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 3

SITREP

Got up around daybreak and joined Dave in the kitchen for coffee and blueberry muffins that Jenny prepared. I took some of these with me. We had our coffee and muffins on the front porch. Then Dave tinkered around the garage while I attended to BillyBob. BillyBob had been guarded and marked, with sandy pawprints, by Dave and Jenny's cat. Dave told me this fella had used up several of his nine lives early when the young kids had put him in a microwave to dry him out. His fur was smokin' when an adult came to the rescue. Who knows what the microwave did to his brain. Yesterday, he had lain under the diffie for some time so I guess it wasn't leaking the way the truck was parked. BillyBob looks right at home in this setting.

Monday, May 19th 2008
Day 3 PRE Check

Checked all BillyBob's fluids (oil, tranny, diffie, brake fluid, coolant, steering gear and battery). and tire pressure. Again, the only thing I topped off was the steering gear box with STP. Dave gave me some glass cleaner and I cleaned the worst of the bugs and pawprints off the windshield. Didn't bother with the pawprints and bugs on the rest of the truck. They give BillyBob farm truck character. I forgot to mark the time when we pulled out for the next leg but I think it was around 8:45 am. This is the last view of Casa Earle. Dave is in the garage fiddling around with the '55. I set Mother in the direction of Hutchinson and didn't tinker with any of her parameters.


1.	Date and Time	May 19, 2008 8:45 AM
2.	Odometer	29,777
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

Mother kept to the county and state roads for the first part of this leg and it was more pleasant forest and farm country. The temperature was cool and comfortable. There were stiff breezes at times and I had to keep both hands on the wheel.

We went thru a few nice panhandle towns and hit the 'Bama border sometime around mid-morning. We were on a U.S. route by this time and there was a welcome center. I downloaded some coffee and checked BillyBob. He appears to be runnin' fine.

We ran on the U.S. route up to Montgomery. Starting to hit rolling hill country now and BillyBob had to work a bit. I started to use premium fuel at the next gas stop for my own piece of mind. At least we're out of Florida and won't have to deal with ethanol fer awile (I hope).

Last of the fairly calm traffic before Mother decided to put us on I65 just before Montgomery. we were dicin' it up going thru the city when a late model Ferd pickup passed us beeping his horn. Didn't know what his story was until I saw a large Freemason decal on his back window. I beeped back. At a gas station, I had BillyBob's hood up to cool the engine and a fella in a mid-seventies chevy pickup pulled up and asked me if I needed help. I started BillyBob up and the good samaritan took off before I could snap his pic.

Traffic was picking up as we headed into Birmingham. The hills were a bit steeper and BillyBob didn't like it much when I urged him on faster. His engine temp would climb to the 3/4" mark when I put my foot in it. I backed off and tried to keep the temp at the halfway mark. Mother was set to avoid traffic but she disregarded that setting and ran me thru the Birmingham gauntlet. I thank the residents of Birmingham who let us survive this run.

Late in the afternoon, we were approaching our goal of 350 miles for the day. I stopped in a rest stop and checked BillyBob over again. The driver's side rear wheel was running hotter than the others. I reached around the wheel to feel the backing plate and axle tube. Hot to the touch but it didn't burn my hand. Pumpkin was hot too so I ckecked the lube level. bout a half inch below the fill level. Don't know if I have cause for concern or not. Found a Hampton Inn in Cullman, AL. Great! There is a Ruby Tuesdays across the hotel parking lot and I don't have to try to walk across a highway to get there. Time for a burger and a few beers . . . Damnation! It's a dry county!