Travelogue...part duex

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I finally found Gary in "downtown" Henegar, AL, a cool little town in Northern Alabama. He's a friendly chap, and really is into cruisers, and has a fine rig that has served him well.

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Now THAT is a clean engine bay! Makes my 40 look like it has never brushed it's teeth, LOL

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Gary and Rick had outfitted this Baton themselves as the "surrogate" baton, since the original was slightly lost in the shuffle... (At this point the original is still being shuffled towards the baton holder @Bripars40 )... Inside was already a veritable wealth of southern treasures like swamp cabbage, Georgia collard greens seeds, Scorpion pepper jelly, and Jamaican backyard coffee...(no photo proof of these claims)...
 
I do love that saying---"Not all who wander are Lost"----although sometimes I think it doesn't apply to me------if it weren't for Joel, I don't think we would have found Lickskillet---
 
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We moseyed our way through the back roads and back country towards the infamous Lickskillet, AL. The irony is, there is NO restaurant in Lickskillet, which is a shame! The official baton pass happened in "downtown" lickskillet, photo taken by a wayward (and slightly confused) 4runner owner that happened to be at the nearby outdoor outfitters store...

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Gary was a cool guy, and I wish I could have spent more time hanging out with him and telling stories, but I had to book back to Nashville and life (business) as usual!

I did first stop in Ft. Payne, AL to grab a coffee and a panini at "The Spot", a cool coffee shop in town.

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Daylight was waning, and I stopped and got a shot in front of Big Daddy's fireworks. I would say they likely have a year round business, but that day was a bit slow, LOL. I seemed to be the only one in the parking lot, and it felt shady, so I cruised on...

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After that, the holidays were upon us, and @Bripars40 and I decided to stage the next meet up in January. I now held both the Northern and Southern batons, and along the way netted new friends and cruiser brethren! I will defer to @Bripars40 (Brian) for the next leg of the journey, as he was (conveniently) coming to Nashville this past weekend to visit friends. I will let him tell the tale of the epic hand off!

cheers!

Joel
 
Looking forward to the next installment.
 
These photos are a little out of sequence for the thread, but just before @Tennessee80 meet with @sggoat , here are few photos of my rig brushing against the surrogate baton provided by @sggoat .

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Below: Enjoyed the day at Walter Howell's Blacksmith Shop in Henagar, AL.
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Okay here we go...It's a little long.

Over the past year and a half I have been building my 40 up from scratch. At the time I signed up to join the cross country trip my truck was still in pieces since I decided to go SOA, SM420, and a new to me 2f all at the same time. I thought this trip would be the kick in the pants I needed to finish most everything on the truck and get it road worthy. So I created my punch list of work and @Tennessee80 (Joel) and I picked a date to meet in Memphis for the handoff.

Here's the truck in its initial tear down phase:
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As we were rapidly approaching the travel date to Memphis I started to grow more and more concerned my truck wouldn't be ready. Thankfully we had a little hiccup in the plans and Joel said he would need to reschedule. I was relieved to say the least as I could take a small break from working on the truck and then truly have it ready for the trip.

Christmas time came and went, and Joel and I settled on another date. This time though it had a little more onus on me because I decided to drive all the way to Nashville to meet Joel and some friends from college. Normally, this trip should take 6-7 hours in a modern car. I figured 8+ in the 40 just to be safe.
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One week prior to the trip date I was still working against a huge list of items to button up on the truck. I shared the list with my friends in Nashville and they laughed just a little wondering if I was even going to attempt the trip. Fast forward to the night before the trip and I'm covered in grease and my truck is running. Albeit poorly but it's all put together and has working lights, and brake lights. The next morning a good mechanic friend came over and helped me time the rig and track down a few small wiring issues. It was time to head off!
 
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Now I need to mention that this was the very first time I had ever driven this truck's particular setup on the road. I had driven it when it was completely stock, but this was far from that now. I picked a town 45 minutes away and told my wife if I had major issues between our home and there I would turn around. I left at 1PM with the idea I would probably arrive around 9-10 that night.

