The trip home

[Don Coatney]

We made it home in about 7.5 hours with several rest, fuel, and chow stops. It was beautiful driving through the Smokey Mountains in North Carolina. It was cold. Passed a sign indicating 59 degrees. At the next stop I valved on the trusty heater so Lisa could warm her feet. Drove through two tunnels on the way out and one on the return trip. Twenty minutes later after we left the mountains and crossed into Tennessee the temperature was suddenly over 80. It was 93 by the time we arrived home.

I stopped at a road side park and some lady came by and asked if there was a convention in the area as she had seen other old Plymouths on the road. I said yes but the convention was 200 miles away. Another guy who was sitting at a table with 3 others walked up and looked at my engine as I had the hood up. He stated "I won" telling me that the three had a bet as to weather my car had a flathead in it. We did our business and then hit the road. I was driving my normal speed when about 20 miles up the road I spotted a black car on a trailer just on the horizon. Five miles later I passed Mark Aubuchom towing his pristine 49 coupe. Lisa took some pictures but unfortunately they did not turn out. Mark followed us for twenty or so miles until I had to stop for fuel. I do think he was struggling to keep up as at one time while passing traffic I was doing a little over 80 MPH. Per my GPS I drove a total of 1035.7 miles on this trip. I did this in nineteen hours and twenty nine minutes driving time and averaged 53.1 MPH for the entire trip. I did not add up fuel consumption as I dont care. Fuel could cost ten bucks per gallon but I would still drive my car.

Lisa and I had a great time on this trip. One thing I observed about the POC is they are all about the cars and they do not know how to have fun. The group on this forum is all about the people having fun and the cars are what knit us together. There is a recent posting on the POC forum stating that the highlight of the Concord POC National meet was the tailgate party hosted by the "P-15" group (that would be us). The author of that statement spoke the truth.

[Brendan D25]

Glad to hear you guys had a good weekend. I enjoyed the pictures. You are so right, Don, some people get too serious about the cars, but there will always be a few of us who know how to have fun and enjoy the moment. Cheers, Brendan.

[Norm's Coupe]

Don, glad to hear you made it home ok after the oil pressure problem you had on the way out.

You are so right about some people in the POC being all about the cars. However, that's not just restricted to the POC, it seems it's that way with a lot of people in the old car hobby. I know a few like that in the Ford V8 club. You will also see it in just about everything else too, golf, bowling etc. They get so wrapped up in it, that nothing else matters. They need to "Get a life".

Some of those serious POC members would probably want to burn me at the stake after what I did to two old P15 hubcaps over the weekend. That little project isn't quite finished yet. Will post a picture when it is done today or tomorrow, provided I have the time to finish it. Should give the not so serious people a little chuckle.

[steveplym]

Don,

Did you go thru Maggie Valley, NC and over to Pigeon Forge on this trip? I went on a trip to Maggie Valley last year and took the highway back over the mountain back to knoxville. Beautiful scenery and very nice drive.

Great pics, glad you had a good time.

[Don Coatney]

Don,

Did you go thru Maggie Valley, NC and over to Pigeon Forge on this trip? I went on a trip to Maggie Valley last year and took the highway back over the mountain back to knoxville. Beautiful scenery and very nice drive.

Great pics, glad you had a good time.

Steve;

Sounds like we should have made a detour through Pigeon Forge but we stuck to I-40 on the trip home.

[1949P17BC]

DC, you are right. I was having a little trouble keeping up! I get a little nervous going that fast, with a loaded trailer, especially when the load is my 49'. Drove to Paducah, a little over 500 miles, got very good at stopping to refuel the beast. To all those that attended it was great time, as was said several times its like we been hanging out at car shows for years together. No one has yet to identify the owners of the cars in your picture ( I won't give it away, since I am one of them) My BEST Memories, is everytime we pulled in somewhere (those in the picture) and opened the hoods of our hot rods, lots of POC members and several of POC Techincal judges where the there to ask questions (they knew from following us something was differnt). While they believe in purity, they are still car guys and value creativity. At the Happy Gate Party a new sub club has been formed the POC OC's (PLYMOUTH OWNERS CLUB Out Casts), Greg G came up with so he is the president, so what he says go's, with our creed being, two of everything is better! Speaking of the Happy Gate Party, it was amazing how many of the POC TECH guys hung around, espcially Earl. He told me the next day ( I helped with judging of engines) he had a really fun time and that was the first time anyone had had a party in the parking lot. .A new tradition is in play

[Don Coatney]

Mark;

Did you happen to spot the two goats next to the freeway in the mountains? One was 30-40 feet off to the right and had really long horns. The other was about 10 feet off to the right. They were really there. I am not on drugs:D

[BobT-47P15]

I've heard of people seeing pink elephants, Don. But never mountain (or regular) goats of any color.

Was either of them smiling??

