My Dad and his '57 Chevy

There come those magical moments throughout your life when you feel proud, passionate and loved. For many of us, they don’t come often enough. I have chosen to share this story in hopes that it can inspire others to create special moments and share their stories to make a positive impact on each other’s lives and the world, each and every day.

The Idea

Over the past few years, I have become more enchanted by classic automobiles. It has helped me create new friendships and learn about the history of a major American tradition. In starting to build my own collection, conversations led to discussions with my father about his dream vehicle. Throughout his life, he’s always carved out an ideal image of his dream vehicle, the one he always wanted, the one that even the “cool” kid in high school once had: a 50’s short bed pick-up truck.

I was always on the lookout for this classic truck and I assumed that I’d never find one (much less, get my hands on one), but the idea remained in the back of my mind. One day, my best friend Cory Angevine told me about a 1957 Chevy pick-up truck he heard about that was not being used and sat in a nearby barn in West Texas. He told me the story that it was once the owner’s fathers truck and meant a lot to him, however, it hadn’t ran for 10 + years since his father passed away. We decided to go for it and bought the truck!!!

The Build

Cory also has a close relationship with my father and decided to work on this build together. It wasn’t going to be an easy task sourcing parts, making repairs, and executing our vision of a dream vehicle. We had a great time working together and over the next 8 months we were able to get the truck in excellent mechanical and visual condition. Not only did we completely transform a vintage truck, we had a great time doing the experience together and sharing the story with others that we came in contact with. Next, we discussed our proposed plan on how we would reveal to my father. 

What would he say? 

What would he do? 

What would he think?

The Reveal

My father, Mike Donlin, lives in upstate New York in a town called Endwell and visits Dallas Texas, where I currently live, every year. We put the plan in place that he would visit and coordinated his flight to Texas, with no return date. The pressure was on and we had a deadline. My father doesn’t fly a lot and didn’t ask many questions regarding his flight details. When he did ask about how long he was staying, I let him know “don’t worry about it, I got it figured out.” Thankfully, that was good enough for him.

That weekend we worked together on landscaping projects and improving rental properties as a team of 4, my father, Cory and myself, along with another of my best friends from growing up in Endwell NY, Dan who was visiting from Africa. We sent my father home as he wanted to prepare a pot roast for us while we finished each project. After inviting the girls, Alyssa and Rachel, we had our audience prepared for the big event!!!

Upon reaching the house, I let him know that we had a surprise outside and everyone needed to come and see. I come up with some crazy ideas at times, so this wasn’t as unusual as some may think. We walked outside and showed him the truck!! He was truly speechless and we let him know that this truck was his return ticket back home. I was able to deliver a brief speech to express my appreciation for our relationship and all that he has done for my friends and I in shaping our lives and who we are today. The group was overwhelmed with emotion as we all shared a family moment together, in celebration of a great man and his new truck!!!! What a moment!!

The Journey Home

Day 1

After a few days spent at home, my father and I set out on a Thursday morning trip from Dallas, Texas to Endwell, NY. We had a 3-day trip mapped out and our goal was to reach Nashville prior to dark. We knew that if the truck did well on this trip, we had a good shot to make it all the way home!! We were traveling as fast as we could, flowing with traffic, listening to some good tunes on the 8 track player.

No, we weren’t really going 100 miles an hour. The speedometer broke before we filled up the first time and we were driving only with a guess of speed. We joked about a conversation with a police officer, should we get pulled over speeding going on a cross country road trip in a ‘57 Chevy. With our plan in place, we figured we could talk our way out of a speeding ticket and onward we go!!

The truck is customized throughout with personal touches to add personality to our voyage. Cory had the idea to put a paint can/brush on the back bumper to confuse others on the roadway. In Arkansas, we had our first encounter in town after we stopped for gas. At the stop light, a passerby beeped to get our attention until he was able to speed up next to us and we both rolled down our windows to talk as we drove. He shouted “you need to pull over, you have a paint can on your back bumper!!!” We thanked him for his concern and continued along on our way, chuckling that it worked so well.

As we completed day 1, the truck was running great, we approached Nashville slightly after dark and measured our stats for the day. It was a success and we made it through day 1!!

Day 1 stats

Miles traveled: 665

Miles per gallon: 12

States visited: Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee

Day 2

We started off in the morning leaving Nashville and targeting Columbus, Ohio as our next destination. This was our in-between day. We wanted to keep knocking out those miles, but would get as far as we could and potentially go as far as we can during the day. Day 2 was fairly standard, however, we made a quick stop in Louisville, Kentucky to pick up some rare Bourbons that were only sold in Kentucky. We ended up making it to our destination and stayed in Columbus Ohio with New York in striking distance!! We shared text messages and received encouragement from Cory along the way, we were actually going to make it!!

