severngaspumps.com Blog

On August 27th at 11:58 P.M. my son and daughter in law were blessed with a beautiful baby girl. Lillian…..aka… Lilly was born four weeks early through Emergency C Section. This was due to her mothers’ extreemly high blood pressure. Both mother and baby are doing well. Baby Lilly was 5 lbs. 7 oz. and 17.5 inches long….lungs were fine as was the heart….all parts in tact etc…Lilly will have to stay in the hospital a little while until she is a bit older but she is a sight to behold! Here are a few pictures.

The big blue Smurf is my son, Jason, the father…….the last picture, in the port hole,  is of my other son, Crazy Uncle Nick!

Why is it that when you leave town, for a week, that nothing gets done at home? Always have to come back and play catch up for several days. Guess that’s the cost of running a Small Business? Anyway….I drove out to Oklahoma last week.  Total miles one way was 1450+/-. I was really amazed that the Southern States of Tennessee, Arkansas and Oklahoma were green and the crops looked healthy. Usually in July, that part of the country dries out as the rains stop. Luckily, not this year. It was beautiful seeing all that color on the drive.  We were fortunate to find a really nice house, to rent, in Chandler, OK. called The Bungalow Inn.  It is located right in town on Historic Rt.66.

The house was built in 1920 and occupied by a District Judge and his wife. It fell on disrepair years later after the passing of the family. A very nice local lady, named Nelda Matthews, bought it and completely rehabbed it. She took great care to put it back to what it was when new.  She even went so far as to furnish it with period pieces.  We had the whole house to ourselves and  Nelda brought in breakfast every morning at 7 A.M.  She is a fantastic cook and baker……I think I gained a few pounds while I was there! We thoroughly enjoyed our stay there. We’d sit on the front porch and imagine all the souls who had gone by throughout the many years.  Thinking about John Jakes book, The Grapes of Wrath, those folks would have traveled right past this house on their trek out to California…Makes you think, Huh? Here are a few pictures of the cottage and one of the section of Rt 66 going thru Chandler.

If you ever get out that way,  It is well worth the stop. Thanks for coming by and I’ll see you down the road.  Paul

I have a good friend by the name of Scott Anderson.  Some may know him as the author of the book, Check The Oil?  Others will recognize his name as one of the owners of Time Passages LTD. in Des Moines, Ia.  We work several shows together each year and have been doing this for over ten years.  He brought a really unique gas pump to the Barrett Jackson Auction in Scottsdale, Az. last January.  He said the the pump, a Wayne Model 278, circa 1915,  had been used inside a Chicago Cab garage its entire life.   It was completely original having had several coats of orange paint applied over the years.  He put it out for sale. The unit was reasonably priced but needed just the right person to see the beauty in a machine this old.  We were lucky in meeting a very nice gentleman named Larry who realized the potential of the pump. He asked me to do the restoration and ship it home to him in a Phoenix suburb.  Here are the before and after pictures of the pump.

Hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed doing the work?  The pump ships on Monday.

A good friend is having an auction in Chandler, Oklahoma on Saturday, July 24th.  His Company is Ball Auction Service.  They’ve been around for many years and always have quality sales.  I’ll be heading out to be there but the shop will be opened as usual. I can be reached on my cell or on the net, if needed?  Be back real soon.

When I was raised….in the Fifties….I was taught that a man’s word was his bond. There was no need for a handshake. No written contract was necessary…..simply your word. Being from farming stock, most of the business my folks did was accomplished this way. Over these many years, people have lost this basic principle of courtesy…..I personally think that it is why so many lawyers get rich. The public screams lawsuit instead of holding to a steadfast rule of individual honesty…..Don’t get me wrong….I still do business the old way as much as possible…. as do quite a few of my friends and aquaintanences…..I do have to be a bit more careful with new clients until they have develpoed a history with me.  Sure wish that the public could adopt the “OLD WAYS” in this reguard? As always…..just me talking! Paul

We started South from the Trading Post on our way back to Phoenix. Crossing I40 at Chambers, Az. and continuing Southwest to Show Low, Az. This area is called the Rim Country because you are starting to travel from the High Desert down into the Salt River Valley. Again, beautiful scenery with quickly falling elevations.

We traveled through the Fort Apache Indian Reservation into Globe, Az. From Globe we took AZ188, also called the Apache Trail to the Tonto National Monument. Theodore Roosevelt Lake is in this area and is huge!

Funny thing is that it is smack dab in the middle of the lower desert? Go figure? We stopped at the Monument which had even more history of the Cliff Dwellers from a later period of time. Very interesting! Moving on, we turned off at the Roosevelt Dam and went more Southwest on AZ88 towards Phoenix….10 miles into our ride, I noticed a sign that said the paved road was ending in a mile??? I stopped and looked at the map….it showed a road all the way into Apache Junction so I started off again! One mile later, at Apache Lake……also in the desert….the pavement stopped to be replaced with a gravel road…. Ok….gravel’s not so bad, and there was no traffic so off I went! The sign stated that there was no pavement for thirty miles…..No Problem! As we got farther into the drive, the road went from two lanes with shear drop offs to the lake, to single lanes with overhanging rock at switchbacks! Then we had to back up at times to let other cars pass coming from the other direction…Some were even hauling boats on trailers behind them! We also discovered several single lane bridges on blind turns…..now that was a Hoot! All the while, we were right along the lakes fed by the Salt River. Canyon Lake was the last when we finally made it onto asphalt at Tortilla Flat. I have to say that we had the best time just because we had no idea this type of road existed anywhere? I’d do it again but I know it would never be like the first time. We came out of the hills at Apache Junction. I’ve posted previous pictures of that area.

