More please.

Dale pulled into his backyard a little later, put down the ramps, and backed the Gremlin down them until the rear tires were on the ground. We used what little daylight was left to check out the new "exhaust". My observation was that a 4" 90 degree bend takes up too much room! Part of his brand new collector had to be whacked off to allow the exhaust to suck in and snake past the trans mount, once that was accomplished (more like a 60 into a 60) it had about a foot of straight pipe into 16" bullets with turndowns just in front of the ladder bars. I backed up and looked at the door opening, "Those turndowns are before the back of the door!" I exclaimed.
"There just is no room", Dale shook his head, "He said if I want to buy some oval pipe later maybe he can get creative!"

James Gilliland walked in the back yard with a large gym bag under one arm and asked when we were leaving. He was greeted with an equal dose of laughter and icy stares. James had foolishly agreed to be Dale's trunk monkey/co-driver on this adventure. Equally foolish was his decision to come over to Dale's on Friday afternoon instead of some 24 hours later! If you are concerned about James' judgment at this time, let me confirm your reservations! We kind of consider him an unofficial 5th brother, not because of the closeness of his relationship with us, but because of how many car and car part trades he has had within the family! Dad's Duster, used to be his, the 508 short block in Boone's Barnyard Viper...yep. He had both traded for, and traded away the worn yella Satellite that I took to Drag Week this year, and yes he has seen the "Family Math" in action, and for some unknown reason keeps coming around!
I helped Dale get his front clip slid into place on the Gremlin, then left James to help him with anything else, because Boone motioned me over to the drivers door. Heavy lifting is not my favorite part of building a car, especially not when you are being yelled at to hold still while someone lines up bolts, but I've done quite a few lousy things to him in his youth, and guilt is a strong motivator!

Dale had barely finished securing the front clip, when he decided to take the gremlin for a test drive. James jumped into the floorboard on the passenger's side, and looked forlornly at the kirkey seat laying on the workbench. Dale had removed it earlier to allow himself room to work under the dash. They idled through the back yard and out onto the street, carefully avoiding the gas until he exited his neighborhood. Once out on the main road, he whacked it pretty good, and standing outside of his shop, we could pretty much hear every move he made on the throttle.
"He's going to get us all arrested", I surmised
"Probably in some little town in Tennessee", Darren added
"Probably tonight, in Owasso!" Boone chimed in. We all laughed, and went back to what we were working on.

Dale's friend Tom, had stopped by for the evening's festivities, and he decided to help Boone stab the steering column back in the Truck.
I made my way over to the Gremlin when they pulled back in.
"Front is too low", Dale shook his head, "We scraped the crossmember under the pan about four times in a mile and a half".
"Well, If you hadn't wanted the engine in there so low..."
"I wasn't going to let it end up like the AMX!" He interjected in a low growl.
We bought the 70 AMX backhalved racecar in 1997 with a BB Mopar/Glide combo already installed. The engine sits fairly high in it, forcing the Glide to run downhill to clear the stock tunnel. Dale has never been happy with it, but not so much that he wanted to invest in a new engine plate and new headers. The Gremlin was a 401/727 car, then converted to BBC/Glide, so Dale started with a clean slate by putting the crank/tranny centerline level, and making everything work around that, so now his dragster pan, and newly made crossmember were dangerously close to the road.

This is a pic from a couple of weeks earlier in the build to show the front suspension that was a concern to Dale. The hacked out upper arm, the cheap CE coil-over kits, and the modified support rods on the lower arm might last forever bracket racing, but driving through pot holes? A 440 source front-of-engine kit was modified to mount the alternator to the engine plate.

Dale had barely been able to keep the 440 idling when the Gremlin had returned back into the yard, so he tore into the 1050 Ultra HP almost as soon as the hood was off. Air bleeds, jets, and removing some odd looking petroleum jelly looking crap from the fuel bowls seemed to help a great deal, and soon it was sounding much better. Next he stuck James in the car, and shuttled the welding leads inside. The current seatbelt mounting tabs were not going to work with his new v-belts, so they had to weld on new ones, no small feat in a finished car, which is why he had saved this task for a professional! Unfortunately Dale didn't equip him with any welding gloves, so the language coming from the car made one think something was going horribly wrong! The tabs looked great, and the interior of the car suffered less than James' hands, so Dale was happy with the results!

