The total trip was just under 5,000 miles and it only rained on the way back.
Early in the morning at Roy Brizio's shop.
Here we are cruising the Fairgrounds in Springfield. How come people in the Midwest don't tuck in their shirts?
We arrived early in the morning Saturday to check in, have a doughnut a little orange juice and a tour of Brizio's Street Rod Shop. The group was actually a little smaller than last year. At least a few of last years people did a repeat run. Dick from Madison, Wisconsin in his '38 Ford powered by a big block Chevy and Mike from New York with his red '32 Roadster and of course, yours truly once again driving the '29 Roadster. I was supposed to go in the '46 Coupe but I got way behind on it's build schedule and just could not get it ready in time. The Coupe is now in the body shop where it will reside for the next couple of months. It will be ready for next year if I decide to go again.
Actually the first meaningful stop for me was just East of Sacramento in the town of Citrus Heights, by the California Highway Patrol. I was so nervous when the black and white pulled me over that I didn't even think of taking a picture. It seems that those "80" signs along the highway aren't actually the speed limit, they are just there to tell you what highway you're on. He asked what was going on, meaning how come there were so many hot rods all headed East. I told him we were on this great cross country adventure and getting a ticket before I even left California would just ruin the trip for me. The officer was nice enough not to give me a ticket for speeding. I was in fact doing 80 MPH when he pulled up behind me. The first lunch stop was in Sparks Nevada, just East of Reno. The Rod Bod Company had a great lunch for us. Rod Bod is a new company making steel '32 Roadster bodies. The actual metal stamping is done in England. They assemble the stamped parts at their shop in Sparks. Here's a picture of Roy Brizio clowning for the local television news. Certainly the long distance award goes to Robert and his wife who had their Model A Coupe and trailer shipped from New Zealand for the Americruise. They were a great couple and we stuck together throughout most of the cruise.
This was by far the worst motel on the trip. We stayed at the Bull Head Motel. However we did
have a great dinner at a nice restaurant and a lot of fun. Unfortunately leaving the
restaurant I didn't have any headlights. Robert from New Zealand came to my rescue with a
20 amp fuse. It seems the dimmer switch was shorting out. I killed two of my own fuses
before I discovered the location of the short.
Once again Roy Brizio was able to get John the manager of the Stateline Hotel Casino to
host a great lunch. Here's a shot of some of our group in the parking lot. Here is a picture
of me being passed by one of the nicest '40 Ford Sedans to be found
anywhere. By the way, last year I went with my live-in girl friend of eight years, Susan.
She moved out shortly after we got back and married an ex-husband that she hadn't seen in
fourteen years. Yes, he was on the Americruise '96. This year I took Steve Salnick a good friend from
work. He's not nearly as good looking as Susan but we are still friends and he didn't run
away and get married. Besides he's already married. Is that Steve's head against the top
of the Roadster? Yes it is! Steve is 6'5".
Here's a shot of Dick and his son from
Madison, Wisconsin. Dick had rather serious fuel problems with his '38 Ford. Here's a shot
of Dick on the side of the road.
One thing about the Americruise, if you have problems, you're never alone in the middle of
nowhere. Turns out that what was believed to be vapor lock was really a bad fuel pump.
Here's a great shot of the group on the road to the Salt Flats. Will I liked this shot
so much here's another one.
Once again High Performance Coatings put on a nice meal for us at a park in Murray
Utah. Murray is just east of Salt Lake City. Again this year we were supposed to tour
their shop. This is two years in a row that we haven't seen where they coated the headers
on "The Coupe".
Here's a shot of our growing group.
Yes, that's the Boydster II down from my roadster. The black Chevy on the right is owned
by Joe from the Bay Area. He had finished the car just hours before we left on the cruise.
Here's a picture of me (on the
right) with Robert from New Zealand. Very handsome pair, don't you think?
We arrived at the Hampton Inn late in the day on Sunday. Here's a shot of Dave under his beautiful '34 Roadster, doing some minor repairs. If I recall the header bolts were coming loose on his Chevy engine! Oh well, here's a very similar shot of Sam Foose doing the same thing under his custom '41 Ford. Oh, perhaps you think the other real big dogs on the cruise didn't have their share of problems? Wrong! Here's a shot of the Boydster II with a flat. Later that same day the Boydster II developed a rather serious engine knock. Perhaps a spun bearing. They pushed it in and out of the trailer the rest of the cruise. This didn't leave Boyd without something to drive. He still had the world's lowest and widest '57 Chevy, the Boydair.
