Author Archives: Denny

My Wheels — Chapter 33
1998 Chevrolet Corvette

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You’re a single male, you’re fifty, and your nest is empty. It’s time to order a red convertible. Right? Actually, when those conditions were first met, I ordered a silver coupe. For the first time in fourteen years, a totally new Chevrolet Corvette was introduced for 1997 and I ordered one in June. The car was initially in short supply and the dealer I chose was not a strong believer in the FIFO system of order fulfillment. As details of the next model year began to emerge with my car still unscheduled and my deposit check still uncashed, I canceled the order and went elsewhere to signup for a 1998 model.

A convertible had been added to the lineup for ’98, and by then I’d seen enough ’97 ‘Vettes to get hooked on the Light Carmine Red Metallic color. That’s what I ordered along with the 6-speed manual, Z51 suspension, and museum delivery I’d checked off on the coupe. Thinking of starting the summer off right, I asked for mid-March delivery. As you can see by the time stamp on the museum delivery area photo, they nailed it.

Museum delivery was not nearly as popular or as finely choreographed then as it is now. Today you are introduced to your car as it sits in a line of others scheduled for delivery on the same day, then a museum employee drives it outside before handing it over. In 1998, a day with a scheduled delivery wasn’t all that common, and a day with two was almost rare. My delivery was the second of the day, and the other car was still in place during my guided museum tour. I’d fortunately been told about this before the tour began so that I didn’t go into complete shock when it was time for the big reveal. My car was rolled in after the tour for photos and hand-off.

Back in the last century, new owners drove their new cars out of the museum if desired. The fellow ahead of me chose not to which is why his car was still there during my tour. I, on the other hand, wasn’t about to miss this opportunity. I’d ordered the car without so much as a test ride and the first time I was ever in a moving C5 was when I drove mine out of the museum with my girlfriend in the passenger seat. In the nearly empty lot, I “christened” the car with no name with a few drops of the champagne John had brought along before the bottle was emptied by the three adult members of the Vehicle Acquisition Team.

A fairly recent blog post touched on the cars I’ve used in my documented road trips, and pointed out that the My Wheels series of posts was closing in on them. This is the car that carried me on the first thirteen of those trips, and it actually has a lot to do with this website and that documentation even existing. When I started compiling a list of cars and the trips they’ve been on, I expected this car to have the highest count. I owned it longer than any other of my “road trip cars” and, even though there was another car in the stable during all of those eight and a half years, for the majority of that time the other car was not exactly road trip worthy. Of the 150 trips documented at the time of this writing, fifteen used a rental car or no car at all. Of the remaining 135, the 1998 Corvette was involved in thirty-three. That’s a respectable number but it’s not the highest. In fact, it was topped by two other cars that will eventually appear in this series.

So most of this car’s story is already on this website in the journals of those thirty-three trips from my very first documented trip, when I drove it into a canyon in Arizona, to the car’s last trip, where I discovered that I had no reverse after crossing the Chain of Rocks Bridge.

Those might sound more like low-lights than high-lights but, as John said after the canyon episode, “That’s how you get stories.” This car helped me get a lot of stories. And a lot of pictures. One picture, taken five days before that Arizona off-road excursion, has been a key part of this website ever since. It shows the Corvette on the Route 66 “sidewalk highway” near Miami, Oklahoma. With variously levels of cropping, it has constantly been the primary image on the site’s home page from the day it first appeared. It is also the basis for the site’s favicon (), and it’s been in a movie.

In 2005’s Elizabethtown, Kirsten Dunst surprises Orlando Bloom with a binder filled with maps, brochures, and general tips for a cross country road trip. My 1999 photo is pasted on the cover and appears on the big screen for a second or so. Guess I’m still due 14:59 of fame.

My Previous Wheels: Chapter 32 — 1986 Ford Bronco II
My Next Wheels: Chapter 34 — 2003 Pontiac Vibe

18th Century Flashback

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The Ohio Renaissance Festival began its 2018 run on Saturday as did the Fair at New Boston some twenty-five mile to the north. The Festival will last two months, operating every weekend in September and October. The Fair will last two days. The Festival celebrates 16th century England. The Fair decidedly does not. The Fair represents a settlement in the Ohio territory in the year 1798 when the England of any century was anything but celebrated. The war that had ripped thirteen of England’s colonies away from her was a very fresh memory in the fledgling United States of America of the day.