Luckily, I made it through the first town and continued on the journey. About two hours into the drive I pulled over to fill up since I was heading into a pretty deserted area. When I parked at the gas station I was shocked to see oil dripping from the ENTIRE undercarriage. I freaked! Opening the hood revealed a large spray of oil on the hood and around the passenger side of the engine compartment. I ran inside the gas station and picked up some oil to refill the truck. Now while all of this is happening several people have given me "nice truck" comments. A few came over to talk while I was adding oil. All I could respond was, "Yeah, it's a great truck. It's trying to kill itself right now though."

After adding oil I noticed the side cover on the engine didn't have all of the bolts tightened down. I thought, "well surely that is what caused all of this oil in the engine." I couldn't see anything actively dripping while parked and the truck running so I decided to press on.

The next stop for gas and oil was just outside of Memphis. I pulled into a gas station and the truck died. Crap! I filled up with gas and more oil (about two quarts in two hours) and pulled the little jump box out of the back. Barely got the truck restarted and pulled out of the gas station and into the side parking lot. Couple more issues: 1) still leaking a lot of oil, 2) charging system not working, 3) jumper box is dead 4) I'm super weary of continuing 5) I'm hungry and I look rough (have had the windows down going 55mph for the last 5 hours)

I decided I would stop for a dinner break and work on my truck in the parking lot. "Hmm, what can I eat?" I do love Taco Bell so I walked over and ordered some burritos and called my wife. I told her I was considering turning around since my truck was leaking so much oil and wasn't running properly. She encouraged me to continue since she would rather have me break down in a populated area rather than the sticks of Arkansas. "Good thinking! I'll keep going." (Now what my wife didn't say was that she had flights pulled up on the computer in case I had to park the truck at a shop and fly home).

I texted Joel (@Tennessee80) at this point to let him know I was having issues and may or may not make it there the next day. He was understanding and said to stay safe. I spent about an hour tightening different things in the engine trying to find the source of the leaks. The nice manager at Taco Bell also gave me a jump. Thanks Ms. Ann! I did find the fuse was the issue with my charging system not working all the time. And with that and two gallons of oil in the back of the truck I continued on.
 
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From Memphis to Nashville every hour I stopped to get gas and check the oil. There were definitely some gas stations I wished I hadn't stopped, but every time I stopped someone commented (usually in an encouraging way) about the truck. I was growing in confidence with the truck other than its loss of oil. That was until I started to get smoked out in the cab. Windows down and kick vents open and it looked like I was smoking a hookah in the truck. I thought surely this thing really is trying to kill itself! Thankfully it was only a disconnected side cover outlet. This also should have helped me understand the oil issue, but more on that later.

Other than adding oil and gas it did okay. At 11:50 PM I pulled into my buddies parking lot. Almost 11 hours straight! In a vehicle I highly doubted would make it 1 hour out of town. Super cool!


I caught up with my friends and then showered to remove the road grime.
 
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The next morning Joel and I scheduled the transfer in downtown Nashville for later that day. My buddies came in their car and @tone33 joined us for the meet. I pulled up in front of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. There weren't really parking spots so I took a chance on parking right in front with the truck on. I figured a cop would be more inclined to talk to me than just outright tell me I needed to move. I few people said nice truck as I was parked there and then one guy decided he needed to act like a middle schooler and try to make fun of me. Really he just made me laugh.

Joel and Tone pulled up and we jumped out to take pictures and transfer the batons. We snapped some pictures of the transfer and looked around at each other's trucks. Then we proceeded to drive our trucks over to a local brewery and grab some hangout time. While we were talking Joel and I found out that I worked at a summer camp during college that he had attended back when he was a kid. Pretty cool connection since the guys I had come to hangout with in Nashville had also worked there. Small world!

After we grabbed a beer and talked we decided to walk over to grab dinner. On the way over we passed by a long single bay garage that had a sweet Ford Woody Wagon. I had to see it so I walked into the garage and asked the owner if he wouldn't mind showing us his vehicle. His name was Jim and he did an amazing job of restoring this old Ford. Each panel had 20 coats of Polyurethane applied by hand every two years. You couldn't even see a brush stroke in the gloss. Simply beautiful. He drives it 20,000 miles every year and doesn't care if it's decreasing in value by driving it that much. He's going to drive to Hot Springs in the next couple of weeks, and I'm hoping that by mere luck he'll be there at the same time I am there to transfer the batons.

