Yeah we're old....and yes Clint, I said "we". You incriminated yourself by your music choices...

But thanks for mentioning the Dead....stirred up memories of some really good times back in "the day"....summer evenings watching the boys perform at Red Rocks.

 

Yeah, Geo..... Foggy memories, but as clear as yesterday in some ways.

The Dead's last performances at Red Rocks happened in the summer of '87. I lived in Denver back then. I had a 3500 sq/ft shop called Clint's Place. I was servicing and restoring MB's, BMW's, Porsches and Jaguar E types. It was a fun time which ended in the pitfalls of cocaine. Amazing what you can stuff in one of those little glass pipes.... House, shop, friends and family.

I had a season's pass to Red Rocks and other venues. It allowed the pass-holder to purchase tickets two weeks ahead of everyone else. I saw "everyone" that year: Stevie Ray, CSN, Dire Straits, Joe Jackson, Bowie/Glass Spider Tour (@ McNichols arena) to name a few.... And of course, Jerry and the boys.

The Dead played three nights before calling it quits at Red Rocks. Too small, they said; couldn't handle the crowd. I was there for all three nights. Acid was the call.....

On the last night, a friend and I were milling about after the show. We finally made it back to the parking lot and my car. Back then, I had a '73 Ford Gran Torino. She was mint. 351CM, fat rubber, lots of suspension and chassis mods. A sleeper to the eye. Raised more than a few eyebrows in the fast sweepers along I-70 west.

Back then, high quality car audio was just hitting its stride. Nakamichi made a cassette deck, the TD1200/II. It was the best thing you could get in analog. They also made the finest sounding amplifiers that money could buy. I had four of them. B and W was making car speakers back then, and just like their home systems, they used silk dome tweeters and kevlar cones in their mid, mid-bass and bass drivers.

Matt, my installer, built beautiful woofer cabinets and cross-over boards. I wish I had pictures of the work he did in my white sled. Gorgeous, elegant, sonically perfect. Fully balanced with a white-noise generator and a spectrum analyzer, acoustically flat. The goal was to have the same quality sound with the windows open on the highway as with them shut. Mission accomplished.

Back in the parking lot, Gary and I sat down in the car and left the doors open. Not quite up to the task of driving, I threw a tape in the sliding drawer of the TD1200/II. It was Echos, by Pink Floyd from the Meddle LP.

I remember settling back into my seat and closing my eyes. Visuals of the Dead came rolling onto the big screen in the center of my mind. The engineers who cut the tracks for Floyd were brilliant. The sound staging, the separation and balance.... a feast to the ears. 13 speakers, 1200 watts of pure class A, and the sheer genius that was Pink Floyd.

Echos traverses approximately 20 minutes, yet it may well have been an eternity. For that matter, there may have been no time during the while in which that track played. Space would have been a more apropos descriptive than time. The universe unfolded its Majesty to me.

The track finally came to an end. It was hard to say which was the more powerful event. The Dead, who we just saw carve a moment in their touring history, or the um-teenth time I became lost in space under the powerful influence of Floyd. No matter, didn't matter....

As my friend and I came back into the world, we decided to get up and walk around a bit to see if traffic out of the park had died down yet.

As we got out of the car, we were greeted, surprisingly, to a huge round of applause from a couple hundred fellow Floyd fans. They were all sitting in the dirt lot some twenty feet, in a semi-circle, behind my car. I was in shock. It was one of the coolest events in my life at that time. One which I will never forget... 8)

Meanwhile, back to Betty. The girl must have worn through on her 1st drive axle oil seals. A thick gear oil smell began to permeate my cab at a stop along the way into Atlanta. In looking at the drives, there was that messy spin-art looking pattern of oil on the inner sidewalls of both front drive tires. Further inpection revealed oil on the brake shoes and s-cam brackets. Not good.

I brought her into the Decatur, GA terminal and got here in line to be fixed. Seals and shoes, for certain. While they are at it, I asked to have the windsheild replaced as well as getting an alignment done. No problem, the foreman said. But it will be either Sunday night or Monday before it gets done.

OK, thinks I. I'm now running off my re-cap, which is fine by me. But a re-start couldn't hurt either. So, off to Motel 6 and your writer gets some quality time to re-charge and rest. There's plenty to do around here, so I'll just have me some fun. I got all my laundry done last night and today is off to a sleepy and slow-moving start.

Bo, of Tootie and Bo called this morning just to wake me up. He seems to do this often, which is fine by me :shock: He and Tootie are taking their time running east in their rental car to pick up another tractor which they just bought. Funny; he seemed to lament the fact of his "lack of hurry" on this trip. Driver-brain; it's a malicious thing sometimes. I told him to relax and enjoy the ride.... I am guilty of the same crime to pleasure sometimes.

