Grizz's Redneck Express 1966 Chevy Short Fleetside RESTO-GO!

[Grizz1963]

Sooooo.......

Roger Orf, remember him from last years trip?

The man likes wide tyres, very wide, and has a few cars with them.

He has a picnic or is that garden party for Rodder friends every year, supplying chilli, cooked hams, beer and this year a newly cast concrete strip for friends to come and do burn outs.

This is next to his little self built lake.

Photographed last year when I went there the first time.

This is the sunset view over his self built lake in front of his house. You drive over the dam wall on the way out.



This was a cut up shell a year ago that Dennis and Roger brought back to this condition, still not quite done, but it runs its 440ci motor happily.

When Steve and I got there, we were early, greeted like long lost family by Roger and Debbie, we parked up and watched cars roll in and roll in, while enjoying the Orfs' hospitality.

ROGER ORF the man



Some of Rogers toys

















More in a bit

[Grizz1963]

And they came.























.

[Grizz1963]

Availing myself of Rogers hospitality, I had some of the ham, and then also some of his Chilli, and it was good.



And the cars kept coming.



Then this Alcohol fed brute came in..











Bucket list Gasser

[Grizz1963]

Love the tractor name.





If you look carefully, you will see just how the alcohol makes you sweat on the scoop.







Unusual beast.

Diesel Land Cruiser, from Canada.

[Grizz1963]

Photobucket is really being a dick today.

Keeps freezing, refusing to copy etc.

Almost done with Rogers picnic.

Next will be headed back to the real reason for the trip.



Roger coming to try out his own Burnout strip.





At this point, Steve and I had to get back, and hit the motorway back to Dennis' place, where the party was already going well.

I think that people expected us to do a Burnout as we drove over the concrete strip to leave, but I would not pull another mans motor through my butt, even though Dennis did call me a ***** last year for managing 26mpg in the Challenger.


I will post up a bunch of random short Burnout and arrival videos later for those of you that may be interested.,

Now headed to Thomas Cook to exchange what was left of my Dollars after the last 12 days.

TBH it surprised me that I have any left as I spent as and where I needed to.


Later guys.

[Grizz1963]

ROGER ORF's Picnic

Random V8 clips.

Roger Orf's picnic - YouTube

Roger Orf's Picnic 2 - YouTube

Roger Orf's picnic 3 - YouTube

Roger Orf's picnic 4 - YouTube

Roger Orf's picnic 5 - YouTube

Some random mini burnouts.

I would imagine the new concrete is very grippy.

Roger Orf's picnic 6 Burnouts - YouTube

Roger Orf's picnic 7 no burnout - YouTube

Roger Orf's picnic 8 - YouTube

Roger Orf's picnic 9 - YouTube

Roger Orf's picnic 10 - YouTube

Trust some of these make you smile.

Or grin madly.

[Grizz1963]

When we got back to Foristell and the party was well into its swing.

Parked up the Challenger and Steve and I joined in.

First worthy spot........

Redneck beer cooler.

This was for real. Baby stroller with built in beer compartment

Jesse's patent.



Up closer.



Funny what a few creative editors and motivated minds can do to a working Race car Workshop in a few hours.



People travelled over 200 miles, or 300km to come and join Dennis and Debbie for their birthday party.

Pretty impressive the following he has.

Dennis's Mum and Dad, and his cousin from Jonesboro who was going to drive me up if the Challenger did not get fixed in time.



Some of the usual suspects, including Adam, Clancy and Thomas,and Jesse.



Katie, Debbie's daughter in law, organiser, photographer, great mum and wife......

Racing as usual.



In his Golf Kart was Donny, and friends.




And his daughter Danielle's dog Diesel.......

What an awesome dog. Two licks and your whole face is wet.

Loved him.



Amazing food all round.

Dennis and Debbie asked people to bring side dishes rather than prezzies, as they pretty much have all they need.

Rob Jackson did a Cajun Boil.

He and his team were certainly magicians in the cooking department.

This cooker sooooooooo does not get the flavours they managed to capture.



Dennis' NASCAR based C10 drew attention all day as well.



Makes for a good place to post your beers.

[Grizz1963]

Looks like I am posting up too much, got you guys dazed and confused.



More pics.

Dennis and his baby sister.



Thomas' truck and his drag racing car.

Seems race fuel runs in all of these people's veins.



Sweet Sweet Debbie.

Mother to Jason, Bryan and granny to Skyler Katie and Bryan's daughter.

Invited me when I could not come, but I also felt responsible to her when I got a windfall from the tax man giving me back some cash they had taken off me the year before. Plus a small bonus.

Money so well spent, to be with friends and make even more new friends. Loyal people.



Live music, all day and late into the evening, not your usual 30 minute session followed by a 30 minute break, nope..... nonstop.



