Getting Ready To Travel

Yup,now it's that time again.It's mid June and I am just about finished with this project I have going  building an art studio in my friends basement .Been at that for a long time now and  it is turning out really nice but now I want to move on.Haven't worked on any motorcycles or done any painting and I need to get back to my own life.So,with the end in sight there I am starting to look forward to heading up to my camp .I'm thinking next week so I need to start getting the truck in shape to travel with.The plan is to use the truck and bring up the generator,the chain saw,and get lumber to build a trough way on the bridge over the summer.If I can get those three things accomplished I can use the BMW K100 to go back and forth in July August,and early September to save money on gas.Yeah,gas,we are being raped again by these greedy scumbags .I'm seeing 3.50 a gallon for regular now so using the bike is a necessity .The bike gets 42-47 MPG the truck gets 8-10 MPG,and the wagon gets 22-25 MPG so the truck will go once,the bike will go three times , and the wagon will do the final trip  .This approach will give me an acceptable mileage figure for the four or five trips I will make up this season. Money is tight, it's always been like this for me but I deal with it and make it work. The bridge work and finishing the siding are my goal this summer.Once those two projects are finished the place should be in saleable condition so when the time comes to head to Arizona I can  sell.I may bring the kayak up and the Yamaha R5 too but that is still up in the air.Maybe just the yamaha so I have cheap transportation while I'm up in the truck .I do love exploring the rivers in my kayak but really need to focus on finishing up this place.It's come a long way since 2015 when I started this fix up so now it's time to get it done.

Now It's Two Weeks Later !

Never worked on the truck, The price of gas made me rethink my plan and I pressed the good old 1965 Valiant Rat Wagon into service for my trip up to St Regis Falls. She didn't need much , a tune up and an oil change basically , I did a few other little things then packed her up and headed off.  Had a great trip . Everywhere I went people were giving me the thumbs up as I rolled down the road with my kayak tied to the roof .The camp came thru the winter ok,no trees were down on the buildings and everything was exactly as I left it back in October. The weather was so so, kind of cold and damp then a couple nice days .I got out and wandered around.Bought supplies so the place is stocked for me to return in July on a motorcycle. This was really the point of this short trip. I'm back home now.I was only there from Friday afternoon to Wednesday morning. Not nearly enough time to enjoy myself but better than not going at all so I can't really bitch too much.Never got to use my kayak but I will at some point this season.Just being out in the woods all alone was enough to make me happy.I love being out there in the quiet with the animals.Lots of birds .I saw a turkey at the end of the road as I was coming in and as I was packing to leave there were these two herons just going crazy  making a racket for a couple hours . The moon was full the other night but I didn't hear any coyotes . I like it when they carry on at night in the woods. So,now I'm back here in Long Island. Drove home yesterday ahead of the rain and the coming 4th of July weekend .Supposed to go out on this vintage motorcycle ride the 7th up in Connecticut . You know,a tiddler tour hosted by a friend Dave Roper .Haven't ridden with Dave in many years. We used to have these vintage events years ago out on eastern LI but that was twenty something years ago.It should be fun.I'm going to ride up on my 1965 Yamaha YDS3 . Tomorrow I will start servicing her  and get her inspected so she's all ready and legal. It will be good going out on a long ride on the YDS3. Been way too long .

 

Today I worked on my friend Steve's 65 Plymouth Barracuda. Sure felt good to work on an old car with a friend again. I loaned him a motor to use in it while he gets an original 1965 motor for it.

Actually I have the 65 motor for him and as soon as I get a good running 66 motor for my project I can let him have it.The loaner motor is a good one but a later model slant 6 from an early 70's car.I had it in this Valiant my wife was driving about 10 years ago.She got in a pretty bad accident and the thing was totaled so I parted it out.Some 80 year old guy not paying attention just made a left at a fairly good speed right into her and that was it.

So,yesterday we got that motor running again for the first time in 10 years.She started right up and runs like a top ! Now we can continue tweeking that Barracuda so Steve can start driving her.My wagon is next.Bought a set of good used quarter panels last week on line.They should be here soon and then we will do all the rust repair on her.Plan is to do all the body & paint on my wagon first to sharpen our skills and them do a real nice job on the Barracuda. I like doing body & paint work and am good at it but it's been over 10 years since the last one so we practice on the wagon before doing the resto quality work on the Cuda . 20 years ago I sectioned in quarters on my wagon.Made them out of 65 Barracuda quarters. They lasted 20 years so I can't complain.Now it's that time again and I'll be doing this same job all over.So you see,it isn't like I'm clueless as to how to do this major surgery on my baby !

I'm psyched ! Finally,this car is getting the repairs she deserves . Took my wagon up to my camp last week and she used 3/4 rs of a quart of oil in the 1000 miles that I put on her.Not bad for a 53 year old motor that has never been rebuilt .These cars are rare these days,Most of them have been crushed.Sure glad I saved this one.