Mike Deeter's "The Old Chevy"

1940 Chevrolet Special Deluxe “The Old Chevy” (Driven over 410,000 Miles)
This car was sold new, in Corpus Christi, Texas. When the lady that owned the car, became unable to drive, she gave the car to her grandson. He immediately threw a rod out through the oil pan and parked the car. I bought the car from the grandson in Beeville, Texas for $75 and bought an engine for parts for it out of a friends’ wrecked Chevrolet for $15.
Since 1964, I have put over 340,000 miles on “The Old Chevy” as the car has come to be known. I drove the car regularly to work from 1964 until the mid 1990’s. During my career in the Navy, the car was driven across country numerous times. At one time, just after I retired from the Navy, and was working in Los Angeles I was commuting 120 miles daily in the car. During a four year period from 1981 to 1985 I pout over 130,000 miles on “The Old Chevy” when she was over 40 years old. She got a grease job and oil change very other weekend in those days. In addition, the car also survived the loving care of my daughter and son while they were teenagers.
“The Old Chevy” is a national traveler and has been driven in many different areas. The following is a chronological list of the places she has performed service- Corpus Christi, TX., Beeville, TX., Sanford, FL., Lemoore, CA., San Francisco, CA., Jacksonville, FL., Memphis, Tenn., Pendleton, IN., Monterey, CA., Pensacola, FL., El Centro, CA., Mexicali, Mexico, Lemoore, CA., Fallon, NV., San Diego, CA., Tijuana, Mexico, Mission Viejo, CA., and Shreveport, LA.
“The Old Chevy” was maintained instead of restored. She has been repainted twice, upholstered twice, transmission rebuilt twice, and the engine rebuilt four times. “The Old Chevy” still runs with the original rear end and on the original wheel bearings. All of the sheet metal is original and selected items have been re-chromed over the years.
This is currently painted the original color 1940 Chevrolet “Gulf Blue” and the upholstery kit provided by Hampton Coach was fabricated using 1940 Chevrolet original patterns and materials. “The Old Chevy” is in well-earned semi-retirement now and is driven infrequently and to car shows.
By Mike Deeter owner and operator of “The Old Chevy”

PALETTES OF COLORS

Photo taken by my son in Venice (April 2007)

Photo taken by my son in Rome (April 2007)

When I did this post I thought on my friend JU Gioli - plastic artist - because she loves to post many palettes of colors on her beautiful blog ... Só Poesias e outros itens.... So, I invite you to make a visit to Ju Gioli's blog. Thanks JU for the inspiration.

1967 Oldsmobile Toronado Deluxe By Mark & Yvonne Bandy

This car as many of you know was the first front wheel drive car since the Cord 810 and 812 of the elate 1930's. The first year of production was 1966. Ours was the 1967 model year and was offered with front disc brakes and radial tires. There were only 20,020 of the Deluxe models made that year with the total production including the standard model only reaching 21,790. The car is powered by a 425 cubic inch 385hp super rocket V-8 engine. It features power windows, power front bench seat, remote trunk release, tilt/telescopic steering, a "no hump" floorboard, rear door handles for opening the "two-door" car from the backseat and a barrel speedometer. My fifth grade teacher bought this car new while I was in her class and I thought it was the most beautiful car I'd ever seen. She owned it for over 20 years and traded it in at the Springhill Motor Company in Springhill, Louisiana where she originally purchased it. The owners (The Colvin's) kept the car for several years and eventually sold it to a man in Springhill who was the president of Springhill Bank and Trust Company. He owned if for a few years and said he had many good drives in the car. Eventually he sold the car to someone else who started a restoration but never completed it. We purchases the car from him a little over 10 years ago and it has been a love/hate relationship ever since. Love the car but hate to try and find parts for it. That really became evident in April of 2004 when it caught fire on the way to the Red River Street Rod Show. Luckily there were some out of town firemen at a local fast food restaurant in town for a competition and they came and had the fire out before the local unit got there. It has really been an uphill battle since that time but I believe (after having to recently buy a donor car for the motor---Thanks Dick and Doug--- that wasn't repaired properly after the fire) and having it rebuilt I think we're on our way to the sunny side once again. We haven't had the car in our possession for more that a couple of months since the fire of 2004. They say this Toronado is one of the last big sleepers of that generation and will soon come to be a valuable classic and achieve collector status. We sure hope so because we think is deserves to be recognized as the icon and pioneering automobile that it is.

Easter Experience

We had 3 Prefects, 3 Y’s and 2 Mini’s to start with and were later joined by 3 Popular’s (one Zephyr powered) and 1 Fordson (V6 Powered). All we needed were a 100E or three to complete our range of marques, are these in the club?

We had an excellent run through back roads to Hamilton and lunch at the lakeside. Harvey and Val became separated from the main group through uncertainty over road signs that had been vandalized at Thackeray Street, lost too much time obtaining oil and trying to get out of Hamilton with inadequate road signage and an out of date map and no compass! A used-up prepay cell phone etc so went straight to Cambridge and motorcamp. Very nice here with amazingly few guests for a fine Easter, so we had it largely to ourselves. The rest of the group arrived shortly afterwards and it was community fish and chips or hot dog, or hamburger and chips for the first night.

Next morning Ray and Ollie from Cambridge ran the day’s trip through back country roads east of Hamilton. Very enjoyable, never been there before, there was a quiz as well, very challenging, but Harvey mucked up the directions and had to make another mercy dash back to the motor camp to save time having lost a lot. To the Prince Albert restaurant for a-la-carte dinner that night, good ambience and food there.

