TRASCRIZIONE 🔗
WEBVTT
00:00:00.059 --> 00:00:06.653
Welcome to another episode of Dan the Road Trip Guy, the podcast where we dive into the stories that make life an adventure.
00:00:06.653 --> 00:00:07.980
I'm your host, dan Neal.
00:00:07.980 --> 00:00:19.216
In each episode, I sit down with my guests to chat about their first cars, unforgettable road trips, career journeys, hobbies, bucket list dreams and a sprinkle of life advice every now and then.
00:00:19.216 --> 00:00:26.292
Whether you're a seasoned traveler or just love a good story, join us as we explore the roads less traveled and the tales that come with them.
00:00:26.292 --> 00:00:27.774
Buckle up and let's hit the road.
00:00:27.774 --> 00:00:34.247
Well, today I'm on a little ride down memory lane for myself.
00:00:34.247 --> 00:00:47.121
It all came with a conversation I had with a friend the other night about antique cars, antique trucks, and it just reminded me of my dad, and so I recorded this episode to share those memories with you.
00:00:47.121 --> 00:00:59.847
And again, I'll encourage you if you have family living, make sure you get their stories, share your stories with them, and if you have close friends, share some stories with them and get their stories before it's too late.
00:00:59.847 --> 00:01:05.930
If you've been a listener to my podcast for any period of time, you know it is about stories.
00:01:05.930 --> 00:01:10.271
I love to hear people's stories and I love to share those stories.
00:01:11.040 --> 00:01:20.188
A bit of this podcast is driven from the fact that there's a lot of lost stories for me that when my parents both passed away in 2014 and 2015,.
00:01:20.188 --> 00:01:22.534
It's hard to believe it's been 10 years and 9 years.
00:01:22.534 --> 00:01:25.188
Dad passed away first.
00:01:25.188 --> 00:01:31.153
He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's probably seven years before he died.
00:01:31.153 --> 00:01:34.566
I believe my brother would agree we had the best parents.
00:01:34.566 --> 00:01:50.871
This time of year always reminds me of them because they always made sure and I'm guessing it was mostly mom, but dad was a bit creative in his gift giving, but mom was a big gift giver, and so Christmas always reminds me of her.
00:01:51.933 --> 00:02:02.400
Last night, though, I was reminded of my dad, and I struck up a conversation with a friend and we began to talk about old vehicles.
00:02:02.400 --> 00:02:10.865
He had had an old Oldsmobile Cutlass, I believe it was that he had sold and he had bought something else, and it just reminded me of dad, and it just reminded me of my own dad.
00:02:10.865 --> 00:02:22.330
My brother and I still own his 1946 Chevrolet pickup truck that he restored on our carport Not a garage, but on a carport when he was home on the weekends.
00:02:22.330 --> 00:02:26.330
I don't recall how long that took or how much he spent.
00:02:26.330 --> 00:02:33.234
I remember mom saying all the receipts were in a box someplace, but I have never yet to
Load full transcript
see that box.
00:02:33.234 --> 00:02:38.736
It was a beautiful truck that he restored, and I remember when we picked it up I went along on the ride.
00:02:38.736 --> 00:02:54.122
It was my mom and my dad and Artie and my grandma, and we went to pick up this truck, and I remember wanting to ride home in that truck and it was cold and I don't believe there was any heater, and so mom overrode that decision.
00:02:54.122 --> 00:03:06.681
I did not get to ride in that truck, but dad would restore that, and Saturday evenings a lot of times it would be me, him and my brother, and we would go out for a ride around the county where we grew up in Kentucky.
00:03:06.681 --> 00:03:19.389
You were never allowed to step on those running boards though, and boy I knew that, so I never did, and to this day if I see an old classic pickup truck, it's like don't stand on the running boards, it's not a step, it's there for looks.
00:03:20.050 --> 00:03:28.033
I don't have a lot of stories from my parents, except the ones I can remember, but Dad did leave a note behind of all the cars he had owned.
00:03:28.033 --> 00:03:37.128
I believe he favored the color green, because a lot of his cars were green and his big truck, his 67 Kenworth, was green.
00:03:37.128 --> 00:03:38.391
He would call it green.
00:03:38.391 --> 00:03:43.750
It was green and white when he originally bought it and then he painted it more green later in his life.
00:03:43.750 --> 00:03:50.211
But I was looking at this list of cars and these are not in any chronological order, I don't believe according to ownership.