Jack Hossack and his clan came in some of his Long Roofs.

Low low low.







Engineer in the house.





Can you guess who??



Amazingly, it just went on and on, and we did not run out of beer.

[Grizz1963]

As the night got longer and later, people left to travel where they had come from.

Tyler is another of the guys I met there, he is part of the family, and his lady friend Kelsie

Great people all around me.



By very late I got to model one of Dennis' prezzies that he got from Scottie.




Eventually we all went to bed and Inguess by midnight the party was over.


Next morning, we were all up early and Debbie made us a quick little breakfast.....




Outside it was time to clear up the yard, packmup chairs, tables, mobile beer coolers, etc etc etc.......

Move cars, race cars, trucks etc about.

Almost there.






By 10.30 all order was restored and Dennis and I jumped into the Dually to go to a local Estate Auction.


American Pickers anyone?


Yes, it had not slowed down for me.


More stuff to do and experience.


This trip just kept getting better


Life certainly is good.

[Grizz1963]

So after all the clearing up got done, Dennis and I jump in the Dually and run down to a "local" estate auction of collectibles.

Truck taken just in case either of us see something.

Filled up and Jerky bought just in case we get snowed in, we head out.



The auction is done by a professional company and fast paced as there are so many individual lots.
Some items price silly low, if they are your thing. Like 50's school desks for $3.00 each. But then a six pack vintage Coke cooler hit over $200.00
It puts into perspective the crazy prices we see at car shows in England.
Maybe the profit margins are not that big.
Signage makes good money, regardless of condition as there are always entry level collectors who just want and need stuff and pay higher prices than the pro's would.

When we get there its clear there are some serious buyers who know the inventory.

Trucks, many with car trailers fill a very large field.

Closer to the actual yard there is a very large catering trailer selling food and drinks and another trailer that is the registration and payment office

This is organised.

Of course we walk in and it is shoulder to shoulder with punters, some serious, some just out to look.

Now I have to make it clear to those of you actually reading the script as well as the photos, the stuff you see here, is the scrap from one mans collection, the "B" and "C" teams are still in all the sheds, and then there is his collection of top end stuff that would qualify for the "A Team" Yet a lot of this stuff is great, and some to a collector would just be bulky debris.

Time for a photodump again.











Too many to choose from.

Rare to common, modern and real vintage.



Absolutely love this side by side.

Take a close look at the design.



A few Trailer loads of smalls, from glass preserve jars to school desks, masses of steel pressed and cast toys. All individually sold items.





And cars, nothing I needed that desperately, but all guaranteed to sell.

[Grizz1963]

Mini Coke cooler in top left of pic on trailer made over $200.00



Waltons anyone??



What beauty in design.



This is the mobile auction wagon, tannoy and PS systems, all sorted, gets moved around to each pile or lot, so handlers and auctioneer and secretary can see it all.



Magnificent.





Dennis and I stayed for about an hour, watching people pay more than what we were prepared to pay for most stuff, we had purporsefully not registered as bidders...... then we left and headed home.

You know the fever can get you.

Back home after midday, Skyler, Dennis' grand daughter wanted to ride her Pink four wheeler.......

So grandpa helped with the helmet and mum Katie rode around the yard with her.

I loved what my camera saw at this point.





Got to be Beer-0-Clock somewhere soon ehhh??

More in a while.

It is now Sunday 13.00 and we have a 4 year old whizzing around on a Pink quad and there is stuff to be done.


Later.

[Grizz1963]

Barstard system.

Just when I completed a write up, the iPad deleted the lot.

I hate the blooody thing at times.

So now photos and less talk.

We went for a ride after the kids and grand daughter left.

SUDDENLY MY HOLIDAY WAS ABOUT TO GET A WHOLE LOT BETTER........



Dennis has a long hedge, wood, call it what you like, along his one boundary.

It had Honeysuckle, barbed wire fences grown into trees etc and very unruly red Cedar trees.

Looking a bit like this.



The trick is to go in on hands and knees, cut out the barbed wire bit by bit, then trim back the Cedar and the. Use the bucket on the tractor to strip the Honeysuckle followed by pushing it all onto the large Fire pile.

One of the things that works well, once you cut down the trees a and branches is to pull and guide the lot while the tractor pushes from behind.







And real sunshine too.



Resulting in this kind of finish.



After the tools were packed away
We had a beer with Donny who came to fetch his golf cart that broke down the night before.



Helping hand.



Jobs done, Dennis loaded up,the cart with cold beers and we headed out.

Now it was just after 5pm on Sunday......

Where did the time go??

[Grizz1963]

Beers replenished, we rode over to a neighbours farm to check out the hunting hides and paths they had created on 200 acres of farming and hunting land.

