The Illustrious Band Vehicles

...or, how we managed to never get killed, but don't know why
 

   The Truck

The Green Hornet - an old EZ Haul 20-foot truck.
It carried all 18,000 pounds of our stuff and was really in pretty good shape, all things considered. Of course, we did go through several engines in it. Never could get Mason to figure out that you couldn't put an old $300 Mustang engine in the thing and have it pull all that weight. How many times did we pass the Green Hornet sitting on the side of the road? (Did we stop? phoo) (most of the time - Sean)

Best feature: Vibrations coming up from under the seat while riding down the road caused [censored] which made for interesting traveling whenever a bunch of roadies picked up female hitchhikers.
 

   Personal Cars

Sean's personal car was a 1974 Datsun B-210 hatchback with no air conditioning. Drove it until it died after 130,000 miles or so. Spent one memorable summer driving around in it when the radiator desperately needed de-clogging. The engine would overheat unless you ran the heater wide open. We would pray for rain because it would cool the engine off some. Bob would ride in it with me and complain about the heat, but wouldn't roll the window down because it would mess up his 'do. At least he took off the leather jacket in the car.
 
Kelly's personal car, at first, was a small Honda Civic. Then he moved up to the bigtime and got a 1980 Honda Accord. After Sean's car died, and after the Steve Long car debacle (see below), Sean "rode" with Kelly the majority of the time. We say "rode" because he actually drove 99% of the time. (Sorry, Kelly, but you were too much of a sight-seer driver for me, Sean). Kelly likes to look at stuff while he's driving, and not necessarily the road all of the time. (Hey, it wouldn't be a problem if the tape box wasn't on the floor. phoo)
 
Steve Long's personal car was very clean and it was very orange. After Bob left the band, Steve rode with Sean in his Datsun. After the Datsun died, they began traveling in Steve's car, a bright orange inside and out Mercury Capri. (Did we mention that it was orange?) He wouldn't let anybody eat, drink or smoke in his car. Sean did, however, munch on Toastchees and drink Orange Crush while riding figuring that since they're orange, too, any crumbs or spills would blend right in. They did, too. Sean didn't like riding with Steve because he drove too slowly, and Steve didn't like anyone else driving his car because they always got slightly less gas mileage ("you got 1.3794 miles per gallon less on that tank than I got on the last one") than he did. Steve was after us to get a real band car so he wouldn't have to drive his. As far as we know, he is still driving a brand new orange Mercury Capri with 300,000 miles on it and calculating his gas mileage to the nearest ten-thousandth.
 

   Band Cars

1970 Chevrolet Nova, lovingly known as Sherman. Butt ugly paint job with springs sticking out of the seats. This was a real fun-mobile as it had a tendency to go dead as you were driving down the road. Everything - lights, motor, heater, you name it. Very interesting occurrence as you're driving down a dark, two-lane road in the middle of the night and it's 20 degrees outside.
 
Some kind of AMC car, don't remember the type; don't think AMC knew either. We dubbed it Pedro for some reason (we may have just seen "Blazing Saddles" or that John Huston movie with its infamous 'Batches? We don't need no stinking batches!!' line) before leaving in it for it's inaugural road trip. It lasted about forty miles before kicking the bucket on U.S. Highway 70 in the middle of nowhere (longest stretch of straight road in NC, naturally!) heading towards New Bern from Raleigh. (Thanks, Jimmy.)

(The AMC car was a Matador. Hence, Pedro. So there. Sean)
 
A Mercury Grand Marquis, lovingly known as, well, let's just say it wasn't terribly politically correct. (It wasn't deSade, was it? phoo) It's most interesting feature were a pair of vise grips as the gearshift selector. At least the heater and air conditioner worked, and the radio worked, and it was fairly large (okay, let's be realistic, here. It was a boat!) and fairly comfortable to travel in. The boys weren't too picky about their trash, though, so you'd have to shovel it out occasionally.