I’d attended the Fair at New Boston once before, in 2010. As it did then, the day began with a parade…

…and some opening ceremonies. The flag was raised to the top of the pole then lowered to the halfway point in recognition of the 21st century death of Senator John McCain.

With the fair officially open, the entertainment commenced immediately. Pictured are Johnathon Hagee, Jack Salt & the Captain’s Daughter, and the Clockwork Clown.

I’d essentially jumped out of bed and headed straight to the fair, then followed the parade through town and paused to be entertained. It was now time for breakfast. Freshly peeled peaches and pound cake were just about perfect.

I then headed to Cheapside Theater for the world premier of Bard of New Boston, a play comprised of Shakespeare excerpts. Volunteers from the audience fill out the trio of witches from Macbeth. Complaining about the lack of a Romeo, Juliet begins the balcony scene by herself before the town rat-catcher steps up. This guy roams all about the fair with a couple of live rats in a cage and a stuffed one in his hands and in your face. His general griminess and very audible flatulence adds to the image. He spent the first half of the play heckling the actors before bringing a dash of romance to the stage. The whole company appears at the end in a curtain-less curtain call.

I completely missed out on the preparation and just barely arrived in time for the hot air balloon launch. A strong cord between balloon and owner kept the two from being separated as the former led the latter though the fairgrounds before cooling and landing.

Authenticity and historic accuracy is stressed at the fair and that includes the nearby Kispoko Town. I eavesdropped a bit on the fellow drying pumpkin rind and heard the two young observers getting what I suspect will be a rather memorable history lesson.

I missed out on this year’s historical speakers, which included Simon Kenton, Chief Blackhoof, and Daniel Boone, and I took off before the reenactment of the Battle of Picawey. Clouds were gathering and I had things to do so decided it was time to leave.    

Two Oldies and Something New

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This is a triple play post. It begins with the oldest of three events I attended on three consecutive days this week. On Thursday, I stopped by The Great Darke County Fair in Greenville, Ohio. The first was held in 1853. The one just now ending is the 163rd. The difference between number of years (166) and number of fairs are the cancellations in 1862 and ’63 for the Civil War and 1949 for a polio outbreak.

There was a time when I’d walk through the barns and exhibit halls seeking out the entries of friends and relatives, but no more. At best, a familiar family name might identify a grandchild of someone I once knew but even that’s pretty iffy.

On Friday I took in the 53rd annual Tri-State Gas Engine and Tractor Show in Portland, Indiana. That’s the same place I attended the National Vintage Motor Bike meet about a month ago. My friend Dale had a tent at the bike show. This time it was my friend Terry with his fleet of Wheel Horses. That’s Terry in the white shirt talking with another Wheel Horse collector. In the post about the Vintage Motor Bikes, I mentioned how deep the discussions can get when two bicycle collectors get together. Same thing with tractors, and when both collect the same brand, the level of detail absolutely pegs the meter. Turns out they are not actually talking about Wheel Horses in the picture. They’re talking about that strange looking REO riding reel mower in front of them.

The second picture shows a Crosley V8. The fellow displaying it made it by joining together two Crosley four cylinders. Even though it’s his creation, it’s not his idea. Apparently Crosley Corporation made a few of their own “twin-4s” though they were not very successful. Crosley experimented with a whole lot of rather bizarre concepts and this guy seems to own one of just about all of them and brings a different set each year. That’s a cord braider in the last picture. I tried getting a video of the thing in action but it was a complete failure. I do have a somewhat close-up picture, though.

The third thing of the week was the new thing. The first Porchfest took place in Ithaca, New York in 2007. The concept of local musicians playing on people’s front porches really caught on and there are now Porchfests across the country. Dayton, Ohio, got on board just last year. The Dayton Porchfest happens in the St. Anne’s Hill neighborhood which I’ve written about before. It’s where “my brewery” (Fifth Street Brewpub) is. This year, just like last, the T.R.S.S Drum Corp started things off without the need for a porch.

