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Farley and the family on a fishing trip in rural Nebraska.
We traveled over ten miles through muddy pasture to get to some small lakes on a
ranch owned by my friend Haile Bonde's family. (She's now Haile Kriefels, marriage
does that to you.) Of course I didn't catch any fish that day, but everyone else
did.
The cows didn't know what to make of Farley. I don't remember if Haile's
yellow Volkswagen had a name. It did pretty well on our off-road trip. |
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Blue skies, open field, sixty five degrees, light breeze,
just about the perfect day for a Diplomat to get away from it all.
You ever tease cows with a car? It's not very nice I guess, but it was
entertaining in a juvenile kind of way. No harm done, right? |
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A picture of Farley's good (?) side. He used to be
embarrassed at being kind of dirty, but has grown very comfortable with being a blue
collar car. At least he has hubcaps again since this photo was taken. |
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This car is the real Diplomat! |
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As you see this you are supposed to imagine a slow pan from
bumper towards the sky, with dramatic music playing up the feeling of history and power.
(LAUGH) Behind Farley, behind the trees and YIELD sign slightly to the
right, is my new home in Wisconsin. |
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Here I am with my then-pregnant wife Wendi in 1995, in
York, Nebraska. Farley is enjoying the sunshine while sitting across the
street from our old home there. Our daughter Guenivere was born that July, and we
now have a son named Frank V who was born April of 1998. Wendi is expecting again
late January of 2000. |
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Farley and Wendi in the same spot on the same day. I
actually do have a lot more pictures of my family than the car even though it may not seem
that way (chuckle). This is where Farley was sitting when he was rear ended. That
bug shield once lived on an ambulance that served in the Polk Volunteer Fire Department in
Nebraska. I was working at an ambulance dealer at the time, and got it when they traded
their unit in for a new model. At night the blue reflection was kind of cool. But
"cool" is relative, I guess. The bug shield was a victim of a hail storm that
tore up the city of York. |
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Note the license plate number. 004 FJB. My full name is
Frank James Billington IV, hence my initials are kind of FJB4. It should be noted
that this plate is NOT a "vanity" plate. The ### LLL pattern matches that
of the 437 DJH plate above. Getting this regular sequence plate with my initials was
a bit of a miracle-working by my father, who happens to have a charming and disarming way
of making friends and getting small harmless favors done. The entire FJB sequence of
Washington plates was assigned to King County because he pleasantly asked if he could get
that plate for me. In Washington State, entire letter sequences are assigned to an
entire county at a time. Of course, he also got the 003 FJB for himself. |
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This is a great black and white photo of Farley when he was
still fairly "new". If you click on this photo and see the enlarged
version, he still has no bleached spots in his paint, no dings or bumps, I long for those
days. I am glad I cut my hair, though. |
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This picture is from 1992. Mile marker 128 on
Interstate 90 in Washington State. We were traveling to see some friends at
Washington State University in Pullman. Eastern Washington is miles of endless
rolling hills covered with wheat. My friend Eric Manley posed for this photo with
the sign which reads "Now entering Nowheresville. Miles and miles to
nowhere." |
