(Words and photos by Joe/Dan Grippo) – What is your first though when someone says road trip in early February? If you are from the snowed-in northeast region your first thought might be, how much is airfare to Pomona? Not the Grippo brothers, we head further north. Greenfield Center, New York to exact. Our destination…Garage Night at the Rolling Bones Hot Rod Shop. This has become an annual tradition for us. Ken Schmidt and Keith Cornell are the main dudes at the little shop and they are turning out the some of the most evil, sinister, perfectly proportioned 
and road worthy Hot Rods in the country. Each February the Bones Crew host a Garage Night, this is just another name for a big blowout party. We ran into folks from California, Canada, Michigan, Texas not to mention England and Norway! Adult beverages flowed freely, pizza was scarfed and Pennsylvania Whoopie Pies were inhaled into the wee hours. In between the bench racing we got to ogle the latest offerings the crew are hammering out. Front and center was the Bits and Pieces lakester destined for Tennessean Tommy Ellis, which started life as a Model A but has morphed into a unique coupe made up with parts of many Fords from ’31 to ’46. You can study this thing for hours looking at the details and admiring the metal work it took bring this one off to life. The blue, white, and red paint job sets it off perfectly. In the back room a couple of 1932 Fords were holding court. On one side was the perfect almost completed coupe owned by Toby Middlebrook. This thing checks all the Bones boxes, hammered stance, perfect new weathered paint and a hot little Y-Block Ford. Across the room was Mike Rigby’s Bones Spencer roadster which is a departure from the normal builds the shop turns out, as this one has lots of shiny parts. Mile deep black paint, chromed up and polished suspension bits add up to a faithful tribute to the legendary Doane Spencer roadster. I’m really looking forward to seeing the finished product. Up front was a mock-up of head Boner Ken’s wicked ’33 three window coupe that looked like it was going to start a fight just sitting there. Nobody does better stance than these dudes. Eventually the night came to an end, so we made our way out into the cold, snowy evening and found our way back to our motel, which had been earlier described as being, “better than the back seat of your car.”
We awoke on Sunday to the sound of a snow blower and after clearing off the truck, we headed down to a local restaurant for a great breakfast. Then
it was onto to the Saratoga Auto Museum, which is a must do when in the area. The current exhibit was “Luxury Automobiles: Through the Ages”, not generally my thing but I like all things automotive, so whatever. Check out the sweet ‘78’s Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz, complete with a Chairman of the Board 8-track protruding from the dash! A Ferrari FF, the big B Bentley from 1956 and a perfect, depression era Caddy rounded out the group. Upstairs, the museum houses a great selection of historic New York State race cars, the newest addition was the awesome Jim Shampine #8 Ball Super Modified. With its radically offset, fuel injected big block Chevy, this thing dominated at Oswego Speedway from 1978 and well into the early ‘80’s. Killer piece.
With the weather rapidly deteriorating, we pointed the truck south and headed for home. Rocketing down the New York State Thruway we decided on one more stop. We saw it from the road the previous day and we had to see what it was like….we stopped in Newburgh, at the headquarters of OCC. Yep, Orange County Choppers, the house that Teutul built, a true monument to stupidity. While I’ve never been a fan of the show or the bikes I was compelled by curiosity to see what was doin’ in this massive structure. But for fans of those guys and their builds this is must be like Disney World as at the same time its part souvenir store, part museum, part café and part bowling alley. Yes, 
I said bowling alley. We were going to toss a few frames but the snow was intensifying, so we had to settle for a quick look around and a few snaps of the more well-known bikes on display. The FDNY bike was surrounded by hundreds of patches and hats representing fire companies from all over the world, it was quite a sight. Most of the NY sports team bikes are there, along with the wild NASA chopper, the insane Christmas bike and others recognizable from the TV show. If you are going by, it is only minutes of the Thruway and something to see, for sure.
We had enough of the Empire State, our weekend jaunt was over and a few hours later we were back in PA and once again, we are awaiting the spring thaw.
Check out….
http://www.rollingboneshotrodshop.com/
http://www.saratogaautomuseum.org/
http://occcafe.com/
Rolling Bones I get
The Saratoga Museum I can understand
But … OCC ? Hmmmmn … methinks the Grippo boys better get a grip .. as to whats real and what is not . Hint ; Ole Yeller and Little Yeller … aint real