We are downsizing and have transferred most of my parts stash to Donnie Brown with lots of help from Mike Walker and Constantine. Lots of work, but got it all onto 3 trailers and full pickup beds for the long trip to Arkansas.

Mike looks the same as ever, but in the photo with Constantine and Donnie you look younger than I remember you.

Steve, the captions didn't come thru on the photos. That young guy is Jose, our right hand man around here (when we can get him).
I can assure you that we're all fairly youthful after surviving working in the humid Texas Gulf heat for a few days. I did get one with me in it...

I can say that Frank and his wife are some of the nicest people I have met. Their hospitality has been above and beyond. The trip to south Texas has been a pleasure. But Im getting too old for all the work.... . This is one of the largest loads I have ever had to make in one trip. and it will be at least a 16 hour drive home, but it has been fun. But someone needs to have a talk with Mike. Constantine and myself can not figure out why Mike drove all the way to south Texas to get Model T parts and has more Chevy parts and flowers and water lilies on his load than T parts. ????? A big Thank You goes out to Frank... Without his generosity and love of the hobby, Three trailer loads, 2 pickup beds packed full, and what fit in Mikes car, could have been lost from the hobby for use on all of our beloved Model Ts.... It is going to take a few months for me to go thru all this stuff, but it will be available soon..... Thank you Frank and Carroll .....

That big Farmersville Oil tank is what we have been looking for to complete an oil delivery truck donated to the museum. The rest of the truck has been restored, just needs the oval tank. Let me know if it may be available.

I'll second what Donnie said about Frank and Karole (I think that's the correct spelling). They just don't come any nicer than those two. All Frank cared about through all this was that his 30-year collection of Model T parts ends up in the hands of hobbyists who need them. Our mission is to see that his wishes are met. They are moving to CA to be near kids and grandkids, so this stuff needed to go away. We were happy to oblige.

As for the flowers, Karole has a bigger collection of water lilies and other water plants than most pond stores. I just rebuilt my koi pond at home, so I was glad to get some starts of lilies and marginal plants.

This was quite an adventure for all of us, and it continues to be. Constantine and I are halfway back to Fayetteville, driving at 55 mph with an overloaded trailer. Donnie and Kathy are scheduled to leave this morning, and Frank will leave for Donnie's on Friday with a huge trailer load and truckload. Yes, Frank is making the trip too, if you can believe that. What a guy!

Bunches of thanks to Frank and Karole for their unbounded hospitality and generosity.

Frank,Do you still have that rattling Dodge Diesel?? Good on ya for finding a good home for your stash! Bud.

I see empty spaces on those trailers! Glad the stuff is finding good homes. Good luck here in Califunny. Most of us here are trying to figure out how to leave and here you are moving in!!

Walker needs a hat!!!!!!!!!!!

There is a lot of room left on those trailers!

Good luck on your move, Frank. Hope you will still come to Chickasha to visit with the guys.

Walker needs a hat!!!!!!!!!!!

There is a lot of room left on those trailers!

Good luck on your move, Frank. Hope you will still come to Chickasha to visit with the guys.

Frank,

It's really good to hear from you. Missed seeing you on the MTFCI tour in NY. A bit of a drive for you I guess. Hope to see you again some day. I truly enjoyed working with you when we were both active in the MTFCI Board of Directors.

I have no idea.

There was a lot of room left on my trailer, but it was overloaded as it was. I wasn't planning on hauling any engines, but Frank wanted a complete rebuilt 235 Chevy engine/trans to go away, so I brought it back here to a Chevy guy I know. That plus the fuel tank and lots of T parts maxed out my lightweight Model T-hauling trailer. I was supposed to bring him a 216 as well but couldn't do it. Frank's and Donnie's 20-foot trailers and their truck beds were filled to the gills too.

I made it home about 5:00 this evening, no problems. I drove 55 mph the whole way, about 18 hours over two days.

Uncle Stan -- I wore a hat most of the time I was in the sun; Frank caught me in that pic without one. (Or were you just wishing I'd hide my face?)

p.s. -- The correct spelling of Frank's wife's name is Carole. The wrong one above was from my memory of seeing it in an email, and you all know how that memory thing goes............