Despite it being my last night or afternoon in the US, I felt such a strong affiliation with these people, real people, honest people who had taken me into their world.
Dennis is the consummate host and friend.
During this trip, I had learned more about him and his totally unselfish and generous ways.
You would have to go a very long way to meet another quite like him.

Off into the Soy bean fields.



At one point I made him stop and reverse to this thistle....

Look at the second from bottom left flower.....





Neighbours pond.

Seems they are only tenants, but have put masses of work into the land they do not even own.




Then we headed home as Debbie had bought, you better believe it.......

2.5 inch thick mature fillets on Saturday for Dennis to cook.

With amstrip,of streaky bacon around the edges held in place with a tooth pic, theymlitterally fel apart on your plate, cooked to medium rare.

I had a Rum and Pepsi to celebrate my last evening.

Thinking this was it.

But not Dennis......

Nooooooooo

Gary who we met at the auction on Sunday morning had bought a few things.

So,after dinner, armed with more beers, in the golf cart, we headed into the sunset, a few miles away.

State of the day when we headed out.



Have I mentioned adventure??

Or that things just never are boring around Dennis or any of his mates??

Seen me dirt farm road connections, then asphalt.

Hammer down



Eventually into the estate where Gary lives.



Gary, all round good guy, plumber by day.



His son Paul's pride and joy.

Cutouts.....

More Want - YouTube

More in a while.

[Grizz1963]

Monday Morning Dennis was out early to work.

When I woke up my first thoughts were that it was my last half day.

BUT

THEN

I

REMEMBERED

LAST

YEAR.

Anyone not aware of this..........??






But more importantly......


This still waited.


https://youtu.be/P7cFiE_CWMY



Anyone still about?


Stand by

[Grizz1963]

PS. Back on track.

No Photophukit delete.

Thanks MiataMark.

[Palf70Step]

Glad the Challenger sorta back.

Looks like fun, maybe next year I can make the Tuba Trucks run and the antics that lead up to it.

[mjh1965]

Looks like another fun trip . Glad you got the car fixed (we'll sort off ) so you could get back to Denis's in time .

[Grizz1963]

Back to Sunday at the races.

Clint continued to work the car.



Danny and Tyler, actually busy, despite appearances.



Best ever use of a Suzuki bread van





Race is on.



Track after all the races.

Check out the height of the berm afterwards




And suddenly it was all over.



In the trailer before packing up, Danny the teacher and I.



Hooked up and ready to go at 02.00 in the morning.

[Grizz1963]

LABOR DAY........

Monday 4th September was the USA Bank Holiday or a public holiday.

Spent in all manner of ways with friends and family.

Dennis, Debbie and I headed out in his favourite old Chevy truck, with air conditioning to see his parents and collect a load of treasures, tools etc.

Put him behind a wheel and you could drive clean across America.



Yes, two of the same.

Happy me, in a truck headed down i70



Signs of patriotism everywhere. I love these massive flags.



Into O'Fallon where Dennis' mum n dad live.





Showed some of their interior decoration last year, but still love it.



Air conditioning thermostats.





Fully functioning kitchen.

I absolutely love this as so much of it reminds me of growing up 50 years ago.






More in a bit.

[flashed]

Love it ,very tasteful decorations .

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by flashed

Love it ,very tasteful decorations .

Me too.


Continuing at Dennis' parents, we loaded a lot of treasures into the truck.

Saw this collection of hatchets and hand axes in the garage too.



Cool brass pump handle and nozzle.

Note the nozzle has a nut shaped tip to open drums.



As part of their purging, Dennis' mum was getting rid of about 7 vintage duck hunting decoys.

She offered me as many as I needed, so I took one.

Love it.



From there we went over to Debbie's younger son Bryan and his wife Katie and his buddy Johnny over the street.

Within minutes we were having a Tailgate party, but with the tailgate up.



These guys are very keen bow, rifle hunters and fishermen.

I got lucky and Bryan brought me less than 24 hr old, fresh Dove breasts and Crappie fish fillets that Debbie was to prepare for us later at home before dinner. Which was BBQ Pork steaks and a load of other food.



The breast wrapped in bacon did not even make the photo shoot.

Both tasted just awesome.

Thanks Bryan !!!




Eventually made it home via one of the neighbours.....



Outbuildings where Dennis found the 6 foot snake skin last year.



Dogs everywhere, just the way I love it.

Tally and Molly in black.



Cinch.




Headed out now to play chainsaws and tractors and then pyromaniac.

Trees to be cut down.

[Palf70Step]

Very nice Rian. Loooking forward to the next install!

[MP&C]

Thanks for sharing your adventures!

[flashed]

Looks fun ,love the house .

[Indian113]

I really enjoy seeing some of the members if it's only with your pictures. I am so happy that you have the ability to visit our Great Country and I'll bet the Wide Open Spaces are hard for you to get used Too.