Hit the Road, Jack!
Sioux Falls to Canistota, South Dakota
August 9, 2006
This is it, D-day! Most of the car has had a once over lightly and it is time to hit the road. All we need to do this morning is pack the car, straighten up the borrowed shop, and make a short test run down the road for gas.
With all our make ready work we still have not driven the car. Let's hope the test run does not dictate more repairs.
I fired the engine while Howard opened the overhead door only to find the transmission would not go in gear! The clutch would not release. We jacked up one rear wheel and let the car idle in gear while holding in the clutch and stomping the brake pedal. The clutch released with a loud 'Pop' about the third hit on the brake.
Howard followed me about a mile to the gas station to gas up. Looks like we are good to go! The gas gauge float showed some promise at first but soon settled to the bottom leaving me nothing to look at but a goose egg. My friend calls that zero "the evil eye rolling in its socket."
We left in a slight drizzle and the wiper doesn't work. Rainex does. When I reached to try the wiper the old fabric hose fell apart in my hand. Howard whittled a plug for the vacuum line. The engine did not like that open line.
We were headed west about 40 miles to Canistota where the car was sold new to a local merchant. I had previously contacted Don Dawson, son of the dealer that sold the car new, and Leroy Klockman, the third owner of the car that inherited it from his grandfather. We were to meet them for lunch.
About 6 or 8 miles from Canistota we met a pick-up coming our way that was acting strangely before it made a u-turn and started following us. We pulled over to meet Leroy Klockman who had come looking for us.
Howard offered to drive Leroy's truck while Leroy rode into town with me. He loved it!
Ron Cloat, Don Dawson and Leroy Klockman
This is the old hotel where we all had lunch together.
Don Dawson gave me some old advertising items from the dealership and filled in some of the blank spots in the car's history.
The dealership is gone but the slab remains.
Leroy took us out to his farm to show us the 28 Tudor also inherited from his grandfather. After lunch a reporter from the Canistota Sentinel interviewed us.
From Canistota we turned back east toward Blue Earth, Minnesota.
August 9, 2006
