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.

10. Hutchinson Roadtrip Day 10

SITREP

Today, Memorial day, I'm going to see an old friend, Rick Boswell and his wife Elaine, in Oklahama City. Rick is in the Navy but I worked with him in the early eighties in Boca Raton. He initially developed the interiors department for the same firm I still work for. He left to run his own firm with another mutual friend and play around with race cars.

Some background now. I also worked for another architect, Nic Hosking, in the early eighties. One of my co-workers there was Scott Macleod. Scott was an astronaut in the Apollo Program at NASA and also was with the F-14 test program. We call him Commander. His stories held us all spellbound and Rick was moved to make a decision.

At the age of thirty-five, Rick enlisted in the Navy with the help of Scott and a couple of Congressmen. He couldn't qualify as a pilot due to a fused ankle (I think). He went into Aviation mechanics. The last time I saw him was when he stopped by the Krash Lab after the Haiti operations. He was working with C-46 Chinook 'copters.

Time passes. Nic Hosking asked me to try to locate Rick on the intarweb. I didn't locate him at that time but I found a newspaper article where it said he was a crew chief for the Blue Angels. The newspaper article was about the end of his deployment with the Blues and that he had been made Blue Angel of the year. I'm going to Oklahoma City to get the real skinny.

Sunday, May 26th 2008
Day 10 PRE Check

Weather is ok now, but there's a good chance for heavy storm activity later on. Checked all the fluids (diffie, tranny, engine, brake, steering box, coolant and battery). Topped off the steering gear box with STP. Something nagged at the corner of my mind after I fooled around with BillyBob yesterday. I realized what it was this morning. I forgot to put the rotor back on the distributor after I checked the points. Man, I'm glad I 'membered that. It would have had me scratching my head this morning when BillyBob didn't start.


1.	Date and Time	May 26, 2008 9:30 AM
2.	Odometer	31,043
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	Mount navigator, setup GPS tracker

Engage

This is a short run and I should be there by early afternoon. I pointed Mother in the direction of Rick and Elaine's house and off we went. Skys are overcast and Mother keeps us on divided highway almost the whole distance. Pretty uneventful and I'm gonna concentrate on my visit with Rick and Elaine for this dispatch.

Day 10 Google Earth Track

Day 10 Google Map Track


1.	Date and Time	May 26, 2008 1:30 PM +=
2.	Odometer	30,250 +=
3.	Mileage	207 +=
4.	Elapsed Time	4 hrs +=

The "+=" indications above means I was sloppy in my recordkeeping. I got right into the beer with Boz and Elaine and the wheels fell off for me.

Hangin' at the Manor Boswell

Elaine and Rick have a great backyard playground. Decking, koi pond under the trellis, spa in the little outbuilding, seating areas. I don't know what's missing. The house is the same way. They are only deployed here for three years, then the Navy ships them somewhere else. I'm a batchelor living in the same rental for twenty-two years and I think I have stuff on my kitchen counter that hasn't moved in three!

There are no more pics for the day. That's the price I paid for putting a big dent in their beer supply. We had a big BBQ dinner. Boz grilled two different kinds of meat and Elaine fixed a potato dish and a macroni dish that are impossible for me to describe. I eat microwave dinners. I can't describe good food. I just know it when I taste it. this gal hails from Georgia and she knows firearms too. A keeper fer shure.

With fat bellies, we jumped in BillyBob and took the Oklahoma City tour. It wasn't until we were downtown that I realized I didn't have my camera or glasses with me. First, we went to the Murrah Federal Building Memorial. I think it's really well done. Then, we walked around Bricktown. This is a restored area of old brick commercial buildings with a canal water feature running thru it. Very nice. We topped it off with a beer at Toby Keith's Place. Boz met Toby and a lot of other celebs when he was with the Blues.

We went back to the Manor Boswell and had a few more beers. Elaine helped me with some laundry. We all turned in by ten o'clock. You get up early in the Navy. Sometime during all of the above, Boz showed me his scrapbooks, His Angels helmet which they presented him and his cockpit video. Even tho' he's not a pilot, he's gotten to take the stick on three machines. A Sea Knight Helicopter, The big LCAT Hovercraft and the Blue Angels fighter. Heck of a deal.

And a heck of a Memorial Day. I remembered my Uncle Anson on the ride down and the others who are still out on patrol.

You can email me at webmaster@laroke.com