From the Vale Valley Website comes this story of one brother buying CJ-2A #No. 23995 for another.  It’s written by Raymond Bleesz.  You can see pictures of his jeep on the CJ-2A Page.

It is said that the Willys Jeep won the hearts and minds of all those who served in World War II, and that the jeep won the war.

My 1946 CJ2A jeep, No. 23995, was in the assembly line of production when the war ended.

This jeep with its “Go Devil” four- banger engine, a body from the Willys Ford Overland Co. in Toledo, Ohio, was one of thousands produced during the war years and later into preproduction civilian jeeps at the end of the war.

In 1990, this jeep was given to me as a birthday gift by my brother, who had purchased it from a good old boy in Frederick, Md., towed it across country and presented it to me upon his arrival here in Edwards.  . . . . . .Read more below

http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20120812/EDITS/120819972/1021&ParentProfile=1065

Last Tuesday Ann and I hit the road to do research for the next book.  Having written much of the book already, I still have many details to add.  Nothing can replace following the pathes of your characters to see, smell, and hear what they would see, smell hear (hence the reason I need to write a book with Europe as the backdrop 🙂 ).  In this case, we had the follow the characters as they ferried from Seattle to Bainbridge Island, drove up to thePort Townsend area and then ferried over to Whidbey Island and finally ferried from Whidbey to Mukilteo to drive back to Renton. While we had to take three Washington State Ferries and cross one floating bridge, the characters travel in different ways to different places, so I’m giving away little with this information.

Here are a few pictures from our trip.  In this picture, we are on the Ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge Island.  You’ll note the new addition to the Seattle Waterfront on the right of the photo, the giant ferris wheel, which doesn’t look so giant against the buildings in the background:

Here I am at Port Gamble, enjoying the sites and sounds of the quaint little former company town (ok actually I am checking email):

Ann found a big gun at Fort Flagler.  She does enjoy her weapons.  She provided a running tutorial on what was missing:

As the suns sets at Mutiny Bay, we snap our picture at the exact location I include in the book: