In October 2009 2 of our members, Andrew and Mark, set off to the United States to pick up a new car and drive it across the country to LA to be shipped back home.

The Aussies have landed.
The trip started with a visit to fellow Ozrodders.com Forum member HotRodLadyCrusr aka Denise. Even though they got in at 11:30pm and have been up for a couple of days straight, they still managed to put away a few beers.

The following morning before we left for breakie the guys were mentioning that they needed this and that so they started a list

That’s Enjenjo(Frank) on the right.

Denise‚Äö√Ñ√¥s folks live five houses down from her so after breakie they stopped to check out her dad’s ’56 Olds

Henry Ford Museum
Then we set off with Frank driving, thank god, to The Henry Ford museum, what a place that is. And it’s not just fords there either…

The Auction House
After the Henry Ford Museum we found an auction house’s holding yard, and found a few bargains.

This has a 429 shotgun with twin turbos

and these were in the back shed.

The next stop on the itinerary: Summit Racing Equipment

The Shopping Spree.
We just got back from Summit, the wheel shop and a cool old time car yard, we also filled Frank’s van. It took us a bit longer than we expected as it’s a little over 3 hours from where we were staying.

To say I was as happy as a dog with 2 dicks is an under statement

We got a sales guy to help us out and boy did he ever, we hassled him for prices and he came good on everything, he stayed with us even after we went to the cashier and even helped us with the trolley full of stuff and helped pack the car, what a great bunch of people over here we have still not met anyone that won’t bend over backwards to help us.

Mark got 8 manifolds, 2 bug catchers, a set of gauges, gear shift indicators. I got some stuff too.

Old Time Speed Shop

On the way to Summit we saw this on the side of the road and just had to stop and take a look. It’s the shop car for an old time speed shop and panel workshop, and wow didn’t they have some nice old stuff?
We still had a long way to go so we couldn’t spend too much time here, but the old guy that owns the place could have talked for hours, we will just have to come back next time we’re here.

Packing it in
We now had the near on impossible task of packing all the goodies from Summit into the back of Marks new 392 Hemi Powered truck. And who was it that suggested that we could sleep in the truck?

Lucky we had just enough room for scooter to sit or we would have had to leave him at Summit.

Problems
At this point we were supposed to be in Bowling Green Kentucky, but we only got as far Carrollin,

We were cruising at 85mph down the interstate we developed a vibration and just had to pull over and the trans was pissing fluid out the rear seal because it was too hot.

We drove to the nearest town on the outskirts of Kentucky and found a wreaking yard with a young guy (Timmy) on hand to put the truck on the 4 poster, and we balanced the wheels again and tightened the wheel bearings.

This is Timmy. We told him we would make him famous on the Internet and he said, “OK”.

But that didn’t fix it and only a few miles further down the interstate we had to pull up again.

And we found a transmission joint that was still open on Saturday afternoon and started to pull things apart.

Well the guy when who built this truck decided it would be a good idea to shorten the tail shaft yolk so it wouldn’t reach the bush in the rear of gearbox and with a 392 Hemi and 250m under our belts it decided that it didn’t like that.

After spending the best part of the afternoon searching the shop he found the parts we needed, but we need a uni that wont be here until tomorrow, (Sunday), so the office girl (his wife) booked us into a motel and even drove us here and will pick us up in the morning and take us back to the shop (Sunday morning) to pick the truck back up after they have fixed it.

Did I forget to to mention how nice these Americans are, because so far we have not met anyone who has been even the remotest bit rude or arrogant, hey they even like me

There is a flip side to this story, have any of you seen “My name is earl”?

Well karma will come around when ever you don’t expect it and that is the way we are treating this trip, if we were meant to be in Bowling Green Kentucky at the nostalgia drags we would have made it there.

But instead last night we got caught in the rain with no wipers and found the best motel for under $60USD that I have ever seen, next door was the best steak house that any Australian has ever had a steak at I had the best nights sleep since I have been here.

