Evangelical Motor Coach

The coolest thing I came across this year at Mid-Ohio during the AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days was this home-made motor home.

It was built in 1962 by the Reverend Billy Leggette in Canada, possibly in Ontario. It was built on a dualie GMC 930 chassis, a five-ton rig. It needed every bit of the beef! The right Reverend Billy and his wife used this motor-home as their base and staged revivals in Canada, across the U.S. and on down in Mexico.

Goofy Stuff for July

Whew! It must be the heat......

Check out the Tailgunner Rotary Cannon Exhaust HERE . Just one more piece of bling to show off that big old custom cruiser P.O.S. and to confirm how small your penis really is.....We're sure your other car is a Humvee.

And from the August print issue of BLENDER magazine comes this gem: Gretchen Wilson is currently penning her autobigraphy, entitled "Gretchen Wilson: I'll Tell You What A Redneck Woman Is". Ack. Can you say, I take myself way too dang serious? Thought you could....Hmmmmm....she thinks she's Sting!

From the Captain (who else!) comes this online contest....... The Naked Beer Game . I have to tell you folks that I was in the top damned percentile in this game.......

We here at skatetruck just thought you'd like to know.

Hit and Miss.....

The single hit gasoline motors are amazing. They probably doubled or trebled the amount of work one farmer could do in the early 1900's. I don't know a darn thing about them except that they fascinate me to no end, and that I want one every time I get to see and hear one run. From what I can understand, talking to some of the owners at the Threshing, in the early 1900's there were literally a thousand different companies offering engines for sale in the U.S. Think about that for a minute. A thousand different companies. Can you say industrial revolution?

This particular gorgeous, purpose built, oak butcher-block style trailer had no less than six of said engines huffing and puffing and clicking away in unision. Barfing oil everywhere and just being cool as hell.

Dozer

Here's one for my old buddy Tim Countryham. He's got a thing for these agricultural 'dozers. This one was in great shape but looked to be a bit of a handful to operate.....it tried to buck the guy off it once.

I'm not sure if this is Tim's brand, those farm guys are even more brand loyal than hot-rodders or bike guys.

Threshing

This past weekend the Tennessee-Kentucky Threshermen's Association held their 37th Annual Threshing Show at the home of the Bell Witch in Adams, Tn. on the Bell School Grounds. So once again, Sam and I headed north towards the Kentucky border on our trusty motorbikes to check 'em out, and revel in a time when most folks worked far damned harder than you and I.

Timimg is everything, for when we walked onto the grounds the crew was preparing the big generators for ignition. This shot is of one of the oil-burning engines/electrical generators that the Association has accumulated over the past couple of decades. This particular one is a four-cylinder, approximately twelve feet long by ten foot high. It used to supply Clarksville, Tn. with electrical power in the early 19oo's. The Threshermen now have three such engines on the show grounds, all permanently mounted in a shelter, and every year they fire these suckers up for the show. Glorious.

Over the past few years though, they've made them a bit more politically correct, in that they now have muffler systems. Used to, they'd rattle the ground under your feet and your cage too, just like all big motors should. Sam say's he liked them better the other way. Ah well.

Here, Sam points out a piston with five ring lands(!) and a main bearing from the three-cylinder oil-burning engine/generator that used to supply electricity to Inglewood and Madison, Tn. Way more to come.....

Happy 70th Aunt Bobbie!

My cousin Kim C. really knows how to throw a surprise birthday party. For example.......

First, wait until a month after said birthday. Then pile your mom up in the car and tell her you're going to a garage sale. When you show up at the party venue it's no big deal that there are tables in the yard and cars parked everywhere. Worked like a charm. It took Bobbie a minute to realise that all the "customers" were her family and closest friends!

Thanks to Wayne and Molina for the catfish and hush-puppies!

When me and Sam got ready to split Aunt Bobbie (Sam's big sister) decided that she might need a motorbike ride for her "birthday". So I outfitted her with all my gear, except the knee and leg pads 'cause they clashed with her garage-sale hip-huggers, and off they went.

More Marion

Mennonite Mike, Big Charlie, and I ended up as the comedic relief entertainment a couple weeks ago around the campfire on Saturday evening after the trials in Marion........ah, the juice it was a flowing.

Wickham III

Folk Art II

Two of E.T. Wickham's grandsons have tribute web-pages dedicated to their grandfather. Arlen Schibig's site called Wickham Stone Park is HERE ,and Joe Schibig's site is HERE on the Volunteer State website. I wish Joe's didn't include the John Denver tune......it kind of screws my browser up!

According to the websites E.T. Wickham used to hitch up his oxen and travel the eight miles or so to Palmyra for supplies. This was in the 1930's and 40's and was probably quite a sight.

Folk Art

Sam and I rode north on Sunday. I had a section of roads I wanted to thrash that I'd had on my mind for a couple of months, since the B&J crew scouted R.Q. Old's property for our ITSA trials to be held there on September 17th. These roads wind back and forth over the last ridge before the Tennessee River/Kentucky Lake area near Palmyra and Cumberland City Tennessee.

Believe you me the roads did not disapoint, very twisty and technical, with lots of elevation changes. We were lucky enough to hook up with R.Q. himself, and he took us on a leisurely tour of those roads that he knows like the back of his hand. And he led us to this most interesting spot. Actually he led us past this spot, only pointing it out (as though we wouldn't have seen ten huge statues at the side of a back-country road) and we continued on. After we split from R.Q. Sam and I retraced our path to spend over an hour there, mesmerised. Then I Googled the name of the artist once back at the Old Dick P.O.

This is the folk art of one E.T. Wickham. He was a farmer and a pioneer kind of guy who evidently decided while in his sixties that he had something to say with concrete. He began his Stone Park in the early 1950's and continued for another couple decades until his death in his late eighties.

The Customs House Museum and Cultural Center in Clarksville has a very informative page about Mr. Wickham HERE .

Some of his statues are safe at the museum in Clarksville or at Austin Peay State University. But sadly most of his works are at the mercy of vandals and other idiots with spray cans of paint. It takes a enormously talented wit to air-brush "Fuck You" on a work of art. Some statues are missing altogether, most are missing their heads, and some are missing other extremities.

More to come.....

Sign of the Week

Sounds

Continuing with the tourist theme, we took in a Nashville Sounds ball game on Sunday evening.

It had been a while since I'd been to Greer Stadium but it was as homey as I remembered it. Not a bad seat in the house,a great venue to watch a baseball game, and just close enough to downtown to still be accesible but easy to get away from afterwards. From what I understand that's all about to CHANGE.....

We must have brought the Sounds luck because they snapped a four game losing streak and were pretty impressive with the wood, especially Tony Gwynn . No homers but some agressive singles and doubles and one great sacrifice bunt.

Pit Shooz

Hung about in Nash-Vegas this holiday week-end doing the tourist thing. Even got accused of looking like one right here in my own damn home-town. Ah, what the hell.

Came across these Kawasaki green sneaks here and instantly thought of the Captain Dick Kawasaki Trials Team. You know, the one with the slogan that goes someting like "If you don't know trials, you don't know Dick".

My new current squeeze was kind enough to try them on long enough for me to get this snapshot.