As I type, we are a little over half way home. No problems so far. As to open space on the trailers, All three trailers are grossly overloaded. T parts are heavy. Mikes trailer is a single axle trailer and the wheels are leaning in at the top. So that means the axles are starting to bend. My trailer is the one that has the black side boards. It is 21 foot long with 22 inch side boards. We loaded it with all the boxes and parts we could and then started dumping boxes and buckets of small parts into all the voids. So my trailer is almost "solid" Model T parts. Most of the buckets full of small parts weighed somewhere between 75 to 100 lbs each. And I do not know how many of those buckets were just dumped into the voids. My equalizer hitch is "maxed out" and no more adjustment. What is not apparent on Franks load is there are 6 complete model T engines and several almost complete engines over the axles, as well as close to a dozen complete transmissions and hogs heads. Then the truck beds are solid packed as well. My pickup bed has several Warfords, shortened drive shafts, a dozen or more of crankshafts, ect ect ect ect. We did not really leave much. Most of what little was left was really bad parts. I was trying to "triage" all the parts as we loaded and make sure the best would survive and no bad parts would get to "make the trip". But I finally had to say OK enough is enough. Anymore and we would probably break our trailers. But no good parts were left. Me and Kathy stayed a day longer, after the loading for me to "heal up some". We were able to find a "off season" cabin on the beach to just sit and relax for a day. The weather and the ocean waves were beautiful. So tomorrow the adventure will continue. What could be better than a mini gulf beach vacation, with loads of model T parts.

Yep,some empty spaces on my trailer, but the fenders were getting very close to the tires. I used pliers to straighten out the lip on the edge of the fenders so hopefully will not rub on the tires.
Bud, I got a new F250 a couple years ago. That rattling Dodge ran many many miles for me with no problems since it had that 6 speed manual. That F250 has very little spring travel left with the load in the bed. I ran it around the country mile this afternoon to settle things in. I can tell it has a big load when I stomp the brakes. I'm practicing saying: "No officer, I don't think I'm overloaded!"
Jerry, we had some great times on the tours and meetings back then. We miss those tours, but since we moved to a place where it takes a full day just to drive out of the state.......
I can't say enough good things about Donnie, Kathy, Mike and Constantine. The whole toy barn was sorted and loaded in a day and a half. I'm sure they will find good homes for all the parts.
We still have 5 Model Ts and lots of parts to move to a new shop in CA, so we didn't load everything. I'll still have something to do to keep my hands greasy.
David, it will be great to be near our kids and grandkids. We look forward to the move.

Hi Frank, Gary Hammond here. Having done 3 years ago what you are getting ready to do- I HIGHLY recommend it. Being close to kids and grandchildren simply cannot be beat! Best of Luck!!!

Back home after taking that last load to Donnie. Had some tire trouble starting out, but no problems after that. Big problem was keeping rusty restorable stuff off that empty trailer on the way back.
And Stan, I'm hoping to get to Chickasha. We'll see how it works out.

Frank
Best of Luck in California.
Thanks again for your help.

Frank.... Glad you made it back home OK. With Frank back home safe and sound I guess this brings this adventure to a close. But it was lots of fun, lots of work, and lots of miles on the road. The whole trip, visiting with friends, both new and old, is "priceless" and will be remembered for years. Thanks again to Frank and Carole ...

Frank,
To what part of "this great state" are you moving?
We're up in the north part, about 90 minutes north of Sacramento.

David, we'll be in Roseville, near Sacramento.

Glad to hear you made it home without further mishap, Frank. I too hope to see you at Chickasha. Thanks again!

Frank,
Welcome new neighbor!! Roseville's actually closer to us than Sacramento, and a town steeped in Railroad history, and still a bit of a railroad town. You'll find quite a few T guys around, and really special guys like Erik Barrett are about 20 minutes away up in Auburn. So, in spite of being in Califunny, you will find it tolerable!! The biggest problem will be getting a few miles out of Roseville to get to some neat T type roads to drive on.

Thanks, David. We look forward to the move.
Kirk, I need to thank you for your help... I recall some dimensions that you supplied when I was developing the stainless steel muffler assembly. So....thanks to you.
And Mike Walker, we discussed that tank....
Here is a fuzzy picture of that tank as I got it. It was on the back of a cut off touring car. It looked good. Not sure how it would look on a TT.

For anyone who might be interested, I have listed the Farmer's Oil Co. fuel tank for sale on ebay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Model-T-Farmers-Oil-Co-Fuel-Tank-/291882219341?hash=item 43f589374d:g:NfAAAOSw8w1X4clf&vxp=mtr