00:03:50.211 --> 00:03:54.349
But there was a 40 Ford, two-door color green.
00:03:54.349 --> 00:03:57.296
There was a 36 Ford, two-door, black.
00:03:57.296 --> 00:03:59.080
Probably only came in black.
00:03:59.080 --> 00:04:04.430
There was a 30-something he didn't put the year a Chevy Coupe and it was gray.
00:04:04.430 --> 00:04:07.735
30-something, he didn't put the year A Chevy Coupe and it was gray.
00:04:07.735 --> 00:04:14.401
There was a 41 Ford, two-door, it was black.
00:04:14.420 --> 00:04:16.543
A 52 Plymouth hardtop, two-door, blue and white.
00:04:16.543 --> 00:04:17.706
There was a 48 Plymouth Coupe and it was what?
00:04:17.706 --> 00:04:17.846
Green.
00:04:17.846 --> 00:04:29.584
There was a 51 GMC 350, a 52 GMC 450, a 59 one-and-a-half ton EMC 450, a 59 one and a half ton, not sure what that was.
00:04:29.584 --> 00:04:31.026
There was a 48 international one and a half ton.
00:04:31.026 --> 00:04:35.937
There was a 56 Plymouth hard top I guess it says HT and it was white.
00:04:35.937 --> 00:04:38.201
There was a 50 something DeSoto.
00:04:38.201 --> 00:04:40.504
It was yellow and it was a coupe.
00:04:40.644 --> 00:04:46.800
There was a 60-something Plymouth convertible and I remember this car and it was beige.
00:04:46.800 --> 00:04:51.855
I suppose it's the only convertible my parents ever owned.
00:04:51.855 --> 00:04:57.509
There was a 60-something Chevy four-door black Impala.
00:04:57.509 --> 00:04:59.392
There was a 57 Mack.
00:04:59.392 --> 00:05:00.596
It was red and black.
00:05:00.596 --> 00:05:10.850
There was a 58 Kenworth, black and red Maybe he had changed over to black and red in the trucking days but then a 64 Kenworth and it was black and red.
00:05:10.850 --> 00:05:17.649
There was a 67 Kenworth and that's the truck he finished up for 21 years for his trucking career.
00:05:17.649 --> 00:05:24.668
He retired after 40 years on the road and that 67 Kenworth sat in our backyard for another 21 years.
00:05:24.668 --> 00:05:26.312
I'll get to that story in a moment.
00:05:26.552 --> 00:05:30.348
After we finish the cars, there was a 78 Chevy pickup truck.
00:05:30.348 --> 00:05:32.024
It was brown and cream.
00:05:32.024 --> 00:05:35.459
An 83 Chevy pickup truck and it was blue and silver.
00:05:35.459 --> 00:05:39.290
I remember those trucks because that's when I began to drive.
00:05:39.290 --> 00:05:43.391
There's the 46 Chevrolet pickup that I mentioned, that he restored.
00:05:43.391 --> 00:05:44.704
It was green and black.
00:05:44.704 --> 00:05:47.166
A 54 GMC 250.
00:05:47.166 --> 00:05:47.928
It was red.
00:05:48.639 --> 00:05:51.428
For some reason he decided to buy three old BMWs.
00:05:51.428 --> 00:05:54.329
He managed to get one of them running over the years.
00:05:54.329 --> 00:05:57.189
I sort of wish we had those today and we could give them to Henry.
00:05:57.189 --> 00:06:05.815
But there was a 1980 BMW 320, an 83 BMW 320, and another 83 BMW 320.
00:06:05.815 --> 00:06:10.026
An 83 BMW 320, and another 83 BMW 320.
00:06:10.026 --> 00:06:11.310
None of them in great shape, but he tinkered on them constantly.
00:06:11.310 --> 00:06:12.834
In the driveway there was a 78 Olds station wagon.
00:06:12.834 --> 00:06:13.997
I drove that car quite a bit.
00:06:13.997 --> 00:06:19.509
There was a 98.4 Olds 98, and there was a 1988 Lincoln.
00:06:19.509 --> 00:06:23.201
He really liked that Lincoln and it was a neat car.
00:06:23.201 --> 00:06:29.713
I can't remember exactly what rent learned with it, but it sat on our driveway for a number of years.
00:06:30.160 --> 00:06:31.807
He did not list the last car he owned.
00:06:31.807 --> 00:06:34.649
It was a green, of course, mercury Marquis.
00:06:34.649 --> 00:06:38.850
Not much of a car, I remember him saying, but it got us around.