[Johnny S]

So Don, maybe you've located the basis for all of the consternation in our automotive past re: the cause of the original vs modified debate. The modified crowd has the "party" gene (maybe also described as the "fun" gene) and the original crowd doesn't. That would mean in biological terms that some are homozygous for the party gene (they have two so to speak), some are heterozygous for the party gene (they have only one but there is still party in them) and the rest have an abundance of the "non-party" gene..(they have none?).

As for me, I think I have straddled the fence (and slipped) enough on this issue that I must only have one.

[Norm's Coupe]

Actually, at the NSRA and Good Guy shows, the best part is usually at the Host Hotel at night after the official show has stopped for the day. It's party time from then until about midnight or so at the hotel. The really nice part is, you can talk to the owners because they are then with their cars and not running around the show grounds. I enjoy going to the Host Hotels and just sitting on the curb and walking around the parking lot watching the cars go by and looking at the ones parked in the lot. Best part is, if you don't want to pay the entrance fee for the show, you can look for free at the hotel.

[Plymouthy Adams]

Norm..anyone that tight ought never complain about a roll of paper towel on a dinner table...lol

I am not much for clubs activities either..but I did enjoy meeting the forum members and wives (and pets) great time for sure. While walking about the cars, I found myself questioning the very charter that the POC submits as it creed...

[Guest 57plymouth]

The POC-OC group is where it's at for sure! Earl may not have been swayed to the "2 of everything" mentality, but that's okay. I sure learned a lot, and had a great time.

I will say this, my stocker won't run with the 2-up 2-down group! I had a ton of fun.

Like the Prez said, I'm pretty enthusiastic.

[Norm's Coupe]

Norm..anyone that tight ought never complain about a roll of paper towel on a dinner table...lol

I am not much for clubs activities either..but I did enjoy meeting the forum members and wives (and pets) great time for sure. While walking about the cars, I found myself questioning the very charter that the POC submits as it creed...

Tim, FYI each time I did that I was also either a paid attendee during the day, or I was signed up for the show. But.........as I mentioned the parking lot at the Host Hotel is free for anyone and is really more fun than the actual show. Usually have music and a bar where you can buy snacks and drinks too. I'm not as tight as Don thinks I am. I don't mind paying between $30 & $60 for the wife and I to have a little fun for the weekend. I spend more than that on our season tickets to the cabaret. It's six shows (musical plays) a year, plus dinner while we watch the show at our table. That works out to more than $60 per show, but it's worth it because the shows are all good, and so is the food. Like I said before, my world does not revolve around my P15 or other cars.

[Norm's Coupe]

We made it home in about 7.5 hours with several rest, fuel, and chow stops. It was beautiful driving through the Smokey Mountains in North Carolina. It was cold. Passed a sign indicating 59 degrees. At the next stop I valved on the trusty heater so Lisa could warm her feet. Drove through two tunnels on the way out and one on the return trip. Twenty minutes later after we left the mountains and crossed into Tennessee the temperature was suddenly over 80. It was 93 by the time we arrived home.

Don, 59 degrees is not cold. That's what we call nice comfortable short sleeve weather around here. Don't need the heat on for that. We had that and lower a week or so ago. Now it's hot and humid again:( , about 86 degrees out. We can't wait for the nice cool days of fall to arrive to stay. Won't be long now and we'll be there. Has been dropping into the high 40's to low 50's at night. Nice sleeping weather, leave the windows open and let all that nice fresh cool air in.

[Young Ed]

Norm the problem with those fall days is they don't seem to last very long! Then silly winter sets in. EWE

[Norm's Coupe]

Norm the problem with those fall days is they don't seem to last very long! Then silly winter sets in. EWE

Ed, so true. But........I'd rather have it cold than the heat we've been getting. It's always easier to get warm than it is to get cool. You can still go outside and do whatever in zero weather if you dress for it and be comfortable. However, if it's too hot, you can only take off so many clothes to stay cool. Even if you go down to no clothes, it's still too hot outside to really do anything. Plus if you did that, you'd get sunburned so bad you might end up in the hospital. Not to mention, if a cop saw you, you'd get arrested. So..........I'll stick with the weather you and I get over all that heat down south.

[Young Ed]

I'd be a lot better with winter if I had a bigger garage so I could store an old car project to work on. All my cars get put elsewhere and I don't see them for 5 months.

[Norm's Coupe]

Ed, I only have a 2 car garage and the wife gets one side. So.......I'm in about the same boat you are with the garage. However, I don't store my coupe away from home. I keep it in the garage and leave my van outside. That way if I want to go out and do something with it in the winter, I can. The only drawback is you have to clean the snow off your daily driver. But.........that's not so bad. At least it's not like ice that is harder to get off. To clean the snow off my van, I just grab the floor push broom out of the garage and push the snow off. Fast and easy that way.

