Our final stop was Grand Prix, to top off all the nitrous bottles. The owner of the speed shop and I were discussing the March Meet while his crew was changing out mother bottles. Mike Cox pulled his 53 Ford Gasser in front of the store and walked towards the door.
"Here's a Drag Weeker! Do you know Mike?"
"Yeah...I guess Mike sold his Henry J, and went back to his trusty Customline." I shrugged, as Mike entered with a smile and hand extended.
"When are you headed for Columbus?" He asked as he motioned towards the Valiant on the trailer.
"We aren't even close", I laughed. "We still have two cars that haven't even had the engines fired yet! What about you?"
"I'm loading the Ford as soon as I get home, and we are staying at a friends in St. Louis tonight. It's a long pull, you know!"

I eased the Cummins powered 3/4 ton off the rocks and into Dale's back yard. I made it about thirty feet when I felt the rear tires spinning, and we slowed to a stop. I shut the truck off and stepped out for a look. The front tires were about three inches into the soft mud left by the morning rain, and the rears were simply skimming off the top layer.
"What's wrong?" Rachael asked as I reached for the drive shaft in the back of the truck.
"We're stuck, and I'm not going to tear Dale's yard up trying to get it out. We'll just wait for the ground to dry up some, and get it back here in a couple of hours."
We threw a plastic tarp under the Belvedere, which was still on the two car trailer, and crawled under to install the drive shaft. Once we bolted it in, I dumped in a few quarts of trans fluid, then had Rachael attempt to start it so I could check the fluid level on the fresh 727. The 440 hadn't been fired in a year, so I had to dump fuel in the 750 to get it to finally pull enough from the tank to run on.

With the sound of the 440 running in the backyard, Dale stepped out of the house, and motioned us inside for breakfast.