<– Day 41 – Apr. 29th: Ann Flies the Goose | OVERVIEW | Trip End –>

Rich & Paul (aka R&P) on the left. John and me on the right.

Today is out last day of travel and visits. Tonight we will stay at Ann’s aunt and uncle in Vancouver, and tomorrow, we head directly home.

Ann and I spent the morning with R&P 4WD. In the evening I visited with Herm (AKA Herm the Overdrive Guy) and his son Marty Tilford. In between, Ann’s uncle lost his grandkids dog (still missing), so we spent several hours looking for the dog. On the plus side, I got to know her aunt and uncle’s neighborhood really well!

Our drive from our motel in McMInnville to R&Ps location in Oregon City, Oregon, took about an hour. What surprised Ann and I about the drive through the rolling landscape of small farms was the large number of wineries in the area. We both agreed that there seemed to be more wineries, more signs for wineries, and more tasting rooms than both Sonoma and Napa combined! Or, maybe we were just thirsty?

Figuring it wasn’t quite time to drink, we landed at R&P thoroughly sober and ready to look at parts! Rich and Paul, who started R&P in the 1970s, and John, who joined them a few years ago, greeted us warmly. R&P provides a variety of drive train services, including tranny/tc rebuilds, axle builds, brake products and more.

After some pleasantries, we dove into their newest items. They recently developed a bolt-on dual master cylinder installation kit especially for trucks and wagons. They had a nice demo until to show us how the adapter attached to the frame:

They also demonstrated their new tow bar adapters and their disc brake kits. R&P was even kind enough to donate a disc brake kit for testing on Biscuit, so I’ll be doing a full write up on that when install them (thanks guys!).

Next we got a tour of their garage and parts area. Not surprisingly, there were a bunch of different axles, transmission and transfer case gears and more. Ann faced the biggest challenge during this portion of the tour as she’d put on a dress so she could enjoy the sun, not realizing she’d be inside a garage (though I’d mentioned this fact to her . . . ). She’s a good sport and did her job taking photos, risking grease spots on her dress at every turn.

We also spotted John’s CJ-6, which is undergoing some work at the moment. It seems he’s as busy as I am, which explains the state of both of our jeeps.

After that we wandered outside to look at a few more jeeps. Each of these has a variety of upgrades to meet the challenges of northwest jeeping. One update that really interested me was the vintage Offenhauser Buick V6 valve covers in the CJ-5. They got my attention. Boy do I have valve cover jealousy.

Here’s another look at some of their jeeps:

We also took a look at a few of their projects.

After our exploring the R&P shop, the guys Kindly took us out for lunch. Yum!

With our bellies were full from lunch and a temperature of 85 degrees (pretty high for this time of year in Portland), we drove north across the Oregon-Washington border.

As we crossed the Columbia river and entered Washington State (exactly six weeks after we left it), Ann got a message from her uncle: “Can you help me find the dog?” It turns out Uncle Bob and Aunt Debbie, who live in Vancouver where we planned to spend the night, had been watching their grandkids and their new dog, Bradley, who’d been a shelter rescue. Despite Aunt Debbie telling Bob not to let the dog off the leash, Bob wanted to train the new dog, so he’d unleashed him for a moment. Bad idea. Bradley took off into the woods. Since we had some extra time before meeting with Herm, we offered to help.

Bradley had only been missing a few minutes when we arrived at the Fohl household. We immediately began to troll the neighborhood with it’s parks, tall trees, underbrush, and windy 1970s suburban developments.

Ann and I split up to cover more ground. She wandered through a local park while I cruised the nearby junior high and high schools. It was at this point that I realized how awkward this could prove to be. I’m some middle-aged man slowly driving through school parking lots asking young boys and girls if they’d seen a lost dog. Even worse, had somebody asked, I couldn’t exactly describe the dog, since I’d never seen it! The words “stranger danger” kept cycling through my head . . .