While the under dash wiring was complete on the Truck, The turn signals, horn, and several other accessories were ran from toggles on an aluminum plate center console, and that had yet to be finished. Boone had been working on it for quite a while with mixed results. I had retired to a lawn chair in the back of the shop, where I was having a great conversation with Tom, the elder statesman of our little group. He is an interesting hot rodder with one foot firmly in the past, and the other boldly striding forward into the future, so any time spent in a benchracing session with him is always time well spent, even in our present situation!

Dale came in from playing with the Gremlin in the dark, and joined Boone to finish up the wiring, soon they had Tom and I out of our chairs, watching the signals on each end of the truck. Once that operation was deemed a success, and I realized the clock was quickly approaching midnight, I excused myself from the madness and headed to bed, certain that Saturday was going to be a very long day!

This is a pic of Tom, in one of his many toys, giving Dale's son a history lesson...

Despite the nervousness and anticipation of the impending trip, I managed to get a full 8 hours of sleep. Truth was, all the effort to finish up in the unseasonably hot and humid Oklahoma weather was wearing me down to the point that sleep came very easy. By the time I had a shower and made my way to the breakfast table, Dad, Mom, and Dale's Wife were already there.
"What time did everyone knock off?" I questioned as I grabbed a cup of coffee.
"I think Dale said Boone left at 3AM", Jacque spoke up, "Dale and James went to bed at 6:30...and Darren is still out there!"
"Wow, I guess it's crunch time now, finally a little sense of urgency around here!" I laughed, but no one laughed with me. "Dad, you and I are going to have to go get Dale's truck and trailer ready, and get it over here. These guys are going to work on their cars until they are finished before they ever think about how to get them to Bowling Green."
"Figured they'd just drive 'em to Bowling Green, they're street cars, right?" Dad's joke went over with about the same affect as mine.
Dad and I headed out to my 1 ton after breakfast, and I mentioned to him, "You know Dad, Darren can't even find the keys to Dale's Kodiak. He's spent several days looking for them, with no luck, so we'll have to get Jamie to help us dig for them when we get over there."
"Well", he had a surprised look on his face, "I grabbed some stuff out of the car trailer several weeks back, and then I found a set of keys in my truck that I have no idea what they go to...maybe I should bring them with us."
"Yeah, maybe", I agreed, and he shuffled back in the house. "This day is not going to end well!" I mused to myself as I surveyed the back yard through the windshield.
Darren was draped over the fender of the Charger, and only the faint movement of one arm led me to believe he might be conscious.

We drove through the back gate into the 3 acre pasture that serves as the Gebhart family salvage and storage center. Dad jumped up in the '89 Kodiak, and fired the 3208T to life.
"Yep, those were the keys!"
We opened the door on the 48ft Gooseneck and surveyed the work ahead of us. The 67 Barracuda, and 70 AMX Racecars were sitting on flat slicks, so I headed after Darren's air compressor.
"See If you can get the straps off, Dad!" I hollered back as I made my way to the shop.
Jamie brought me out a small round mirror, "This is Boone's door mirror, he asked me to find it for him."
I plugged the compressor in and chatted with her while it filled up, wondering what else might be hiding in the shop that he needed. I decided to give him a call, as I drug the compressor back across the pasture to the trailer. He answered with some incoherent babble that let me know I had just woke him up, and finally told me that he had not yet found all the inside door handles for the Barnyard. Two trips with the compressor aired up the tires enough to unload the cars, then we unloaded the remaining stuff from the trailer as well as the stuff I had decided to leave in Oklahoma. You know, pawn shops and fences have "cool down rooms" for stuff they think may be hot. I have my brothers' garages for stuff I don't want the wife to know I've purchased yet, same basic concept!

