Summer gallivants, mine and those of others, have lots of pleasures, but one of them has to be to see the old trucks gathering more rust than dust.  Attempts might be made to stave off the effects, but they are enough of a joy to look at, even if they don’t run, that I’m willing to go off script. 

Here in the rainy almost northwesternmost part of the lower 48, a 1950s Chevy guards a corner of the The Bike Ranch.

I stepped out on a rainy morning to get a photo of waterfalls on one side of the road, and as I ran back to the shelter of the car, on the opposite side of the road were these two classics.

I can’t quite make out the logo on the radiator.   Had it not been raining so hard, I might have zoomed in with another photo.

In a different part of the southern tier of NYS, this Chevy panel from the same era as the two Chevys above waited for repairs that might never happen.  If it got moved out of the rain and weeds and beaucoup $$ were spent, it might look like this.

Not old, but as a testimony to this time period, I needed to preserve this vehicle for posterity, this near the southern tip of a large island in the NYC archipelago.

Along the access road to a parkway and waiting at a light, these two trucks frame a delightful old Pontiac car,  likely from the early 1950, 1955 probably with a few frills like the roof racks.

While waiting for some work at a Toyota dealer in eastern Long Island, I happened upon this beauty, a 1980 Toyota Land Cruiser diesel pickup from the Australian desert. The restoration was so good it did not look out of place in the showroom.

And as promised, a few more from Lewis Cobb, Jr.  . . .

a 1940s (1946?) housed out of the rain in a garage that looks like it’s as much a survivor as the truck is.

Maybe I should do an apprenticeship in body work . . .

From Fred Wehner in the North Country of NYS, it’s a 1950s (split screen windshield) Willys pickup with an alternative power plant . . .

like I said . . . power plant.  Just add water . . .  maybe some manure?

Some photos of mine from July 2011 . . . from the southernmost corner of a state in the lower 48, a disintegrating old GMC, mid-1940s (maybe 1946) model. 

And since this is mostly a water (including water of oxidation) blog, the long-unseen-in-sixth-boro Grey Shark with a load of trucks and whatever else leaving the KVK for points south.  Anyone know if this Grey Shark still plies the oceans?

Thanks to Lucy, Lewis, and Fred for these photos; all others mine.

For a classier version of cars and trucks on a ship, click here to see civilian vehicles of USS Theodore Roosevelt!