Rhody 2001 was quite the event. We had a Tech session with Mikey's car including Erik, Roger and Rick. A Driving tour which included all the attendees previously mentioned crammed comfortably in Titanic.

Erik, Mark and I we're the only entrants in the show one 67 Imperial Sedan, a gorgeous 57 Fury, and Eriks all original 76 Jeep Wagoneer. After the show on Saturday Mikey and I drove each others cars (first time I'd been behind the rectangular wheel and I must say it was a pleasant experience).

Below is Mikey's account of the Weekend. There will be more pictures to follow this was the first roll of film and Erik has promised me more.

Hi all.....

So much went on during the trip to Oregon, thought a few diary excerpts
would be in order, forgive the lengthy post!

Mikey
62 Crown Coupe

Dear Diary.....ok, its 4:30 in the freakin morning....the darn birds are
still sleepin! Kids look like zombies - maybe they wont be talkin till
later! Cars full of fuel, theres nobody on the road and we are outa here!
Got this whole highway to myslelf....lets see what she will do!

Wow.....not even 6 am and here we are in the gorge....and the stupid
headwind! Felt like we hit something when we got slapped by that first
gust, thats gonna cost a couple mpg! Hmmmm.....lots of trucks on this road,
finally I will be able to " draft " behind something, not the usual in this
car.

Guess from the expression on his face he's never seen one of these
before.....well, I could care less if he loves it or hates it, I know I wont
be seeing a 39 year old Huyundai Sonata even if i live to be 200 - let
alone a group of people dedicated to keeping these beauties on the road.
Wish I hadnt forgotten Roger's phone number though.....almost to Hood River
and I'd call him if I could. Hope he doesnt wait around for me too much.

Ok....fill her up. Woodburn for fuel...thats further than we did last
year. So far so good....cant get over these guys HAVE to pump the fuel for
ya, no self serves in the state at all. Havent had this privelege since I
cant remember when. Guess I better show him where the fuel filler is, and
check the vital fluids while Im at it. Wow.....nothin low, leaking or
smoking. Thats gonna take a little getting used to.

Kewl 55 Buick.......wish I could hear what that guys saying. I know the
thumbs up is a good thing, and I dont see any single digit waving going
on.......oh I see,hes saying " 62" , makes more sense than High 5 and a
peace sign. Wish I had an aerial view of the 2 of us cruisin side by side
here for the last 2 miles. These folks down here seem to be pretty
casual......back home we all drive like New York cabbies but without the
sidearms...mostly.

Theres the cleaners.....oh, look., Leslies hard at work - NOT! Lets get
out, stretch and all that. Might as well see what she was talking about on
the Titanic, hope the carb isnt really dead. Better remember to get
something tie dye for linda while were in there.....course with me and the 2
other kids being gone, thats a pretty good gift she's getting anyway.

Well that was a no brainer.....worn throttle shafts, Les will have to get a
new carb eventually, she may as well get an Edelbrock and be happy. Must
have been a stuck needle and seat when it was flooding, sure seemed like a
good runner today. Nice car.....gotta remember not to give her quite so
much crap about it at chat...well, lets think about it anyway.

Ok Diary....lunch time. May as well do the Burger King thing. Kids will
be happy. Hmmmm......this guy is arguing with the girl over 13 cents on
the bill and hes having her itemize every item on the receipt. This could
be awhile. Oh great, now they got his order wrong on top of that......

Now off to see the local mopar guru and his cars......geeez.....73 Imp I
think, duster, charger, desotos, what the heck is that a valiant....must be
a 60?, what a variety. Wish he was here so we could see the real kewl
stuff on the inside. Should tell Les to make real nice to this guy, make
him some cookies. No....she better just buy him some cookies hehehehehe.
Guess we can come back here later, may as well go to Leslies.

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WHAT THE HELL!!!!!!!!! 0 oil pressure, sh*t son of a bit*h turn this fu**in
thing off now!!! Man im glad i heard that when i did.....great!!! Drive
all over hell and back at home and nothin, 2 miles from where Im going and
this!!!! Ok...calm down, what are yer options: Cry, yell...no, cry is
better right now.... nah, better not
do that. Lets think about this...oil pump drive shaft broke, pump broke
or... .hmmmm maybe pick up tube but I doubt it. Wont matter anyway, have
to get this thing towed to Leslies first. Thank the Lord for that towing
insurance. Wish we were on a better spot, no shoulder, on a curve, at the
base of a hill and traffic is busy. Only a matter of time till we scrape a
taurus off my back bumper!!!!!!