At the top of each of the next five hours, musicians would begin performances on eight to ten of the neighborhood’s porches. That’s a whole bunch of music. The three groups pictured, the Good Time Accordion Band, A Shade of Red, and the Gotham City Brass Quintet, are just a fraction of what I saw and I saw just a fraction of what was offered.

Some rain had fallen earlier and a drizzle appeared about halfway through the drum corp’s performance. It came and went as I took in a song or two from most of the first set of musicians. It became a steady shower while I paused at the brewpub. I actually set out for a second round but changed my mind within a few feet. It wasn’t a heavy rain but it was enough to send me to my car instead of walking down the street. The bands played on to umbrella covered listeners. Porchfest is a wonderful concept, and I certainly enjoyed my first rain shortened exposure. I’ll be watching for the event’s return next year. 

Jeep Jam 2018

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For a number of years, although I don’t know what that number is, something called Jeep Jam has taken place on a farm near Willmington, Ohio. It moved to the Clinton County Fairgrounds this year and that move helped bring the event to the attention of my buddy John who lives close enough to the fairgrounds to hear knobbies spinning in mud pits. The threat of rain had caused a Friday night concert to be canceled but it did not affect the planned cruise-in much if at all. John reported a downtown filled with Jeeps parked for viewing. On Saturday, he and I went to the fairgrounds.

There were vendors selling food and all sorts of four wheel drive related merchandise, and there were Jeeps. Lots of Jeeps. Hundreds of Jeeps. The majority didn’t look all that changed from when they left the dealer but some were clearly experienced and eager off-road machines. This open-wheeled specimen was probably the most battle ready vehicle we saw.

Many of the Jeeps were parked which allowed guys like us to walk by and look them over. Others were in long slow moving lines going somewhere. Some were headed to riding trails both on and off site. Those in the first picture were working their way to an obstacle course which featured the piles of mud in the second picture.

We didn’t study the whole course so can’t say if this was really the highlight but it did seem to be where most of the attention was focused. This clearly wasn’t a super challenge for a Jeep, but it did provide plenty of fun without undue risk.

A concert featuring Molly Hatchet would close out the day, and was included in our $5 admission. Neither of us were big Molly Hatchet fans and there really wasn’t all that much to hold a non-Jeep-owning spectator’s attention until then. A walk to the far end of the grounds and back was enough for us. However if you own a Jeep and wanted to get it dirty, add some accessories, or swap stories with other owners, this was the place to be. 

Another Cardboard Regatta

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There’s a new Cardboard Boat Regatta in the neighborhood. It’s not new to the world, but it’s new to me. Saturday’s event was the fourth Little Miami Cardboard Boat Regatta to take place at Oeder’s Lake near Zoar, Ohio. It isn’t as big or as old as the New Richmond Cardboard Boat Regatta which will happen for the 26th time next Saturday, but it is a well organized and well attended event that’s filled with fun will likely only get bigger. I’d learned of the regatta just a couple of days ago and decided to attend just a couple of hours before I pulled into the big field beside the lake.

Despite my last minute decision to attend, I was there in time to look over most of the entrants and there were some great ones. Mixing cardboard with a little water seems a natural recipe for creativity.

There were a few vendors on site selling snacks and soft drinks but that was really the only thing to spend money on. There was an entry fee for race participants, but, thanks to several sponsors and the generosity of the Oeder family, everything else was free. That included several bounce houses and other entertainment for kids and a train that ran non-stop and which I never again saw any where near as empty as in the photo.

For me, the pre-race entertainment was a couple of remote control boats sailing around the lake. I spoke with one of the owners and verified that they really are sailing craft. No propellers or motors. The operator controls the rudder and sail angle and hopes for a gentle breeze.

At high noon, the first heat assembled on the dock. Safety rules and, even though the lake is rather shallow, no one is allowed on that dock without a life jacket. As that first heat rounds the first buoy, a rescue boat can be seen in the background. Off to the right, a pair of suited up and ready scuba divers stood at water’s edge.

No one was ever in danger but many were in water. The rescue boat saw plenty of work picking up abandoned boats and pieces of boats.

Most of the events were timed races but the last — and it’s pretty obvious why it’s last — was the Crash Derby. I counted about twenty boats that had survived their races and were ready to rumble. Rules were fairly lax with hitting opponents with paddles just about the only thing strictly forbidden.