Wyoming Technical Institute, click
on the Eagle to go to their web page, located in Laramie, sponsored a dinner at their
Automotive School. They gave us hats, turned us into a car show for locals and we all had
a good time. Last year we only went to the Street Rod School, so I thought that's all
there was. This year we went to the much larger campus that has the rest of the school.
You can learn to do pretty much anything from tune ups to upholstery.
Perhaps you think the Americruise is just a bunch of old men driving their American dreams at the speed limit or less. Well let me tell you, on one run we were doing over 100 mph for over an hour. No the Roadster was never designed by Henry for that kind of speed. Was is safe? Hell no! Was it fun? Hell, yes! The group doing these kinds of speeds on a regular basis were the hard core Roadster boys. I won't name any names but I was the only sissy with a top on the car and perhaps you can tell from the pictures who these guys are. The average speed on the runs between gas stops was over 80 mph (don't forget that the speed limit on most of the freeways is 75).
We stayed at a Best Western in Cheyenne. Here's a picture of an beautiful '32 Vicky.. Here a shot of a cute little roadster built in the "50's" style. I really don't remember if these pictures was actually taken in Cheyenne or later, but who cares! Lanny from Grass Valley had some problems on the cruise but his '57 Olds with the "J2" Rocket 88 engine ran great, except for a minor oil leak and fuel problem that went away later. Speaking of Lanny, he just sent me this great picture of the Roadster with Yosemite Sam. I think they sell bad gas on the interstates. The roadster also ran crappy at times.
Colorado Custom in Ft. Collins, put on a great breakfast for us. They gave us a tour of their facilities that make custom wheels. The wheel business is just a small portion of their operation. Their main business is machined aluminum parts for the aircraft and aerospace business.
Day four was a long ass drive. We had lunch at a small 50's style dinner in Ogallala, NE. The guy running the dinner was outside to handle the traffic control and he had extra help to handle the crowds. It was so far from our last stop of Ft. Collins, CO to here that the group was no longer together. Some people never made this stop at all. Next we rolled into Lincoln with John Mumford, of Portola Valley, CA leading the way. We got lost and I almost ran out of gas! Here's a picture of Chet Thomas with some of the boys.
Once again we took a tour of Speedway Motors. They are located in Lincoln, Nebraska and have been in business since 1952. They sell just about anything for you Streetrod or serious race car for that matter. Next to the office and warehouse is a great museum. Here a picture of an old time race car garage set up in the Museum. They have hundred of vintage racing engine on display and a ton of peddle cars and toys. Bring the kids! Here's a picture of the local Sherriff being passed. Yes, he's waiving!
We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Calamus. Unfortunately, one of the of our guys had a run in with a local the hard way. It seems the '29 Roadster pickup was making a left turn into the hotel when a lady decided to ge up close and personal. No one was hurt, luckily.
The show itself was to be quite honest, just another show. The real fun is getting there. Of course, this show had it's share of outstanding cars. Take this '40 Willys for example, take it, hell I'd love to take it but I'm sure the price is just a little too steep for me. The flame job on this car is exactly what I'd like to do to the Coupe. Here's an unusual car, a Pro Street Riviara, now you don't see that everyday. How 'bout this great looking Cab Over. I really like this things. If I every had a trailer queen, I'd love to haul it around with this. Another unusual car is this 34 Packard. It has a BB Chevy, air conditioned and makes the purest sick. I love it! This is the first full fender Zipper I have seen. I was build by Ball's Rod & Kustom. This beautiful car is owned by Stan Jones of Jackson, Michigan. The car will be at the Detroit Autorama in February '98. It's no trailer queen. The car has almost 8,000 mile on it in just a few months. GREAT car Stan!
As I mentioned at the start of this web page, it only rained on the way back. Here's a
picture of Steve with the roadster
parked at a gas station waiting for the rain to stop. Speaking of gas stations, here's a
shot of an Old Shell station on
Route 66. Did I mention that we actually drove on Route 66. Yes, that's the roadster
posing next to a Route 66 sign. There isn't really much of the old road left. At least in
the part of Illinois where we tried to follow it. The ride back was a real flight. We did
the trip in three days. If you asked Steve if we did any sight seeing he'd say no. But
here's a picture of a great view
in Utah. On the last leg of the trip we drove from Grand Junction Colorado to South
Lake Tahoe in one day. Steve was real grumpy! The short drive back to the Bay Area seemed
like a drive to the store in comparison to the rest of the trip. Overall it was a great
trip. Again, the most fun is getting there. Will I be going again next year? Absolutely!
Snowmass, Colorado here we come...
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