If my fellow Hoons are reading this post while at work, be warned it is a kind of longrooffan style, wandering all over the place, growing a white beard inducing kind of offering. A suggestion to wait until you are settled comfortably with a cool beverage of your choice may be in order. Or not.
So my fellow Hoons may remember this olelongrooffan is on a mind clearing Unexpected Road Trip Adventure and currently hanging at the B’s Nest in historic Rockaway Beach in the Ozark Mountains. Over the past couple weeks I have related my experiences on this Road Trip and although those experiences occurred a couple weeks prior, the previous relating of them to my fellow Hoons has been hindered by a lack of internet access, tremendous socializing and the fact that Hooniverse is not my personal blog so I can only steal schedule so many posts per day. After all, there is a ton of more interesting stuff to be found in the Hooniverse than this olelongrooffan’s ramblings. BTW, Welcome Sloan Glucker, future supermodel and race car driver.
Well during one of my adventures on this Road Trip, this olelongrooffan got a tour of Bus_Plunge’s miniature barn and spotted the Pinder truck and trailer in the lede image. I mentioned at the time, if I could find one I might just give up my quest for a GMC Motorhome and acquire it for future Road Trip Adventures. Well, brother Bus_Plunge, in the comment section of yet another of my ramblings, inserted the second image of one of those combinations and suggested my fellow Hoons pay attention to the tailights on that trailer. As always, listening to our elders is always a good idea.


So, literally, when leaving where the Water is Clear down there in the Sunshine State some nine days previous, this olelongrooffan really had not a clue as to what my future would bring. I only knew that after some 25 years in the Sunshine State, I needed to change something up, in a huge way. And quite candidly, I wasn’t sure how this Unexpected Road Trip Adventure would end. I have been hoarding every cent I can so that should an opportunity present itself, this olelongrooffan would have a few available funds to enjoy said opportunities that may or may not otherwise be available. Now as this olelongrooffan didn’t have a GMC Motorhome, a Pinder based camper car nor even this ride spotted recently outside a tourist trap in the Live Music Capitol of the World, I have been enjoying the hospitality bestowed upon me by my friends and family. And I have the best.

Luckily, nowadays, it doesn’t take a lot to make this olelongrooffan happy. Hell, even the spotting of yet another tow mater is enough to make me chuckle. As an aside, today I met a guy from Oklahoma who owns an upscale custom body shop who has built an even half dozen of these things, including this one.
But I digress.
thejeepjunkie for years has been telling this olelongrooffan, “Don’t worry john-john, something will work out for you. It always does.” And, my fellow Hoons, it always does.

So, again, here this olelongrooffan is wandering around the back streets of this area, trying to find some cool shit to share with my fellow Hoons if only to justify dead_elvis’s belief that I could find something cool enough to share in this geriatric paradise.

Yeah, in a comment on the post about those Projects Bus_Plunge had, the then soon to be poppa, the Chief Blogger asked how far this Journey was taking me? I mentioned it was 2000 miles and Branson, Missouri. Fellow Hoon Alff had this to say about that. “My rule of Branson for the last 20 years is still true … if you’re young enough to drive yourself there, you’re too young to be there. Enjoy the shows!” To which a dead_elvis replied, “C’mon – if anyone’s going to find something unexpected in or an incredibly interesting perspective on Branson, it’s gonna be longrooffan.” Thanks for the compliment dead_elvis. But know that Elvis is alive and well here in Branson. Along with Michael Jackson, Andy Williams, Lawrence Welk, and a bunch of other entertainers who we have wrongfully been informed have passed along.

So here I am, some 2000 miles away from all I have called home for damn near 1/2 of my life and I spot this highly desirable, at least to certain folk I know, Willys Wagon sporting a surf board and “Surf’s Up” scrawled on this side of it. It was grabbing the attention of a visiting family who were having their images taken of it on the driver’s side of this tourist drawing attraction. All this olelongrooffan could think of was the one I found in a U-Pull-It junkyard out near the World Center of Racing what seems like eons ago. Yeah, I snagged a bunch of parts off it and earned some serious money schlepping them on the bay that is e. Those things are, at least in their generally rotted out condition, worth more in bits and pieces than they are as a whole offering.

Around the corner, I spotted this old Ford Aerostar and remembered the last time I had seen one of these was on Highway A1A, just north of the Birthplace of Speed. It was sporting Flagler Beach Fire Department badging and traveling at a high rate of speed toward a two motorcycle collision seen just a mile or so south. Yeah, two Harley Cruisers ran into each other, one traveling south on A1A and another exiting a restaurant parking lot. In broad daylight.

So enough about memories of times gone by, this olelongrooffan needs to get back to the present to determine just what the hell I am going to do with the rest of my life.
Some of my fellow Hoons may remember a short time back that this olelongrooffan was on my way to thefoamguy’s lake house and passing through Paris Springs Junction. Well, when relating that experience, I also related that my massive communications system had lit up and it was a fateful call from my brother Bus_Plunge.

During that call, Bus_Plunge again asked this olelongrooffan what my plans were. “Big Brother, I really don’t know,” was my educated response.
“Well listen, I have been checking out the list that is Craigs and there is an opportunity for you over in Branson.”

“A facebook friend of mine runs the Branson Auto and Farm Museum and he is looking for a sales guy.”

And this olelongrooffan did call Bus_Plunge’s facebook friend and this ole boy, in his comforting Ozarkian way asked me when I would be in the area as he would like to exchange some real face to face time. The following “Tuesday work for you, Sir?” “See you then, longroof,” was his response.

So on that Tuesday, a mere nine days after this olelongrooffan had lost my position at that place down where the Water is Clear, I stopped by to chat it up with this good ole boy.

We chatted it up for an hour or so and he dropped the total bombshell on this olelongrooffan. “I believe we could have a strong future together. Can you start tomorrow?” As this olelongrooffan was flabbergasted, I mentioned that a good time to begin would be the following Saturday and he agreed.

So the following Saturday, less than two weeks after leaving that place where the Water is Clear, this olelongrooffan shows up to show and schlep cars for that ole boy at the Branson Auto and Farm Museum. And the significance of that tail light in that image that Bus_Plunge posted a whiles back?

Well, my fellow Hoons, one just like it was attached to the ass end of this 1955 Buick Special with the three piece rear window that I couldn’t identify in front of that cafe earlier in this trip. And this car my fellow Hoons may ask? Well, this olelongrooffan sold it to a boy out in Houston, Texas on my fourth day on the job.

Looks like this olelongrooffan is going to have to petition the Rockaway Beach town fathers to increase that population total by one.
It’s been a great Unexpected Road Trip Adventure but now, this olelongrooffan must get back to reality and figure out how to crowdfund so I can acquire some winter boots.
Thanks for riding along my fellow Hoons, it’s been a blast.
Image Copyright Hooniverse 2015/longrooffan