Mayhem reigns until just one boat is left upright and then continues. In a lake filled with wet and determined attackers, winning the Crash Derby does not mean surviving it.

Trip Peek #74
Trip #36
Five Bridges Road

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This picture is from my 2005 Five Bridges Road day trip. The title is obviously a rip-off of Steve Young’s Seven Bridges Road, and I must further confess that, while I did indeed visit five bridges — all covered — on this trip, they were not all on the same road and they are not the reason I began the trip. The reason for the trip, and the source of many of its photos, was the Pumpkin Run car show in Owensville, Ohio. I did have one bridge on the day’s itinerary, and I stopped there after spending time at the car show. While chatting with another visitor to the bridge, I learned that a total of five covered bridges remained in Brown County and I proceeded to visit them all. I suppose calling this the Five Bridges County trip would have been more accurate but not as catchy.

Here’s hoping that I can regain a portion of the credibility lost in revealing just how much of a lie this title is with my visit to the real seven bridges road just two years later.

Trip Peeks are short articles published when my world is too busy or too boring for a current events piece to be completed in time for the Sunday posting. In addition to a photo thumbnail from a completed road trip, each Peek includes a brief description of that photo plus links to the full sized photo and the associated trip journal.

Spontaneous Nash Dash

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With little advance planning, I woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head, and drove to Nashville. The day’s goal, seeing the Cleverlys at Station Inn, was accomplished without a hitch. The only other thing scheduled is a Long Players show on Saturday but I’m thinking there might be some other stuff in between. Supposedly, there’s thirteen hundred and fifty two guitar pickers around here somewhere.

This entry is to let blog only subscribers now about the trip and to provide a place for comments. The journal is here.

Vintage Bikes and More

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On Thursday, I was back at the Jay County Fairgrounds near Portland, Indiana. It’s a place I’ve been to a couple of times before for the Antique Engine & Tractor Show where my friend Terry displays his collection of Wheel Horses. In 2015, my friend Dale met me there. This time I was there for the National Vintage Motor Bike Club annual meet, and it was Dale who had the trailer full of gear. The picture at right shows vintage motor bikes all set to head out of the gate for a fairly slow cruise around the area.

Dale and I were already nearly ten years into our lifelong friendship when we acquired our first motorized transportation. His was an Allstate Mo‑Ped; Mine was a Whizzer. I talk a bit about both vehicles here. I believe Dale’s Mo-Ped was actually much shinier that this example but it never had saddlebags or a windshield. I don’t think either of us knew what a helmet was in those days, either. My Whizzer never looked half as good as those in the picture. That’s a mighty nice looking scaled down replica, too.

Despite the word “motor” in the event’s name, I’m guessing that nearly half of the bikes on the grounds were people-powered. That’s why Dale was there, and the collection in the last picture is the one he brought with him.

Here’s a little better view of the banner at the left of the previous picture. Heart of the City is the name of the bicycle ministry operated by Mission Church Fort Wayne. I stopped by their shop, where Dale and other volunteers repair and recondition bikes for the homeless and inner city’s needy, a few years ago. That’s Dale remounting a wheel after fixing a flat. Orley, another volunteer, was with Dale today but I failed to get a picture. All of the bicycles the two of them brought to the meet are for sale. They are a mixture of Dale’s personal “extras” and some that have been donated to the ministry but aren’t really appropriate for the earn-a-bike program.

This was the first day of the event, and my theory is that most of the traffic was from other participants seeing what everybody else had to offer. Sales were not brisk, but neither were they non-existent. By far the most interesting of the few I witnessed, was this one. I’d noticed this fellow, or at least his hat, during a little walkabout Dale and I did. He is both a collector and an active supporter of some sort of earn-a-bike program in the Detroit area. Some people walked their purchases, and some held a “new” bike’s handlebars to tow it beside the bike they were riding. This guy just slung it over his back and putted away. All that was interesting, of course, but what I thought even more so was the conversation he and Dale had as they roamed among the bikes. With an often foreign vocabulary, they discussed who made what, when they made it, and why this was good and that was bad. I didn’t understand much but I sure did appreciate it. Incidentally, that yellow bike in the first picture is one that Dale fabricated following some Cannondale geometry. There’s a better view here.

