My first vehicle! 1956 CJ5

[Mike P]

Getting better all the time!

[56willys]

This past Saturday my friend had his annual picnic. Which has basically evolved into a private car show. I'm guessing 120 people and 30-40 classic cars. The host's 6 cars are pretty much fair game to drive, the keys are in them and most anyone can hop in and drive their dream cars down the road. And everyone else's cars are there if anyone wants to ride they'll be more then happy to take you. We burned up an entire 55 gallon drum of 110 octane race fuel! But the thing cooler then all these awesome cars, including an almost 1000 horsepower 57 ford and 2 giant Oliver tractors was that kid giving rides in his old Jeep! We drove Flossy down the day before about 25 miles then it made it back home the day after. I built a nice trail through the woods, had a pretty big rock pile, a massive pile of wood chips, and a big open field which was a great area for some speed and doing donuts in other jeeps (I sorta tried to spin flossy but the 70 hp just wasnt enoug, so my buddys lifted TJ was reserved for donuts). I was pretty much non stop in flossy all day to sunset. Taking one person after the next, I had a line of people waiting at one point. It was pretty cool that with all the other cool, fast, rare cars so many people chose to ride in flossy instead, a couple people said they liked the jeep best. There was one girl about 10 years old that was one of my most frequent riders, and kept coming back for ride after ride. And kept bringing her school friends over for rides. Then they all wanted to go at once, so with me driving, one kid in the passenger seat, another sitting on the ammo can between the seats, and five kids hanging on in the back. As we go up on an angle on the wood pile, come down, give the Hurricane all it's got in low range, blast the air horn and go bouncing through the field with little kids giggling/screaming at the top of their lungs! It was a blast! I think I instilled a bit of love for willys jeeps in a few kids. My other most frequent passenger, about 7 years old, when i wasn't driving he would be sitting in it all day, playing with shifters. His parents said the day after, that he wants them to help him save up money to buy a willys. Even though they have multiple newer jeeps, he wants a Willys!

Flossy did great, running all day the temp never started to go up, and it continually ran great. Just I knocked the new exhaust off on the rock pile, oops! But that was the only issue. I took a brother/sister, early 20s for rides, and upon them saying they had never driven a stick shift. I just had to go in the open field and give them a bit of clutch experience. They picked it up quick, and were super excited! Flossy with low range is perfect for learning. You can feel how a clutch works and go through the gears, having fun without it wanting to stall or go too fast. It was perfect! And then have a big dinner and hang out for the rest of the night. After it got dark, i couldn't resist putting the fog lights on, cranking the ac-dc up and going for a night cruise.

Sorry for the long post without really any jeep info, I just wanted to share the experience. It was a super fun time, and getting to share the fun of vintage jeeps with people was so rewarding. I would have loved to share some photos/videos but Flossy was just too popular, I never got a chance to get the camera out, so hopefully your imagination will be sufficient. There was even a fly-over by a piper cub!

[LarrBeard]

The long post was great, and you have figured out that everyone loves an old Jeep.

Keep it up and be safe.