So I am dead in the water for now and couldn't be any happier. Nothing to worry about, Betty will be good as new shortly. The shop guys are cool, the shop is spotlessly clean, and it would seem that she will be treated with good care.

I'll leave Atlanta well-rested and refreshed and with a new 70 with which to run like a 63 mph wind.

Happy Sunday, All!

 

Dang Clint...you're like a cat! How many lives have you fit in those 50 some years? 8)

I left Colo in '80 to move to SoCal (Costa Mesa) so the shows I saw were in the mid to late 70's. Don't know if RR season passes were available back then and even so, I was a long haired leaping gnome (aka ski bum)and couldn't have afforded it anyway. What a GREAT place for a show....lights of Denver off in the distance, the stars of a clear Colorado night over head....ahhhh.

Anyway Clint....thanks for your written eloquence in describing the Pink Floyd moment in your car. I could almost smell the dust of the parking lot and hear the applause...

Happy trails....

 

Some new pics http://web.mac.com/samael9/iWeb/SwiftBetty/Library.html

 

You hit that nail on the head.........

 

Hehe..... Yeah RonJon,

I saw those car carrier rigs gathering moss at the PHX terminal. It looked like they hadn't moved in quite some time. I laughed my as^ off when I first read ColdFrosty's post. Succinct was the first word which came to mind, once the giggling quieted down.

I'll refrain from comment with regards to my overall view of the van division. While I have met some very dedicated and intelligent people on that side of the Swift fence......... ColdFrosty would be correct ops:

BTW, RonJon,

Did you shoot that photo in your post? It is really beautiful! Having had some experience in shooting stills and video in the BDSM world, I have a great appreciation for the art form. My compliments to the photographer and model. Got more?

Thanks!

 

No, I got that from a website.

I was reading thru your other posts and had a question. When you are ready to unload at the dealerships, do you carry ramps to get you vans off the trailer? I read some where you were waiting on a team to come and unload you?

 

Were you over-fed too? :?

Parallel lives. I landed in Vail back in '79 while on my way to a job spinning wrenches for Beverly Hill Mercedes Benz during the summer of my 20th birthday. Yup, Geo. Many stories from that period in my life, and more lives than I can count.

50?????? Don't push it, buddy. :twisted:

49 in July. The last year of the second quarter century of my earth-based existence. I plan on leaving my fleshy container by the time 75 comes around. As most of the men in my fam tend to die of heart attacks around that age, I figure that I will be no exception. It's not an issue, though. In fact, I welcome my passing on and into the infinite.

One thing which I have finally come to terms with, which makes my job/life much less conflicted is that I do not thrive in stasis, i.e. a fixed-base home. Hence, I will be making the truck my permanent residence soon, after I move out of my place in Neosho, MO.

The next big deal will be in the acquisition of a yacht on which to live. But before that, I will find my way to owning my own tractor. The plan is to get my own rig, make as much money as I need to buy the boat, and then it's off to see the world before check-out time. Shouldn't be too difficult to do. Especially at the rate that I am moving.

Yes indeed. Red Rocks. Too, was the light show over the eastern plains. On many occasions, there were huge thunder boomers out east during the shows. And you could easily see them from anywhere in the amphitheater. It was, and is, a magical place. Especially at night.

I checked in with the shop this morning. Betty is getting her new windshield as I write this, and the axle seals should be done by 1500. Perfect. That gives me time to stock up on smokes, get some other things done, and get ready to hit the road-e-o.

FYI: Exit 71 and I-20 (Panola Road) in Lithonia, GA is home to C'est Bon, a reasonably-priced and super-yummie Cajun restaurant. Which, btw, is right in front of a Motel 6. The Super 8, across the street has some big truck parking, so it might be the better option when looking to crash.

This has been a great re-start. Not what I had originally planned, but I remain open to what's available given the situation. I'm really glad that Betty is getting fixed up and even more so that I have had nothing to do except rest and re-charge. No worries, no stress. And as the Beatles put it: Oh, that magic feeling; no where to go, no where to go.....

Look out, Oklahoma... Here we come 8)

 

I don't carry ramps, although I could if I wanted to, which I may in the future. Typically, we are directed to call a national wrecker dispatch company, in where they send out a roll-back truck to un-deck the vans. It's a simple operation.

I make the wrecker call when I am about an hour away from the drop-site. This seems to work out very nicely, as I tend to get empty and moving again with out much delay. Weather depending, I've seen guys who have waited for hours on the wrecker. The challenge with the ramps is keeping them on the trailer. They tend to get removed unless you keep your eye on them. A couple of Kryptonite chain locks would minimize the disappearances, however. Then there's the liability issue, in case something goes wrong. But I feel pretty confident in my decking and un-decking skills, so we'll see.....

 

[/quote]I landed in Vail back in '79