00:06:38.850 --> 00:06:41.007
So that's the list I have in front of me.
00:06:41.007 --> 00:06:42.406
That's what he left behind.
00:06:42.406 --> 00:06:49.005
Weekends were spent getting the big truck ready to go out on the road, because that's what he did.
00:06:49.005 --> 00:06:53.303
He did his own maintenance on the truck before he would hit the road every week.
00:06:53.303 --> 00:07:01.108
He typically would leave on a Sunday and if we were lucky he was back on a Friday night, sometimes earlier in the day, but not usually.
00:07:01.108 --> 00:07:03.540
There were times he was gone for a
couple weeks.
00:07:03.540 --> 00:07:06.584
He was a long-haul trucker owner-operator.
00:07:06.584 --> 00:07:20.461
They called him sort of an Back in In 2009,.
00:07:21.103 --> 00:07:25.612
I was sitting on the carport and I mentioned to dad hey, we need to sell the truck.
00:07:25.612 --> 00:07:28.848
He had had an offer on the truck when he first retired.
00:07:28.848 --> 00:07:38.627
But you know, there was a small gap of $500 in what the buyer was willing to pay and what he wanted, so he opted to hang on to it.
00:07:38.627 --> 00:07:43.764
So it sat in our backyard for 21 years just sitting there, the big green machine.
00:07:43.764 --> 00:07:44.266
We called it.
00:07:44.266 --> 00:07:46.201
Well, we were sitting on the carport.
00:07:46.201 --> 00:07:50.031
I'm sure mom was ready for some of that stuff to move on.
00:07:50.031 --> 00:07:52.764
So I said, hey, dad, let me list this on eBay.
00:07:52.764 --> 00:07:55.711
I'm sure there's somebody out there that's a collector of trucks.
00:07:55.711 --> 00:07:56.982
He agreed.
00:07:56.982 --> 00:08:07.324
I'm not sure he ever got over me selling it, though I think he was kind of mad at me it though I think he was kind of mad at me, but hopefully he forgave me for that.
00:08:07.345 --> 00:08:17.209
I wrote a note in 2009 and it sort of went like this this is a tribute to Cecil Neal of Pinot, kentucky, and all the truckers our family has known over the past 60 years.
00:08:17.209 --> 00:08:33.482
21 years ago, the truck we grew to call the Big Green Machine pulled into Pinot for the last time, and on August 11, 2009, the truck left Pinot for the last time loaded on a trailer instead of being piloted by lifetime Pinot resident Cecil Neal.
00:08:33.482 --> 00:08:40.927
Cecil bought the truck new in 1967 and began the last 21 years of his trucking career in that truck.
00:08:40.927 --> 00:08:48.609
It was this truck that carried Cecil from the South Sands of Florida to the salts of Salt Lake City and all the places in between.
00:08:48.609 --> 00:09:00.705
When I was growing up, there were names like Fitz and Barker, tater Hawkshaw, beckett Bigfoot and Willie Big Cat Babs, who shared a love of the open road.
00:09:00.705 --> 00:09:17.086
As drivers of the big rigs from the 50s to the 80s, these were the guys who drove the trucks without power steering, trucks without air conditioning, trucks with clutches that would wear on even the strongest man's left leg and transmissions that took a certain finesse to shift.
00:09:17.086 --> 00:09:26.846
These were the men that delivered the goods that kept manufacturing plants humming, kept food on our tables and delivered the cars that were driven when Cecil was living.
00:09:27.870 --> 00:09:32.485
If you had the time and you wanted to share some stories, cecil would certainly share some stories.
00:09:32.485 --> 00:09:41.030
He'll share the stories of the open road, the type of stories that you accumulate after being on the road away from home for some
38 plus years.
00:09:41.030 --> 00:09:46.744
If you had asked him how he got involved, the name of his uncle, alfred, might have come up.
00:09:46.744 --> 00:09:52.182
He hauled logs for his uncle and then one day he inquired about hauling cars for Dixie Transport.
00:09:52.182 --> 00:09:57.062
Rumor has it he had to change his driver's license to get the seat of that truck for Dixie.
00:09:57.062 --> 00:10:00.491
He never seems to be able to answer the question of how many miles he drove.
00:10:00.491 --> 00:10:05.150
I believe he actually knew, but he just was keeping that number to himself.
00:10:05.150 --> 00:10:14.625
He spent time running with partners in the truck, but for the last 17 or so years he was a solo driver, hauling all sorts of steel products.
