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 7 SITREP

Alas, it looks like the Commerce Holiday Inn was the exception, not the rule. I resigned myself to cereal and coffee again. My reservations at the Hawthorn Suites in Fogelsville outside Macungie were made back in november and the address was already loaded into Mother. I fiddled with Mother's settings again.

Friday, June 15, 2007
Day 7 PRE Check

Checked all BillyBob's fluids again and everything is ok. I'm amazed that after eighteen hundred miles, BillyBob's oil is only down half a quart. Checked my mileage too. It's better than I expected at 17.55 mpg up to this point.


1.	Date and Time	June 15, 2007 9:45 AM
2.	Odometer	22,014
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 rolling hills and farms in the Pennslyvania countryside outside Gettysburg were a very pleasant start to this last leg of the roadtrip before the truck show. The weather was perfect. Not too hot and non-threatening cloud cover. The only place I gassed up today was a Sheetz and they had free air so I was able to get the tire pressure back to 35 lbs on all tires.

Came up behind this truck. Nothing remarkable about it 'cept it has my last name on the back. Kephart Trucking out of Bigler, Pennsylvania. That's in my neck of the woods so I'm probably related to these folks a couple of branches back on the family tree.

The run between Gettysburg and Macungie turned out to be one of the nicest on the trip so far. BillyBob and I arrived by 3 in the afternoon and got settled in the hotel in Fogelsville down the road from Macungie 'bout 7 miles. Everyone else was at the truck show. I turned on my cell phone and found two urgent messages from Rob English. I don't get voicemail very often so I had to stop to figure out how to retrieve the messages. Rob was expecting me to arrive earlier and he was concerned that BillyBob and I were brokedown somewhere. I called him back and he said to come over to the show because they had a space roped off for BillyBob. I said OK, we were on our way.

Day 7 POST Check


1.	Date and Time	June 15, 2007 3:00 PM
2.	Odometer	22,176
3.	Mileage	162
4.	Elapsed Time	5 hrs, 15 minutes

Now, for the rest of the story. BillyBob and I arrived at the show. I was pre-registered so, after, I got my info packet, I turned left and headed to where Rob had directed me on the phone. One of the OldGMCtruck group was hangin' at the registration booth to intercept me and he started directing me towards the BillyBob berth. When the others in the group spied BillyBob approaching, they started whistling and cheering. All the other people in the area were watching this commotion and probably wondering "What the heck?". I was a bit embarrassed. There is a lot of fine iron at this show, detailed out to the max. BillyBob still has Boca Raton parrot poop on his roof.

I started getting acclimated and looking at the other trucks in the OldGMCtrucks.com row. I wanted some pics of Tony's '37 chevy hot rod for my brother as he's looking for one of these trucks. I found George, Vern and Tony admiring the dents, poop, and blood left on Tony's truck earlier in the day when a deer ran into the side of the truck while Arlyn was getting a chance to drive it. Tony took it in stride. He'll fix the dents when he gets around to it. For now, they're just character marks. Arlyn felt bad but it doesn't matter who was in that driver's seat, the results would have been the same. A deer decides to come out of the woods and run into you, there's no way to avoid it.

As things were winding down for the day, we headed out, in convoy fashion, to a catered BBQ, Mike Reese had setup for the group. I thanked him for his efforts later on (we all did) but he modestly replied that it was just a phone call. Yeah, right. In the convoy here, mike's "Ashton" pumper truck is leading George's '60 GMC pickup in front of me and BillyBob.

Some of the trucks lined up at the BBQ were Mike's "Ashton" pumper, George's '60 GMC, BillyBob, Rob's GMC "Huckster", Bill's GMC Hydromatic long bed, Tony's '37 chevy, Bruce's '54 GMC hydromatic, Sweet's chevy, Gary's GMC "crackerbox" tractor and Vern's Dodge worktruck. I think Phil's GMC pickup might be in there between Sweet's and Gary's truck but I'm not shure. Curse these aging Mark I eyeballs!

Tim Lederman set up a keg of beer he brewed especially for the event and I put out a box of after dinner cigars next to the keg. While we were comfortably resting with our full bellys, Rob started handing out awards, BillyBob got, not one, but two coveted Cannonball Baker long distance run awards (because he had mistakenly printed the certificate twice) and a GMC 270 piston. Rob was rewarded for his efforts on behalf of the group with a swap meet carry bag. The cloth pattern displayed half-naked cowboys. Rob will be a hit at all the Key West swap meets.

Afterwards, the guys drove each other's trucks. This OldGMCtrucks tradition has the truck's owner sitting in the passenger seat while another member of the group learns to drive it. Pushrod Pete asked me if I wannted to try out his immaculate '46 GMC pickup. I want to but this truck has a hotrod GMC 302 engine backed up by a non-synro gearbox. You have to double-clutch and feel for the sweet spot on every shift. I thanked Pete but declined. I'm not man enuf for this truck yet, but I'll be back at a future event to be tested.

Mike topped off the the event by pulling his pumper over to the creek on the site and pumping a stream of creek water high into the air across the parking lot. Lottsa fun and impressive. We retired to the hotel to bed down and dream of . . . women. That's what guys always dream about but this time it was women in old trucks!

You can email me at webmaster@laroke.com