Our trip to Ohio started out with a bit of a whimper. Brian made his way across the bridge at a reasonable hour, and I was packed and ready to hit the road as soon as he threw his bag in the Scout. After kissing Jen, petting the dog, and forgetting my phone on my desk, we jumped in and prepared to start the truck. Then Brian sadly held up several parts of his seatbelt, which had exploded in his hands as he tried to click it in place.

Finley broke the female side of the seatbelt several years ago and I’ve always been able to get it put back together, but this time it was in multiple pieces and we were antsy to get on the road. So I grabbed one of the spare lap belts from the Red Bus and we swapped it into place while big fat drops of rain started coming down around us. Satisfied we had reached a minimum level of safety,  we hit the road for the Park & Ride on Rt. 32, where we were meeting Bennett. He was driving Heavy D, his red-on-white pickup, now that Mr. Hanky has moved to Pennsylvania under the assumed name Hank. The rain continued for a while, at least until we made it past Frederick, and then the skies lightened up and we drove toward the setting sun. At speed the soft top held the water at bay, for which we were thankful.

We decided to stop off at the Oak Barrel Cafe, an unassuming but absolutely top-notch gas station/restaurant where we’d grabbed dinner last year, and where Mr. Hanky decided to blow a lower radiator hose. This time there was no drama, and we each got a giant slice of cake to go for the road. From there we drove another 3 hours and found a hotel in Washington, PA, south of Pittsburgh, for a layover. We’d been hoping to meet up with our friends Chad and Liz, who live nearby and now own Hank, but they’d left a day earlier.

Thursday morning we woke a bit later than we planned on, ate some powdered hotel eggs, and hit the road by 10. The drive west was pleasant and mild—the first 2/3 of the trip was overcast and the recent rain had cooled the hills of western PA and the plains of Ohio down to a reasonable temperature. With a bunch of expensive gas stops, we made it to Dayton and the entrance of the Air Force Museum by 3:30. This year we walked all the way to the back hangar and spent most of our time there, as we hadn’t been able to see much of it last year. After being shooed out of the museum at last call, we drove over to a restaurant to have some dinner, stopped at a grocery store for provisions—ice and beer, mainly—and then headed to the hotel. We met a few friends in the parking lot, checked ourselves in (a ground-floor room is the way to go) and walked back outside to tailgate.

Chad and Liz were already there, and we met her parents, who were super nice. As we all stood around the bed of Heavy D and caught up, a tall silver-haired man drove up towing a Super Scout on a trailer, parked, walked over and introduced himself: Pate, a fellow we’d met up with years ago when I was organizing local gatherings. I shook his hand and offered him a beer, and we all settled into comfortable, fun conversation. At one point Pate disappeared into his truck and came back with a mason jar full of brown liquid with a wooden block in the center, took a sip, and passed it to me: delicious homemade bourbon flavored with a chunk of oak. This was passed around the circle to unanimous approval. We all stayed out until 11:30 or so, and made plans for the next morning to caravan over to the show.

The next morning we powered up with hotel breakfast and headed out to the parking lot. We helped Pate get his truck off the trailer, which gave me the opportunity to sit in a Super Scout for the first time while warmed up the engine; I can definitely see the appeal of taking the doors off a Scout II. Then we caravanned over to the show. After setting up camp and registering, we hit the parts stands to see what was available. A couple of the usual vendors weren’t there this year, but there was still plenty to dig through and many deals to be had. I restrained myself to only buying a set of new hood bump stops for the Travelall—they require fine pitch bolts, which are specific to IH as far as I can tell. Back at the trucks, I pulled out the Bestop box and put a sign on it. Within about an hour I had three guys trying to talk me down on the price. Eventually we made a deal for cash, and I doubled my money, which meant I had cash for parts!

There were a few tech talks that sounded interesting but the one about electrics that I wanted to hear didn’t actually happen; I don’t know what the story was, but the production didn’t seem to be as professional as it had been last year. The whole day seemed to fly by, and before we knew it we were packing up to head back to the hotel. Bill and his girlfriend arrived from Michigan with his Travelall on a trailer and I made introductions. We stayed up again until 11 catching up and drinking beers in the parking lot.