Geez....must have a guardian angel. This guys got a big enough truck, a tow
rope, and some intelligence. At least we are better off here till the tow
truck gets here. Have to get his name from Les later so i can send him a
proper thank you. Glad Les is here......she can talk to this nice little
old lady for awhile....and awhile, and awhile.......WHERE IS THAT TOW
TRUCK!!!!

Geez......oh sure, Les got her camera!!! if i am lucky, the tow truck guy
will drop my car 3 feet and she can get some even better shots!!!
hehehehehe....maybe it will roll off the truck and go thru her garage wall
into the house " wow les, nice big grey double couch you got there...howd
ya get it in the living room?"

Well, time to get to work....pull the distributor, lets mark where it is
pointing first, make life easy ok. All right, hmmmm......better make a
note of where that drive shaft gear is pointing too while were at it.
Ok...well thats that, sheared hex on the drive shaft! YES.....man thats so
much better than busted engine internally....great, now the pump has to come
out. I am sooooo glad its externally mounted. Must remember to thank
whoever designed this engine for that. Just loosen the motor mount bolts,
lift it a bit....there ya go! Man...hope les has a big drain pan...theres
gonna be some oil. Yep...there it is, seized inner rotor. Wonder if
theres a parts store within a time zone that might have that around
here......wonder if theres a drive shaft within a light year of here.

Well diary...thats enough for today.. its dinner time, sposed to have
parts in the morning. What a day!!! Eric's car didnt make it...glad he
did, Roger made it, Lee's car didnt make it...mine is sitting in Leslies
garage.....the fury guy is somewhere around i think....sure hope the Titanic
doesnt mind sitting outside tonite just for me! Les and Bob are being
very kewl about this......bet a buck that Bob is just hoping I get mine
fixed so he doesnt have to be " Uncle Bob " for a week or so.....or that I
get to come back in a couple weeks and fix that darn car. Time for
bed.....well see ya tomorrow

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Mike's Imperial Arrives at my House	Line it up in the Garage	Slide it in! Mike's offering me stuff not to post these... You see he didn't pay me enough ;-)

Well, here we are ..350 miles from home, with a busted Imp. May as well go
get some parts and fix this baby ........hope that pump came in or there may
be a riot at napa! Looks like everyone else went to the car
show.....wonder if they have a class " primered derelicts" I could really
clean up this year.

Ok.....new pump, 37 bucks.....not bad. Hope that drive shaft is around,
guess I can scope out some cars while Im at the show waiting for Jim the
mopar guy. Thankfully he lives here....every town needs someone like him.

Got pump, got drive shaft.....lets go to work! Hmmmm......nobody here to
kick me cuz I didnt get some new bolts, this standard pump is 1/4 inch
shorter than the old hi vol unit......guess I get to go back to napa again.
GRRRRR..............

Well, lets prime it and see what it does......glad Jim had this primer shaft
and Bob has a reversible electric drill....cmon, come on
you.....grrrrrrrrrrr! Ok...there it is, drill is slowing down big time -
good sign. 40 psi priming....think we dodged a serious bullet here. Get
that drive shaft and dist back in.....lets double check everything
again.....ok....moment of truth here. Do we drive home or does les get some
yard art! She will have to provide her own foliage though.....

OH thank you Lord for that one!! Theres more than one kind of religious
moment in this boys life.....50 pounds and steady. Smooth....no rattles or
clanging or those really bad deep low thumps.......3 oclock....there goes
the show but who cares! Now to clean up and give Les her garage back.

Dinner time already.....oh man, Bob made some killer lasagna. Too bad hes
already married..Id adopt him. This stuff is good.......good dinner, good
people, good weather ( only blowin 30 mph constantly and 45 seconds outside
is about all you want with this darn sand flyin around....) and the car
moves.

Cruise time.....what..no cruise? The town moron police chief closed off old
town...no bikers waving and cheering from both sides of the street as all
the cars go by!!! That was the kewlest part of it all last year! Half the
route had people sitting in their yards watching the cars go by.....that was
sooo neat. And downtown, the same thing. If that was considered a riot,
then I want to have riots like that back home. Hope Seargeant Friday gets
his act together and wises up for next year.....either that or next time he
trips over a rope and breaks his arms he blames the right person - himself.

Well....not a bad idea, do our own cruise. Lets pile into my car and go
driving....plus, we have enough to push now if something else breaks! Last
year it was a hood cable, this year an oil pump......so by that logic next
time a tree should fall on us. Oh man.....this is good ice cream, worth
the trip right there. Watch this...gonna give Les the keys and let her
drive. hehehehe...this should begood.