By the time we made our way back to Dale's house, it was crowding 11AM, and Darryl called to check on our progress.
"Are you guys rolling this way yet?"
"Ah...no, not even close what are you doing?"
"Stopped at a truck stop nearby last night, now I'm here at the campgrounds outside the track, hanging out with Tony Sanchez", Darryl countered.
"What are you doing?"
"He just pulled his trailer out of a side compartment of his motorhome, and they are assembling it. We've got a nice spot in the shade, got the cars washed up, it's really nice!"
"Yep", I was officially jealous, "I'll let you know when we get out of here...IF we get out of here!"

Great write up Billy! I don't know you you remember all this stuff. I had done a small writeup on bangshift covering my trip and I had to refer to my facebook posts to see what day things happened on. My post was up for a day and then the sight got hacked and it was gone

Keep it coming

Dad parked Dale's truck and trailer in front of his house, while I drove my 1 ton into the back yard, and lined it up with my trailer.
Dale and James were draped over the interior of the Gremlin trying to get seats and the new seatbelts in the car.
"Thought you had that whipped last night?"
"Just the bar tabs up top", Dale shook his head,"now we have to get the floor mounts in, and the exhaust guy used one of my passenger seat mounting holes to bolt in the muffler bracket".
James was beating on one of the floor tabs for the seatbelt with a small ballpeen hammer so I went to my truck for my 2lb. sledge.
"Thanks", he smiled, "The belt is too thick, when it's in place, the seat won't fit, so I just needed to massage it a little!"
"Where is Boone?" I asked.
"Haven't heard from him yet today", Dale shook his head.
"What did you get done to the Truck last night?"
Dale thought for a second, "Well...we decided to use the duster cable throttle pedal again, and got it mounted in the floor...we still have to get a cable bracket modified for the engine. All the electrical and wiring is good...Oh! I went ahead and pulled the distributor, and backed that intermediate shaft a tooth, so we will have to reset the timing when we finish breaking in the cam."
"Boone got the shifter in", James added,"and I think your Mom and Rachael finished with the interior panels this morning."
"Cool, what's Darren doing?"
"Walking around like a zombie!" James interjected.
"Think the fuel system is good to go," Dale shook his head, he's under there now putting a fuel pump block off on the engine. He's re-adjusted the springs, because the tire is closer on one side than the other, and was actually rubbing the front of the spring...problem is...he still hasn't finished up the ignition, so we still don't know if it's gonna run!"
"You got this thing figured out?"
"Well...I'm going to take it for another test drive, and see how it acts after the changes I made to the carb. I need to reset the front ride height, set the toe, and adjust the tie-rod ends, as one is only in about 4 threads, but all that is probably going to wait until after-tech!"

I helped them until they finished up and jumped in the Gremlin for a test drive, as they idled around the house, Boone stepped out of the back door with a soda can in his hand.
"Where are they going?"
"Test drive. Where have you been? Darren took Friday off from working on his car, and now you just took Saturday off!"
"Whatever!"
"It's after noon!"
"I had to get all my clothes and stuff ready to go, make sure the house is locked up, hit the bank and try to figure out how I'm going to pay for this! Besides, I've been here for a while..."
"What were you doing?"
"Eating lunch, Jacque, Rachael, and Mom have had it ready."
"Dang it!" I glared at him, "That's where Dad disappeared to!"
"You know it! He was first in line!"

I went in the house and grabbed a plate, only to have Rachael take it away from me.
"Have a seat, I'll fix it for you". She shoved me out of the kitchen, and I sat down beside Mom and Dad.
"Boone brought the clippers over, I'm going to cut his hair before he leaves", Mom gave me an appraising look, "You are looking pretty shaggy yourself, and I can fix you up too!"
"Drag Week isn't a fashion show mom, I'll be fine", I said, as I ran my fingers through what little hair remains on top.
"Well, it's plenty hot, so you'd at least be cooler!"
Dad gave me a sidelong look that confirmed my suspicions, some battles weren't worth fighting, even after all these years!
Rachael brought my plate over and asked what I wanted to drink, saving me from the conversation with Mom.

When Mom was painting Boone's stencils, she asked me for something small and heavy to hold the stencil against the door...now I have a set of cobalt blue half inch drive impact sockets!