Saturday morning we met up again for an even larger caravan, this time collecting Bill at a gas station down the street. This was the first time he had driven his truck long distance after thrashing on the drivetrain and front suspension the night before he left, so I think he was happy to have a group of guys in trail. We made it to the show with no problems and set up camp with our group. Scott from the Super Scout Registry parked his truck on the other side of our row and I worked with a couple of guys next to us to make him space so that he could pull in next to Pate to have two original Super Scouts next to each other. I think this made them both happy.

Once we were set up, we went back out to the parts stands to see what was left and what was new. With a bunch of cash in my pocket, I was keen on finding big stuff without having to pay for shipping. The first thing I grabbed was a used Scout seatbelt to replace the one we’d cobbled together in the driveway and a length of wire with a very specific male/female connector from Phil Coonrod. This wire connection is the key element for fabricating a wired dome light for the Scout that I’m going to put on the rollbar.  Over at the Scout Connection booth I splurged on a set of door felts for the Travelall. These are expensive, but are well worth the cost, because they make rolling the windows up and down much easier—and prevent the glass from breaking when you close the doors. Ask me how I know. Further down at the Scout Boys stand I spied a set of 800 gas tanks, and before I could ask, Doug told me I could take them for $10 each. I could not get my cash out fast enough: the driver’s side was a little rough, but the passenger side tank looked almost NOS: bare metal with zero holes anywhere. This was the deal of the day. I also picked up a Travelall-specific armrest mount, minus the pad, for $5. I’ve got four of these from the green truck, but two of them are cracked pretty badly.

We returned to our camp and I put my other two parts for sale out in front: a new Straight Steer bar and an early Scout 80 heater plenum, each at what I thought was a reasonable price. We then went to listen to the Scout Motors update, which was delivered by one of the heads of marketing. It sounds like everything is still on track and they are making great progress on the facility. He dispelled most of the odd rumors we’ve heard. It was a bummer they didn’t have the display trucks there this year, but it was good to hear that things are still moving forward.

In the afternoon, we finally got our act together and walked around the display trucks, but people had started leaving early for some reason and by the time we made it out to the rows, probably 1/3 of the trucks had already left. What was still there was really cool though. I talked to a guy with a beautiful, pristine C-series pickup at length about his wheels and some other details: It was a 1964 model with the same 16″ wheels I have. He’s running LT215/85R16 tires, which are readily available anywhere; this will be my new direction. I spent a bunch of time drooling over his picture-perfect grille surround, thinking about how mine is disintegrating.

He also had a really nice GM-style armrest in his truck that looked better than the stock plastic mounts, which gave me an idea for mine. I measured the bolt holes on the plastic one I’d bought and realized it wouldn’t fit the holes already drilled in my doors, so I’m on the hunt for some aftermarket units.

I also stopped by the IHPartsAmerica booth to talk with Jeff and Zaed about two things: I had the clutch core from the Scout from last year that I wanted to turn in for store credit, and I wanted to show them the C-series cupholder I’d designed. Jeff was interested in the design, made a few suggestions, and told me to get a shipment of 10 set up to resell! I cannot explain how excited I was about this. One of the first things I did after chopping the recap video together was to update the design and send it off to SendCutSend.

Reluctantly, we decided to leave at about 4 o’clock to get back to the hotel and prep for the auction as well as get some dinner. Because we got back early early, we were able to score parking spots close to the stage, and cooled off in the pool before the event. There were a lot of donations for the auction this year, and we had gotten word that an anonymous donor was going to match the final amount. Nobody had bought the straight steer or the heater plenum so I put the former in the auction with our names on it. I tried flying the drone over the parking lot before the event started, but I was having issues with stability and didn’t want to crash it on top of somebody’s expensive truck so I put it away and set up a time lapse on a tall pole.

The auction was a lot of fun; there were only a few things I was interested in, but I was surprised the straight steer didn’t collect more money than it did. I guess most people who need one already have one. The auction wound up collecting over $12,000, and with the match they raised $25,000 for two charities. When that was over, we hung out in the parking lot tailgating.

