Tons of fun over the weekend, but even with sun screen on I'm a red as a lobster

It hit about 73F yesterday and luckily there was a breeze! Plenty of people walking around shirtless I was really wishing I'd worn shorts.

The three cars we brought to the show are as follows with a few details:

1956 White Chevrolet Bel-Air convertible, 265 V8 with the power pack, 3 speed manual on the column w/overdrive, in the family since 1997

1969 Teal Mercury Cougar XR7, 390 V8 with Automatic transmission, 78k miles, repaint winter 15/16, original interior except carpet, in the family since 1983

1972 Gold Oldsmobile Delta 88 convertible, 350 V8 with Automatic, 95k miles, repaint with new top and floor boards in 1996, original interior, in the family since 1989

 

That is a nice little collection that you have.

 

Thank you, we enjoy them for sure. At this last car show we recreated a photo that was taken in 1994 at the same show when I was 5 years old and my Grandpa and I were standing in front of the Cougar. It meant a lot to the both of us and my grandma geared up when she saw the photos next to each other.


So in F150 news I was able to sneak out of work early and stop by a body shop that has been in business for 40 years and has done fantastic work for me in the past including pearl white on a Explorer. He took photos and will give me a call in the next day or two with the price to correct the paint match issue. I'll be doing all the disassembly and reassembly which will help on labor a ton! I just want to get it back where I love it again, because right now it makes me sick waking up to it. Hoping the price comes in somewhere I can afford right now but who knows.

 

That had to be a special moment with taking that picture and good luck with the 150.

 

I figured you guys would enjoy some videos from my trip to Valdez towing the travel trailer. I finally downloaded some dashcam clips.

 

Russ that reminds me of a photo of my grandpa and I that was taken at my wedding. It's probably the last picture that was ever taken of us together as he passed away less than 2 years later at almost 89 years young. Thank you.
Good luck with the truck too. Hope it turns out right this time

 

So, Friday I got a call at work around 3pm that my Grandpa had fallen and was at the ER. I had no other info to go on, so I ran out of work and gave the 6.2 all she had getting to the hospital. Turns out he fell at the hospital visiting a friend as he was walking back out to his truck. This is only days after the 2 year anniversary of his stroke. I arrive to find him awake, alert. Blood all down his shirt and face. After a CT scan and X-rays he was given a clean bill of health, with some hurt pride. The things that run through you head as your driving to the hospital with little to no info to go on is scary as hell! Thank god he escaped serious injury.

 

That's pretty scary, Russ!

My Grandpa fell on his sidewalk and broke his hip back in 2012. He had to go to the hospital, then a rehab center. I don't know exactly what happened, but his health went severely downhill because of that fall, and he died a few months later after being watched by caregivers 24/7 at his home. Fortunately, he was 100 years old when he died, and had a perfectly healthy and active life up until that fall.

I'm just glad your grandpa is in better condition!

 

Russ glad to hear the he is doing well.

 

Glad to hear he is doing well and mending Russ!
Not to try to upstage you or anything, but I remember an incident that happened about 15 years ago in which my dad was in a pretty serious motorcycle wreck. He was riding his Kawasaki Voyager to one hospital to see my mother as she was recovering from surgery (she had cancer at the time). He was rear-ended by a GMC truck and pushed into the back of a sedan in front of him. Fortunately he was riding such a large bike or he would have been hurt much worse, perhaps killed. I was driving his 96 Ranger 3.0 that evening and I actually passed the scene going the other direction. Recognizing his bike I swung around and asked the Trooper who owned the motorcycle and which hospital he was taken to. He was taken to a different hospital than where my mother was at. I don't think that little Ranger saw the low side of 85 mph till I hit the parking lot of the hospital! Fortunately he went onto make a full recovery and eventually bought another motorcycle years later. He's retired and living in FL with his second wife. Cancer took my mother a few years after this incident.
A couple days later when he asked me how fast I had been driving to the hospital to get him. Busted! But at the time the truck did have probably over 200k on it anyway. I forget why I was using his truck that day. It might have been around 2001 when I still had my previous Dodge Dakota, which was always breaking down on me

 

Thanks for the well wishes and stories, i charish every moment I get with my grandparents and I see them daily. They have always been in my life and we've always been super close. It's hard realizing I'm getting older and so are they. It really sucks to grow up. But the memories I've made and continue to make daily will always be with me.


On another note I started working on my project Explorer. First order of business is tires, I bought some today off Craigslist and will be getting them mounted tomorrow. The F150 gets to do some heavy hauling haha!

 

I went to work early Friday, left the house at 5:55am and gasp! I used my headlights!! We are loosing 20 mins of daylight a day right now...winters coming!

 

20 minutes of daylight per day?! Wow! Winter really does come early in Alaska! I'm not ready to think of winter yet. Burrr! You can keep it all to yourself Russ!

 

Still have 15 hours of daylight but it's going away quickly! Roughly 20min per day yes it goes that fast. We are in our rainy season...so that sucks lol the temps are right on average and the good weather is all but gone. I doubt we'll see another 70f this year.

Last night I gave the floors a quick cleaning and wiped down the dash. Very quick job but looks better. It had been over a year since I'd cleaned the interior really.






I'm also so sick of road construction, I swear the two seasons we have are winter and road construction!

 

The truck is absolutely filthy! Has not been washed in weeks because it just keeps raining, combined with the road construction and trucks dumping dirt on wet roads it's just covered in a film of muddy dirt.






I went in to work early again Friday(5:50am), look at the difference in daylight from week to week. It was pitch black. I have so many outdoor things to get complete before winter and I don't have long now.







And again I have to complain about construction lol





Last photo, a friend from the east coast is a huge beer fan and one of the local brewery's released a limited Amount of an IPA. He asked if I'd pick some up and send it to him I said no prob!