As I stepped out the back door after lunch, I heard Boone yelling at Dale about the carb linkage, and tossing something across the yard. "Oh Boy" I thought to myself, "here we go"!

"You can't hold it with just one bolt!" Boone blurted.
Dale wasn't backing down for an instant, "That wasn't what I said! James can cut this one and add to the other bracket! You aren't listening!"
James looked like a person who didn't want to be where he was, as he skirted around the back of the Truck.
Darren poked his head out from under the Charger, "Get back over there James!" he hollered with a laugh, "You wanted to be in this deal, now you're in it! You can't run away everytime we get in a fight!"
Dale picked up both brackets and began to show James what modifications to make, while Boone fumed in the back of the shop. I walked out towards the Gremlin with Dale when he handed off the project to James.
"What the heck was that about?"
"He got mad because we've spent all day on the Gremlin! So now he's on edge about everything, he sees everyone else near ready to go, and he thinks the Truck is falling behind!"
"How did the test drive go?"
"It swapped lanes when I let go of the trans brake...like right now!"
"Your test road is not exactly The MotorPlex!"
"I know, but I need to spend some time under that front end when we get to Bowling Green!"

Darren was trying to burn up another starter, so Dale and I walked over to see what was going on.
"Don't think it's getting fuel..."
Dale pulled off the breather, and stroked the Dominator, the squirters were spraying fuel everywhere.
"Nope, you aren't getting fire! You did something wrong with that box!" Dale told him.
Darren pulled out the instructions and mused, "It said something in here about a switch...".
I looked down and realized I was mistaken about the 6AL, he had installed a Digital 6+ like I have in the Valiant. He crawled back under the dash for a few minutes, and then tried it again. It was hitting, but no where near starting.
"Sounds slow to me", I told Dale.
"You never touched the distributor?" Dale asked Darren.
"Nope, right where it was last time it ran", he assured us.
Dale pulled a little more timing into it, and cylinders began to pick up.
"Still slow", I commented.
Dale added more timing again, and it would start, sound like it was hitting on about 5, then die.
"Darren, you need to pull the plugs and see what they look like...", Dale ordered.
"The plugs are a pain on this thing", Darren started in, "and besides, I've still got quite a few wires that need to be finished up, and the bumper brackets have to be put on..."
Dale's voice rose sharply, "Dang it, Darren." If the engine won't run, all that is just a waste of time! We need to see if it's going to run, so change the darn plugs!"
I was losing my patience with this whole deal, in retrospect I guess everyone was at about this time. So I jumped into the conversation.
"Darren, just push this piece of junk out of the way, so we can get Boone's truck out of the shop, and ready to load." I had everyone's attention now, "If you idiots want to sit around here and finish everything on all three of these cars we'll be here until Wednesday morning and miss Drag Week completely!"
Darren pointed his finger at me, and matched my tone, "Oh,...I'm going on Drag Week! It might not be with you, it might not be with them, but this Charger will be there! So you just go ahead and leave if you want, I got this!"
Classic Darren, defiance for no other purpose than defiance itself. The truck he's been driving back and forth to work, wouldn't pull that Charger ten miles down the road without vapor locking and overheating. Dad's truck is broke down, so the only option for him to get to Drag Week is to put the Charger in the big trailer. Then Dale has to put his Gremlin on the small trailer and pull it behind his 1 ton. So here is Darren, the one with the least equipment dedicated to this operation, the one with the least investment into getting these five cars to go on this trip, the one who's been up 26 hours straight, and couldn't possibly drive to Bowling Green tonight if his life depended on it, trying to dictate terms to the rest of us! 35 years ago I'd have knocked him down and held his face in a fresh cow patty! 25 years ago, I'd have punched him square in the throat...
Dale grabbed Darren's shoulder, and focused him back on the engine, "Get that #1 plug out, so I can look at it!"
Darren complied, and I stomped off in the direction of my rig. Rachael came out, and I had her help me hook the truck up to the trailer. Then I spun the whole thing around in Dale's yard so I would be ready to just pull out and go the next time I was this tempted to leave them all behind.

