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 2 SITREP

Had the first of John Ray's cigars and got a couple of hours of fitful sleep with the TV blasting away and was back on my feet by seven AM. After getting squared away and making my hotel arrangements for Savannah, I went down to check BillyBob.

Sunday, June 10th 2007
Day 2 PRE Check

Checked all BillyBob's fluids (oil, tranny, diffie, brake fluid, coolant, battery). and tire pressure again. All fluids were ok 'cept the diffy. I topped it off and comtemplated a pinion seal repair sometime in BillyBob's future. The left front tire is down a few pounds. Everything else seems fine. BillyBob is running strong so far. BillyBob was parked next to a exterior stair tower and several people stopped to admire BillyBob while I was performing these tasks. Loaded up the travel cooler with ice again.

This hotel has a restaurant so a real breakfast was available which I took advantage of before checking out. Listed things to pack next time that I'd missed for this trip - Utility knife, windshield cleaner and a category 5 network cable for my laptop (as it stands I have to book hotels that offer wireless).


1.	Date and Time	June 10, 2007 11:00 AM
2.	Odometer	20,599
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

The old spanish fort, Castillo San Marcos (not shure if I got the name right), is just a couple of blocks down the street from the hotel so I stop for a few minutes to watch the reenactors' musket practice. I may take the tour again when I stop here on the way back. Last time I toured the fort was with my Brother, JR, in '71 when I picked him up in my hippie van after he finished sonar school in Key West.

I started up A-1-A with "Mother", the navigator on but no destination selected. Decided only to select the destination today if I get lost or when I get close to Savannah. It's a nice ride and A-1-A traffic is not as heavy here as it is in South Florida. This route brought me to the St Johns River ferry in Jacksonville. I have Mother programmed to avoid toll roads so she would not have brought me here. I'm glad I've kept her pleadings muted today.

Kept following A-1-A North until it turned inland and became just A-1-A. When it turned south, I gave Mother free rein to take me to Savannah. Here, we're coming up on a big cable-stayed bridge and I think we're in Georgia but I don't know. I tend to get lazy and stop paying attention to signs once I turn things over to the navigator. It is really hot today. I'm being parboiled. I put my arm on the window sill and immediately bring it inside again as the sun strikes it. It's only the second day and I've already got a trendy assymetrical left side sunburn.

On my last gas stop, I went in the convenience store to replenish drinking water. When I came out, I saw Billybob had spewed about a cup of coolant out of the overflow tank. the temp gauge had been reading just over the half-way point at 60 mph. Normally, day to day, the gauge reads 1/3 of the way up the scale. I had a bit of a problem restarting BillyBob and when he did restart, the gauge went up to the 3/4 point. I pulled over to the air station to check the tires and let the engine idle for a few minutes to see if the engine temp would settle out. This was one of those darn pay-for-air machines and the gauge was broken. Unless I wanted to hunt for my guage in the pickup bed tools, I would have to guess. Tires look good, so the hell with it. Not worth six bits at this time. The engine had cooled down by this time and I didn't drive above 50 mph for the rest of this leg. The temp gauge stayed just below the half-way mark.

When Mother informed me I had arrived, there was nothing but woods where she thought a hotel should be standing. Damnation! The hotel turned out to be another 1/4 mile on. This is the first time she's been off the mark. Maybe the heat's getting to her too. It was five PM. I got unloaded and settled in. Elsewhere in the hotel parking lot was this trailer with a BillyBob cousin and several ferds in unnatural positions. I barely got the TV on the History Channel in my room when I krashed. Slept like a log until an interview with "the inventor of the internet" on a global diaster program on the TV brought me snarling to my feet again. I sat down to write this entry. It's 4 AM, monday morning now.