Vegas... As in Plural

[bajabuc]

When I was 33, we moved from Tyler Texas to Sheridan Wyoming. The first year was awful. No one would "neighbor us." On the day we'd been through an entire year the neighborhood all stopped in and introduced themselves. "You made a year, you're native now."

When we left Texas it was a beautiful 75 degree day: east Texas spring with all that that involves. Amazing smells and vibrant color. Somewhere in northwestern Kansas it started to snow, but we kept on. The snow let up as we crossed over into Colorado. (When I roadtrip I get a big US map and draw a line between the place I'm at and the place I'm going...it doesn't matter what the roads are, as long as there's a road close to the line I take it. It makes life interesting and we see things you miss on the "freeway.") It was actually pretty weather from Casper to Buffalo Wyoming ... however, if you've ever driven it you know it's not a pretty drive. After a while the sky gets to large and the mountains are 100 miles to the west but look like they're just over the ridge. The Hills here aren't mountains...In Wyoming they loom and they're stark and "Rocky" and huge.

The freeway wasn't finished between Buffalo and Sheridan but we needed to go up (down) 87 anyway so it was ok. We were driving past Story when we saw a Pillar up ahead thad a sign the said "Fetterman Battle Field." This absolutely meant a stop. As we were reading the bronze message, there came a feeling of disaster and death that wouldn't go away. This was a real battle with real indians and real soldiers and it wasn't so much a defeat but a victory for the good guys. 87 soldiers lead by a "new pointy" who had no clue how to fight indians and was so arrogant as to brag he'd be right back with the scalps. (Scalping was a French thing...the Indians didn't do it until the French were getting paid per scalp: proof they'd killed a "pesky redskin") Letters written by men still at Fort Kearny described the sounds "Like someone beating pots with a hammer and then silence...no one came back." We looked down the slope at the sparsely rocked slope and thought about it. Looking just a few yards west were parallel grooves in the grass, Wagontrains cut those grooves. Even though it's April it's cold and there's a lot of snow to the west. We're right up against the Mountains and the wind is very chilling. It's downhill from the Fetterman Monument to Sheridan and Gene (you remember Gene) lived just off the highway south of town.

A sample about snow.

We went for a drive out west of town past the new watertreatment plant and out the road heading for Dayton. Just a little side road but the map said it went through...kinda. About 4 miles out we came around a corner and had to stop. The county had a backhoe and frontend loader knocking the ceiling out of a snow tunnel. The plows are like big rotary fans that blow the snow out of a pipe and pile it up on the side of the road. It gets pretty deep (In the fall they add extensions to the road side markers. 12 foot added to the 6 foot ones already there...the reflectors go at the top. ) The snow had blown over the south side pile and created a bridge over the road. The backhoe was knocking it down and the loader was pushing the icy chunks off the road. (people have died in the tunnels so they have to knock the ceilings down.) The snowbridge was a good 1/4 mile long over the road, and it was APRIL! The frontend loader driver noticed our Texas plate and stopped to talk to us. "If you were local we'd let you through but that Texas plate tells me you don't know how to drive." We had to go back, which meant a backup of about a mile until we got a turnout so we could turn around.

We found a like minded church and met some people and one of them and I really hit it off. When he found I had a 325 hp corvette motor in my Chevy truck we spent hours discussing cars. He said he really liked the Vega body style and once a week he'd drive the alleys in a different part of town and locate non running or older cars. I started riding with him. Eventually I owned 13 Vegas ... and a running but wrecked Pinto. I paid more for the Pinto than any of the Vegas...Twenty Five bucks. One thing led to another and instead doing the popular swap putting an Olds 215 aluminum block engine in a Vega...I put the Pinto in the Vega. This is not my idea of an easy swap, but it ran great.

My objection to the Pinto is the weak doors (and the overall styling) and the Vega has an AWFUL engine but the swap only cost 200 bucks including both cars and some parts and welding. The Vega is a real beaut as far as styling so I had a great running great looking car for my wife to drive. Oh...it was what Chevy called a Panel Van..the best looking of a great looking series. It's like a station wagon with no side windows behind the doors. Real cute. Great little grocery getter. She was pretty popular with the highschool and college boys. Really nifty car, a real attention drawer. Highway stripe orange...used real highway paint too...that stuff lasts forever!

My wife got a job in Lewistown, Montana and since I can do siding anywhere, we moved. A few months later we went back to visit my friend. He said I had to go with him and look at something...we went to a new junkyard and lo and behold, all my old Vegas were parked in a line. I had asked my buddy if he'd find buyers and he could keep the money. Junkyard time.

[Caster]

One of the meanest street legal cars I have ever seen was a Vega with a 302 and turbo 400 [Yes it was a chevrolet engine!] I'm reserved about using the word weak, but it didn't really have a low end, but after 4 grand up to about 8,500 YIKES!!! She would get diggin'!!! Man that motor came alive on the top end!

[bajabuc]

The pinto motor and Dagenheim trans weighed nearly the same as the Vega 4 with that absolutely ridiculous tran that GM built. The Chevy V8 was another 200 pounds over that stock suspension. I didn't have to change a thing in the suspension.

The olds 215 weighed 5 pounds more than the Vega 4 and you didn't have to do nasty things to the suspension but I wanted mileage. Naturally I wouldn't leave the Pinto 4 alone so it ended up with an Eslinger head and a weber carb.