I had heard about a Chevelle El Camino only show in Portland a couple months ago and saw it was right around my birthday so thought it would be cool to go and compare the Beaumont with their Chevelles.  After completing it this afternoon I thought of Vincent and his road trip from the Island and thought I would share the highlights because there were a couple. 

First I have to start that I have the greatest wife ever for me.  She is not a car show person at all but gives me full rein to attend as many as I want or can including BJ.  She has come to a couple local ones for 10 minutes to say hi and that's it.  So I ran it by her about doing this run and from there going over to the Oregon coast and coming up it on the way home.  Great lady, she went for it.  The car show is 530 miles south of us so we left Friday at noon and drove 7 hours for our first stop in Yakima, Washington.  Car ran just splendid.  I put a new fuel pump in it a week ago because of an oil drip so pushed it pretty good cruising between 60 and 70 mph.  Was cooking warm between 35 and 40 degrees on the way down but was fun.

Leave Saturday morning for about a 3 hour drive to Portland and an hour out of Yakima I hear this terrible ticking coming from the engine.  Lucky we had a convertible because we had the tunes playing pretty loud and I think was fortunate to hear.  Pulled over right away and shut her down.  Oil light came on as I shut her down and I have never heard an engine making that much noise and still running.  Lift up the hood and there is oil everywhere, running down the firewall and all over the hood.  It had puked it all out the fuel pump.  State troopers were all over the place on that highway and one was by in less than 5 minutes.  Phoned me a deck truck from the closest town 25 miles away and I decided the best chance I had was to head back to Yakima which is a good size city 50 miles back.  Got ahold of my son to line up my friend's trailer to come down that night if needed to pick us up and then called my good mechanic buddy back home here and asked him if he thought I still had a chance of the motor surviving.  He thought I had a good chance even though it sounded that bad.  So that gave me a faint hope.  Thought I'd get back there, fill it with oil and see if we had a chance.  Got it dropped off at the GM dealer and they had a couple oil change jockeys (great young guys) who let me do a few things.  Put oil in it and fired it up and amazing enough it sounded as if nothing had happened.  We put some dye in the oil and they let me put it up on the hoist and observe it.  Sure enough just a little drip leak again at the fuel pump but when I had been pushing it, it couldn't handle it.  Wife is great about taking all kinds of pictures as we are getting loaded on the wrecker and we're saying whatever.  At least we weren't getting pulled out of a wreck or anything.  Go to Napa and find a new fuel pump and put it on in their yard.  Wasn't really happy with it as the spring was not very tight and kept wanting to fall out as we are putting it in.  The guy who runs the race track there came out with me making sure I had all the tools I needed which I was okay with but he too didn't like the spring situation but it was the last pump they had and it was around 5 o'clock.  Got it in and fired up so away we went only it was now 6 o.clock instead of 9 in the morning.  Well believe it or not got about 5 or 10 miles past where I had previously been picked up, started going up the hill and the fuel pump was toast.  Take a deep breath, first tow was $350.  What now?  Quick decision, rolled car back on the hill and coasted a hundred yards or so to a pullout and change back to our leaky original pump, at least it pumped gas.  My wife was so good, so cool. Wiping off stuff, handing me wrenches, we had it changed and the car running in less than 10 minutes.  So now what, head south or back towards home.  It's probably about 7:30 now.  Well I figured if I took it easy it wouldn't blow by so I headed south.  I now had lots of oil with me if I did loose abit so away we went  checking it frequently at first and then going further and further.  Was only blowing a few drops by.

So we're rolling along a couple hours later along the Columbia River getting close to Portland and there is some road construction with just one lane.  I go through the area with one lane  and shortly after the sheriff's lights are on behind me and man are they bright.  Pull over and up comes this 17 year old deputy sheriff whose voice was just starting to change.  Do you realize you wandered over that fog line.  No sir I didn't realize.  What is a fog line?  That is the line on the edge of the road, you mean you don't realize you drove over it.  No sir, I didn't realize but I think if I did I would have heard the rumble strip.  The rumble strip is 2 inches away from the fog line.  Are you tired or have you had anything to drink?  No sir, not tired and haven't had anything to drink.  License and registration please and did you know your right tail light was out?  While he is checking the documents I go in my trunk and find the socket had become dislodged by a suit case so I plugged it in and that was fine.  Well I'm just giving you a warning this time but keep your concentration and your eyes on the road.  Away we go and just having a great chuckle and keeping those wheels no closer than 2 feet from either the center or the fog line.  He was in no ways a jerk or anything but it had become a pretty serious offence.

Rest of story pretty boring.  Made it to the car show location around midnight.  Got up early Sunday morning washed car and engine bay well and thoroughly enjoyed their show.  I had got in touch with the organizer a month or so ago and he really encouraged me to come as he was familiar with the Beaumonts but we had great time there and everyone was so so warm and friendly.  My wife was so good at describing what we had  so it was a hoot.  I've never had so many comments and pictures taken of just an ordinary car.  I stopped at a gas station to double check on some directions and a middle aged guy and his wife pull in beside us as they had been following me and said I've got to have a picture of that car.  I won the 50 50 draw for a 160 bucks so again we had a good laugh as we were paying our towing bill and we hadn't had time to have supper Saturday so we saved another 50 so you can see there will be a few stories told from this trip.  I kept the car at a max of 55 mph and probably only blew out a couple tablespoons of oil the rest of the way.  Dipstick was right at full when I got home after close to 1300 miles.  Lots of driving but was sure fun with the top down everyday almost all day.  Would start with top up for an hour, then top down windows up and heater on, then windows down and vents open and then the opposite into the evening.  Got to the Oregon coast and enjoyed a night in Cannon Beach along the ocean.  Honeymoon memories.  I told my wife when we crossed back over the border this was the best birthday present I've ever had, pretty simple but alot of fun.  Good stuff and I hope you guys enjoy my rambling.  Will try a couple pictures here.

-- Edited by jmont64 on Tuesday 20th of July 2010 08:57:19 PM