I arived home from Omaha Sunday afternoon, just in time to visit my aunt one
last time before she expired. She was really very fortunate in that she
smoked for 50 years and did not get lung cancer until she was 82, unlike her
husband who died of a coronary at 58.

I drove my recently acquired F**d truck with 40' trailer to get the last of
my stuff from Ken Voigt's in Armour prior to the meet, & then dropped off a
'39 Commander in Grandview, Mo on the way home, after the meet. The meet was
better attended than I expected with a huge number of Studebakers & a large
host of vendors. Being in Sept., rather ithan in summer, the temperatures
were much more comfortable, allowing attendees to spend more time outdoors
around the cars & outside vendors. I saw many old friends & fellow news
groupers Dave, Studeski, Rick, Ebon, Gord, Chuck,
and many others, including Bondo & StudeBob. I missed many of you who did
not make it & hope to see you at SB.Studebaker folks are the best!
I had dinner with Ebon & Milton Jones on Mon., Earl Fontenot & Randy Klundt
on Tues, and with Dick Quinn & Kent Haberle on Fri. Over supper on Wed nite,
I told fellow vendor, Darrin, that sales were so good that I decided to
splurge & buy myself a Whopper! Sales were pretty bad for me at the meet, &
rainy Wed. was my worst day.
I spent Fri. morning on the ASC tour to old Fort Atkinson, riding with the
Logas in their 51 Commander rag top. It was a cool morning and the top
stayed up. The folks riding in the rumble seat of Larry Tholen's Rockne
looked like they were pretty cool. Awards were passed out at the luncheon, &
I got the first one, which was a handful of candy for answering one of
Dick's historical questions. The Armacosts got the hard luck award for
having the windows on their trailer knocked out one evening. Another vendor
had his truck broken into while parked at the Quality Inn, and some of his
merchandise was taken. Ken Voigt, who was accompanied by his lovely new
gal pal, Carol, got a trophy for his son's stunning '35 Dictator coupe.

The trip was a deja vu experience for me as far as the truck went, because
just about all of the problems I have experienced with the old blue truck
were repeated with the "new" green one. The first time I pulled the 40'
trailer with the blue truck, I had an accident heading into the northern
'burb of Conroe in which a young guy changed lanes in front of me, causing
me to strike his left rear qtr. He then demanded that I pay for his damages,
which I declined. On my way out of town on this trip, I was hit the same way
at the same place I as in '03. The gal who hit me was just SURE it was my
fault since she had her signal on, but the officer did not buy her story. I
struck her l. r. qtr, turning her 90 deg. & pushing her sideways for 50'.
Like the last time, my truck was not damaged, unlike the other vehicles.
Before leaving on the trip I replaced my tires & rear brakes in preparation
for inspection, & then, the right front caliper & hose, after they heated up
on the way home from the inspection station. The left caliper got hot on the
way home
as I arrived in KC, and I was
fortunate to have John McCall's expert help & access to the excellent shop
facilities at
Don Armacost's museum to get it fixed up.
  The brakes had started to get weak on my way up, & I bought a rebuilt
m/cyl in MO. I installed it in Armour Sat.afternoon with Ken's help, but the
brakes were still so weak that I had to stay there until the local garage
opened Monday morning. They replaced the booster, which was the last thing I
replaced on my other truck, which finally got it stopping again. Because of
the booster problem, I missed the whole day of vending on Monday, arriving
at the meet at 4:30.  As it turned out, Mon. was the best day for vendor
sales, according to most of the outdoor vendors I spoke with.
After finally getting away from KC, my light switch failed in Joplin about
2 a.m., and as I was turning into a motel pakring lot, the rt. lid of what
used to be the nice aluminum tool box behind my cab suddenly popped open,
just in time to get caught by the front of my 5th wheel trailer,
which shoved it right through the rt. panel of my back window, bringing back
not so fond memories of what happened to me on my way home from SB when the
king pin broke and put the front of the trailer right in the cab with me.
 The motel had no vacancies, so I drove on w/ my parking lights on, while
pulling back on the turn sig lever, to actuate my high beams.

My hat is off the the Caskey's and the meet committee as well as the Holiday
Inn, and the Studebaker Orchestra, which played the best ever in my memory,
even though my wife, Pam was unable to attend. Rhonda was the only
red-headed flutist this year.
George Krem was back, & he and Andy Beckman did a great job on the
trombones. All in all, it is a small wonder that Studebaker national meets
are so addictive.

Now that I think I have all of the bugs worked out of my truck, I am
preparing to head up the Wichita to retreive the trailer & tractor which
have already racked up a $560.00 storage bill since my buddy, Jeff had the
wreck there 3 weeks ago.