<VV> The Lakewood Dash

[Geoffrey A Johnson]

Posted on Corvair Center as well so, sorry for the double post, but I sure 
am proud of the new addition...

I have wanted  a Lakewood for a long while. A good friend of mine has a 61 
with all the 
64 goodies. I have driven it a lot, and done a lot of maintenence on it.
Found few leads, especially on a decent one.   I mainly like to restore 
them myself, enjoy working on them as much as driving, but...

I saw the Radio Flyer is up for sale.
  Well what do I have to do... I have too many cars. Well 
the Yellow coupe, my friend has been interested in. And the 62 Buick 
convertible, I would like to go back to owning only Vairs, even though it 
is a close cousin.  Also I had a black 
64 convert body. I gave that to Cary 
immediately, I owed him anyway.

Well stuff fell into place on the Lakewood.

How would I get it back? Long way to go. What about a truck? Well Cary 
suggested his friend Ronnie, who volunteered to drive, cross country to 
pick up a car, at the last minute. I looked at my schedule, and it gets 
crowded soon. So can we get it this weekend? Weather looked "OK", So, off 
we go!

Saturday at 3am I woke up, Cary and Ronnie show up.
Head out of town. Clines Corners, the pass East of Albuquerque was iced 
up, but we made it through. Fairly good sailing heading South on 285 to 
the I-10 to head on into San Anton (as the truckers call it). Made pretty 
good time, got to town around 5pm. Picked up a trailer, then on to the 
car...
We found Don's and after introductions, I met the car. I was a little 
speechless at first, what could I say, it is amazing! They fed us dinner, 
we chatted for a while, then time to rest!

4am the clock wakes us, and Don is already in the shop getting everything 
ready. Got it all loaded, (all the spare parts and the car) and we were 
off by 5. A long drive ahead, and we wanted to get started. San Antonio 
freeways are reminiscent of L.A. (at least it was to us!)

It had been raining, and was misting a bit and foggy. Had been the whole 
way down. We turned the car around on the trailer outside SA, to get 
better tongue weight (had none). Afternoon, we hit Roswell. 285 N, is 
looking bad, so that leaves 380 West. So off we go. It is getting darkish, 
and the plants are all frosted over. We pass over the range, and the sky 
parts, and the sun comes out. Instant change, and we roll on through the 
Hondo Valley, and Historic Lincoln. We made it to Cary's around 6:30. 
Whew! Though we are all friends, 38 hours later we are a little eager to 
get out of that cab!

Had to tune it a bit for elevation, but it is running great now.
WHEW!


-Geoff Johnson
Albuquerque NM