Great reading Billy!! Think I told you that you should be writing for a magazine!

Mom came out on the back porch with a towel, black case, and a folding chair. "Boone get over here, it's time!" He dutifully walked away from the front of the truck where he and James were discussing the final fit and finish of the throttle cable bracket, which was on it's fourth revision by this time.

I watched Darren hand Dale a black lump that I could tell was massively carbon fouled from forty feet away. I also knew he had been trying to get us to order him plugs for three days in a row earlier in the week, so he certainly didn't have an extra set. I pulled a tool bag out of the Satellite which had my extra parts in it. I had a brand new set of NGK 6s that I had already promised to Darryl, but I thought I had another set that had only been fired once. I found a set of four 6s that had a little corrosion on them, and a set of four 7s that were perfect, but the packaging was beat to heck.
"Hmmm, he's been up all night, doubt he'll even notice", I thought to myself. Should be a nice little experiment to see which heat range handles the street, and the Nitrous later on...what do I care? I walked over and placed the 7s on the passenger fender. "Try these", I said as I took the set of 6s over to the wire wheel. Once they were cleaned up, I laid them on the driver's side, confident he would just screw them in without looking.

Dale moved from the Charger to the truck, and hooked up the timing light, his snap-on doesn't read well through the massive taylor 10.8 wires, so he rigged up an 8mm for #1. James fired the 440, and Dale re-set the timing while running it for another five minutes to finish cam break-in. Then we idled it down and played with the throttle linkage. Once the engine was shut off, James complained about the linkage sticking and not returning over center.
"Thing hasn't been used in 10 years, maybe a little lubrication would work?" Dale questioned.
I grabbed a can of spray silicone lubricant, shot all the areas that moved, and it cleared up any hesitation in the return action immediately.

"Dave, it's your turn!" Mom hollered.
"I'm not 12 any more Mom!" I retorted.
"Get over here and get your haircut, right now!"
I dropped my hat on a table, pulled my shirt off, and walked head down over to the folding chair.

Boone rejoined the fray, and convinced Darren to push the Charger back to allow the Barnyard to get free from the garage. Once they had it out, the hood was bolted on, and the old girl was ready for a test drive. I looked at my phone, 2:45 pm, sheez, we were never getting away from here!

Keep it coming. Damn I can't decide what I like better, Your Valiant or the truck. Both are super awesome looking--to me anyways.

Dale jumped in the passenger seat, and Boone idled the barnyard out to the street. They returned in about ten minutes, and Dale guided Boone into the front of the 48' trailer.
"How'd it go?" I asked Boone as I helped him tie it down.
"Seven degrees caster might be too much, it was working the front springs pretty hard when you turn it!"
"Did it run okay?"
"Never really got on it, just wanted to make sure it shifted out okay, we only went four miles."

The Charger finally fired to life, and after a few minutes of Dale working his magic under the hood, the 440 started to sound pretty crisp. The next thing I knew Darren drove it around the side of the house, but instead of lining up for the trailer, he headed on down the street.
I cornered Dale, "What the heck is that about?"
"He's driving it over to his house to get all his stuff packed and ready, then he'll be back..."
"We'll be lucky to see that car in five hours!" I spat back through gritted teeth. I spun around and walked into the house before he could answer. I decided to lay across the big bed in Mom and Dad's room, rest my eyes, and give this frustration a chance to subside...

Rachael came in a few minutes later, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, uhh, did I fall asleep?"
"I guess, Dale and Boone have been asking where you went. I've been washing up our laundry, figured now was the best time."
"What time is it?
"Little after 5."
"Yeah, I guess I did get a good nap, gonna need it for what we are facing tonight. Anyone heard from Darren?"
"They've been calling over there...Jamie says he'll be here in an hour."

I walked outside, Dale had already loaded the Gremlin on the small trailer, and was sorting through the shop to decide what to take.
"You using the hitch on the back to take your Gremlin trailer?"
"Nope", Dale shook his head, "Not gonna take it this year, you guys would just overload me anyway!"
"Probably a smart choice, we have our hands full as it is", I nodded.

