Illinois Vacation

[Mike P]

I had a great time on my trip back to Illinois last week, the El Camino did the 4000 miles without a hiccup, the old 500 Caddy just purred along at
75-80 the whole trip.

This vacation was a real trip down memory lane for me. I timed the trip so I could make the local car show in my home town and saw a few old friends in the process. As I was walking around the town, I went by the old Chrysler Plymouth dealership I got my start in back in 68. The dealer is long closed now, and the building was sold off and is now used for storage. The door was open, and the current owner happened to be there and let me walk thru the old place......it doesn’t look like much now, but back in the late 60s it was pretty busy, 8 bays, 3 lifts and a ton of neat cars, like Road Runner, GTXs, and state cop cars to work on.




I also went digging thru the old photo albums and found a few pictures to bring back. I brought the pictures back to PROVE to the kids that at one point I actually was young AND skinny.

Here is me in 67 with my first ride, a 57 International PU, just after dad and I got thru putting a new motor in it.....hey, it was transportation LOL.



The next is me in about 72 with my little 63 Falcon Futura just before I shipped off to Korea. That started out as a 6 cly auto and ended up with a hot dog 289, and 4 speed.



And of course the main reason I went back in the El Camino, Dads old Waterloo boy which came back with me.


.



Like I said I really enjoyed this trip, but with the price of gas and Motels I don’t know how many more times I drive it. Been kind of thinking about the train next time LOL.