A snowy start….

As I wrote last week, the Chevelle Build with Allison Customs is officially underway!  On Friday March 25 by brother in law Greg and I loaded the Chevelle up on a friends trailer, hooked it to the back Greg’s F-250 Powerstroke, and began the 2240 mile road trip from Ames, IA to Bloomfield, NM and back. As you can see from the picture above we didn’t start out in the best of weather. It had snowed the night before, and leaving Ames took 2 to 3 times longer than normal. There were traffic accidents littering the interstate, but luckily for us we never hit anything slick in the least. We drive from Ames, IA to Pueblo, CO on the first day, a leg that took roughly 12 hours. I highly recommend The Shamrock Brewing Company in downtown Pueblo if you’re ever stopping through. Get the Scotch Ale and the Shepard’s Pie.

I wonder where we’re going? And why am I on a trailer?

One the second day we left the hotel at 5:30 AM and worked our way through southern Colorado and northern New Mexico.  I could not tell you where we were or what road we were on for the life of me, as we we heavily relied on Google Maps and a little Garmin GPS. What I can tell you is that the scenery was absolutely breathtaking, and even while driving a huge truck and trailer it was some of the funnest driving I’ve done in a long while. It was prettier than a Bob Ross painting. After driving for about 6 hours we arrived at Allison Customs in Bloomfield, NM, unloaded the car, took his son’s ‘LS powered ’66 Impala for a “test drive”, and then talked a little shop. I think that Jeff was just as excited to get started on the Chevelle as I was. He was wrapping up another customer’s car at the time, so I stashed my Chevelle in his “waiting area” next to his ’68 Crew Cab GMC pickup (an LS powered monster that he custom built via a combination of a Suburban, Chevy pickup, and an ’83 3/4 ton chassis).

The waiting room at Allison Customs. He had 2 customer vehicles in the shop area, so I parked next to his crew cab ’68 GMC.

After that we headed back to Denver via a different route, and 7 hours of beautiful scenery later we were eating dinner with a friend at Buffalo Wild Wings. We spent the night, got a good blast of sleep, and then left at 6:30AM. Our drive was essentially a straight shot of 80mph driving, so that leg only took about 10.5 hours. All told we drove 2240 miles and burned 174 gallons of diesel fuel (about $700 worth), and averaged about 13MPG. Not bad at all, especially considering that we pulled my Chevelle through several 10,000 ft mountains!

The only downside of the entire trip!

The trip was also fun in the fact that I got to hang out with my little brother (in law), which is something we really don’t get to do all that often. We listened to funny movies on my laptop computer, overly abused caffeine, ate greasy food, and generally did guy stuff. He digs cars as much as I do, and somehow or another I decided on the way back that we should do an LS swap on his ’72 Chevy pickup, and that I would provide him the engine. I don’t have the details on that worked out just yet, but I’m confident the right situation will present itself. Now I just need to find a good deal on an engine, transmission, computer, and wiring harness……

Our last food stop was a 2 mile drive into Kearney, NE to find a Jimmy Johns. It wook an extra 15 minutes to get there but was well worth the delay. Good eats.

Stay tuned for more updates on the Chevelle build.  Good things are coming!

-Robert Kibbe

TheMuscleCarPlace.com | Muscle Cars for Sale

One Response

  1. Great story. Nothing beats hanging out on the highway with a good buddy. The sleepness night are ahead as u wait for the Chevelles completion. How long before its transformation? HOT ROD POWER TOUR 2011…WEAR U AT?

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