Ok les....yes it has power seats, they had electricity in 62. works just
like yers does.....yeah, its a good thing to reach the pedals. oh
man...what a kodak moment! shes lookin at those push buttons like a 2 year
old looks at a nuclear reactor " what does this do?" hehehehe..... Les, R
is reverse....just like yours. D is drive.....this is so good. Now the
brake release, see the handle marked " brake release..."

Man!!! What was I not thinking......put Bob's ice cream dish on the dash
when Les got in, her hands were full. I knew it would slide right off it
when the car moved.....so did I remember to hold it? Well, these clothes
will wash. If we get pulled over, act like im one of her kids and i
dropped my cone - that will be worth the trip too.

What a moment....I get to drive the Titanic! Watch Les get her revenge on
me now.........starts ok, sounds good. Lets move the seat back a
bit.....must be driven by a munchkin. Ahhhhhh...much better, ok lets give
it a go. Nice....good power, shifts nice.....nice feel. Not much
difference than driving mine, pretty much takes up as much road as
mine.....not bad at all. How the heck do you do this door handle....oh,
this little thing kinda keeps the handle from being opened by a kid or
something.....press this down and it opens. Glad they all enjoyed laughing
at me for that one. No, i dont know what that noise is....lets go to this
parking lot and figure it out... what am I thinking! Here we are, Im
trying to look at the front end with Les driving it ....why not just lay
down in the street and wait, same final result....tire tracks on my torso!
Maybe we should forget this after all.

Chat......finally get to see how much everyone enjoyed our antics. Wonder
if moron got the " manure post " thing...hehehe. Wow,nice crowd......since
its leslies computer maybe i can fool someone into thinkin its her doing the
typing...

2 am....im talkin to Robb ( darn,he knows his stuff on these chrysler
products..geez i havent even heard of some of this ) and were typing, and
theres what...3 conversations going on at once. everyone else stopped
chatting at least an hour and a half ago.....its late, long drive tomorrow.
All things considered its been a very good day.

Later

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Jim C. and Rogers 81	Impressive side by side	Mark H. 57 Fury Owner, Roger, Jim and Erik	67 Dodge Charger
Mark Hash's Gorgeous 57 Fury	Interior	Engine	Fin
Mike Trettin know's what this is!	Purple Plymouth Savoy	Erik and my Cars at Rhody Show	From the Front 67 Imperial, 76 Wagoneer
	Grilles	Side View

ok......were packed, cleaned up .....bob and les have an excellent place,
should come back in the fall and rent it for our anniversary - leave the imp
at home unless maybe linda would like to work on it with me hehehe. great.-
ryan just threw up on their carpet......man how embarassing. can we go
home now.

ok...got munchies, got fuel, got the salt spray washed off.....were outa
here! if we dont get out now, they ll close it off for the parade and we
will be that unknown entry from florence scrap metal with my luck. we can
get gas and lunch in junction city , its an hour away.

ok....next time pay closer attention to leslies directions., that was a nice
road and we did end up where we were sposed to.....just a bit more scenery
to enjoy along the way. make note to follow 126 all the way to mapleton and
not take 36 so soon.....thats another DUH for the day.

what a moment....the kid at the gas station was soooo funny. " man...i
never even saw an engine or a radiator that big before" im gonna miss this
full service thing when we get back home. kewl.....heres another couple
who are doin the thumbs up thing,....bet a buck this guy remembers these
when they were new. been a lot of them this weekend, or the real young
types who just like it for whatever.......course,theres always someone who
just stares....like maybe " what the hell was that supposed to be .....who
styled that? " as they try and comprehend what the car is all about.
notice they are usually driving metros or sonatas.......known imperial
crumple zones hehehe.

back in washington......love that hood river bridge. 10 feet wide it
seemed like, and grated metal deck. close as ill ever be to ice skating in
an imp.....must be why they have that 25 mph speed limit. hope we didnt
strain the structure at this weight....

well diary....thats it, were on the home stretch. looks like were gonna
get 300 miles on this tank...and were not even on the empty mark..imp must
be happy to be back! sure beats having to call lindas dad for the car
trailer and having to go back and get her. sure was a good trip all in
all, got to meet some great people, got to see Roger's 81 up close...been
awhile since ive scoped one out, had some nice tech sessions - yeah right.
now if the auto imp cop detecto matic thing doesnt see this whole post as
some kind of v*rus we might just be able to tell about it.

later
mikey