Jim from Super Scouts stopped by with a nice little part he and I had discussed earlier: a washer unit for the Travelall using a modern motor mated to a custom bracket he’d built. All three of the wiper units I have—the original, the one from the green truck, and one I pulled from a parts truck—are all rusted solid, so a new weather sealed unit that’s more powerful is exactly what the truck needs. Grateful, I paid him cash and stored it in a dry bin in the truck. We hung out until about 11 before Brian and I decided our social batteries were low and we hung it up for the evening. Bennett came in not too long after that and we all crashed out after a long day.

Sunday morning we were dragging a little bit but got packed up and ready to leave at about 10 o’clock. By that time we were one of only about 10 trucks left in the parking lot: everybody else had either headed for home or the show by then. I topped off all of my fluids, including coolant, and after gassing up, we hit the road. Right outside of Enon, Ohio I suddenly lost power steering and brakes and was able to pull off the exit and stop out in front of a logistics warehouse. Opening the hood revealed that the radiator cap had blown off, dousing the front of the truck with coolant, which popped the power steering belt off the pulley. The belt was a quick fix: loosening a 1/2″ bolt for slack, looping the belt back on, and tightening the pulley back up. The radiator  cap was another matter, but once again, Bennett came to the rescue: he had a spare in his truck. With that fixed, I started the truck back up and we decided to hit Super Scout Specialists, which was only a mile and a half down the road. On the way I stopped at an auto parts store and got an eight dollar radiator cap for a backup.

There were a bunch of trucks already out in front of the store, and we joined the crowd inside, browsing the displays and parts. There were a lot of things that would be nice to have but nothing I really desperately needed. One thing I did find on a shelf was a reproduction plastic travel armrest with a soft foam pad in a gray that looks like it approximates the original color. These were $50 apiece so I put them back for future consideration.

I did look carefully at one of the ambulances in the front display area to see what they’d mounted on the front fenders back in the day, and realized that instead of extra lights, my truck probably had a pair of sirens on each side. Mine were a different model—I’ve got three bolt holes in a straight line as opposed to four in a square, but the idea is the same.

We wandered through the rear part section and found a good scout 800 dash pad for Brian, which he put back, and a couple of other nice to have items that we didn’t really need. Out in the parts yard I spied the black Travelall I had pulled the window from three years ago and another white truck next to it: both looked to have 16 inch wheels. The ones on the white truck were in much better shape. I filed that away for future reference: I want to see what they’re asking for just the steelies, and maybe they’re in better shape than the ones I have.

We bought some small stuff and hit the road by noon, which meant we were going to be getting home late. The drive was uneventful other than periods of rain; again, with the top rolled up safari-style, there was little water intrusion in the truck other than a leaky corner above the passenger A-pillar, which Brian plugged with a rag. We didn’t hit major weather until we were about 1/2 hour from home, when the heavens opened up on us and traffic slowed to 30mph. Thankfully the wipers in the Scout worked diligently, and two applications of Rain-X made it so that I could see the road ahead of us. I do have to re-adjust the headlights downwards, though.

We rolled into the driveway at about 9:30 and quickly threw Brian’s gear into his truck; he still had another hour to go before getting home. I pulled the truck in the garage, shut her down, and brought my gear inside.

As always, I had a fantastic time at the show. There’s nothing better than getting together with your friends for an adventure, which takes you to a place filled with more friends who are all there for the same reason. I can’t express how welcoming everyone is at the show—and now that we’ve been there five times, we know almost everyone. As I mentioned earlier, this year felt like it flew by. I didn’t feel like I saw everything or got to talk with everyone I wanted to, which is completely different than in years past. I also didn’t take as many pictures or shoot as much video as in years past, which was also strange.

One of the things we’re talking about is maybe attending Harvesters in the Holler, another event that happens in Tennessee in September; this is an 8-10 hour drive, but it sounds just as friendly and fun as Nationals, without the vendor/show component. It’s more of a meet-up/barbecue/camping event, which sounds like a lot of fun. We’ll see. Hopefully gas will be cheaper by then.