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Messin’ w/ Texas in April & May 2015: Summary

April 11, 2015 • CATEGORIES: Features • TAGS: . This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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Getting this Texas trip going proved to be a challenge. Multiple issues kept us from leaving for weeks, then additional issues along the way added unforeseen obstacles, from an ill grandfather prior to departure, to me getting ill early on in the trip, to an emergency trip flight for Ann back to see her grandfather late in the trip.

Just the same, we managed to meet some wonderful folks, dine one some great food, and enjoy the hospitality of Texas. We look for ward to going returning (ed note: which we did briefly in late 2016).

Our trip tipped the odometer at just over 10,000 miles and 54 days. We explored the west, south, east, central, north and panhandle areas of Texas; yet there was still more we couldn’t see. We saw the Rio Grande, ate Texas BBQ, dipped our toes into the Caribbean on South Padre Island, rode a glass bottom boat, explored the Alamo, saw our first Buc’ees, visited a wide variety of museums, and much more. We even took a side trip to Omaha, Nebraska!

We arrived home just in time to celebrate my 50th birthday. Hopefully, the next half century will be as interesting as the first half.

Here’s an overall map of our trip:

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eWillys Texas trip from late April – early June 2015.

Here are the posts related to the trip:

  1. Overview: Texas Trip 2015 summary
  2. Day 1 – Sun. Apr. 12th: On the Road Again, Finally
  3. Day 2 – Mon. Apr. 13th: Rocks, Tracks & Dusty Roads
  4. Day 3 – Tues. Apr. 14th: Winds and more Winds
  5. Day 4 – Wed. Apr. 15th: Salmon and Subway
  6. Day 5 – Thu. Apr. 16th: Meth and Science
  7. Day 6 – Fri. Apr. 17th: Art Fair in Alamogordo, NM
  8. Day 7 – Sat. Apr. 18th: No Scum Allowed
  9. Day 8 – Sun. Apr. 19th: Resting and Recovery
  10. Day 9 – Mon. Apr. 20th: Recovering from the Plague
  11. Day 10 – Tue. Apr. 21st:  Another One Bites the Dust
  12. Day 11 & 12 – Wed. & Thurs Apr. 22nd & 23rd:  Road to Recovery
  13. Day 13 – Fri. Apr. 24th: We Made it to Texas
  14. Day 14 – Sat. Apr. 25th: Saddleblankets to Prada
  15. Day 15 – Sun. Apr. 26th: Parks and Wind
  16. Day 16 – Mon. Apr. 27th: Frontier Texas
  17. Day 17 – Tue. Apr. 28th: Dr. Peppers & Texas Rangers
  18. Day 18 – Wed. Apr. 29th: Power Wagons & Pecans
  19. Day 19 – Thu. Apr. 30th: Texas Justice, Pacific War, & a Comfy Bed
  20. Day 20 – Fri. May 1st: Luckenbach, Texas
  21. Day 21 – Sat. May 2nd: Ingram Rocks, but Kerrville Robots
  22. Day 22 – Sun. May 3rd: Buc’s, Boats, Bats & a Batmobile
  23. Day 23 – Mon. May 4th: Keeping Austin Weird
  24. Day 24 – Tue. May 5th: San Antonio’s Riverwalk
  25. Day 25 – Wed. May 6th: Beyond San Antonio’s Riverwalk
  26. Day 26 – Thu. May 7th: Rainbow Flight & Texas Border Towns
  27. Day 27 – Fri. May 8th: The King Ranch
  28. Day 28 – Sat. May 9th: A Big Boat (Ship)
  29. Day 29 – Sun. May 10th: Breaking up the Beatles?? Not again!!
  30. Day 30 – Mon. May 11th: Three-nap Kind of Day
  31. Day 31 – Tue. May 12th: A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall
  32. Day 32 – Wed. May 13th: No Raining on Murphy’s Parade
  33. Day 33 – Thu. May 14th: Leaving On a Jet Plane
  34. Day 34 – Fri. May 15th: High Plains Drifter
  35. Day 35 – Sat. May 16th: The End of Texas
  36. Day 36 – Sun. May 17th: Tracking the Ore
  37. Day 37-40 – May 18th-21st: Research
  38. Day 41-43 – May 22nd-24th: Omaha-Bound
  39. Day 44 – Mon. May 25th: Pioneer Village
  40. Day 45 – Tue. May 26th: South Park
  41. Day 46 – Wed. May 27th: Georgetown Loop Train
  42. Day 47 – Thu. May 28th: Back to the Springs
  43. Day 48 – Fri. May 29th: Pikes Peak International Raceway
  44. Day 49-50 – May 30th-31st: Last Dollar & Madonna
  45. Day 51 – Mon. Jun. 1st: Black Canyon of the Gunnison
  46. Day 52 – Tue. Jun. 2nd: Navigating the Book Cliffs
  47. Day 53-54 – June 3rd-4th: The Journey Home
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Color WWII Photos

April 11, 2015 • CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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Brian forwarded links to some color WWII photos. These two photos included jeeps.