Thank goodness for Herm and Marty, because after searching for two hours, I got a call from Marty letting me know they could meet with me. Though I had to leave Ann behind to continue the search, I couldn’t drive away fast enough!

Herm’s CJ-5 with a a few M-38A1 goodies on it. The hood has special louvres that Marty made. Herm says it really does help cool the engine. He runs terra tires on all four wheels.

Many people know Herm on the web by his internet name of ‘Herm-the-overdrive-guy‘. While he’s definitely a go-to-guy for overdrives (for servicing or for purchasing new or rebuilt ones), he also supplies many more products and services than that. He’s been involved with jeeping, jeeps and parts for decades and can has earned a wealth of knowledge from that experience.

I asked Marty why his dad painted the trannies different colors. I figured there might be a system. If there was, Marty said he didn’t know it.

Herm and his son Marty gave me a peak ‘behind the curtains’ of his home-based operation, which allows him to be around his family. One good reason for working at home is that the business keeps him very busy. He says he can work on larger items like transmissions in the afternoon, then in the evening have a seat at his work bench, turn on the tv, and rebuild overdrives. He says he’s thought about retiring, but he loves what he does and doesn’t know what he’d do if he retired.

Always nice to have a few parts hanging around. Lots of cleaned parts ready for sale.

He also continues to develop new products, several of which he explained to me. He was very excited about them. He feels he has an opportunity to fill some small vintage jeep drivetrain niches, to satisfy needs for which there are currently no solutions. Since I didn’t explicitly ask to share those ideas, I won’t get more specific here.

Herm’s got a few winches for sale, too.

Unfortunately, because I abandoned my wife to the dog search, I didn’t take too many photos. It’s too easy to get talking and forget to take them. But, I’ll make sure to bring her along next time so we can get an updated photo of Herm, Marty and I. Meanwhile, I did take a photo of the home made Elk/Porl bacon that the Tilfords gave me [Ed Note: this was great tasting!]

This is some elk/pork ‘bacon’ that Herm and Marty gave me. Parts are all fun to look at, but you know me and food. I can’t wait to try this!

So, thanks to Herm and Marty for taking the time to meet with me. And, many thanks for the elk/pork bacon. We’ll eat that for breakfast with some North Coast duck eggs. 🙂

For those wondering about Bradley the lost dog, the story ends happily. The search was given up while I was gone. The grandkids were told the dog was lost and they were sad.

But, don’t despair, because at 10pm, as I was going outside through the garage, I spotted a dog peering around the corner of the house. It was Bradley. He’d found his own way home!

Tomorrow we head home for some rest. All this ‘vacationing’ has worn me out!

<– Day 41 – Apr. 29th: Ann Flies the Goose | OVERVIEW | Trip End –>

<– Day 40 –Apr. 28th: Firehouse #4  | OVERVIEW | Day 42 – Apr. 30th: R&P 4WD and Herm –>

Well, what a surprise! On Tuesday the cold and rain showers forecasted by people paid to predict such things continued to be scared away by the blue sky and warm temperatures in Oregon. Such weather would have been perfect for the coast of Oregon, but our mind was too changed to change back.

We spotted this mural just as we were leaving Rogue River, Oregon.

Anyone who has ever driven north on Interstate 5 through southern Oregon knows what a pretty drive it is. Successive low mountain passes of about 2000 feet chase any boredom away.

Our Tuesday drive to McMinnville.

Our first stop of the morning was at Canyonville at exit 98. When traveling north with my sister back in December I’d spotted several jeep bodies on what I thought were shipping containers just off the Interstate. They were still there when we passed this time, so we pulled off to get a closer look at them. While there were no identifying ‘for sale’ information, I believe these belonged to Del Blanchard, who is actually operates out of Myrtle Creek according to his website [Ed Note: Del has since passed away.]

In the pic below, the body on the right appears to be a galvanized (no stainless) CJ-3B body. The one in between is a CJ-2A/3A Stainless. The body on the right is an all-stainless CJ-3B body (I saw no indications of galvanized floor parts) that includes some interesting windshield tighteners.

