Play it again Sam,

The first thing was to blow off the engine and
compartment with compressed air.

Sometimes you just have to do the work.

 AMCA Western Nationals and swap meet. Dixon California June 20th. Part Two.

An antique Indian will always catch my eye.

I'm going to show some more of the very nice bikes that I saw.

 How I started driving closer to the speed limit,

 

and started enjoying it more.

 AMCA West Coast Nationals and swap meet. Dixon California June 20th. Part One.

A gold mine of antique parts.
If you need it, you can probably find it. But can you afford it?

Last year I attended this event and it had quite an influence on me. Shortly afterwards I decided to buy another motorcycle after an 18 year hiatus!

Legends of the Fall: Part Two

Let's take a quick look at an even bigger Legend. The fearsome Nissan Skyline. This car earned it's laurels as a serious high performance car. I am only somewhat familiar with the story of these cars. What attracted me to them is their very aggressive appearance.

Sometimes you just have to do the work; Fixing my truck's seat.

 I spend a lot of time on this blog writing about my musings and ramblings...

The seat looks bad enough in this photo.
But that was taken over two years ago!

But sometimes, you just have to stop talking and do the work!

 When one of your "new" cars is no longer new.

I fell in love with this truck on the first test drive.
Nineteen years later that hasn't changed.

It's kind of a state of mind thing. Especially if you bought the vehicle brand new, and have held onto to it for a long time and a lot of miles. You always knew that it wasn't new anymore, (how could it be after 19 years?) but I can't help but think about it as one of my "new vehicles."

 Legends of the Fall: Part One

I wonder why?

There is a car that I found very impressive and appealing when it was introduced back in the 1990's

 More photos from the Niles Spring Fever car show.

Here's another photo of Rick's car. Forties are hot rod icons,
and it's easy to see why.

I just got home from my vacation after two days of driving. You might say that I'm taking the easy way out to constructing an entry, by simply posting pictures. That's sort of true, though I did work on some new posts while I was out of town.

 Rosebud.

If you have ever watched the movie Citizen Kane, you will remember his final dying words. He is in bed holding onto a snow globe, which falls out of his hands as he mutters the word, "Rosebud." Then he expires.

 Last weekend I actually participated in a car show!

Popcorn. We'll come back to this later.

The show was the Spring Fever car show, held in the Niles section of Fremont. It's a historic downtown type area that closes off several streets to allow the cars to be displayed.

 Before you buy an old car as a project;

photo source: MAACO.com
A fresh paint job can be a critical part of a hobby car project.

Better line up the resources that you'll need, beforehand.

Dream Builds:  The Ironhead Sportster. 

We didn't refer to them as Ironheads back in the Old Days.

This is an older post that I wrote well before I bought my current motorcycle. I had been giving the subject of buying and modifying a Sportster quite a bit thought. I decided to run this while I'm in the process of cleaning out my files.

 More thoughts on driving and...

He's still got the enthusiasm!

Freiburger.

 Motorcycle Swap meet Sacramento.

I had been curious about this swapmeet for a few years. Sacramento is a good drive away, but as I said before, these events serve as my primary entertainment. My route would take me past my Son's house, so a couple of days before, I gave him a call and asked if he'd like to join me. He had been storing his and his Wife's bicycles at my house, so I asked if he'd like me to bring them up. He said that would be great, so I loaded them into my truck before leaving. 

 Thoughts on driving and riding.

The Plymouth on the street,
Photo taken during the previous owner's last drive.

I have owned the Plymouth for a little over a year, and I've put approx. 600 miles on it during that time. Although I was familiar with driving manual transmission cars, it takes a while to familiarize myself with the idiosyncrasies of this particular vehicle. Age has given it it's own set of peculiarities and foibles. Besides, it was restored forty years ago, and wear has certainly taken place in the forty years since then.

 My current old bicycle.

A  mid 1980's Marin Muir Woods.
Hard to believe that it's forty years old!

Not from my childhood, but from my middle age.

 A week's worth of driving for my Plymouth.

Casa de Fruta is the only Route 66 type attraction
in my area.

While nostalgia for a time that I never knew, colors my thoughts, I deleted the color from the photographs that I took.

The Plymouth had been sitting in the garage for several months, I thought that now, with better weather, it was time to put a few miles on it.

 Thinking about Corvettes.

1968. It was a very good year.

Chevrolet Corvette.

The "it" car for my Boomer generation.

Home Improvement:

Ryobi, not the last word in power tools,
but still pretty good.

Fixing stuff.

You know that I work on my cars, but I also do a lot of work around the house.

 The birds are driving me crazy, crapping all over my Mustang!

The hood was a frequent target,
but the deck lid suffered the worst.

I'm not going to show you any pictures of that!

 What's in a name?

The first Coupe de Ville 1949.

Sometimes, quite a lot!

To me this name had always been magic.

Cadillac Coupe de Ville.

 Turlock Swap Meet January 25th. 2026.

I had been feeling a bit under the weather but I decided to drive the 100 miles to the swap meet. Upon arrival I felt good enough to walk all around the fairgrounds. As this was the second day of the meet, many vendors had already left the day before. There were many vendors packing up to leave even as I arrived at around 10:30. The grounds looked pretty empty, quite a contrast to when I went there last September. Maybe this trip would be a complete waste of time.

 Rebuilding the wiper motor on my Plymouth. Part Two.

The eventual success was punctuated by a bout of frustration! In other words, it was like most other old car repairs!

The California 1000 lay dormant for a few years. 

That's my set up with the Pony Express style bags.
My buddy Rick's new XLS is to the left. Behind me,
you can see the headlight of my buddy Boyd's new Low Rider.

Then it was back! Sometimes in the early 1980's. 

Just a reminisce. Please indulge me in my rambling memories.

Rick and I went down to LA and found that the 1000 was cancelled at the last minute. So Rick and I decided to do our own 1,000 mile ride. 

Then the California 1000 was back. I signed up for it immediately.

 Two Swap Meets visited in one day.

They were held on September 21st. 2025.

An antique motorcycle swap meet was held at the Old Fisherman's club in Modesto, right on the banks of the San Joaquin river.

 "Amor de la Maquina"*.

It looks good now, but I will make it look even better!

Spanish for; "Love of the machine."

What does this mean?   

I had a custom license plate frame made that sports this sentiment.

Rebuilding the windshield wiper motor on my '46 Plymouth. Part One.

That was either a very old felt sound deadening pad
or a thick layer of dust. I'm still not sure which.

Even though my Plymouth doesn't have a heater or defroster, a working wiper would be of some benefit.

What is all this blather about the Sportster being a beginner's bike?

The junk that you read online about the Sportster
paints this picture of the rider.

What follows is a bit of a rant and a dissertation about Sportster performance. 

What to do when the moneys tight.

It's only a DuraFlame log
but it does the job.

Which it will certainly be after the Holidays.

Thoughts while relaxing next to a New Year's Day fire. There's no guilt today in taking it easy.