Day 2 stats

Miles traveled: 370

Miles gallon: 12

States visited: Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio

Day 3

We took off in the morning a little slower, as the truck took more time to get started in the 24 degree weather that Ohio welcomed to us. At our first gas station stop, we had trouble starting the truck and agreed that we were on the home stretch and would keep it running until we got home.  Each time we needed gas, we would keep the engine running and we wouldn’t stop for food or extended breaks. We had to make our final destination and the home stretch was in sight!!

As we kept driving, it became cold; I mean really cold. The truck did have heat, however, with vent-cracks throughout, more cold air came in than hot. Though our feet were cold, we had different strategies for keeping our hands warm. As we rotated the driver every gas station stop, the strategy was to blow on my hands periodically and my dad drove with one hand and sat on the other, rotating every so often. As we continued along, we started to see snow covered everywhere and checked the weather as fresh snow would surely stop our trip. The truck is a 2-wheel drive Texan truck that has never been in snow!!

As we continued along, we kept the truck moving. We shared our thoughts and said, “I can’t believe it, we are going to make it, we are going to do it!!”. We stayed on track and a big moment was the first NY sign showing highway 86 and seeing Binghamton New York on the big green sign. We shared our excitement that we were going to make it!!

We continued our voyage and saw a sign stating Binghamton 140 miles away and in a rural upstate New York town called Belmont. Then something happened. We didn’t know what, but it wasn’t good as the car shut down. We pulled over to the side of the road and tried to troubleshoot the problem. We didn’t do well as the two of us combined didn’t add up to one mechanic. We stayed on the side for a few minutes and a cop randomly pulled up behind us. Usually not a good sign to see the blinking red and blue lights, but this time we greeted the police with admiration and support. He asked if we needed help and was able to call a tow truck for us. 

The truck driver came and was very helpful, trying to troubleshoot the problem to get us back on the road. We realized it was something in the engine and we weren’t going to make it back in the truck that day. It was disappointing to make it that far and not reach our destination, but something happened to make the adventure even better.  We got to see the best in people.

Day 3 stats

Miles traveled: 305 miles

Miles per gallon: 12

States visited: Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York

The people of upstate NY

The town we ended up in, Belmont NY was 30 minutes from the nearest place with hotels in Olean NY. The truck driver took us into town and we waited at the convenient store, which was also the bus stop. In this rural town, they don’t have taxi’s, rental cars, or UBERs anywhere. We put together the plan to wait for the bus to take us into Olean and would get a hotel for the night and take the bus back to Binghamton in the morning. The cashier at the convenient store offered to give us a ride to Olean when his shift ended if we missed the bus. We planned to hang out for the next hour at the convenient store and wait for the bus. I drank beer while my dad ate pizza.

We joked and had a great time at the convenient store and were in good spirits. This was an adventure during the adventure!! As the time approached, we went outside to wait for the bus.

We got on the bus, the only passengers, and my father made friends with the driver sharing stories. I talked on the phone with Cory and he said his father would come pick us up. I was flattered that he would be willing to do a 5 + hour round trip on Saturday night to help us out. After a short conversation, Cory’s father Jeff convinced me this was the best option and he was already in the car en route, although he had called me on his house phone and not his cell phone!!

We went into a restaurant in Olean and waited for a table. There was over 100 people waiting in line from two entrances to get in and my father talked with people in line. We had 3 people offer to give us rides wherever we needed to go and one person offer to call a friend who would get his truck and trailer and drive us to Binghamton that night!!

As we finished dinner and polished off some homemade desserts, one of the individuals we met earlier came to check on us to see what they could do to help. We let him know our plan and shared some simple pleasantries.

This experience reminded me of the value of people and how people can help each other. We eliminated modern conveniences of shared transportation and lodging and people came together to help other people in need. Not for compensation, but simply because they wanted to do it and help other people. It is a humbling experience to have strangers or friends offer their time, resources, and money to help others in need and refreshing to see the best in people.

The story does have a happy ending as I write this on my father’s couch reminiscing of our journey and making plans to get the truck repaired this week. I have felt so much joy sharing this story personally and am excited to hear my father’s stories for years to come about every interaction he has about his ‘57 truck. As we share more positive and inspiring communications with others, we make positive contributions to society. Each person that drives by or shares this story can be reminded of a family’s love, the kindness of people, and how we can make the world a better place for us all. 

We the people are what makes America GREAT!!