Here’s a 2012 ad for the bodies:

Odd note: If you use Google’s street view feature, you can just barely see the jeeps on the utility boxes if you are in the southbound lanes of I-5. However, as of now, if you try to view the jeeps from the northbound lanes, the jeeps are not present. Nor are they present from the on ramp right in front of the utility boxes.

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<– Day 39 – Apr. 27th: Crying Babies and Grungie Folks | OVERVIEW | Day 41 – Apr. 29th: Ann Flies the Goose –>

Rick and I kneeling in front of men from Medford’s Firestation #4. They represent just some of the people who refurbished Rick’s CJ-2A.

We began the day with a quick trip over to the North Coast Co-op for some fresh bread, duck eggs (had to get 2 dozen), and some lunch items for a picnic at Redwood National Park. The co-op proved to be my favorite part of Eureka 🙂

Even better, there was a place that speaks “Jeep” across the street!

The clouds and rain promised by the weather experts on Monday never appeared. Instead, we were blessed with perfect weather for our drive up the remainder of the California Coast. Blue sky and a few clouds became a beautiful contrast to the tall, deep green forests we encountered.

Monday’s trip from Eureka, CA, to Rogue River, OR

During our drive we decided to stop at Trinidad. Dan had mentioned it in one of his comments. It turned out to have a high beach cliff with a beautiful view.

After Trinidad I expected to encounter a welcome sign for Redwood National Park. As we waited for the sign we were surprised to see a place called Trees of Mystery. Out front of the place was an enormous Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox.

Yep, that’s me leaning against babe’s leg.

After Trees of Mystery we continued searching for the welcome sign for Redwood National Park, but never saw it. It wasn’t until we reached Crescent City that I realized we must have driven through the park. Thus my plans for a picnic in the National Park was thwarted by signage, or lack thereof.

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<– Day 38 – Apr. 26th: Finding Virginia City | OVERVIEW | Day 40 – Apr. 28th: Firehouse #4 –>

Beautiful drive over highway 299.

Well, it’s been an interesting day. My day started at 12:01am. I hadn’t been to sleep yet due to the crying of two kids in the motel room next door. Well, not just next door, but through the two doors that would have created a suite, doors so thin and porous that whatever food was being cooked in their room late at night wafted into ours. They weren’t good cooks.

The cries came and went for the next hour. Finally, at 1am, I woke up the proprietor of the not-so-fine establishment to complain. I figured if I was going to be awake, he was going to be awake. He wasn’t happy that I woke him. I wasn’t happy either. He agreed to call them. Amazingly, that seemed to help, at least for about fifteen minutes, though I can’t imagine he got on the phone with the two young children and explained the problem. I stopped caring about 1:30am when I fell asleep.

Our Sunday drive from Red Bluff to Eureka.

In the morning we awoke and got the heck out of there. So much for that deal!

We drove up to Redding and then headed west over several ranges, which appear to constitute part of the North Coastal Range. We spent three hours driving through some beautiful country along lots of two lane highway.

At one point we pulled into the lumber town of Weaverville. In the driveway of the Weaverville Garage was a VEC CJ-2A that needed some work.

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<– Day 37 – Apr. 25th: Carson City | OVERVIEW | Day 39 – Apr. 27th: Crying Babies and Grungie Folks –>

I found this tree, decorated with bottles, growing out of this vintage Oakland automobile near Virginia City, Nevada.

Anyone who has met Ann knows that she has a good sense of humor. So, it probably isn’t surprising that she had all sorts of fun teasing me about driving down ‘Virginia Street’ in Reno (one of the main streets) or noting it when we arrived at Virginia City. Yes, Virginia’s name is stamped all over the Washoe Valley! [Ed Note: this is due to the book I released in 2011, Finding Virginia]

Our route on Saturday from Carson City to Red Bluff.

