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 5 SITREP

The Asheville Holiday Inn Express isn't on a par with the one in Commerce. I ended up with cereal and coffee. Decided to stick with Holiday Inn, however. Roanoke is all booked up. Found a Holiday Inn Express in Rocky Mount, VA which is about the same distance fron the Blue Ridge Parkway. Then the Holiday Inn location was loaded into Mother.

Wednesday, June 13th 2007
Day 5 PRE Check

Checked all BillyBob's fluids (oil, tranny, diffie, brake fluid, coolant, battery). Oil, tranny and diffie were a smigeon low, but I believe that is because BillyBob was parked on a slope and as a result, the driver side of the truck was lower than the passenger side. Two good ole boys in their eighties came over to talk to me about the truck while I was checking the fluids.


1.	Date and Time	June 13, 2007 9:30 AM
2.	Odometer	21,280
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 day started off well. There was a chance of fog but it didn't happen. The ice machine at the hotel was empty but the first gas stop was right next to the hotel and I got ice there. I got back on the Blue Ridge Parkway. BillyBob is running cool in the mountains, 1/3 of the way up the temp guage most of the time. On long, steep grades, it wll get up to a touch over half way. There are quite a few tunnels. Sometimes they are finished with ashlar masonry on one end and rough like a mine entrance on the other. None are lighted.

Not all of the parkway is in the mountains. There are stretches of rolling farmland. When I left this rest area, I had to wait for a wild turkey to urge her six young ones across the road. The roadway is not divided. You can turn around and go the other way anytime you want. In the lowlands especially, there are many small roads entering the parkway. Egress signs are sparse. The parkway is treated pretty much like a secret.

The guy sitting to the left of the mill gave us the thumbs up as we passed by. By mid-afternoon it began to rain some. Not a hard rain so it wasn't a problem. There are no gas signs on the parkway. When I needed to make my second gas stop. I stopped at a rest area and programmed my location into Mother so I could find my way back to this spot. Then I picked "Fuel" from Mother's "Where to" menu selections. The closest was a mom and pop operation .8 miles away as the crow flies. I told Mother to take us there. She took us to the station and back to the rest stop afterwards.

I told you that so I could tell you this. When I reckoned we were getting close to Rocky Mount (again no signage), I directed Mother to take us to the hotel. She immediately tried to get us off the parkway. I ignored her until she actually told me to turn around at a rest stop and go the other way. I programmed the rest stop location like I had for the gas stop, and let Mother have her way. She backtracked me 4 miles on the parkway and directed me to turn onto "Kelly School Road".

Holy Spit! How did a name like "Kelly School Road" ever come to be associated with this indian trail? It was as wide as the truck and ungraded. There was no way to turn around. Mother was getting even with me for ignoring her, I guess. She indicated I only had 2.1 miles on this dirt ditch thru the forest. I went for it. I passed three mailboxes. I wondered what happens if you meet a vehicle coming the other way because there is absolutely not enuf room to pass here. Like the illegal alien area in West Palm Beach, this is another place I do not want to break down!

Kelly School Road dumped me unto a bit wider crumbling asphalt road like the one that scared me a few days ago. It was steep with 5 mph curves and switchbacks. I had to transverse it in second gear most of the way. My first sign of civilization was a lost junk yard. I finally passed my first local. BillyBob was my passport here. He got a thumbs up! More side roads and four more thumbs up before I reached an urban environment again. Mother took me to the hotel without further trickery.