After sharing some stories and some not so great food we all parted ways. The batons were in my possession now it was time to rest before the journey the next day.
 
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The next morning I was loaded up and heading out at 7am with some lovely rain to join me on the journey. Now I should probably explain that the reason I drove to Nashville with the windows down was because of the exhaust leaking into the cab. My truck is like swiss cheese in some areas so the exhaust can flow pretty good into the cab. This presents a problem in the rain though, and I decided I would drive with the windows partially up. I had brought some towels for the drive and began stuffing those along the floorboards and around my seat plugging small holes where exhaust was leaking in. After 3 hours of this I was soaked, but I finally could roll my windows up more.

Did I mention that I was soaked!?! It was pouring rain and my truck was leaking everywhere. The roof leaked, the sides leaked, and the back absolutely was soaked. I thought I had the one red baton tucked away from the water intrusion, but... a little bit of water got into the box. Don't worry I drained it out and let everything dry after I was done.

By the end of my journey home I was exhausted, and yet I was giddy. After almost 20 hours of driving my truck had made it to and from Nashville, TN. A huge personal accomplishment for me to see that I was able to build a pretty good running rig and it didn't kill me. I did mention earlier about the oil blowing in the engine compartment. I think I have a sticking valve since I checked with the original owner of the engine and he said he only had to add less than a quart between oil changes. Before I leave for Hot Springs on February 12th I am going to check the valves and do a compression test.

I am incredibly thankful for this journey. I met some great guys along the way. I grew in confidence with my rig, and I accomplished something I will hopefully never forget! I'm excited to see where these batons go in the coming months. After I transfer the batons to @Copenhagen1 (Kerry) and his brother Alan I will post the remaining parts of my journey.

-Brian
 
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Times two, great effort Brian and really cool meeting you and your friends. Best wishes on continuing to own a cool rig like you have!

On a sidenote, that was a pretty cool Ford wood paneled wagon we saw for sure
 
Bripars40 said:
View attachment 1389952 View attachment 1389953 View attachment 1389954 View attachment 1389955 View attachment 1389956 The next morning I was loaded up and heading out at 7am with some lovely rain to join me on the journey. Now I should probably explain that the reason I drove to Nashville with the windows down was because of the exhaust leaking into the cab. My truck is like swiss cheese in some areas so the exhaust can flow pretty good into the cab. This presents a problem in the rain though, and I decided I would drive with the windows partially up. I had brought some towels for the drive and began stuffing those along the floorboards and around my seat plugging small holes where exhaust was leaking in. After 3 hours of this I was soaked, but I finally could roll my windows up more.

Did I mention that I was soaked!?! It was pouring rain and my truck was leaking everywhere. The roof leaked, the sides leaked, and the back absolutely was soaked. I thought I had the one red baton tucked away from the water intrusion, but... a little bit of water got into the box. Don't worry I drained it out and let everything dry after I was done.

By the end of my journey home I was exhausted, and yet I was giddy. After almost 20 hours of driving my truck had made it to and from Nashville, TN. A huge personal accomplishment for me to see that I was able to build a pretty good running rig and it didn't kill me. I did mention earlier about the oil blowing in the engine compartment. I think I have a sticking valve since I checked with the original owner of the engine and he said he only had to add less than a quart between oil changes. Before I leave for Hot Springs on February 12th I am going to check the valves and do a compression test.

I am incredibly thankful for this journey. I met some great guys along the way. I grew in confidence with my rig, and I accomplished something I will hopefully never forget! I'm excited to see where these batons go in the coming months. After I transfer the batons to @Copenhagen1 (Kerry) and his brother Alan I will post the remaining parts of my journey.

-Brian
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I think I felt the same way about my rig. lots of work to get it ready, and it performed!- got me there AND back. You gotta feel pride in you and the truck' accomplishment!
 
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