By the time Darren returned with the Charger, there was barely enough light from the fading sun to load it in the trailer.
By the time everyone showered, packed, and headed out to load up, it was well and truly dark. Dale was behind the wheel of the Kodiak, with James in the jump seat. Darren landed on the couch in the sleeper/lounge area of the Kodiak, and was snoring before they got out of the neighborhood. Boone and Dad ended up in the 1 ton pulling Dale's Gremlin, while Rachael and I were handling the double b-body rig.

After a fuel stop, we jumped on US 169, and I handed Rachael my phone, "Text Darryl and let him know we are finally rolling".
That text went out at 8:30pm, and we had 680 miles between us and Drag Week Tech in Bowling Green. As I had expected they would do all along, they pulled away and left me before we even jumped on the Muskogee Turnpike. Forty-five minutes later, my phone went off, it was Boone.
"Dale blew out a trailer tire, just after he got on I-40...and he doesn't have a spare. So we need to see if yours will fit."
"I guess I'll be there in a bit", I answered as I drove past a five miles to I-40 sign. Typical of my brother with a 48ft. enclosed, three axle, mini-fifth wheel trailer on a 1360 mile round trip, and no spare, brilliant! I pulled up behind the Gremlin, and 1 ton, which was behind the big rig. The blow-out was on the drivers side, and they had pulled over enough to have most of the shoulder to work with.
Boone came back to me as I was removing the spare from it's perch, "Do you have a jack that'll lift that thing?"
"Great, I don't know, I had a bottle jack in here last trip, but it's probably buried under all this junk. I don't know if this 3 ton floor jack will lift it or not!"
"Do you have that break-over bar and socket handy that we used on yours?" Boone asked.
"Good Lord! Did they bring anything to change a tire?"
"Apparently nothing that is within easy reach", Boone laughed.
After driving the front axle up on boards, and using both my jack, and Darren's 1.5 ton aluminum jack, they finally got it up enough to change the tire. Once we got rolling again, I was out front, with Boone and Dad following me. Three miles later Boone called, and told me the straps looked loose on the Belvedere. Rachael and I pulled off on an exit as they went ahead, and of course, everything was fine! I passed them again just after we entered Arkansas, as Dale appeared to be driving more conservative now. Boone and Dad started following me again, and my phone rang after about five miles.
"Your trailer is walking around a bunch."
"Yeah, If I try to run faster than 60, it isn't happy...the cars are a couple inches further back than when I came out here, so apparently I don't have it balanced well."
"Do you want to pull over and re-adjust them?"
"No...no I don't...I want to get on down the road!" I was getting perturbed, "Look, if you don't like following me, you are more than welcome to go around!"
He hung up, and then backed off. Eventually I lost sight of how far I was ahead of them. A couple hours later, the phone rang again, and again it was Boone.
"Dale blew another trailer tire! Exit 124 in Conway...I guess they've decided to unload the Charger and drive it, then just leave the tire off the middle axle and try to limp on...But they want you to scout out the truck stops and try to find another tire when you get into Little Rock."
"I'm in Little Rock already, but I'll look around".
I stopped at one truck stop, and got the same answer they gave me in Albuquerque, which was nothing smaller than a nineteen inch rim. My mindset at that time was just to cut the cord and get my tail to BG! At exit 193 I pulled into a small fuel stop and filled up the truck, then pulled over on an empty lot and thought about it. Finally I called Boone, with my plan.
"I'm going to unload the Belvedere, and Satellite. Then when Darren get's up here, we'll load the Charger on the front of my trailer, then load the Satellite. Rachael and Pops can take the Belvedere with it's 2.76 gears, and get on to Bowling Green while we work our way across here."
"Sounds solid to me", Boone decided, I'll call them and set it up."

It just keeps getting better!

Nuts, you guys are completely nuts, and I love it.

Who was Murphy riding with?

Oh man reading this kills me. We were having drinks and washing the cars, taking photos etc, then cooked some nice steaks. Then Darryl says they haven't left yet I thought wow they are 12 hrs away.

The story is great though