The Red Ball Express has come to a close, with our ’68 Javelin having been relayed across the country by a string of volunteers. Each leg of the trip brought some fun stories and memories for the guys who made the drive. One of those guys was Randal, known as TheSilverBuick on our forum. He sent us a Top 11 list of his favorite memories and we thought it was too good not to share. Comments in parenthesis were added us, the heavy handed editorial staff.
 
Thanks again to all who participated, it’s a week that we’ll never forget and by the sounds of it, most of you won’t either.

The Top 11 Best Stories from TheSilverBuick on His Leg of the Red Ball Express

11) Spending a night in puritanical Utah, staying at a Holiday Inn with a bar in it.

10) Chad showing up in Ely and I have neither a truck nor trailer ready! (Randal managed to convince a buddy to loan him his truck and trailer for the trip…at the last possible second)

9) The Green River, Utah, Ramada Inn not bothering with the continental breakfast for the three people staying there. (Two of those people may or may not have been serial killers)

8) The Fantastic View across I-70 in both Utah and Colorado. (Undoubtedly Chad and Randal had the two most majestic routes. They were also the two most dangerous as the general areas these guys traveled through are less populated than the moon)

7) Finding Donuts in Bamfster’s house. (It should be mentioned that Bamfster, is a police officer)

6) Got to go to Target and Best Buy!! Whoo Hoo! The Big City! I ate at Wendy’s too! (Randal lives in Ely, Nevada, a place where brothels outnumber convenience stores. Spending the night in Denver is a big deal for him, although he was disappointed that there were no brothels in Denver)

5) Still being able to pass a loaded down Toyota Tacoma climbing the Rockies. (Screw you, Toyota)

4) The “Nut Job” look I got every time I explained what was going on with the car or why I was in town, especially when I got to the part where I’m doing this for free!  The gas station clerks, bartenders, people at the bars, co-workers, the people I’m borrowing stuff from, Bamfster’s Wife…..

3) An old-timer at the gas station in Eagle, Colorado, talked about dirt track racing there for a second then side tracked to pulling trucks out of the snow with some beast of a Chevy 4×4 with a welded tube bumper, that led to the popping off of other people’s bumpers if they hit the brakes while he was pulling.  Fortunately for him he always had them sign a “Not Responsible For Damage” contract first. He also commented about the trip with “Anything to make a buck,” to which my explanation of no payment utterly confused him and he walked away at that point.

2) Another old-timer at the gas station leaving Ely asked about where I was running it. Told him the plan included a 440 and Ice. He got a laugh out of that. Then he talked about having a NASCAR engine in his dirt track car in the ‘70s and that cheating became so rampant that the crowds left because the same people would always win.  Went back to beat down jalopies and the crowds came back.

1) A young drunk calling the Javelin a Camaro in Ely.  He then followed it up with, “Well it looks like a Nova” after I corrected him. He also mentioned how many times he had seen it running locally.