[FWDLK] vacation trip

Hello all,

Sorry to those folks I promised photos from Spring Fling, but I didn't use up all the roll of film, and three days after returning home from California I took off for my two week vacation to Montana. . .

While in Montana, there were naturally a couple of stops I just HAD to make, and you know what I mean, even though all my relatives still think I'm crazy to go on vacation to see JUNKYARDS!! Since my dad grew up in Butte, and Whitehall is just across the Continental Divide, I had to go meet Neil Freman, since I've heard so much about him.

I don't know what stories everyone has heard, but he has cars I never dreamed I'd see in wrecking yards: can you say not one, but TWO 300-C Convertibles????? Yes, you did not read that wrong, although one was unrecognizable (they had to point it out to me), I did discover the other one for myself. You could still see the dual rear antenna bases and instrument pods, but not much else salvageable. I lost track of the number of '50s and early 60's letter cars I saw. Probably around 20. Of course lesser Chryslers were tossed around the yard like pennies in a change jar. He has two '57 Adventurers, and one each of '56, '57, and '58 Fury. One interesting thing about all these rare cars, though, was that the VIN plate on literally ALL of them were missing. I suspect that they must have made their way to Minnesota, where they are now probably falsely adorning lesser cars to make them appear to be what they aren't???

Neil was a very nice guy though, and let me wander wherever I wanted, even though a storm was rolling in and I got soaked. And it's not just MoPars he has: almost every make had something there. He also has made a habit of pulling rare and valuable parts off of cars and storing them inside one of his buildings, and he has LOTS of parts in there, many things I thought couldn't even exist. . . I bought a few things and was on my way.

My destination for this trip was Peerless, MT, and on the return trip home I just had to go through Kalispell, MT and see if I could meet Gary Goers, since I've bought so much stuff from him. I thought I'd meet a little old man in his 80's who was just tottering along, but was quite surprised to run into a 6'6" guy not much older than me, with parts orders piled everywhere! No wonder he's behind in his shipments, it's just him working there, doing everything from designing molds to packing and mailing shipments. I didn't help any, as we sat and chatted for an hour or so, putting him further behind. But even though he asked me to tell everyone how terrible he is and how awful the visit was (so nobody else will visit and he can get caught up on his orders), Gary is very pleasant and easy to talk to. He even showed me the '57 Adventurer he is fixing up. I will continue to order parts from him, with confidence.

Anyway, dinner is ready and I must go. I will try to make pictures from Spring Fling, and from Neil Freman's available soon, and will tell everyone when they are ready.

Mark mjh