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 4 SITREP

They had a better continental breakfast here including some hot food to go with the usual cereal and pastry fare. I went straight for the bacon and cheese omlets. Steve Graham, the author of "Eat what you want and die like a man" would be proud. I'm waiting for his next book that currently has the working title "Code Blue Cooking". This is a new Holiday Inn Express and the manager's name is Jodi Kephart. How could it be anything but squared away? I said the heck with Orbitz and Bellhop.com and went straight to the Holiday Inn site and made arrangements for tonite's stay in Asheville, NC. Then today's stops and waypoints were loaded into Mother.

Tuesday, June 12th 2007
Day 4 PRE Check

Checked all BillyBob's fluids (oil, tranny, diffie, brake fluid, coolant, battery). and tire pressure again. All fluids were ok this time 'cept the tranny. Everything else is good. Topped off the tranny with gear oil. I'm surprised BillyBob doesn't need engine oil yet. Almost a thousand miles and it still reads full on the dipstick. The several leaks that keep the chassis wet are annoying but at least they aren't gushers . . . yet.


1.	Date and Time	June 12, 2007 10:00 AM
2.	Odometer	21,084
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 hotel in Commerce is on US 441. The south end of the Blue Ridge Parkway intersects US 441 at Cherokee, North Carolina. I want to take US 441. Mother is programmed to avoid highways and US 441 is considered a highway in places so I leave her in passive mode today 'cept for when I get near my destination. BillyBob starts out strong but we're getting into the hills now. Early on, I had to follow US 441 up a two mile, seven percent grade. I wuz following a guy with a trailor in the right hand lane. We couldn't do much better than forty. When I tried to give BillyBob more gas, the clutch started slipping.

At the first gas stop of the day, I spied an autozone a few establishments away down the strip. I backtracked down there and got a couple of containers of lead substitute. I have a couple of containers in one of the ammo boxes but I don't want to unload the bed to find them right now. The general consensus in the stovebolt community is that you don't need the additive unless you're pulling heavy loads and/or running the engine hard. I've decided to use the additive every few tank loads just for the xtra insurance while I'm in the mountains.

After passing thru Cherokee, North Carolina, I picked up the south end of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Riding thru Cherokee is like crusing thru one big arts and crafts flea market. I didn't have time to stop. you hit the steep slopes and sharp turns as soon as you enter the parkway. 45 is the top speed here. 45 would be pretty scary in BillyBob. I could tell when I tracked thru a turn too fast . . . The cooler would slide across the rubber floor mat and slam into my ankle. Most of the hills are so steep, I can't get BillyBob running faster than 25 to 35 mph. It was wonderful!

There are narrow, unlighted, curving tunnels and sheer dropoffs. There are overlooks often where I could pull off to let faster traffic pass but the best thing is that there was hardly any traffic. After awhile, I found the sweet spot where BillyBob was making the least number of distressing sounds and I spent my time trying to keep him there. I was cold too. I had to close the cowl vent. BillyBob seemed to lose a bit of power. Probably the altitude. He is tuned for sea level. Or . . . it could be my imagination.

Made it to Asheville, North Carolina by mid-afternoon. I got settled in at the hotel and left phone messages for Christine and Lee DeVico, the friends I was here to visit. Christine called when she was leaving work and offered to pick me up on the way home. I was confident Mother could find their house so I declined. I found their house . . . kinda. Christine was standing on their deck waving as I passed by the first time. Christine is the Boss's daughter and used to work at the office in Boca Raton. Those of you who have been reading the BillyBob log entries for a long time may recall that we would contend with each other over the parking space under BillyBob's tree on Boca Raton downtown festival days. Lee has played a mean bass guitar in a few bands over the years, both here and in South Florida. He was an original member of the Fabulous Fleetwoods. The first time I saw them, and I may have been hallucinating at the time, they were playing Grateful Dead renditions of Smokey Robinson songs.

After I got the nickle tour, we headed off for dinner. I got a tour of the downtown area under re-development and a fine dinner on my hosts. We went back to the house after a driving tour of some of the projects Lee's company is working on. Got caught up on what's been happening since the last time I saw them. They were down for the Barrett-Jackson auction in April and helped get the '41 Ford and '39 Caddy home. We made our goodbyes and I headed back here to write this up and post it.