Departure day came and I left my mom's house in Arizona at 1100 and headed for El Paso where I would stay the night at my aunt and uncle's house. The Buick was so smooth, comfortable and easy on the road. The mpg's were amazing and I started dialing in the tech and menu side of things. Man there is a lot. Makes the NNBS seem basic and it is fully loaded on the LTZ level, but not like the Buick.
I asked my mom to keep SiriusXM on for my trip, so the EQ limits were first to be "fine tuned" with the bass note elevated for the 9 speaker Bose system. Sounded very nice with Ch. 39 thumping and guitars cranking down I-17 and I-10. I missed both Phoenix and Tucson peak hours and sailed off to the border through that beautiful part of Arizona and New Mexico and on into Hell Paso for a 1930 arrival.
We saddled up and headed out to Kiki's for some great Mexican food and chatter.
My uncle told a story that he sat at that bar at age 10 with his grandfather and got served a glass of beer way back in the mid 50s.
I had just seen them at Thanksgiving 2022 when I delivered a Subaru Forester to my aunt from another estate sale in Arizona. I would have bought that car back then with 7k miles, but my dad told his sister first and she got a winner. Loves it. And to note on vehicles, my dad most recently had driven an 08 Yukon Denali and a 2020 Sierra Denali plus all the square bodies (Suburbans and pick ups), a couple Caddies (El Dorado Biarritz and Allante) during the 80s, so he loved his GMs. Never recall seeing a Ford in our driveway until my mom got a Ford Explorer in the 90s.
We returned home to chat a bit more and finally retired around midnight. He had always been a hardcore Dallas Cowboys and Coors fan. He had a Coors Light with dinner and broke out a Coors Banquet stubby bottle for our final conversation. Funny the things you remember. We used to go there for Thanksgiving as kids, since my dad's mum, 3 sisters and brother all lived there. There were 6 siblings in total. My dad was 2nd oldest. Now there are (3) the oldest, youngest and middle sisters left.
Buuut before sleepy time, we took a side trip into the garage for the best part of the night.
We spent time talking about (well me mostly listening as his knowledge base with off the charts) The 1955 Chevy he bought for $75 when he was discharged from the service. He was an engineer by trade and worked at the White Sands Missile Range.
He could fix anything and the parts and tools around that garage were numerous. I did not get a picture of the pegboard, but tools of every shape and size and multiple styles of the same tool populated the best looking tool wall I have every seen.
He’s 78 now and a bit slower, so the '55 hasn’t been out of the garage in a while and is coated with some Texas dirt. He showed me some pictures of when she would get on the road and she was a real head turner.
I cannot recall all the things he was saying about the car but he knew it intimately, the changes he made, the comparisons to the 57 Chevy, the paint job, the reversal of the color palette on the seats, the chrome trim on the headliner, the alarm system he wired up before he attended UTEP, with a hidden key in the drivers door that he could open just enough to not set off the alarm, but be able to unlock the door and get to the glove box to get the ignition key before it set the entire alarm off.
Talked about the windshield, non-louvered cowling '57 had a louvered one, no seat belts (man it was so nice sitting behind that big wheel), etc....hard to recall it all.
Very very cool!!
Parked next to it was a 2013 Silverado with 19k miles and looking good. He told me a story of a construction zone orange cone that was kicked up by the truck in front of him, went under the left wheel, ran down the length of the underside of the truck with a racket before finally getting left behind with no other damage to anything else other than the bent tie rod that he still had in his "spare parts". You wouldn't believe the cone could do that, but it must have hit with such blunt force on the spot. And it missed everything else.
He had also recently sold a 1986 Suburban with over 200k miles and 30 plus years in the family.
Further, his son was a big car guy too. No pics to share unfortunately. He had a 1967 Camaro, and 2 late model (closer to the 2020s) Corvette (can't recall badge/numbers and Camaro (might have been ZL1). He used to race those on the track doing 150mph.
I had planned an 0600 ETD and of course woke up way before my alarm in the 0400 hour. I got up, but nobody else was up, so I relaxed until I heard movement. A quick breakfast and they gave me a bunch of snacks and off I drove making sure to turn right rather than left and wind up in Ciudad Juarez, which was right there.
San Antonio, another 8 hours away, was my destination for the night. Another perfect weather day, smooth sailing with regular rest area stops to recharge. I rolled into S.A. around 1730 to my brother's house to stay for the night. Short story, he moved from Arizona to Vermont, got a new job and the company was based in Texas, so they suggested he buy a house for income tax reasons. Great neighborhood, all the houses look the same, small cul-de-sac on the far west side of town.
He had been busy, so the interior is 1/2 painted, carpet is 1/4 ripped up, there was a bed to sleep in, some fizzy waters in the fridge and a towel to dry off after the shower. His neighbor had lowered the A/C before I arrived and I took advantage of the stop. Keypad entry made it easy to come and go.
With all that had gone on over the past 1.5 months, I was not sleeping much, which would plague my travel days as I got into the solo road trip.
I had planned a massive day from San Antonio so I put my head down to get as much rest as I could because the next days were going to be massive.
>>The far rack is all 1955 parts and you can see the start of the peg board to the left. That Shop Vac by the left wheel had a note to replace the motor. Lol so nothing was wasted and always repaired.