But that was yesterday and today is today and we only got another 150m before we got the death vibration that led us to Carollin Kentucky, and that is where we found out that in the car park right next to the transmission shop where the truck is getting repaired is a cruise night every 3rd Saturdays and yes, you guessed it it’s tonight.

The owner of the trans shop dropped me off at the motel while Scooter made friends with the locals at the cruise night, but we needed beer.

He had no problem with taking me to the local drive in bottlo and dropping me back at the cruise night, but we bumped into a few of the locals and had to chew the fat before getting back to Scooter.

When I got back I found out that by now we were celebrities and every one wanted to get to know the Aussies, I love this place.

We made friends with some guy that rode in on a Harley, but he had organised for his wife to drive us home lucky she was married because boy she was cute.

And you know what???? I think the people of Kentucky are great, they like me more than the rest of these Americans, I might have to move here

Frank to the rescue
Well it’s early Monday morning here and we have just driven through the night after Frank came to our rescue about 10 last night.

We are now in Missouri at Wz junk’s place having a cuppa and a rest, seeing as in the last couple of days the Truck only got us about 300m, and since we put it on the trailer we have done another 550m through the night, we just might make it California after all.

Sunday & Monday
Started off in a high after the trans shop managed to get the uni that we needed over night and fitted on Sunday morning by 8:30am, and we were back on the road

But not for long only 50 miles down the road she let go again…………

We managed to patch it up and limp into Louieville and contacted Denice and Frank and help was on it’s way.

So we spent the day wandering around the city, (thanks Joe for the ride) and sat and waited for Frank to arrive.

We got loaded up and hit the road, by now it was 10:30pm and we just drove and drove and drove, by 8:30am we were near Joplin Missouri, some 550 miles down the road.

Frank has a friend here, John who invited us in and put the kettle on

Does anyone remember this clever roofing idea??

John showed us his shed while Frank had a shower and 40 winks, then he took us to see a few of the locals.

Anyone for a 32 chev coupe??

Then we went to the local Diner for lunch.

So after lunch? you guessed it we hit the road again and we went under the biggest McDonalds in the world.

And this is just some of the stuff you see when you are cruisin Route 66….

Tuesday
Ok it’s Tuesday night and we are now between Albuquerque and Gallup New Mexico, had another good day on the road and found heaps more old tin as well as a few cool land marks.

This is a kool old gas station in Shamrock Texas.

And look what we found just down the road…………

We had a hankerin’ for some steak, so stopped off in Amarillo, Texas

But this guy must be a bit hungrier than us he ordered the 72oz steak, if you can eat it all in under 1 hour it’s free.

Wednesday
Today started a little slow, just miles and miles of driving, then we had a blow out on the trailer.

And this forced us to pull off the interstate and into the next town, which just happened to be a tourist trap for route 66 travelers, lucky us it was full of old cars.

And some kool tourist stores

And I just have to wonder if they got the inspiration for a Hollywood block buster from little towns like this

We saw a guy in a cool 66 Chev convert and asked him where he was from, it turns out he was from Adelaide and just picked it up and was driving it to LA to put it on a ship home, what a novel idea.

Well we drop the truck at the freight yard in the morning and head over to the air port and come on home, it’s been a very different trip than we expected, but hey it’s been great and yes we will do it again

Destination Reached.
This is our last day in the US, we got up early and headed for the freight yard to drop the truck off and found a gold mine of cars waiting to be exported.

After we unloaded the truck and re packed all out booty we headed for some lunch, and then Frank dropped us off at the airport.

It was an event full trip to say the least, but we just could not have done it without Frank, words cannot describe this guy, if you ever get the chance do yourself a favour and drop in to see him, they really broke the mould with him, he is one of a kind. Thanks Frank.

This is the last we saw of Frank,and we both were wondering what he must be thinking as he drove away……………….”thank Christ I finally got rid of those Aussies”

But I will tell you one thing, a trip to the US is a must do on the bucket list, but there is no place like home.