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British and South African soldiers hold up Nazi trophy flag while combat engineers on bulldozers clear a path through the debris of the bombed out city of Cassino in 1943.

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American servicemen drive in jeeps through an unidentified and nearly completely destroyed town, Italy, May 1944.

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1942 GPW – Custom Truck Brush Praire, WA **SOLD**

April 11, 2015 • CATEGORIES: Features, GPW (Ford MB), Unusual • TAGS: , , . This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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UPDATE: **SOLD** Was $16,000

(03/17/2015) David spotted this unique, cool GPW Ford truck jeep. It even has a tilt bed.

“42 Ford tilt bed truck – 302 Mustang power – C4 automatic – 9″ rear end. Disc brakes on front, mag wheels, 2 fuel tanks, cloth interior. Currently on a Historical Vehicle license. Great driver. Formerly a magazine car, with copies to go with it.”

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Fort Wayne Zoo’s former Safari Veldt Jeep Ride

April 10, 2015 • CATEGORIES: Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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Seth discovered this ex-Safari Ride jeep at the corporate headquarters of Sweetwater, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The fiberglass jeeps were built by Bradley & Kaye and Fort Wayne Zoo visitors used to ride in them as they toured the zoo’s African Veldt. The African Veldt exhibit opened in the 1970s and closed in the mid 2000s. It was replaced by the African Journey’s sky ride.

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David Bradley, the ‘Bradley’ in Bradley and Kaye, had a long history with amusement parks. In 1946 David Bradley opened up the Beverly Park amusement park in southern California. His park inspired Walt Disney to the point that Bradley became a consultant for Walt on Disneyland. At some point Bradley became connected to the Bradley and Kaye manufacturing plant, which created fiberglass carousel molds and children’s rides. In 1974 Beverly Park closed. In the1980s Bradley and Kaye went out of business. In 1987 Chance Amusements acquired the Bradley and Kaye assets. Much more history on Bradley here. David Bradley passed away in 1988.

Here’s a photo of a similar jeep in action at the Fort Wayne zoo. Note it operates on a guided track (from pinterest).

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Here’s another action shot from Pinterest:

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Continue reading →

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Jeeps Article from 1953 Cars Magazine

April 8, 2015 • CATEGORIES: Features, International, Magazine This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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These old car magazines are such fun to explore. The August 1953 issue of Cars Magazine had an article about jeeps. The magazine also contained a strange story from Idaho about the Brink and a Half Club, which seems to involve dunking your vehicle into the Clearwater River. While the article claims US95 hugs the Clearwater River for 150 miles, according to wikipedia the Clearwater is only 75 miles long. I think the author may have confused the Clearwater with the Salmon River.

Finally, I’ve also included an odds-n-ends page which includes a Ford automobile testimonial by noted criminal John Dillinger and the earliest example of a double-ender vehicle I’ve ever seen.

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This is the full two-page jeep article blended together. The text can be read in the image below.

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Page 1 of the article.

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Interestingly, no mention of any asian companies jeep efforts mentioned.

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No mention of Vic Hickey made in reference to the top photo. This article from Car Craft does a much better job of covering Hickey.

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Paul’s Shielding the Heat

April 7, 2015 • CATEGORIES: Builds, Features • TAGS: . This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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Paul built a heat shield to protect his steering assembly. I believe it’s his last project of the winter. Paul’s putting ‘Knardly Rolls’ to rest until Fall. It’s now time for him and the Goddess to drop the top on the Miata and explore the melting tundra.

He writes, Here’s the heat shield I made to protect the steering assembly from the heat given off by the left exhaust manifold and exhaust tubing. As you might have noticed there’s very little clearance between the heat shield and the steering shaft.  A penny will not fit between the heat shield and the steering shaft. The heat shield is .020” stainless and the attach bracket which clamps to the exhaust pipe is .050” stainless.

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The decreasing diameter holes drilled thru the attach bracket will allow cooling air to pass behind the heat shield which will help keep the steering linkage from getting too hot. I hope. The brown coating on the brake light switch ground wire attach bolt is a gasket shellac that should prevent water from seeping between the ground wire connection to the bare frame so corrosion is prevented. The exhaust is held to the manifold by silver plated high temperature steel self locking nuts.

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1942 Seagrams Ad w/ Jeep

April 7, 2015 • CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features, Magazine This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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An ad for Seagram’s Five Crow whiskey appeared in the December, 1942, issue of American Legion magazine. The illustration is kind of jeep-like.

The American Legion has turned all of its back issues into downloadable documents that are also searchable online. Pretty handy! You can view the entire December 1942 issue here: http://archive.legion.org/handle/123456789/3774

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