Day 10 -- Sauk Center, Minnesota to Menomonie, Wisconsin -- 199 Miles

Well, we finally made it to Minneapolis/Saint Paul to pick up my Model A seats. I was a little tense wondering if I had cleared one of the lockers thoroughly enough to fit two seat frames and two sets of springs. But with a little persuasion, we got everything loaded and not a thing left behind. Sorry I didn't photograph them, but they're not much to look at right now. But I did photograph Jeff who sold me the seats and a section of the Model A Panel Delivery that he hopes to restore. He told me he has all the various body parts to restore the delivery body back to it's former glory. I certainly hope he succeeds.

The story actually begins this past spring when I was doing my usual search on Craigslist for a body for a 1928/29 Ford. Usually there are no bodies for sale, and the restorable cars for sale were way out of my price range. But on this particular day, when I pulled up the listings, my eye immediately fell upon a photo of a yellow 1929 Ford Tudor body. The body didn't look complete, but it DID look in pretty good shape. I immediately contacted the seller and made a date to come see it (Photo below right).

For months and months I had been looking for a 1928 pickup body. Since this particular Model A Ford had belonged to my baby brother back in the 1960s -- You see him in the photo below left being pulled by Dad's pickup as they try to "pull start" the newly rebuilt engine -- I thought it would be fitting now that I'm retired to finish the restoration that he had started more than fifty years ago. I at least wanted to move the project in that direction.

When I purchased the car back in 1969 it came with a Fordor body, product of the Briggs Body Company. The original Ford Coupe body that came with the car was long gone. The Briggs sedan was in pretty good shape, but really constituted a much tougher restoration project than an all-steel Ford body

My quarry originally was a pickup body since Cliff had been a self-styled mechanic since he was old enough to hold a box wrench. I thought that I would restore the pickup, paint it in Ford's typical pickup green color, then put Cliff's name on the door in yellow in honor of his having owned the car once upon a time. I thought the door should read, "Cliff Davis," "Family Mechanic," or something similar.

But there I was with an opportunity to buy a perfectly good sedan body that required not much in the way of body work. I just had to locate the missing pieces. Well, I thought, I can paint his name on a sedan door just as easily as a truck door. I went ahead and visited the seller's garage and made him an offer. He met me in the middle and the car was mine. All I had to do was rope in my neighbor Joe, bring the box trailer, and haul it home.

Throughout the summer I've been doing small projects on the car like getting the wheels powder-coated and outfitted with new tires. In the meantime I've been looking around for some of the pieces I'm missing. I purchased a visor and a driver's door lower hinge from a friend in Los Angeles. I bought a trim piece for the front header from a friend at the Hot August Nights Swap Meet in Reno in August. And I purchased two front bucket seats from a car enthusiast in Minneapolis. Things were moving along.

As fate would have it, we were already planning a vacation back to Ohio so that Concetta might attend her high school reunion in mid September. When the seat seller asked if I wanted him to ship the seats, I told him no. We would just come to his house and pick them up. I'm sure Jeff marveled that we intended to drive fifteen hundred miles to retrieve the seats, but today we fulfilled our promise, though we did go to his work location instead of his home.

So two more pieces have now been added to the restoration total. I know I have a long way to go, but heck, it sat in Dad's front yard for a decade or more, and has been hibernating our garage since the mid 1980s. But progress is progress no matter how small.

Now this morning, before we went to retrieve the seats, we decided to visit the home of Sinclair Lewis, the writer. It would have been a shame to miss the opportunity since our camp last night was about three blocks from Sinclair's house. Though not all house tours are interesting, especially if they tell you "no photographs," but sometimes these house tours will surprise you. My big interest is learning about household items that I perhaps can't identify, but appear to hold an important place in the family's everyday activities.

Today we presented ourselves at Sinclair's residence at ten o'clock when they officially open for visitors and were conducted on a personal tour by a wonderfully animated and knowledgeable docent. Though I initially hung back and didn't take any photos, the docent, whose name was Jill, told me to go right ahead and take all the photos I wanted.

We then proceeded to visit every single room in the house and in each room Jill had a wealth of stories for us. We learned about the family; we learned about the individual rooms and the pieces of furniture they held; and we learned about Sinclair Lewis' career. Everything was fascinating and we came away with a distinct desire to track down one of Sinclair's books, preferably the first successful book, "Main Street," and explore his view of the world of his time and place.

The house tour was the exciting part of the day for sure. The not so exciting part of the day was navigating the jam-packed Interstate highway system around Minneapolis/Saint Paul. All I have to do is get off the two-lanes and plunge into four and five-lane traffic and my need for any earlier cocktail hour becomes apparent.

But now we're in our camp in a small clearing amidst the lofty Wisconsin pines and lush forest growth and a distinct calmness has re-emerged. I'm breathing easier again. Plans for tomorrow's journey are still to be made and I hope I can avoid the hustle and bustle of Interstate 94 that so effectively hammered its way into my consciousness today.

So stay tuned, and perhaps we'll see YOU out on the two-lanes as we make our way across Wisconsin and on into Michigan. And as always, The Happy Wanderers wish you happy travels and exciting destinations.