the distance. The rest of State Road A-1-A thru Lighthouse point is mostly residential.

We're in Pompano Beach now, still heading south on A-1-A. Mostly a mix of mid and high-rise residential and hotels along this stretch. There is beach access running a block or so to the east in some areas and BillyBob and I made a tenative thrust and missed. I didn't try to find my way over there again. More of the same in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, a bedroom community with some of the last mom-n-pop motels in the area and notorious for speed traps.

BillyBob on Fort Lauderdale Beach (Where the Boys Are). I spent a lot of my time here when I first moved to Florida thirty years ago. Some memories are clear, others are as foggy now as they were then. I practically lived at the Button, the Elbow Room and the Village Zoo bars for a time.

Still on A-1-A but bearing to the west now as we cross over the Intracoastal Waterway on the 17th Street Causeway Bridge. This is at the northern end of Port Everglades. There's also a passenger jet in the pic leaving Fort Lauderdale Airport which is also nearby.

Still on the bridge heading west. The bridge is a drawbridge but it is high to allow alot of traffic to pass underneath without raising it. The high rise construction of downtown Fort Lauderdale can be seen in the distance. When I moved here in 1972, downtown was sleepy and run down with only one tall building appropriately named the "Landmark Bank Building". You can't see it in this pic because it's surrounded by bigger buildings now.

About half a mile to the west of the Causeway Bridge is the Seminole Masonic Lodge. This is where my Lodge, Doric Lodge #140 now meets too. I wanted to find this place again so I can attend some meetings down the road. I've been here before when I was Master of my Lodge in 1981 and visiting different lodges almost every night but that's been awhile and I've forgotten a lot.

A few blocks west of there I intersected 3rd Avenue, then a couple of blocks further west, Andrews Avenue which is the ground zero north-south route thru Fort Lauderdale downtown. Still downtown, I turned east on Broward Blvd then North again onto North Federal Hwy which I followed several blocks to Holiday Park. This is where Doric Lodge stood when I was Master and until last year. It was a beautiful three-story building made of the finest materials when built in 1959. When I was Master, we consisted of over 950 members. When the Lodge was torn down to make room for these apartment buildings now under construction, we were down to 157 members, not enough to maintain the building and grounds.

Left Holiday Park by the north entrance which used to have a F86 Sabre Jet on a pedestal but which is also sadly gone now and crossed Sunrise Blvd to head a few blocks more north to 13th Street which I followed west again to Old Dixie Highway. At this corner a run down gin mill, the Genee Lee, still stands. I've hoisted a few here. North on Dixie Hwy. We are in Wilton Mannors now and I decided to see how my old apartment building "Camelot Shores" was faring. Couldn't remember my way around the neighborhood but I found it in about fifteen minutes. It looks the same. These were mostly only one-bedroom apartments but this place had "Location, Location, Location". The only four-story building in a sea of single-family homes, the views were terrific and, it is located on the middle river where you would see both freshwater and saltwater creatures while sitting on your screened porch. I've seen alligators, manatees, baracuda, rays, you name it here. Talked to the manager for a few minutes. It's a condo now. I left here in a huff when they raised my rent from $220 to $240 a month . . . Oh well, I've made more than a few dumb moves.

Back heading north on Dixie Hwy, we come to "five points", the spiritual center of wilton Mannors. This five-way intersection once had a A & W Root Beer Drive-in where the waitresses were still on roller skates in the early seventies. Also on this corner is "Red's Package Lounge", a landmark where you could (and maybe still can) watch saturday morning cartoons with your breakfast beer.

Still heading north on Dixie Highway. We are now in the City of Oakland Park. This pic is only unusual in that it is grazing land smack dab in the middle of the city. This was still a working farm when I first moved here. We are only a couple of miles from the ocean and surrounded by city.

Back in Pompano Beach, this time on Dixie Hwy heading north. We're on the backside of Pompano Executive Air Park and that is the Goodyear blimp hanger. Most of the rest of the trip on Dixie Hwy up to Boca Raton is warehouse district. I did see a nice yellow Task Force Chebby at one of the warehouses but I didn't have enough time with the camera before the light changed and those behind me started to get impatient.

POST Check

1.	Date and Time	October 12, 2003 10:30 AM
2.	Odometer	7,797
3.	Mileage	41
4.	Elapsed Time	2 hrs, 15 min

OK. BillyBob did good. The cab isn't too comfortable yet but the outside temperature was still in the low eighties by the time I got back and that wasn't too much of a factor this time. After the first thirty minutes of drive time, the transmission warmed up and I had to start double-clutching the upshift from first to second to avoid gear-grinding. I'd like to find a source of heavier gear oil to see if that would mute this problem (pun intended). I'm using the 80-90 weight stuff now and I'd like to find 140 weight. This is Florida and I'm not worried about cold conditions. 'Cept for the ~!@#$%^ parking ticket, it was a pleasant mini road trip and a good start for this section of the BillyBob site.

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Issued Sunday October 12, 2003

Updated Tuesday January 3, 2017

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