Up early next morning for Steve and Cazna Payne’s run which was by devious routes to the awesome Early N.Z. museum at Tirau, a look around the antique and craft shops and then on to Putaruru to an interesting early car display housed in "Burger King" style "50's" décor (this building used to be the post office). Then to a hydro-station at Arapuni and around Mangatautiri Mountain and back to Cambridge by devious routes. Some of the lads went over to Te Awamutu to view Steve’s workshops and cars then a dash back to clean up for dinner at the Riverside Diner for a smorgasbord meal, hosted and entertained by Gerry Merito, late of the Howard Morrison Quartet. Prize giving happened as well for the previous days quiz with Chris Kite taking the honours for accuracy and diligence.

On Monday it was home again by more devious and scenic routes, popping out on to S.H.1 just north of the old Meremere Power Station. Many thanks to Ant and Karen, Ray and Ollie, Steve and Cazna for their hard work, good ideas and a successful weekend!

Harvey.

THE IDEAL PALACE BY FERDINAND CHEVAL

Many times ago I saw in a magazine a reportage about the French postman Ferdinand Cheval and his Ideal Palace. I was enchanted with the talent and perseverance of this man. I never forgotten him and his remarkable masterpiece. Cheval was forty-three years old when he started the foundation of the Ideal Palace, in 1879. Working alone for thirty-three years, he built a fairy-tale palace. Really, he was a remarkable men!

Ferdinand Cheval was also a poet and his writings are chiseled all over the tunnels, sculptures and facades of the Palace. In the tunnel he wrote: "In creating this rock, I wanted to prove what the will can do."

Ideal Palace in the village of Hauterives, in the Rhône Valley, France. Photo by Wikipedia

Ferdinand Cheval (1836 – 19 August 1924), was a French postman (facteur in French) who spent 33 years of his life building an "Ideal Palace" (in French Palais Idéal) which is regarded as an extraordinary example of naïve art architecture. Ferdinand Cheval lived in Châteauneuf-de-Galaure, in the Drôme département of France. He had left school at the age of 13 to become a baker's apprentice but eventually became a postman. He wasn't a mason and not an architect. (Você pode ler sua história em Português, AQUI)

A four-sided castle made from concrete, lime and wire, located in Hauterives, France


CHEVAL TRIPPED OVER A STONE.....

One day, at the age of 43, French postman Ferdinand Cheval tripped over a stone when he was out walking. He was so inspired by that beautiful stone that he went back the next day and began collecting stones. From this day forward, Cheval embarked on a 27-year period of collecting stones. At first, Cheval carried the stones home in his pants pockets, later he used baskets and finally Cheval acquired a wheelbarrow. He scoured the countryside for days and nights at a time on his mail route, sleeping in farmhouses and under the stars. He stock-piled the stones he brought back in his yard, which convinced his neighbors that he had gone mad, but he was determined to build the castle and grottoes that had populated his dreams 15 years earlier.

A MAILMAN BY DAY AND AN ARCHITECT BY NIGHT....

Cheval was a mailman by day and an architect by night, building his palace of stones and intricately carved concrete with no assistance from anyone. It took him 34 years of continuous toil to finish his castle, which many sculptures of gods, temples, animals, pilgrims, fountains and towers. The monument's structure is 26 meters long by 14 meters wide and up to 10 meters high, with internal passages lined with sea shells and external stairs and walkways. Cheval bound the stones together with lime, mortar and cement. It is covered with inscriptions of all sorts. An inscription in the north east corner states "10,000 days, 9300 hours , 33 years of toil".

Photo by Claude Travels

Cheval also wanted to be buried in his palace. However, since that is illegal in France, he proceeded to spend eight more years building a mausoleum for himself in the cemetery of Hauterives. Cheval died on August 19, 1924, aged 88, around a year after he had finished building it, and is buried there. (I wrote this post with information by Kristin Fiore, from the site dedicated to the Ideal Palace, the Sad Tomato's , Wikipedia, Official Website and Motorhome and Away .

Photo by Claude Travels

In his autobiography, Cheval wrote that his idea for the monument originated in a dream. Cheval told no one about his dream, afraid he would be ridiculed.

Photo by Claude Travels

Just prior to his death, Cheval began to receive some recognition from luminaries like André Breton and Pablo Picasso. In 1969, André Malraux the Minister of Culture, declared the Palace as a cultural landmark and had it officially protected.

Facade East, photo by Wikipedia

The signs on the right read "Travail d'un seul homme" (Work of only one man) and "Défense de rien toucher" (It is prohibited to touch anything).

Photo by imageshack

Details facade Nort. Photo by Wikipedia

Photo by Claude Travels

The miniature buildings on the west facade, including a Hindu Temple, Swiss Chalet, Maison Carree in Algiers and a medieval chateau. Photo by Kristen Fiori.

Photo by Claude Travels

The three giants of the east facade. Photo by Gerard Therin

Terrace tower on the south end. Photo by Kristin Fiori

The Arabian mosque on the west side. The sign over the door says, "Entrance to an imaginary palace." Photo by Kristin Fiori.

The east facade, with the three giants on the left and the Egyptian monument on the right. Photo by Kristin Fiori.

Video: Postman Cheval's Ideal Palace
The work of only one man

Header's photo by Gerard Therin - La Nature en Beaute

WALKING WITH MY DEAR FRIEND FLORA

UPDATE to participate on Summer Stock Sunday

I am preparing a post about one of the most inspiring person I have discovered. Meanwhile, enjoy some photos from a stroll along the beach with my dear friend Flora.

SUNSET: SPLENDOR OF ENDED DAY

WELCOME TO SKY WATCH FRIDAY

SPLENDOR of ended day, floating and filling me!

Hour prophetic—hour resuming the past!

Inflating my throat—you, divine average!

You, Earth and Life, till the last ray gleams, I sing. (...)

Walt Whitman (1819–1892). Leaves of Grass. 1900. Song at Sunset.








Photos taken by myself.