Into the wild..... to where the junkyards are....

It was like any other day hunting for old cars out at Western Illinois University. I was driving through another little town stopping at the local car parts house. I go to the parts store and I chatted with the older man behind the counter. We talked old cars and such, and I ask him if there is anything lying around, older cars or trucks.

He pointed to a few local cars, a Camaro and other misc older car stuff. He then said, you ever been out to the yard in the woods?

I told him that I had not. He gave me some directions. It involved a dirt road, a gravel road, some sort of stream, and then I would see the beginning of the yard.

I could not make it there the same day, as it was getting later, so I had decided to hold off until the next weekend. So I planned and got everything ready for the little event.

The next weekend I took off for the yard. Sadly, I got lost for the first half an hour trying to find this place.

After finally getting on the right road, I began the last part of the journey to the junkyard. I followed the paved road, to the gravel road. Turn left onto the dirt road that goes to the creek, and in that creek, there just happened to be some old cars. With that sight, I knew I had arrived. If I had only known what lay ahead, past that creek.

I drove up to the front of the yard and parked. Right after I parked, here came this rather large dog, and starts barking at me. This was definitely not what I needed, coming this far, to be stopped by a huge dog.

The owner comes out and shoes the dog away. Telling me, he is really a pussycat, a St. Bernard pussycat. I was not amused.

I told him I was into old cars and heard about this place in legend. And I wondered if I could take a look around. He said to go ahead, he closed at 5ish. Pull anything I wanted and I could bring it up front and he will see what he wanted for it.

So I started out into the yard. At first, it was not impressive, until I saw the rows, hills, and forest full of cars. Around every corner was a different car. My first 10 minutes I spent just in an area no bigger then a Chicago Suburban house, 62 Dart, 47 Dodge Truck, Buick Wildcat, Fire truck, mustangs. That was just in one section.

Then next section had a wide variety. Some Chargers, Chevelles, etc... There was half a 70 Challenger and a cut in half 67 Barracuda Formula S.

I walked that yard from around noon, until around five. I did not pick anything up, just walked around. I came back to the "office" and chatted with the owner a bit. I told him where I went, asked him some prices on some stuff.

He then told me that if I went where I said I went, I had only seen about a third of the yard!

I thanked him for letting me walk the yard, and that I would be returning the next day to hopefully walk the rest of the yard. On my way out, I finally made friends with the St. Bernard. After that, I headed back to school to relax and dream about what else could be hiding in that yard.

I returned the next day, but I will post more on that in the next blog, probably in the next day or so. Also I can not show all of the hundreds of pictures I took there, so when I'm finished, I will post a link to where all the pictures can be located.

Ryan