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Road trip! (Long; the post, as well as the drive)

Posted by JimK on April 11, 2010 at 16:41:22

We hit the road a little later than planned, and due to the timing we decided to bypass Chicago and drive straight down I-39 in Illinois. We had rain and a little sleet from Madison, Wisconsin all the way down to Indiana which made for slow going. Stopped for the night in Le Roy, Indiana, and got back on the road early next morning. Once we reached the Ohio/PA border on I-70 the skies opened-up again, and I started to become concerned that we may have to load the Rock-Ola in the rain the next morning. We reached Elkins, WV about 8:30 Thursday night, and sadly we were unable to see much of the local scenery due to the rain and low clouds.

Thursday morning showed intermittent clouds, but thankfully no rain. We drove to Bartow, WV and met the seller, Paul, at his friend's shop. I have a picture of him (and his dog Dixie), but since I didn't ask for his permission to share his "mug shot" I'll keep it private.

Here's a shot of Dad and I soon after we arrived:

Upon close inspection I was happy to see that not only was the jukebox complete, but also in better condition than expected! I pulled the tubes from the amp, tightened down the sprung TT assembly, removed the fluorescent lights, and tied-down the tonearm. Other than wrapping it in cardboard and plastic wrap we were pretty much "good to go", so with the help of some of Paul's friends we tipped it on it's back and gently loaded it into a shipping crate the guys in the warehouse were kind enough to build for me before we left. The jukebox was supported on the bottom with a partially-inflated air mattress, and on the sides, top, and bottom by some fiberglass insulation I had hanging around the house:

We had two layers of plastic sheeting covering the shipping crate for the trip out, but since we experienced a few rips & tears in the covering, and since we drove through so much rain, we decided to cover the unit with everything we had for the return trip, which was four layers of plastic tarp. However, once we were ready for it, it never rained. Go figure!

And this seems like a good place to tell a little side-story. After speaking with the seller I learned I am only the third owner of this jukebox. Apparently the original owner, Dabney, a man who is now 94 years young and still quite active, purchased the unit new in 1955, and put it in his establishment: The Cheat Mountain Club, a restaurant/bar/dance hall type place located near the top of the Cheat Mountain (elevation 3,802 feet). Here's a shot of the building as it currently stands:

And here's a view of the valley the patrons would have seen when looking out those front windows (too bad it was such a cloudy day)

Paul said that the people who used to come to the Cheat Mountain Club and have "one too many" used to be able to grab a room at the hotel located immediately behind the Club:

(Let's just say this building would not be granted an Occupation Permit in it's current condition and leave it at that, ok?) :)

Dabney closed the Cheat Mountain Club in 1988, and sold the jukebox to Paul. Paul had no place to put it, but he arranged with Dabney to store it for him until such time as he could figure out what to do with it. Well, Paul never got around to it, Dabney needed to tear-down the storage building (before it fell down), and since he fell on some "hard times" recently Paul decided to sell it. In other words, the unit has not been used since 1988, and thus the records that were loaded in it were the same ones Dabney loaded back then. A small sample:

(Who the Hell is "Leapy Lee"?)

Getting back to the original intent of this post, after loading-up we decided to visit the Green Bank Telescope located about 10 miles away (link). Talk about interesting, this is the world's largest single aperture radio antenna, with "dish" dimensions measuring larger than a football field on each side, and with a total height of 485 feet!

"Huge" just doesn't seem to properly convey the immensity of this thing, and it is so sensitive that there is a 1,500 square mile "zone of silence" surrounding the site that is controlled by the US government so that no one installs a transmitter of any kind that may interfere with the facility. In fact, it is so sensitive that the "locals" have no cell phone coverage, they cannot put wireless internet in their homes, their kids cannot play with RC toys of any kind, malfunctioning microwave ovens are triangulated and "red tagged", the antenna(s) cannot be reached via vehicles burning gasoline (the spark ignition causes all sorts of havoc), etc, etc. Truly a very sensitive (and impressive) facilty, and one which should be on anyone's itinerary if they are ever in the area.

Thankfully we were able to view the previously-hidden-from-view beautiful countryside on the return trip, and since we took a familiar route (to me), the trip was quite uneventful. We drove more or less straight-through, stopping only for gas, food, and driver changes. Unloaded the jukebox Saturday morning, and the end result is this:

Qty (1) "Rosebud" safely ensconced here at home!

• http://www.gb.nrao.edu/   (Open in New Window)

Edits: 04/11/10

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Sonic Craft

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