That day we saw an auction for a old Chrysler with a Hemi. That peaked my interest. And we looked into it further. The car was a 1954 Chrysler New Yorker with some Hemi and was going to auction that day!
My friends at the yard were big hot rod guys and girls so they said if it goes for under $300 buy it and they will come pick it up with their flatbed.
So away I went to right near Keokuk Iowa, but just this side of the Mississippi. Got into the auction, got a bidding number and everything. Then found out that the auction wouldn't reach the New Yorker until near the end of the auction in a few hours. It might go faster if other items sell quicker, so I had to stick around.
So I sat next to that New Yorker for almost two hours. It was a complete wreck, sitting in a field for years and years it seemed. I talked with anyone that came by about anything. Mostly old cars, that kept my mind off the time. It was during one of these little conversations that I heard about a guy about a half hour from there that had "tons upon tons" of old mopars in a field.
So the time came and the Chrysler came up. I was high bidder for a while. It kept climing though, all of a sudden a few people showed up and it went up to over $500. I couldn't believe that it went for so much, since you had to to haul it out of there that day.
So I left their saddened that I hadn't just won the Hemi, but had renewed life when I decided to go hunt the guy with the Mopars in the field. I pointed my truck east, which was also my way home, and hoped to find something good.
I followed the approximate directions to this little town in Western Illinois. I came to the point where the cars were going to be. They weren't there. I was losing faith in the story more and more until I saw a 69 Road Runner sitting next to a barn near by.
Here I am in my truck looking at a single Road Runner, wondering if this was the "tons" of mopar muscle. I drove by and saw that there was also a 70 Road Runner and a 73 Charger sitting near by. This made my day, so I went and knocked on the door of the house and no one was home. So I went back to the road and went exploring down another local road.
I came upon a small town, I thought was mopar heaven. Sitting at a corner lot was a yard FULL of muscle cars, Chargers, Superbee, Road Runners. A little bit of everything. I was completely elaited at the find. I was able to snap alot of pictures from the road and such. I was happy at this point, it just got better after that.
I went down the road, and there was even MORE cars sitting, rotting away. There were more Road Runners sitting there, some Chevy's and even some older classic cars. This is when I met the owners cousin.
He was working on his RamCharger, I had my newly aquired RamCharger outside. So we chatted for almost an hour about our trucks and such. He told me to go ahead and take a look around. If I had any questions, let me know.
So off I went, began snapping pictures of everything there. I actually ran out of room on my memory stick in my camera before I ran out of cars. I was just in amazement of the cars sitting in open fields, just rotting away. The cars that I dream about owning, see at auctions driving huge money, having trees growning through their engine bays. It was quite the experience.
I returned to the shop and talked some more with the cousin. He told me that the owner was real nice and that I should stop by next week and that he would show me the NICE cars. I couldn't believe it.
I left the lot in complete amazement that there were such groupings of cars still around. I didn't sleep much in the week leading up to the next meeting. I couldn't wait to see what else was hiding out in those fields.
Ryan
Here's the New Yorker
Here begins the pictures from the first trip. I can't put them all on here, so at the end I'll put a link to them all.
Here is the link to the rest of the pictures. Some are from Part Two, so you'll have to wait to see the conclusion of this story.
Cars In Barn Pictures: TJ Adventure
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