rayvaflav

Being the good son-in-law that I am, l suggested to my wife that we take her to visit her friends near Houston, Texas in a beautiful town called The Woodlands. I had resigned (reluctantly and acting as the good son-in-law) that we would spend about three days at thier home, the country club spending time at the pool, golf course, tennis (none of these things really hold my interest) and as the ultimate sacrifice, playing bridge and pinochle at the house with my octogenerian hosts. What I was not prepared for was being told on Saturday "We are all going shopping, why don't you find something to do on your own."......What ?, I wish that I had been prepared for this. I know that there are a lot of Forum members in the Houston area with whom I could have met with for a beer and look at some local Corvettes but I had not planned for that. Okay, what else...

Maybe visit world famous Naber Brothers Corvette Restoration ? I couldn't find a listing online, in the yellow pages or my Garmin GPS. I did find Corvettes Of Houston, that sounds good. I may as well have gone to a new Corvette Dealer, all C5s and C6s, I just looked through the windows and drove on. My GPS showed an Antique Automoble Museum, right up my alley. As I arrived I had found that it was most recently a tire shop, currently vacant. Here's my salvation, the Houston Chronicle had a great article about the grand opening on Texas' oldest micro-brewery, Saint Arnold's was moving to an old warehouse downtown and was offering tours and samples and one of my favourite things to do when I travel is to find the local micro-brew and bring a lot of it home. I drove up to the building and read the sign: "Tour Cancelled". What the what ? I was so distraught that I simply entered the keyword "lounge" into the GPS to sample a much needed beer or seven. Every place that I drove to that was suggested to me via GPS was no longer in business. Nothing is working for me and my day of freedom. Except for one standout: Though I have no fascination with death or the afterlife the best hour that I spent was at Houston's "National Museum Of Funeral History" ! For me it was a pretty good collection of vintage hearses and professional cars and those types of cars have always held my interest as each coachbuilder had a different design on the supplied production chassis', whether it be for hearses, ambulances, flower cars, limousines, etc. A great asset to Houston !

Ray

midyearvette

great story ray..you must be a halloween junky.....

Frankie the Fink

My Dad worked at a Cadillac dealer in Norfolk, Va for a few years and they serviced hearses. There were 2 of their 15 mechanics who would not only not work on these cars...they wouldn't go near them. Pretty funny but some superstitions just won't go away I guess...

Anyway - I wouldn't be advertising the fact I'd rather go to a funeral museum than spend time with my in-laws....that's gotta get you a serious butt-chewing!

Kerrmudgeon

It could only happen to you Ray, but at least you'll have a great story to tell over brewskies at home with your buds. Sounds like when the Griswalds went to Wallyworld and it was closed.
=============================

bigearl56

Always, and I mean always have a plan "B" when dealing with in-laws. For years I would be the nice guy and go forth as you did. Every stinking time they always wanted to change the plan because Uncle Harry or some such would show up. Well I finally learned to always plan it around a car show or some other auto related event. Now at the ripe old age of 64 I just don't go anymore. We have agreed to disagree.

Earl

CWerner

Ray

You should have asked in advance. Nifty 50s on Saturday nights just south of the woodlands on Saturday night. About 400 clasic cars.

sorry!

darguy

That is a sad story. I feel for you, Man.

62Jeff

Ray sorry to hear you had a bad Houston visit. We have an awesome city, and the weather this weekend was perfect.

Nabers Motors are located on the west side of town. They are in the on-line yellow pages under "Nabers Motors".

67*427

Ray,

Wish I had known you were coming to town.. I live in The Woodlands and am just about the light the first fire in my '67 with a ZZ454, TREMEC and new 3.73. I have brewskies in the fridge and could have used some help.<grin> Let us know next time you are coming to town.

Steve

Gman58

Ray it sounds like your have a beginning layout for a Hollywood movie. All you need to pick is the lead man I am going with Dennis Quaid. A great story none the less. Greg

PinkVetteLady

The one good thing that some what works on the forum is the member search function. I travel quite a bit and not that I get to meet a lot of members but have had the opportunity to meet a few. If you go to the top of the page and select, other, members, advanced search. Then I just enter the town I'm in and go from there.

There are so many cool members here on the CF I forget where everyone lives. So with this function if I have extra time in the city I'll search someone out.

Sounds like you had a pretty good time none the less though..

rayvaflav

Jeff, I was confident the whole time that I would hear from you at some point, albeit somewhat posthomously....

Z51JEFF

The flower cars have always fascinated me with the one off body panels and the way these companies made it work,and look good.

62Jeff

I didn't realize I had died!!!

Next time you come to Houston Ray, look me up, I can keep you busy for sure. So many cars, so little time to wax them...

rayvaflav

To think, I was in the neighbourhood and was stuck inside playing bridge ! I did however redeem a bit o' the afternoon by sitting at the bar at Pappasito's for a couple of margaritas.

Frankie the Fink

You do however get the award for the most avatar changes in a single month!

rayvaflav

Okay, I gotta admit, the part about the fridge interests me ! My lovely mother-in-law, sensing my struggle about the micro-brewery tour being cancelled, made sure that I stopped in a town in Texas on the way back home so that she could purchase a six-pack of Saint Arnold's for me. This is why I am nice to the in-laws !

Ray

p.s., Hey Steve, the part about the '67 with the Rat motor interests me as well. But you put that and the fridge together.....

MiguelsC2

And don't look for any Corvettes out front. They do their best not to stand out. Galvanized building with basic sign set back from the street. My shop is about a block from them.

67*427

Hi Ray,

Sorry to confuse you with the fridge comment. The '67 is an original BB car and I have all the original running gear for it. I decided to replace the 427 with a ZZ454 with 3X2's and that led to a TREMEC TKO-600 and a 3.73 rear gear. Then I decided it might get hot inside so Vintage Air was added. Need to be sure it will stop so I got power brakes for it. Talk about project creep!

I put the instrument cluster back in it today and probably Thursday, it will start making noise! Next time you are in town, give me a shout!

Here's a link that will show you what I'm doing...
http://www.dasplace.net/Corvette/200...storation.html

Steve

rayvaflav

Hey Frank, as much as I love the car that I own, I have found that there are a lot of interesting Corvette photos out there, some that I own and some that are floating in cyberspace, just looking for a reason to be posted.

Ray