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 5

SITREP

It was very windy when I arrived in Lonoke yesterday. Unsnapping the bedcover to get my possibles out was a mistake. It was like a sail and I had a devil of a time getting it back on again. I didn't put out the drip pan under the engine for fear of it blowing away. BillyBob was parked level. There is no slope to this parking space. When I came out today, there was only a small oil stain under the engine and none under the diffie.

Wednesday, May 21th 2008
Day 5 PRE Check

Checked all BillyBob's fluids (oil, tranny, diffie, brake fluid, coolant, steering gear and battery). and tire pressure. All BillyBob needed was his first quart of engine oil for the trip. I got news from my friend, Rick Boswell, in Oklahama City and will be visiting him on Memorial Day after the show. This allows me to stop at East West Auto Parts in Tulsa to return the flywheel to Ken Freeman on tuesday when he will be open. With that in mind, I headed Mother in the direction of my lodgings in Hutchinson.


1.	Date and Time	May 21, 2008 9:30 AM
2.	Odometer	30,475
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

I was concerned about starting up BillyBob this morning since he was so sluggish, at first, yesterday. At check-in, I had a hard start episode with him to move from the motel entrance to a parking space where I could see him from my room. Well, damn if he would start. I was taxing the starter and battery pretty hard before I stopped to open the hood to see if anything visible was amiss. Fuel was visible in the filter so it was getting that far at least. I was about to light up a cigar to ponder things over when a dim light came on in my head. Took a look in the cab . . . AARRUUUGH! it always starts easier if you turn the ignition key on! We were on the road again. I was happy to see that Mother put us on a country road.

Be careful what you wish for! Mother is programmed to avoid unpaved roads due to my experience with the deertrail thru the woods last year but here we were, a half hour into today's segment, and she had me on a gravel road. BillyBob and I plunged ahead and we were back on pavement two miles on.

It wasn't long before we were on divided highway again, and soon after that, the Interstate. Oh well, the weather is good today. Not too hot and I've seen less than twenty minutes of rain during the entire roadtrip, so far.

Hit the Oklahama State line about 2:30 in the afternoon . . . or wuz it 1:30? We crossed a time zone in there somewhere. Stopped at the first Oklahama rest area and checked BillyBob over. He is running well, cooler than on previous days and the wheels are cool to the touch 'cept driver side rear which is slightly warm. No drips. In the background are picnic tables with concrete teepee poles.

A couple of hours in Oklahoma and the Interstate had widened out with more traffic and I could see big buildings in the distance. Had the feeling Mother was heading me into another city expresway gauntlet. These are hairy because I can't hear what Mother is saying at speed. The wind noise drowns her out. I have to rely on the old Mark 1 eyes to read the navigator screen and watch the road at the same time. Not fun. It was a gauntlet. Guess Mother wanted to see Tulsa afterall.

Mother put me on a couple of toll roads too. We were on a divided highway portion of U.S. 64 and I wanted to gas up. No signs like the Interstate and after passing two exits where I saw the gas station after I passed the exit ramp, I decided to get off at the next exit in hopes that it had a gas station. Wrong! The exit led me to this hydroelectric plant. I snapped the pic then wondered if Homeland Security wuz gonna swoop down on me. Backtracked back to U.S. 64.

I told Mother to find a gas station. The best bet looked to be 15 miles away. I told her to go there. The map sez the name of the town is Cleveland. After gassing up, Mother took me on a local route thru Pawnee back to U.S. 64. This road is two-lane blacktop only about 22 feet wide and with a 65 mph speed limit. These okies live dangerously! On the way out of Cleveland I passed this salvage yard.

I had to go back and get another shot of the salvage yard. Lot's of old trucks in there. we don't have anything like this in south Florida. Mother took us to I35 via U.S. 64 and we ran north until I found logings at a Best Western in Blackwell, Oklahoma. It was a long run and tomorrow's run to Hutchinson is only a little over a hundred miles. I'm tired.