Ham's '48 -- Getting Ritzy

[LarrBeard]

My wife says to me; "Dear, here is an event we need to go to".

Being the wise man I am, I said; "Yes Dear - what is it?"

"It's a Jeep Gathering at the local Winery - their post says they did it last year and it was such a good time, they are going to do it again".

"Uhhh , OK I guess." Too late, I'm already signed up.

So, I spiffed up the '48 and Sunday afternoon, we will head up towards Auburn, IN (Home of the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Museum) where the truck will sit with a batch of Yuppie Jeeps and we will listen to music, nibble on horses doo-vers and sample the local wares. (TJones, they do have Yuengling Black and Tan .. so it's all good).

BUT - I needed a bit different sign for this event. Everyone asks; "Is that a Jeep" and "What year is it" -- so I made me a new windshield sign. Who says Old Trucks can't have class?

[bmorgil]

Nice!! I would like a bottle of that. A great year indeed!

[TJones]

It’s only about 3.5 hours for me Larry :cool:
If you would’ve said something Thursday maybe, we already told our 3 yo grandson we’d come watch his first electric motorcycle moto cross race!!!
Come on Larry you you can’t go to a winery and drink beer:confused:you might get thrown out:)

BTW I Love your sign, I’m sure Ham will wear it Proud, Momma may be a little embarrassed but it’ll be just fine!!!

[gmwillys]

Class and elegance all the way. I can't wait to see some photos from the event.

[LarrBeard]

Well, the folks up the road the Byerly Lane Winery have found a sure fire money maker; get a little two-piece band of pretty fair guitar players, declare that Sunday afternoon will be a Jeep Gathering, open the bar and get ready to handle a crowd.

Becky and I decided to join the ritzy crowd at the Winery – but once we got there it turns out that Jeep folks are not really all that ritzy – they like Jeeps, music and wine (in that order). We knew the layout of the location and I had a devious plan in mind. There is Handicapped parking right by the bandstand and I convinced Becky to let us use her Handicap sticker if there weren’t many people using that parking.

We drove up the lane and as we came up to the guy who was directing parking, he took one look at the truck and said; ”I guess you don’t want to go through the grass with that, do you?” Now the truck could have gone through any grass there, but I stuck to my plan and said; ”She wants to use her handicap sticker”. The directions were; “Go right ahead and park in motorcycle parking if you want to”. That put us right by the band in the middle of things. Old and sneaky does pay off sometimes. (Oh, by the way – there was no one in handicap parking all afternoon – except the ’48. I didn’t hijack any handicapped parking.)

As we pulled up and parked the truck – the strangest thing happened; two picnic tables full of people stood up and gave us a standing ovation! By the time we could get out and set up chairs, a crowd had gathered and I had to start telling the story of Ham’s ’48. "It was my Dad's truck. I've been driving this truck since I was 12-years old. I drove it from Tennessee to Indiana in the winter of 1968 - two days on the road" – and the rest of the story.

By the time we made a bathroom run and got something to drink, several of the folks who had looked at the truck as we first arrived came back with other lookers and had me tell them Ham’s ’48 stories. And, so the afternoon went – I talked for almost two solid hours. As soon as you finished with one or two folks, there was someone else there with a question. And, the story started over.

There were probably over 150 Jeeps there – mostly fairly new vehicles, but there was a really cute little ’70 or ’71 Scrambler with neat paint and ducks. (Ducks seem to be a Jeep thing; I got ducked several times Sunday). GMWillys would have liked the gnarly CJ with no paint – just patina – and the kids were misbehaving.. driving up on each other’s’ tires..

It was a nice afternoon – maybe 10 raindrops and then the sun came out. The trip up and back was routine - about 65 miles – nothing interesting happened – we just went down the road at a sedate 40 MPH.

[bmorgil]

Nice party Larry! That brown CJ is set up to go a lot of places.

[LarrBeard]

And I suspect it may have actually gone some places, unlike the kids showing off.

[TJones]

Sounds like you had a Great Time Larry!!!!
WOW what a great turn out, I bet you shared the Ham stories a bunch :D!!!
As long as the Bride had a good time that’s all that matters “Happy Spouse Happy House” Brother!!!!