On Friday night it rained pretty hard, but by Saturday morning the rain had passed. Relieved at the partly cloudy weather, we ascended Highway 342 to Virginia City, which is in a valley surrounded by mountains. The landscape is pretty bare, except for the metal ghosts of mining operations.

Signs just off the road on the way to Virginia City.

We figured that given the cold and the potential rain and snow in Virginia City, there wouldn’t be many people. We hadn’t counted on a Motocross Rally! The town was packed with cars and motor homes. Just a couple of streets down from main street (actually C Street) was the start and finish of the race course. While not great timing for us, it seemed like a really great motorbike event.

The town was much busier than we expected.

In front of those awnings was the start/finish line for the motocross event.

Virginia City has the largest historic district in the West. The former boomtown is famous for the 1800s Comstock strike, its old west feel, tourism, and ghosts. Anyone who has watched Ghost Adventurers on the Travel Channel knows how much fun they’ve had at this city. The Washoe Club was one of the places they investigated.

The place has a wonderfully authentic, old, creaky feel to it. Check out how the water drains pour water onto the street! There was still a little bit of water dribbling from them.

I thought the Bank of America cash machine positioned underneath this Saloon was pretty funny.

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<– Day 36 – Apr. 24th: ‘Tire’d of Reno | OVERVIEW | Day 38 – Apr. 26th: Finding Virginia City –>

The entrance to the Nevada State Museum in Carson City

Well, it had to happen. After five weeks of mostly great weather, the temperatures dropped and the rain arrived. So, rather than drive to and walk through historic Virginia City, we decided to drive south from Reno and visit the Nevada State Museum, then head to our motel to do some eWillys updates.

Today we drove south from Reno to Carson City, Nevada.

On our way to Carson City this morning we passed this unexpected mural tribute on the side of a building to Alice Ramsey:

A mural dedicated to Alice Ramsey, who in 1909 became the first woman to drive across the United States. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/womens-history/alice-ramseys-historic-cross-country-drive-29114570/?no-ist

The Nevada State Museum was a surprising amount of fun. There was lots of Nevada history told in interesting ways, such as a rebuilt ghost ‘town’, a working Carson City coin stamp (there used to be a US Mint in Carson City) , and an underground mine in the building’s basement that was great to explore. Much of the museum of dark, so we didn’t take many photos.

Entering the mine in the basement of the museum.

Along some of the walls were a variety of exhibits showing how mines operated.

This area demonstrated that sometimes the timbers would fail. Good thing I’m there to hold them up!

This is a huge bullion scale, the type necessary for the Carson City mint.

This assayer’s scale is similar to one I have from 1895, a leftover of the family’s smelting history. We also have a neat portable one that fits in your pocket. It’s got the counter weights as well.

This overloaded stage coach was a neat photo:

Naturally, my wife found an explosive . . .

We both really enjoyed this museum.  We left the museum and decided to head to the motel; it was not the best motel experience, but that happens sometimes.

Hopefully the weather will improve for our visit to Virginia City on Saturday.

<– Day 36 – Apr. 24th: ‘Tire’d of Reno | OVERVIEW | Day 38 – Apr. 26th: Finding Virginia City –>

<– Day 34 – Apr. 22nd: Old Town Sacramento | OVERVIEW | Day 36 – Apr. 24th: ‘Tire’d of Reno –>

Southern end of Lake Tahoe.

Reno was our goal on Wednesday, but not before a few stops along the way.

Wednesday’s drive from Sacramento through the beautiful Sierra mountains to Reno, Nevada.

We started by taking I-80 east, turning off at Auburn, then following highway 49/193 as it wound into the Sierras towards Georgetown, the western gateway to the Rubicon Trail. The drive is delightful, with trees, valleys and mountains all around. Many of the turns are tight and slow, but we weren’t in a hurry.

This huge statue commemorating the Chinese is much taller than the rail car behind it. Cool sculpture!