Not surprisingly, there were also a few interesting four wheeled vehicles around. We found the Nash woodie on our walkabout. The Amphicar drove by as we sat behind the bikes. As told below, I would see it again in a couple of days.

When this nattily dressed fellow pedaled by, Dale told me that he and his wife Marsha each own a trike like this. He didn’t tell me whether they dress in pure white and wear straw skimmers when they go out riding them but I’m guessing not.
 

The red Amphicar that we saw in Portland, Indiana, is in the front row of this group of Amphicars in Celina, Ohio. On Saturday, during the annual Lake Festival, an attempt was made to break the Guinness Record for the Largest Gathering of Amphicars which stood, and disappointingly still stands, at 75. This group was slightly smaller at 72. I identified the car seen in Portland by its watercraft license number, and spoke briefly with its owners.

Nothing soothes the pain of a near miss on a world record like a splash in the lake, and many of the cars’ owners wasted little time in doing exactly that.  

Trip Peek #73
Trip #67
Lincoln Highway East

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This picture is from my 2008 Lincoln Highway East trip. I used a business trip to the Philadelphia area as the lead-in to a drive on the easternmost portion of the Lincoln Highway. That’s Times Square, where the LH begins, in the picture. After braving Manhattan, I spent the next day in Philadelphia looking over the Liberty Bell and other pieces of history before finally moving beyond the east coast congestion. I stayed with the Lincoln Highway to Greensburg, PA, then shifted to the National Road, which I followed to Zanesville, OH. When I reached Wheeling, WV, on July 5th, I learned that the Independence Day fireworks had been rained out and rescheduled, so I stuck around to see the show that was launched from the 1849 suspension bridge.

Trip Peeks are short articles published when my world is too busy or too boring for a current events piece to be completed in time for the Sunday posting. In addition to a photo thumbnail from a completed road trip, each Peek includes a brief description of that photo plus links to the full sized photo and the associated trip journal.

Ts at a Hundred and Ten

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Richmond, Indiana, seems to have become the de facto Model T Capital of the World. The Model T Ford Club of America is headquartered there and operates a marvelous museum dedicated to Henry’s world changing creation. In 2008, when the T turned 100 years old, Richmond hosted a birthday party attended by approximately 1000 of the cars. I was there for one day. This year, with the T turning 110, Richmond had another party. It wasn’t nearly as big as the centennial bash but it was still a pretty big deal with about 100 Ford Model Ts showing up. Again, I was there for one day, Saturday.

Some of those 100 or so visiting Model Ts were parked in the street but many were in the museum’s parking lot. It was a great day for looking the cars over but, because of their proximity to one another and the number of people sharing the space, getting good photos wasn’t so easy. A dead skunk emerging from beneath a rear tire does seem to provide a little extra space, however.

The museum was open and entirely free all day which really was great but the space and people issues seen outside were amplified inside. A chunk of normally open space in the annex was filled with a series of seminars.

I’ve visited the museum in the past when I was the only one there and I expect that will happen again. Today’s lack of “photo space” didn’t really bother me. The cars, in fact, were not the primary reason I was there. I’d first learned of this event last fall on a visit to the museum to see a car named the Silver Streak. In the 1930s and ’40s, a group of young women had used the Streak to travel the country. The car was on loan from its current owner, John Butte. I bought a copy of the book John had written about the car and was in Richmond today to get it signed and meet its author. John is in all three of these photos. The third includes his wife Carmen and the Silver Streak. A few pictures of the car accompanied my review of the book.

Doug Partington is the owner of another Model T with a great story guy. The Wikner Ford Special is the very first race car built in Australia. Doug bought the partially disassembled car when he was fourteen. Only after he’d had considerable fun and success racing the car did he learn of its unique history. The Wikner Ford Special will be on display at the museum for the next eighteen months. The Silver Streak will be leaving in August.

Among the many Model Ts on display was an open car much like the one my great grandparents drove to Florida in 1920 and a green coupe similar to one they subsequently owned which is currently in the possession of an uncle.

Of course the gathering was not limited to already complete and fully functioning automobiles. There were also plenty of pieces that just might be the key to another complete and fully functional Ford.