All in all we drove 1733 miles in 5 days and had a fantastic time! Hope you enjoyed hearing about it?

Thanks for stopping by. Paul

The next leg of our road trip took us from Canyon de Chelly to the Hubbell Trading Post in Ganado, Az.  It is the oldest, continuing use, trading post in the Southwest.  This place was so cool!  The old wood floors creaked and were so worn that you had to wonder what type of people had  been here before you??  There is a long history behind this outpost.  Several books have been written on the subject.  I took pictures of the old barn noting the unique way it was constructed.  The years have certainly not been kind.

I was able to locate two old Gravity Feed Gas Pumps in the stalls.  Just goes to show you….. you might find these things anywhere?

Enjoy. Paul

By now you realize that we did a whole bunch of driving on our trip. Arizona is a very large State and to see it , then you need to move about. The morning after we visited Monument Valley, we left our hotel in Kayenta and started North and then East to to Chinle, Az. This is the location of Canyon de Chelly….pronounced “de Shay”.  There were cliff dwellers all throughout the Southwest over a period of 1A.D. until the time the Spanish explorers came to visit.

This is an extreemly rugged area and shows the adaptability of the early Indians who lived there. As we stopped at an overlook called Mummy Cave Ruins, I noticed several small stone carvings sitting on the pavement. We were the only ones around, no other cars. Only the wind blowing across the canyon. I was comenting how nice the carvings were when I heard a voice say “Hello”.  From under a tree, not far from where we were standing, came a Navajo man of about 40 years old.  He explained that he was the artist and usually sat here most days waiting for tourists…..Tourists is what we were so we had a very nice conversation with him.  Oh, I need to mention, we left with several of his stone carvings as well!  There is much Navajo history about this canyon and the conflicts with the Spanish…..In their tales, they tell of the Spanish soldiers waiting for the men of the tribe to go on a hunt.  Once they were gone, the Spanish attacked the cliff dwelling to kill the women, children and elderly. One brave female fought with a soldier and they both fell to their deaths……hence forth, the natives called this place…..”Two Fell Off”…..and they still use the referance to this day.

We left Telluride, Colorado on Tuesday morning  and traveled back into Arizona.  If you have the chance to do a road trip, try this area for fabulous scenery.

We were in search of Monument Valley, which in on the border of Arizona and Utah.  As a kid, I remember automobile TV ads that showed a car and female model atop a towering rock pinnacle in the desert.  Usually a helicopter shot the ad while circling the formation….. Well, this is where they filmed those ads along with a whole bunch of  Westerns.  So much so that one area is named after the Hollywood Director, John Ford.  The red dirt road throughout the valley is passable but very dusty.

Certain parts were steep, while others had a washboard effect.  Here is when I understood the auto rental agent suggesting an SUV!  In all my life, I’ve never seen such startling rock formations.  It’s as if each was carved by a different creator.  If you took the time, you could make out different things in each rock. You’d maybe see an eagle, bear, standing Indian Chief, etc.

We spent several hours on this self guided tour. I stopped at an overlook and spoke to a very nice and friendly Navajo lady who was selling handmade jewelry.  She took time to explain how the Navajo Nation believes in the power of the Four Corners area.  They feel protected by the four mountain ranges that surround them.   The Navajo are quite an interesting people.  Hope you enjoy the pictures. More later. Paul

On Sunday of last week, we flew into Phoenix,Az.  Picked up a rental car at the airport. The salesperson suggested that we go with an SUV due to the area we were heading too.  Boy……she was 100% correct! We left Phoenix and drove North, out of the valley. Stopped in Flagstaff for dinner then continued on to Kayenta,Az.  I need to mention that as we were having dinner, at the Cracker Barrel in Flagstaff, the State closed Interstate 40 East of us.  Seems that there was a sandstorm blowing strongly and cutting visibility to zero.

In our inexperience, we merrily continued North only to run smack dab into the same storm?? Nearly being blown off the road a couple of times and having great difficulty in seeing….we finally made it to our destination.  In the morning there was still some wind but not as much.  We forged ahead thru the Four Corners area. This is where Utah,Colorado,Arizona an New Mexico meet. Actually we were going to Telluride, Colorado as we had heard good things about the area.  As we traveled to our destination, we stopped at Mesa Verdi National Park to see the cliff dwellings of the “Ancients” as the Navajo Nation calls them.

Absolutely fantastic park with spectacular views and so much history!  Truely worth the stop.  Continued on our way over to Durango then North again over the San Jaun Mountains…..sometimes reaching elevations of over 11,000 feet.  Where I come from, we are at sea level so the air was rather thin!  The drive, thru the mountains was terrific.  So much beauty around every turn.

This is the long way to Telluride but was more than worth the time….Telluride was a mining town from the late 1800’s and of late has become one of the premier ski resorts.  It is set in a valley surrounded by huge mountains on three sides. The town is a step back into the early 1900’s as most of the architecture is of Federal Design Period.

Hope you enjoy the pictures….More to come. Paul