We knew we’d arrived at the right location when we spotted a “Jeep Jamboree USA” building. We hopped out and peered in the windows. Nobody was home, but there were several vehicles, including Mark Smith’s green CJ-3A and yellow Jeepster. We would have taken photos, but the glass was kind of dark.

Me looking in the window at a CJ-3A and Jeepster housed at the Jeep Jamboree USA building.

As we pondered the vehicles inside the building, a truck pulled up near us. The driver got out and he too peered into the windows. We got to talking and it turned out he was a retail rep for YETI coolers named JD Holt. He handles the area south of the Oregon border all the way to Bakersfield. He explained that YETI is trying to penetrate the Northwest better. I explained that sounded like some of my readers would appreciate. After some discussion, he told me he’d set me up with a cooler at good price so I could test and report on it. Sounded like a deal to me, so we’ll be arranging that after we return home [Ed Note: I never did hear from him … we ended up buying a Bison Cooler, which has since changed company names].

JD telling me about the YETI coolers.

Close up of the YETI.

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<– Day 33 – Apr. 21st: Tom, Paty, Sparky, Bill, Lucy, Snoopy, Charlie, Linus, and More | OVERVIEW | Day 35 – Apr. 23rd: Over the Sierras –>

Given the public can climb into this old Ford, it was still a pretty nice car!. They even let me jump into it!

During the spring of 2013 my son Karson visited Old Town Sacramento and said it was a great area of the city.  Ann and I didn’t know for sure what to expect when we arrived there today, but we came away pleasantly surprised.

Today we drove from our Sacramento motel room to the California Auto Museum, then to Old Town Sacramento.

We began the day at the California Auto Museum located just a little south of the Old Town Sacramento area. Much of the museum’s collection came from Edward Towe, a Montana banker who assembled a large collection of Fords in Deer Lodge, Montana (some of his collection is still there at the Montana Auto Museum). That explains why many of the early vehicles and artifacts are related to Ford.

I felt like the museum started strong, with some good explanations and backgrounds. The exhibit is organized on a timeline, starting with some very early Fords.

This is a good display of how Camp Curry at Yosemite began. It started as a tent camp in 1899 by David and Jennie Curry.

A pretty static display more typical of the arrangement of the early vehicles at the museum.

The demonstration of how/why a ring and pinion developed was particularly well done. There was a video (see below the picture of the R&P machine) of the R&P and played above a hands-on example that people could spin by hand. Well done!

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<– Day 32 – Apr. 20th: A Sunday Drive to Santa Rosa | OVERVIEW | Day 34 – Apr. 22nd: Old Town Sacramento –>

Apparently, Snoopy can be a little frisky sometimes!

Fun day today! We met some great people and had a beautiful drive through the Sonoma and Napa areas.

We drove from Santa Rosa to Sacramento on Monday.

The morning began with a trip down to Tree Line Teardrop Trailers in Petaluma where we met Tom and Paty Perkins. You can also find them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TreelineTeardrops.

Tom had contacted me a few months ago about finding a flat fender. He’d explained that the first vehicle he’d driven was his dad’s CJ-2A. So, he was interested in finding another one. As we exchanged emails, I learned he was building teardrop trailers. Fascinated by them, we agreed that Ann and I would stop by during our trip.

Paty and Tom quickly made us feel at home as they showed us the two different trailers in their driveway, one an off road version and one a lightweight (700lb) road cruiser that was being picked up by the new owner that day. One look at both of the trailers and it is easy to see how well made they are. This reflects Tom’s background in construction and finish work. Both Ann and I were very impressed, from the quality of the workmanship and materials, to the choices in stove top (high quality, sturdy, high btu burners) and portable fridge (ARB). Each trailer is built to order by Tom.

Perhaps the best selling point was how easy it was for Ann to climb inside. The doorways are wide and even with Ann’s bad knee and brace, she had no problem slipping inside. So sold is Ann, that she’s reviewing each trailer option as I type this.

Thanks to Tom and Paty for sharing the trailers, the bees, the chickens and more!

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