I Drive a 55

Here’s a little recap on what’s happened in the past few weeks.
I picked up The 55 and drove from LA to Scottsdale, AZ on April 15th
I drove back to LA and then to Las Vegas, the Valley of Fire State Park, Zion National Park, Utah Scenic Byway 12, Bryce Canyon National Park, Capitol Reef National Park, Colorado National Monument and the Grand Mesa Scenic Byway before getting hit by a flying log and having a tire blow-out.
I got my rear tires replaced with two new Continental Extreme Contact DWS06‘s and left on Monday May 10th for the Texas Motor Speedway and the C-10 Nationals.
Over the weekend it was in the 80’s here in Colorado.
Monday morning it was 35 degrees, foggy and drizzling.
Gotta love Colorado.
I got a roll of duct-tape to cover up my smashed in wing window.
It may not look the best but it keeps out the cold and wet.
It wasn’t quite snowing, and it wasn’t really rain, but it sure was foggy and cold. 
That was our weather all the way up until just before we got to Raton Pass.
Right before Raton Pass it turned into super thick fog until I turned off onto New Mexico 64 and headed east where we crossed into the the Central Time Zone.

Then on to Dalhart, TX where we fueled up.

From Dalhart we made our way down to Amarillo where the sun finally came out.
You know I love these old batwing gas station buildings.

And I love mid-century modern architecture.
Like this old bank building.

Then I came across the Hamlet Shopping Center.

Gold baby!!
That night I had dinner at the Big Texan Steak House.
No – I didn’t try to eat the 72oz. steak.
I spent the night in Amarillo and woke up to a cold rain.
Great. 
I got on I-40 and kept on heading east until I got to the Alanreed exit.
I had to stop to see this old gas station built on Route 66 back in 1930.

The old Alanreed Phillip’s 66 Super Service Station.
A super cool piece of history.
From Alanreed I continued on to McLean and Texas’s 1^st Phillips 66 Station.

Built and leased to Phillips 66 in 1929 and now on the National Historic Register.
It’s almost 100 years old.
Amazing.
From McLean I continued on I-40 to the town of Shamrock.

The Tower Station & U-Drop Inn Cafe was the first commercial business located on the newly designated Route 66 in Shamrock, TX.
In 2006 the animated movie “Cars” used it as Ramone’s Body Shop and more recently Ken Block used it in one of his Gymkhana videos.
Even without those Hollywood connections – the Tower Station & U-Drop Inn are pure Route 66 gold!!
I’m not sure why, but Texas has a lot of these buildings with an “open” corner.

I think they’re cool.
And I love all the brick streets in Texas.
They look great, but they’re not the smoothest…
Down the street and around the corner I found this restored Magnolia gas station.

A few miles down the road in Vernon, I came across the Robert L Moore Tire Company building.

The building was built in 1914 – Robert L. Moore bought it in 1933 and made it his own.
It’s been abandoned for years but it sure is cool.
I continued on 287 down into Wichita Falls and got some gas.
This is the part of the story where my faith in humanity was restored.
After I got gas I pulled The 55 forward into a parking spot and was in the process of texting a friend for dinner when a random guy pulled up and started asking me about my car.
I wasn’t in the mood, but he seemed like a nice guy. 
He introduced himself as Bobby and told me if I had been there earlier in the day he knew someone who could’ve fixed my broken wing window.
Remember the flying log that broke my wing-window less that two weeks ago?
I had been driving around with duct tape covering up the hole in the wing-window until I could get it fixed.
I’m just like school in the summer time – no class.
Bobby called up his friend Josh at Saunders Paint & Body who told me to call him after I got done with dinner.
After dinner as I’m making my way over to Josh’s shop, The 55 wouldn’t shift out of 2^nd gear…
I stopped it and restarted it a few times, hoping that resetting the ECU would solve the problem, but it would not shift out of 2^nd gear.
What the heck?!?
When I got to the shop Josh was there waiting for me and had one of the garage doors open for me pull in.
As I got out I was greeted by Dakota the Shop Dog who was protective, curious and happy to have a new visitor. 

Don’t let that sweet face fool you – she’s a trained killer.
The next morning Josh’s dad Tim came by in a 69 Camaro with a 454 and a 4-speed.
Giddy-up!!
Tim took me over to his house to see his other cars.
He also took me out to lunch.
The smashed wing-window got replaced with an original 1955 Chevy wing-window.
Sweet.
Then they replaced the transmission with a freshly rebuilt unit.

The next night, instead of spending the night in the garage again, Tim insisted I spend the night in their guest-room.
Seriously?
Awesome!!
I mean – who does this?
Thank you Tim, Josh, Joey & Mike for restoring my faith in humanity.
There are still good people in this world.
After all that excitement I was finally on my way to the Texas Motor Speedway and the C-10 Nationals.

The C-10 Nationals were awesome!!
And we had record attendance – almost 1100 registered trucks.
If you were a registered participant – you could win this beautiful 1986 K5 Blazer restored by A&R Restorations.

That’s right – we gave it away!!
Pretty cool right?
The C-10 Nationals are in the books and I’ve got 1200 miles to get to Salt Lake City for the Goodguys “Great Salt Shootout.”
I hope to see you out on the road.
I’m Jeff Thisted, and I drive a 55
#idrivea55