We're thinking about a "new" ride

Starlog 090608

It has been about a year that the Ford dealership in Pendleton closed. The Chevrolet dealership went bankrupt there at least a year ago and I understand that place is mostly selling Honda's now, so today Kittee and I went to Walla Walla, WA to look at cars and trucks today. Walla Walla is much closer to the ranch anyway.

Now we are very happy with the transportation we currently own, intend to keep driving what we have until they turn into ferrous oxide under our feet, but every once in awhile we get the urge to look and something "new". We are not so interested in something that smells like new plastic and leather, loses too much of it's retail value when it hits the asphalt pavement... just something that will be "new to us".

Walking round and looking at cars and truck for a good part of this afternoon, we begin to thinking about something different, something nice/fun to drive around just for weekends, neighborhood tours. Just a nice car or truck for getting around Milton-Freewater, going to Walla Walla or to Pendleton when needed. Gee, did we find allot of really nice rigs out there today, to consider bringing home.

A note about Walla Walla... lest we forget, Walla Walla is now one on the major sweet onion capitals of the world, and to commemorate this we find onions all around town these days.
For example...
Back to transportation... as our search today was taking us to downtown Walla Walla. Even though the automobile industry has been taking a real slump in sales recently, car and truck works were really happening in Walla Walla this weekend.

Main Street Walla Walla was closed to vehicle traffic and lined with cars and trucks. We found some for sale... some were not, but of course every car has it's price. Kittee and I were looking at the ones that were priced in reason and matched our taste.

There were cars and trucks lining East Main Street,

there were trucks and cars lining West Main Street,

and there were even a few nice bikes out there today.

Well Kittee and I ooh'ed and aahh'ed over almost all of the vehicles that were on Main Street today, and looked at some that would best suit us for our transportation needs.

First car we came up to when we arrived on Main Street was a burgundy/red ' 37 Cord...
This was a beauty, but just not for us as a touring car to drive off the ranch. It may not have even fit in our garage.

With my first new car having been a 1969 Mach 1 Mustang, I was kinda thinking of looking for one of these in the crowd. There was one...but was just not the same as mine, as it was blue not Jade Green and did not have the Cobra Jet "shaker" hood-scoop air intake system as my first new car had back in '69. This 'Tang was in good shape for a 40 year old, but just not the same as my first, to have and to hold- my car.

Kittee looking around found a really nice pickup truck, think it was a Chevrolet that would have looked nice pulling out of the garage at home, but it was a Chevrolet so maybe we best not; take it home.These days there is not a good new sales market for a Chevy, and buying an older PU truck, would probably mean we could be putting money into a hole.

Kittee's favorite car of the day was a real '56 beauty that had even shown up in a few magazine ads...
In the same stroke we both were rather fascinated by this little red '56 T-bird, but it didn't have a porthole hard top to go along with it. So we decided to wait to make an offer and look on further down the street.Since the '69 Mustang did not really meet my expectations I did find a nice Blue-'21 Model T that got my attention. Really a sharp looking ride that it is currently owned by a local Walla Walla couple and we now know how to reach them. Asking price for this beauty was only $10,000. Now my thoughts were that this would be the perfect classic to have parked in our garage, and bring out to make the necessary fun runs to town for postal and grocery needs. My greatest concern in looking at this particular Model-T was there are no brake drums on the front axles/wheels of this car, only the rear. Hummm something to think about (mechanical rear brakes only) on busy modern highways and hills of our area. I really liked it, but not sure if it would be practical to serve our needs.

Along with some of the cars and trucks that were available for buying, there were a few that were at this show and sale just for showoff...There was one really neat old beauty there with a metal flake paint job...
looking at it from one direction it was green,

looking at if from the opposite direction it was blue...

quite fascinating to look into.

on and on and on... allot of car and trucks to consider.

This was our 4th or 5th Wheelin' Walla Walla Weekend to attend and it is getting
better and better, each year. Yep, someday we hope to bring home one of these beauties for weekend travel just around our ranch neighborhood, and maybe over to your place.

Another fun part/ highlight of this outing today, was the tunes that were being played/ PAed across Main Street Walla Walla. Most of the tunes were from the 1965-75 vintage, but some were based in the 50's and a few of the WWII era. Kept allot of people boogieing down the street. All in all it was a good day, a very pleasant outdoor day as we finished our tour of Walla Walla by going by the new Thai City restaurant for our late lunch/early dinner.

Getting back to the ranch, Kittee and I headed back to the river to watch the salmon spawning, this evening we found none so we came back to the house after a little hike upriver and horse petting to sit by the backyard fireplace to finish our day's activity.

a day in the life around the ranch --- Dale