Monthly Burger Run #5

For our fifth Burger Run event (July 2019), we returned to the Carlsbad In-N-Out store. Bill and Mary Jane Goodwin, great friends of Beltsville Shell, had traveled from their home in Delaware across the USA in their Jayco RV, visiting the most famous Tourist sites and National Parks. Their arrival in Carlsbad motivated us to show them some Burger Run hospitality.

Bill and I became friends not long after Beltsville Shell was published and we have had some great times together. Perhaps the best event was when Bill snagged four free passes to drive the NASCAR track in Dover Delaware and took me, Nace DeLauter and Sonny Boteler for a full day of NASCAR driving fun. I wanted to reciprocate his kindness.

The first step would be for us to get all the Corvettes and Go Karts out of the garage. This was the first time that I had completely emptied the garage of the complete collection. A photo shoot was a must! 

First came the cars.

Then the Go Karts.

Then Bill needed to make sure the Go Karts were in "top operating condition"!

The next step was to see if we could do something a bit more special that just the lunch at In-N-Out. So I called my good friend, Bob Rabourne (owner of a 1964 Corvette Stingray Coupe), who is the Manager of the Craftsmanship Museum in Carlsbad. If you haven’t been to this museum, you have missed something that is really special. 

 Craftsmanship Museum

Bob graciously offered to host Bill and Mary Jane, and any of the Burger Run crowd that wanted to come, to be his guest for a VIP tour of the museum.

With very little notice, we sent out an invitation to the Burger Run folks. The response was enthusiastic.

Nan drove the 56 with her Mom, Jan.  Bill and Mary Jane drove the 2003 50th Anniversary Corvette.

When we arrived at the In-N-Out most of the group was already there. Laurel, one of the In-N-Out employees remembered us from an earlier trip and was taking pictures of all the cars. John Elder drove his 61 Corvette, and Jeff Smith (who never misses these get-togethers) drove his 2002 Corvette.

Bill and Marylyn Hatch came in their 57 Corvette.  [Note 1: Bill bought his 1957 Corvette as a new car in 1957 and still owns it -- thus making him (in Cary's book) the person with the longest continuous ownership of a single Corvette in the Universe!]

Greg Jordan drove his 1969 Cadillac.  [Note 2: How many people own their Father's original bought-new 1969 Cadillac?  Well Greg owns his GRANDFATHER's original bought-new 1969 Cadillac!]

Other friends included Archie Rempher, and Wayne Cowie.



We enjoyed great seating, as usual.

The traditional group photo shows (left to right) Jeff Smith, Greg Jordan, Wayne Cowie, John Elder, Archie Rempher, Bill and Marylyn Hatch, Mary Jane Goodwin, Nan, Jan Paul, and Bill Goodwin.

The next stop on the tour was the Craftsmanship Museum, only a few miles away. 

Bob greeted our group of eight and gave us an introduction to the history and collection of the museum.

Then he guided us through the various sections of the museum pointing out the highlights of the collection, describing the most significant creations, and giving us inside stories that a regular visitor might never know. Everywhere we turned we saw working miniatures of cars, airplanes, boats, engines, houses, tools, farming equipment, guns, almost anything mechanical that you can imagine.

The highlight of the tour was our private audience of the Machine Shop Tour with Dave Belt, a model-maker in his own right, and former President of the Palomar Model A Club. Dave took us behind the scenes to see the tools of the trade, both the classic lathes and milling machines, as well as a modern 3D printer. Dave gives a fascinating presentation, so if you go to the Museum, be sure that you schedule your visit so as to take in Dave's interesting program.

I think Bill and Mary Jane had a good time in Carlsbad.  I hope they come back soon!

And a big shout-out to Bob Rabourne for setting up the VIP Tour!!

Monthly Burger Run #4

For the fourth installment of the Monthly Burger Run (June 2019) we traveled south on Interstate 5 to Encinitas to the In-N-Out Burger store there.


Our “June Gloom” (coastal cloudiness) continued leaving us with midday overcast skies. This store has a smaller parking lot than some of the other places we have visited, but we managed to get all our cars in a line and good seating inside the restaurant.

 Two long-time friends were there – Mike Reeves and Jeff Smith. Over the years, I had heard their respective stories about the Dads, highlighting the way they inherited their love of cars from their fathers. Each of them talked of Pre-WWII Fords and other cars, and even woodies. Suddenly the thought occurred to me that perhaps their fathers knew each other. At lunch, when I introduced that idea, all three of us were pleasantly surprised to discover that they did! Jeff’s dad was Mike’s Dad’s insurance guy. A fun discussion followed in which Jeff and Mike traded stories of their fathers, their favorite cars, and what happened to them.


Jeff always comes in his beautiful 2002 Corvette; Mike brings a different car to each event – this time he brought a 1955 Chevy.

Nancy’s Mom, Jan, joined us for this outing and we treated her to a cheese burger – she was very happy!


Mike taught me something new on this trip – “Spread”. I had never realized that you could order extra In-N-Out sauce in a tube. I tried it on my fires – this addition will now be a standard part of future Burger Runs!

