travelingwithtools

[travelingwithtools]

Teenage Dumb Stuff With Cars

When I was a young kid, I wasn’t interested in cars at all. My older sister got her license three years before me, and I saw her having to play chauffeur to her friends in Dad’s Chevy. It didn’t seem like a good time, crazy as that sounds. I remember being crammed in the back seat of the Impala Coupe with two or three older girls on the way to school and being unhappy about it, even though I had…

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#car life #swedish bricks #volvo

[travelingwithtools]

Another Look at the Dark Side of Catch and Release

I came across an article on a Wyoming website today that discusses the pressure fish face on some of the West’s iconic rivers. Actually, the story focuses on the North Platte’s Grey Reef section, which is one river I haven’t made it to yet, but the problem affects many popular rivers. Hooking injuries taking toll on North Platte fishing “Almost a quarter of the river’s trout are seriously…

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#catch and release #flyfishing #idaho #Montana #troutbum #wyoming

[travelingwithtools]

One Day in the Shop: May 25, 2012

Two Hispanos, a Bugatti and a U-16 Miller… A typical day at Phil Reilly & Co, on Paradise Drive in Corte Madera, California. The variety of projects under way at any given point in time was remarkable, with this snapshot in time featuring four pre-war powerplants and a hint of the future in the back, the roll hoops of two ’70’s Grand Prix cars poking up from the Hispano Suiza J12’s shiny black…

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#bugatti #h-6 #harry miller #hispano suiza #J-12 #scintilla #U-16

[travelingwithtools]

Texas Specks (Salty Toothy Trout)

In 2019, I spent a few winter months pursuing Texas redfish on the fly from North Padre Island eastward over to Matagorda Bay. I caught plenty of small puppy drum blind casting into murky water, but the goal of sight fishing to big reds in clear water was elusive. I did finally find those fish at the end when the water was warmer, but more often I found a speck on the end of my line. According…

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#bitey torpedoes #flyfishing #flytying #free camping #redfish #sea trout #specks #texas #troutbum

[travelingwithtools]

A Busy March in Norcal

It is a beautiful sunny spring day outside here in northern California, and I need to get out there. So far in 2024, I’ve worked in the shop five days a week and been chained to the computer most weekends. Here’s a few images from the past couple of months… The Alfa Romeo 2500 SS got new brake hydraulics and a good going over to get ready for the CSRG opener at Sears Point a couple weekends ago.…

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#1

[travelingwithtools]

One Day in the Shop... June 2, 2010

A post-war Jaguar, a brass-era Isotta-Fraschini and a pre-war Bugatti Type 35B. Man, what a place to work. I remember when I first got the job, I couldn’t really get my head around the way that the guys working there were used to it. The types of cars that came in and out, day after day, they were like rock stars. Top level celebs. If Reilly’s was a music venue, it would be as if the Rolling…

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#bugatti #Isotta Fraschini #Jaguar

[travelingwithtools]

A Madison River Fall Run Flybox

I’ve got a story simmering about the experience of fishing the Madison River above Hebgen lake in the Fall and it just isn’t coming together the way I want it to yet. In the meantime, let’s take a look at some of the flies that I’ve tied for that event, in West Yellowstone, Montana. Probably my favorite fly for that water at that time of year is the Bakers Hole Bugger, which is illustrated in…

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#bakers hole #flyfishing #flytying #Montana #soft hackle #troutbum

[travelingwithtools]

Bugatti Blocks Balderdash!

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#ettore bugatti #french cars #molsheim #type 35 #type 57

[travelingwithtools]

Abandoned Dreams

One of the things I like about my nomadic lifestyle is the ability to frequently explore new grounds, and I enjoy poking around old historic ruins when I find them. In 2021, I was fishing the Madison River in Montana, and I was based for a few days out of the Ruby Creek BLM campsite, which is about 20 miles south of Ennis. One day I decided to scout for access to the river upstream of the…

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#flyfishing #homestead #log cabin #Montana #photography #pioneers

[travelingwithtools]

One Day in the Shop...September 20, 2013

A new and recurring post topic: What was going on in the shop that day? In 2005, I was fortunate to find a place working at Phil Reilly & Co in Corte Madera, CA. Reilly’s was known around the world as one of the best restoration shops in the United States, a reputation hard won over many years of delivering cars that worked. A lot of shops are known for producing cars that can win at Pebble…

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#8c2300 #type 39 #type 57 #type 59

[travelingwithtools]

Wintering in the Desert

October, 2018: It got pretty cold in West Yellowstone and I finally had to face up to the end of my Montana adventure for the year. I started south towards warmer weather, but lingered on the Teton river in Idaho for a final week, and twice had pipes freeze in my motorhome. It had been dropping into the teens at night, and even though I’m pretty sturdy and don’t mind sleeping bundled up in the…

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#arizona #desert life #dirtbikes #flyfishing #snowbird #troutbum

[travelingwithtools]

New Parts for Old Bugattis

About ten years ago, while working at Reilly’s old shop in Corte Madera, I had my hands in a particularly interesting 1930 Bugatti Type 35B. This post started off as an attempt to craft a recurring theme along the lines of “On this Day in History”, but I haven’t quite sorted out the format yet. In the process of searching my photos by date, I came across these images of a new mirror mount being…

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#fabrication #handmade #type 35

[travelingwithtools]

#bugatti #restoration #fabrication #handmade #aluminum #type 35

[travelingwithtools]

A Week on the Big Mo in July

Tricos, Caddis and PMDs, Oh My! The Missouri river in Montana is one of the top destinations in America for fly fishers who prefer the art of the dry fly over chucking bobbers and lead. I first visited “the Big Mo” in 2018, the year that I spent trying to hit all of the big name waters in Montana, and some of the lesser known ones. I had never attempted to take on the trico hatch, as my skills…

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#flyfishing #flytying #Montana #troutbum

[travelingwithtools]

A Ferrari 166 Under the Knife

Ferraris seem to be all the rage lately, what with the recent film generating headlines. I haven’t seen it yet and probably won’t for some time, as movies about cars and racing have almost always been a vast disappointment. What a letdown “Rush” was, after all the hype. The racing scenes were just as bad as in “Driven” (well, maybe not that bad)! But recently there are tons of images of early…

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#166 #barchetta #ferrari #fontana #Il Chiodo di Bracco #mille miglia

[travelingwithtools]

August on the Bighorn: 2021

I had spent a couple of weeks on Hebgen lake near West Yellowstone, and after getting my fill of that top notch dry fly action, I decided it was time to move on. As often happens in my meandering travels, I didn’t have a plan set in stone. The skies had been getting more smoky from wildfires in Idaho, and the temperatures were hot hot hot. Hoot owl restrictions were in place on several waters and…

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#bighorn #flyfishing #flytying #Montana #troutbum

[travelingwithtools]

A glimpse back in time... October 2008. Ferrari 250 Testarossa, Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B, Duesenberg J engine.

#ferrari #alfaromeo #duesenberg #oldschool #automotiverestoration