[Young Ed]

I'm spoiled by parking inside. I like it much better. Costs me $170 to store my truck for the season so I can park the dakota inside. Well worth it. My garage is pretty bad that it wouldn't be easy to heat for winter work anyways. Maybe if the garage was heatable I wouldn't store one of the old cars.

[Plymouthy Adams]

Norm..I got a guy at work who goads me about my JUNKERS as he calls them..but it is just what EACH person has as an outlet. In my opinion his 60 inch flat screen and 21 speaker surround sound is just a bit much...but that is what he spends his money on...

Working on the kids car prepping for paint..primer work tonight...of course he is nowhere to be found...

[Don Coatney]

Don' date=' 59 degrees is not cold. [/quote']

Norm;

It wernt me that was cold. It was Lisa. I had on my usual short sleeve shirt and short pants. I also had my winder open.

[Norm's Coupe]

I'm spoiled by parking inside. I like it much better. Costs me $170 to store my truck for the season so I can park the dakota inside. Well worth it. My garage is pretty bad that it wouldn't be easy to heat for winter work anyways. Maybe if the garage was heatable I wouldn't store one of the old cars.

Ed, my garage use to be cold, dark and dumpy too, even though it was insulated. Had so many cracks around and in doors that the insulation didn't do any good. Over the past few years I've slowly fixed all that. Bought a new insulated metal side door, replaced some of the old wood siding that was bad and this year installed a new extra door stop around the overhead door. Now when you go in there and close the door you can't see the outside daylight except through the windows. So, it should heat up real nice in there this winter. Did that for a couple of reasons. One so I can move the basement shop completely outside. Don't like cutting wood on the saws and router down there, makes too much dust even with the air cleaner in the room. Second, getting tired of having the wrong tools in the wrong places when I need them. Also helps keep out the vermin by sealing up all the cracks. Did spot a field mouse in the garage over the weekend though. So.......bought him/her some special food. I expect I won't see much of him anymore after he has a good meal. Also made all the walls white in the garage from floor to roof. So, it's pretty nice in there now. Before all this my garage was pretty dark and dumpy inside. I'm even thinking about using some of the coating we sell to coat the floor with to dress it up. Never wanted to do that before even though we make the stuff. Floor is the only thing that looks really bad now due to all the patch work I've done on it over the years. Coating it will make it all one color again. That may come next summer, weather is too iffy now with the temperatures dipping lower at night. So......no matter how dumpy you think your garage is, it can be fixed up for not too much money. For example, to make my walls white from floor to ceiling, I simply put up all white 1/4" peg board on all the walls. That way I didn't have to paint them. I also added more shop lights. Have a total of 5 double bulb 4 foot fixtures in there now. Thinking about adding 2 to 4 more fixtures to make it even brighter. Hopefully, I'll have enough heat to heat it in the winter. Just have to move the coupe and the wifes car out to do whatever I want in there.

In short, I reclaimed my garage.

If you did something like that you could keep at least one car to work on. If you don't like parking outside and cleaning the snow off, you could buy one of those metal carports for your daily driver. Plus, you'd have a nice shop to work in for next to nothing.

[Young Ed]

I've declared my garage beyond saving. The private inspector I hired when I bought the house wrote in his report to expect imediate replacement of the garage. That was almost 6 years ago. 2 of the walls are cut into the ground I think 4 courses of block. Those 2 cement walls are leaning in a couple inches at the top. Its pretty much toast.

[Norm's Coupe]

Ed, not long after buying my house, went out one cold winter morning and could not get the overhead garage door open. The floor was cracked and settled then (1973) and the whole garage out of plum because of it. The frost got under the floor and shifted it even more that day. Had to go in the side door, loosen the channels on the sides to allow them to move so I could open the overhead door. Called an engineer to check it out because I was afraid it was going to collapse. He said not to worry the garage was stable and would not collapse even though it was out of plumb. I then installed wheels with longer shafts on the door and readjusted the roller channels. Haven't had a problem since. That is except I could see daylight at the bottom of the door and along the bottom edges of the sides of the door when closed. As mentioned door stops stopped that. Water would come into the garage every time it rained. Took care of that by building a small hump across the garage floor under the door. While replacing the side door and some siding the past few years, my son and I also jacked up the garage wall and replaced the sill plate, because it was rotten due to all the water getting in for years. So.......for under $1,000 we've made the garage sound again, even with the cracked, uneven floor. Estimates to tear this one down and build just a 2 1/2 car garage in it's place were between $10,000 and $13,000. This was one time when Don calling me cheap was right. Didn't want to spend that much when I could get away with only $1,000 and make it sound and look good again.

But.......maybe yours is worse, don't know. You have to be the judge on that one.

[Young Ed]

The floor is actually one thing thats decent in my garage. Its the walls that are bad. Wood is rotten and cement is falling in. Plus its only a 1 car.