Travels with BillyBob Log

WHAT'S NEW is a chronological listing of updates to the BillyBob site.

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.

PARTS SHOP The Parts Shop is a repository of How-To articles. Things that I have done over and over enough times to have developed a procedure. This gives me a checklist and saves brain cells.

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

7. Macungie Run

Day 15 SITREP

Leaving Clearfield today. Planned to be in Gettysburg tonite again but the hotels were booked up so I settled for Chambersburg, Pa.

Saturday, June 23, 2007
Day 15 PRE Check

Checked BillyBob's fluids but he was parked on a hill again. Pretty sure that diffy oil was getting low so I guessimated and squirted some in the pumpkin. That's when I found out that some gear oil had somehow escaped the it's container and fouled the ammo box it was stored in. Not a big spill and I cleaned it up best I could but I'll probably rethink the fluids storage for the next trip.


1.	Date and Time	June 23, 2007 8:30 AM
2.	Odometer	23,024
3.	Comfort Supplies	Cellphone, AAA+ membership, reading glasses, my lucky WWII Army Air Corps mechanics cap, cheap aviator sunglasses, small cooler with water and trail mix
4.	Roadtrip Supplies	Inventory
5.	Prep	pack up, mount navigator

Engage

Heading out of Clearfield along the west branch of the Susquehanna River. "Mother" is in passive mode. I'm doing the navigating for the first half of today's leg. I've been over this road a hundred times in the past. BillyBob and I are traveling thru the towns of Curwensville, Grampion and Mahaffey first on our way down to Johnstown, Pa.

This is a shortcut between Hastings and Carrolltown that Dad used when the family first moved from Clearfield to Johnstown in 1969. We called it the potato patch road. JR, the family dog, Duke, and I got stuck in this area during a freak spring snowstorm in my '69 Javelin SST. It had summer wide oval tires and no weight in the trunk. That is a story for another day, however.

Gassed up when I hit Westmont, the surburb of Johnstown where we lived. I drove by the house to see what the new owners had done with it since JR and I had sold it two years ago while settling Mom's estate. It looks pretty much the same 'cept for the addition of brown shutters and a big brown star. I saw this same star on six residences in my travels thru southwest Pennsylvania so I suspect some significance beyond ornament but I haven't been able to find anything on the Internet about it.

From Johnstown, it was down to Ligonier again. Ligonier is the location of Fort Ligonier, a colonial fort from the struggle between the English and French for the domination of the North American Continent. It's been restored and the last time I toured it was in the seventies. Wish I had time to stop today.

It was on to the Flight 93 Memorial at Shanksville, Pa. I was still navigating. I made a little handdrawn map from my visit to the temporary memorial website. Mother was confirming my course changes. Despite the narrow road and obscure location, the memorial is visited by 5,000 a week, on average. It was crowded today and difficult to find a parking space. Warms my heart. This weekend is "Thunder in the Valley" in Johnstown, a motorcycle charity event. I had already passed hundreds of them today and many gave BillyBob the thumbs up (or out to the side as cyclists do). They were here in force.

With a "Let's Roll" license plate on BillyBob's front end, I had to come here. I like the nature of the temporary memorial. I wish they would keep it since the planned permanent memorial is so poorly designed. It was the concept of some La La Land architect in the Rodney King "Can't we just all get along" mode. It's a healing theme and, from the air, looks like a crescent with the opening pointing towards Mecca. Who are we honoring here, the hijackers or the ordinary Americans who overcame their passive programming and tried to defend themselves and ended up saving the Capitol?

Leaving the Memorial, I let Mother take the lead. We were passing thru Schellsburg when I spotted this beautifully restored '46 Chevy at VFW Post 4440. There were guys standing around the truck so, I made a u-turn and went back to look at it. Turned out there was a cruise-in scheduled for later in the day and I was asked to stay for it. It would have made for a late arrival in Chambersburg so I declined but I hung out for a couple of hours instead.

The owner of the '46 Chevy is Art Pepe on the right. The restorer is Preston Dietz on the left. I had a good time talking with these guys. Art also has his eye on a '23 Dodge truck to bring back to life if he can swing the purchase.

Preston arrived in this '61 Corvette. It is his daily driver. He had to leave early for a circle track event and he got on it after he had turned on to the highway. The engine sounded really sweet but something let go in the drivetrain. The Vette continued on but I don't know how far. Just Damn! I hope it's not too bad. Preston is a darn nice guy.

I continued on to Chambersburg. BillyBob is handling the long upgrades in the mountians fairly well but sometimes pretty slow in second gear. When the opportunity permits, I pull over for a few minutes to stretch my legs and let the fast movers pass. People have been pretty understanding of the old truck on this trip so far. I've had only one person use her horn as a weapon on me.

Day 15 POST Check


1.	Date and Time	June 23, 2007 4:20 PM
2.	Odometer	23,244
3.	Mileage	220
4.	Elapsed Time	7 hrs, 50 minutes

Time to get some rest. The next leg of the roadtrip is to Charlottesville, Virginia, and a visit with Cosmo, a fellow old truck enthusiast and tinkerer.

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