Words and Photos: Chadly Johnson
Automotive bucket lists are often nothing more than an unobtainable wish list of dream cars and fantasy road trips. Jon Hageness of Osseo, WI is an exception to the rule and has been making steady progress on his bucket list through his own sweat and bloody knuckles. Items checked off the list so far include: building a real steel Willys gasser coupe, chopping a ’34 Ford five window coupe, and restoring a ’58 Ford convertible for his father. An unchecked item on Jon’s list has been to road trip a hot rod across America, an experience many of us have dreamt about. Jon was aware that I had a pair of photo shoots lined up on the West Coast in late Spring, and offered up the opportunity to take one of his cars instead of flying. Who was I to say no?
With that settled, the obvious question was which vehicle to drive out from Jon’s stable of self-built rides. The three cars that stood out as the most qualified to take on such a long excursion were as follows: A ’59 El Camino (smooth driver, and great for hauling found treasures), a ’33 Ford three window coupe (tight driving quarters, but a quintessential hot rod), or an ultra rare ’31 Willys roadster (surprisingly roomy car, and hey we were headed to the West Coast!). I did not know which car we were driving until Jon literally pulled in to pick me up, and we both had big smiles on our faces when he rolled into my driveway in the roadster.
The adventure began mid-day on a Friday. The weather was a bit cold as Wisconsin was having a very late spring, but soon we’d be in t-shirt weather or so we thought. We blasted through Minnesota and found ourselves in the flats of North Dakota as the sun was setting. We were also experiencing the strongest cross winds I’ve ever encountered in all my travels. Jon was battling to keep the roadster on the road as I pressed hard against the roadster’s side curtains, but the wind blasts were so strong they tore the snaps right out of the heavy canvas top. We decided we’d better call it a night before we found ourselves in a ditch, so we hunkered down for the night in Bismark.
The next morning found us with a flat rear tire which we only discovered because Jon is in the habit of checking tire pressures each morning. The thick sidewalls on the rear truck tires held the roadster up with no tell tale signs that the tire was low on air. Lucky for us the tire held air just fine the rest of the trip. Looking back we figure we may have fallen victim to someone intentionally letting air out of the tire while sitting overnight in the hotel parking lot. We pushed on hard, averaging 75 mph, and reached Missoula, MT by sunset. Sunday morning (and Mothers Day) we rolled the dice and hit up a favorite honey hole for hot rod parts, and to our delight they answered the door and invited us in. We had great conversations, and picked out a few items to have shipped home, then, we hit the highway. With the goal of Eugene, OR and plenty of daylight ahead of us decided to pull of the interstate and take some back highways through the Cascade Mountains.
This proved to be a great idea as we found one amazing small town after another offering up many photo ops. Darkness crept up on us as we hit the town of Redmond, OR..we knew we could reach Eugene, but why miss the prettiest part of the drive in the dark, so we pulled off and called it a day. Monday morning we rolled into the town of Sisters and really burned up the film with the mountains as a perfect backdrop. We then headed into the heart of the Cascades. We had day dreamed about this portion of the trip…driving with the top down, surrounded by the amazing mountain scenery, and we found…RAIN!!! Maybe we should have known better, but we spent the better part of 2 hours enjoying what we could of the beautiful descent in to the Willamette Valley. We were greeted by sunny skies and warm conditions was we entered Eugene and quickly made our way to our good friend Keeth Colton’s house who was kindly putting us up for the next several days.
The days that followed were filled with shop tours, hot rod gatherings, good friends, and a photo shoot of Paul Smith’s amazing 55 Chevy station wagon that he championed to a pair of Wallys in the mid 1970s. We also squeezed in a day at the ocean, which for Jon was the ultimate objective to obtain the 1st leg of his bucket list goal.
It was pretty surreal to stand with our feet in the Pacific, then turn around and see the roadster parked at the end of the beach…a pretty amazing feeling. The Eugene area has a lot to offer to the car enthusiasts and we jammed in as much as we possibly could, but all too soon it was time to hit the road again. Our next objective was Spokane, WA.
We stuck to the highways, but still had a solid 8 hour drive ahead of us to reach our goal. We had a couple of stops penciled in including a stop by the Salem Speed Shop, and Hurst Racing tires where Jon put in an order for a set of front runners for his Willys gasser. Night fall found us arriving in Spokane at another gracious friend’s house, my good friend Eric Carlson. Three more non-stop days of taking in as much as possible lay before us, including a photo shoot of Josh Scott’s super sanitary ’41 Ford truck.
By nightfall on Sunday our time was up, and we packed up the roadster for the long journey back to the Mid-West. Monday morning we hit the interstate and kept the throttle mashed until we arrived in Butte, MT except for a quick stop in Wallace, ID for more photo ops. Once in Butte we ironically ran into our friend Keeth again who was vacationing there with his family. Keeth had been in town several days at his point and showed me a few of the sights which led to the discovery of a long forgotten ’60 Chevy–nothing is in concrete yet, but I’m working on removing the old relic from its long slumber. With the excitement of a new project as the basis for a long conversation we hit the road and found more…RAIN!!! This time the rain never let up for nearly 2 days straight. Jon and I battled mid 40 degree temps and more heavy side winds until the weather finally settled down as we reached the Wisconsin border. Ironically by the time we hit the streets of my home town of Eau Claire we found ourselves in the mildest weather of our 12 day trip. I guess if you want to find roadster weather, head to Wisconsin!
The trip overall was a huge success with over 4300 miles logged and no mechanical issues. Seeing old friends and making new ones within the hot rod community is amazing, and seeing American through the windshield of a 31 Willys roadster was an experience to not be forgotten. Jon already hit me up on pointing the roadster East ward in the near future to complete the 2nd leg of his bucket list journey, but that is another story for another time.