00:10:14.625 --> 00:10:18.553
Nothing delayed or slowed him down, not rain or snow.
00:10:18.553 --> 00:10:20.222
He just moved on.
00:10:20.984 --> 00:10:24.852
Dad would spend at least five days a week on the road, away from his wife and two boys.
00:10:24.852 --> 00:10:34.931
I would say that I regret dad being away so much and I'm sure we missed out on something, but he always made time for his family when he was home.
00:10:34.931 --> 00:10:39.020
Saturdays were always filled with getting the truck ready for another week.
00:10:39.020 --> 00:10:43.724
Cecil not only knew how to drive, but there wasn't much he couldn't repair.
00:10:43.724 --> 00:10:49.668
Mom would tell stories in the winter of when the house was a bit cold for days.
00:10:49.668 --> 00:10:54.030
Until Dad could repair the furnace, he could fix almost anything.
00:10:54.030 --> 00:10:56.373
Actually, he could fix anything.
00:10:56.373 --> 00:10:59.195
Even with air compressors and impact wrenches.
00:10:59.195 --> 00:11:09.167
Cecil would still change tires and wheels with a few simple tools, a body of joy, dishwashing liquid and a great deal of strength.
00:11:09.187 --> 00:11:15.191
When the truck was for sale on eBay in July, one person commented According to my calculations, that truck would run well over 100 miles an hour.
00:11:15.191 --> 00:11:20.211
I asked Dad to confirm that fact and he simply replied yes, I suppose it might.
00:11:20.211 --> 00:11:29.030
He never really admitted going that speed, but just by the tone on the phone I knew the truck had been somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 miles an hour.
00:11:29.030 --> 00:11:32.485
The truck did sell to a guy who collects trucks.
00:11:32.485 --> 00:11:41.576
I'm yet to this day to be able to go and see that truck, but I did promise dad I would check on it, so I hope I'm able to do that at some point.
00:11:42.359 --> 00:11:51.820
Every time I drive down the hill into Cincinnati heading home or I happen to be on the Florida Turnbike in the early morning I'm reminded of the summer of 1970.
00:11:51.820 --> 00:12:01.447
It was the summer that I would spend in the cab at the 67 Kenworth as Dad and Willie Babb delivered produce and frozen fish around the eastern part of the US.
00:12:01.447 --> 00:12:03.932
It was a summer I will never forget.
00:12:03.932 --> 00:12:09.677
It was a summer when I first discovered my love for the open road and the beauty that our country offers.
00:12:09.677 --> 00:12:11.863
If you only take the time to look around.
00:12:11.863 --> 00:12:14.610
There were times when dad would drive the back roads.
00:12:14.610 --> 00:12:17.725
It could have been to avoid the scales, I guess.
00:12:17.725 --> 00:12:19.851
I always thought he liked the beauty of the older road.
00:12:19.851 --> 00:12:21.024
It would be my guess.
00:12:21.024 --> 00:12:27.605
If he headed out today for Atlanta he might just run Highway 27 rather than I-75.
00:12:27.605 --> 00:12:34.626
So the next time you're on the road and a big rig needs a little extra room, remember the driver is probably someone's husband and father.
00:12:34.626 --> 00:12:42.522
For us, the big green machine might have left Pine Out for the last time, but the memories of that truck and its driver will live on forever.
00:12:43.323 --> 00:12:54.299
I hope you picked up one thing from this and if you still have family living or even friends, and you want to know their stories, be sure to sit down, get their stories before it's too late.
00:12:54.299 --> 00:14:44.698
Thank you.
00:14:44.698 --> 00:14:47.198
Thank you for tuning in to Dan, the Road Trip Guy.
00:14:47.198 --> 00:14:50.360
I hope you enjoyed our journey today and the stories that were shared.
00:14:50.360 --> 00:14:55.111
If you have any thoughts or questions or stories of your own, I'd love to hear from you.
00:14:55.111 --> 00:14:57.488
Feel free to reach out to me anytime.
00:14:57.488 --> 00:15:06.373
Don't forget to share this podcast with your friends and family and help us to spread the joy of road trips and great conversations podcast with your friends and family and help us to spread the joy of road trips and great conversations.
00:15:06.373 --> 00:15:10.442
Until next time, keep driving, keep exploring and keep having those amazing conversations.
00:15:10.442 --> 00:15:15.173
Safe travels and remember you can find me on the internet at dantheroadtripguycom.