Pictured below are the cars and the group. It was nice to have Steve and Virginia White join us for the first time – we are trying to convince Steve to get a 49 Merc!

From left to right: Virginia and Steve White, Jeff Smith, Don Kingery, Mike and Barbara Reees, Cary, Jan Paul (Nany's Mom).  In attendance but not in the picture: Nan and Shirley Kingery!

Monthly Burger Run #3

Our monthly tradition of Crusin' to an In-N-Out Burger joint continued in April.  This time we took over the store in Oceanside, at the I-5 Freeway and Coast Highway.  It is a good venue with lots of space for parking and easy access off the freeway.

Mike and Barbara Reeves always bring an interesting car; this time it was the 1934 Ford two-door sedan.

They drive this car all across the Country.

Because Nan and I had an errand to run up in LA, we failed to bring any Corvettes.  But it was good to see Bill Hatch's '57, John Elder's '61, and Jeff Smith's '02.

I got to wear my fancy new In-N-Out 70th Anniversary shirt.

Such great friends!  From left to right:  Warren Wilkinson, Bill and Marilyn Hatch, Gary Rodemeyer, Mike and Barbara Reeves, Russ Stroika, Sherry and Jeff Smith, Nan and John Elder.

Next month we will travel south on the 5 Freeway to Encinitas.  We hope to see you there!

Beltsville Shell West

In the tradition of Beltsville Shell, I enjoy helping my buddies with their car (and similar) projects.  Here are three recent examples. 

[In each case, my buddy is either an MD or a PhD, so I guess it has been "Doctor Month at Beltsville Shell West!]

John Elder - 1961 Corvette

John (Emeritus Professor, Scripps Research) and I have done a few projects on his beautiful white 1961 Corvette.  The most challenging one was replacing the front drum brakes with disc brakes.  Lately we have been fussing with the engine to diagnose its tendency to sometimes overheat (or seem to overheat?) and to generally get it to start easier and run better.  John bought a very nice electronic distributor and a matching coil. 

The new parts dropped right in to John's small block Corvette engine and it started right up. 

It now seems to start easier, and hopefully will run better (and cooler!).

 Mark Yamanaka - 1968 Corvette

Mark (MD at Tri-City Medical Center, Specialty: Pulmonary) owns the 1968 Corvette that was once his childhood friend's car (Mark acquired the car after his friend's passing).  Mark has been slowly restoring the car for a few years now, including repairing the rear-end and installing a new crate motor.  

The body of the Corvette is in amazingly good shape for a 50+ year old "survivor", with the exception of a "tear" that impacted the leading and trailing edges of the right rear wheel well.  Here are the "before pictures:

The leading edge was gouged all the way through the fiberglass.

And the trailing edge was cracked.

Our solution involved two steps: First we fashioned carbon-fiber "bandages" to seal the inner fender wells.  We let them cure for a few weeks.  When Mark returned, we then filled and sanded the repaired areas.  Mark was a quick study and mastered the glass work quickly!  Here is the finished repair job! 

All ready for primer and paint!

Tom Bartol -- Corvette-Quality-Telescope!

Tom is a Neuroscientist at the Salk Institute. Although Tom doesn't own a Corvette, his machinist skills, and knowledge of racing, put him in a special class of his own.  Tom designed and constructed in his garage over the past 18 years an amazing, computer-controlled telescope.  Every part is a gleaming metal masterpiece meticulously machined from aluminum, stainless steel, or other exotic materials.  The only part that isn't super-cool is the actual telescope tube that holds the optics and mirror, since it is a cardboard "Sonotube".

For a few years Tom and I have been plotting a project to replace the cardboard tube with one made of carbon fiber.  Our initial project was to make a prototype and then apply what we learned to the actual finished product.

Our prototype is a 12" diameter carbon fiber tube (same diameter as the telescope), approximately 4" long.  Tom fashioned a spool that would be used as our mold.

First, Tom cut the carbon fiber cloth into sheets.

Next we smeared mold release all over the spool, then wrapped the carbon fiber sheets onto the spool/mold using West resin/hardener and a fine paint brush to smooth out the 12 layers. The fabric is 0.010" and we hoped to get a final wall thickness of about 0.125" but we ended up with 0.150" wall thickness so we learned that the epoxy adds about 0.0025" to each layer.  So now we know that 10 layers would give us a perfect 0.125" for our final production run.  We also learned that 1 squirt of resin/hardener is enough for a single 4" wide layer on a 12" OD tube.  (Tom is very precise about such things!)

Once the prototype had cured, Tom popped the part out of the spool/mold.

After trimming the edges, Tom had a perfect example of what the "real" telescope tube will be like.

 Any fears that we had about the strength of the carbon fiber tube were soon dispelled.  Here is Tom standing on the finished part, seeing only a slight deflection while supporting Tom's full weight!

We think we have the foundation for fabricating a worthy telescope tube.  More on that project in a future Blog post!

I'm looking forward to more fun projects in the garage.  I'm so grateful that my friends don't charge me to help them!