"The Oklahoma Invasion"

It was Friday and my day off. The weather was cold but clear and not too windy. Two of my favorite buddies that I met on the H.A.M.B. message board (for hot rodders) and have known for a few years were due to arrive  so I was looking forward to that. Mike from Tulsa and Chad (from Muskogee) arrived mid afternoon or so and delivered two engines to me. A very desirable 1963 Buick 401 nailhead V8 and a hard to find Chevy 261 six cylinder truck engine. I was glad to get them. Chad or "Chaddilac" as we call him picked up his 1926 Ford Model T coupe body (rear half only) that I had been storing for him. Here are the boys tying down the load after we unloaded the engines.

  I wanted to share my "Midwestern Pie Tasting Tour" with them but since Mrs. Poverty Flats is out of town we had to go eat restaurant pie.....and it wasn't bad I guess. They sure do pile on the whipped cream at the place named Russell's in Salina. The Okies had chocolate peanut butter and I had chocolate banana.

Chaddilac is a graphic artist who has a website and business with that name and I had found another guy in California who has possibly stolen his name and also has a website that offers graphic art services. To be honest with you I don't really know which one is the "real deal" and which one is the imposter. Just for fun I painted some words on Chad's new coupe body and had him pose for this photo....

Then Mike asked if I had ever sold that old Chevy panel truck for my favorite brother in law Lawrence from an ad he saw a few months ago and I said no. We took the 12 mile drive out to his country place so he could inspect it. I never thought he was serious but damned if he didn't agree to buy it. We used my dually to pull it out of the tree row but only 2 of it's 4 wheels would turn. Then since Lawrence was not home and we couldn't use his tractor we pulled it on the trailer with 2 old come-a-longs we found laying on a nearby truck. I took a photo of Mike's new pride and joy just before it got dark....,

We got the coupe body tied on the trailer behind the panel truck and the boys headed south to cross the state line with their new found bounty.
I would say it was a good day for us all-----
Come back and see us again sometime boys....next time we will try to have homemade pie for you.

--RFD Kansas---

Today's blog is a photo journal of my travels looking north and west from Salina which is my home base for work and is centrally located in KS. Just random things of interest I see from time to time. 

First photo is an old travel trailer I saw at Minneapolis, KS that would look good behind our 57 Chevy....

and an old outhouse too--

and in the same town I saw an old gas station that I really liked but was too cluttered with jun for me to get a good photo so I pictured the sign instead.....remember when Fina was a big major brand of gasoline retailers? I do...

and one day when I was in Concordia, KS I saw a teenager driving this old homemade jalopy. It made me feel good to see someone so young interested in the old car hobby. And now I see why his dad would not sell me this Ford Model A chassis with a Model B engine in it when I asked about 2 years ago.....

Hand painted signage on the back of an old bank building in Belleville, KS that I liked--

and in the same town is this fantastic old gas station/dealership building that is in great shape. A few years ago it was a restaurant and then was a shipping warehouse for an online retailer for a year or two and now just sitting empty......

and speaking of old things would someone please explain to me how a bridge built in 1915 can still be in use on a heavily traveled rural road and yet newer modern bridges have to be constantly torn down and rebuilt because of stress cracks and damage? 

and on the same road but perhaps 12 miles north on a gravel road is this old iron bridge also built in 1915 and still in use....notice the plaque at the top which tells where it was built and even states the names of the men who built it----American Pride---

and a railroad depot in a ghost town named Lovewell---

In this part of the state the landscape can turn from nice fertile wheat and corn fields to rolling grasslands....

and even some rocky hills with some evergreens too--

and some cattle resting while chewing their cuds near the road--

man made irrigation ditches that divert water from a reservoir to corn farmers in the area.....

 an octagonal barn that has "Judy Ranch" painted on it in faded patina...

and in Mankato, KS is this very cool old stone house that is a former county jail----

and a very small town auto parts store that is still in business....

a rural school in the middle of nowhere on a very muddy road and notice the lack of windows on this one.....like a jail....

and finally some old relics along the road that must be someone's future projects to rebuild or restore....

Just some random shots from a week or so of driving the back roads of Kansas.....thanks for riding along!

--signs of winter--

It was a warm day and it was time for my lunch break. But I wasn't hungry.....too nice of a day to sit in the truck and listen to talk radio. What I needed was a place to walk around and get some sun. Then I remembered I was near a "neon boneyard". A place where old signs literally get put out to pasture. I hadn't visited the place in 4 years and I wondered how much it had changed. I turned down the gravel road and soon found out it had not changed at all. I took a few photos and looked around. Later upon downloading the photos to my computer I wondered if I still had the photos I took 4 years ago on a much different day. You see it was 18 degrees and had snowed on my last visit. I was there on my lunch break that day too and was showing a friend around. Not surprising, I had taken photos of pretty much the same things again as I compared the new with the old.

 This is a a rural place on the edge of town on a road not traveled. I had the place to myself except for a couple of nearby horses. It was fun to remember some of the businesses that used to be around as I looked thru the signs. Because of the way they are stacked it is impossible to photograph many of them but there are some good memories here just waiting.....

and even an old truck or two....

here is me from January 2008---doing my Col. Sanders impersonation. I need a white suit....

from the old "Rocket drive in theater"

Ed's motel (wherever that was)---

some old cafe sign

the "Newport Grille"

some other cafe---

Sparkle car wash

and my personal favorite---simply titled "Eat" which I like to do.....

One of these days I will ask the owner of these big old reminders of days gone by if they are for sale.......but for now I enjoyed my time there and while not as cool as the big Vegas Neon Boneyard.....it was still cool to me.
Thanks for looking at a snapshot of vanishing Americana with me. Let's do it again sometime!