Dan The Road Trip Guy
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Dan The Road Trip Guy
Road Trip Reminiscence: A Journey from Germany to Silverstone with Scott Neal and Herb Hemenway
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Brace yourselves for a nostalgic journey back in time, as we hit the road with my brother, Scott Neal, and his army buddy, Herb Hemenway. We're travelling back to a 44-year-old adventure from Nuremberg, Germany, to Silverstone, England that involves a thrilling Formula 1 race, a quirky hotel, and countless memorable experiences. Get ready for a humorous and heartwarming episode as Herb and Scott, two soldiers, share their tales of friendship, service, and the love for the open road.
Our route takes us through the winding paths of their service in the US Army's 1st Transportation Company based in Germany. We'll take pit-stops at their daily lives and adventures in Germany, their mutual love for driving, and how Alice, Herb's wife, developed a passion for F1 racing. As we cruise on, we'll get insights into Herb's recent shift from the world of technology to the literary landscape, with an exciting peek at his upcoming book, The Stonehenge Murders. So, hop in, fasten your seatbelts, and come along for a ride filled with laughter, camaraderie, and reminiscence.
Absolutely nothing beats windshield time. Welcome back to Dan the Roadtrip Guy, a podcast where we have candid conversations about life lessons learned on the road. I'm your host, bimmer Enthusiast and Roadtrip Extraordinaire, dan Neal. And now on to the show. This episode today is a little bit of a drive down memory lane For me. I have two guests on with me today And 44 years ago next weekend not this weekend I took a road trip with the both of them From Nuremberg, germany, to Silverstone, england, to the Formula 1 race, to the British Grand Prix. This all happens, that race is running today and I thought what better time to catch up with these two guys. One is my big brother, scott Neal, and his good friend that he met in Germany, herb Hemingway. Herb is in Minnesota, scott's in Lexington. I'm in Cincinnati. We're taking a virtual road trip. Welcome to the show, both of you.
Speaker 2:Ah, it's fun to do Yeah.
Speaker 1:Herb is a first time guest on the show. Herb, take a warm up lap. We'll go around Silverstone, so that's about a minute and a half or so for a warm up lap. My listeners, who is Herb Hemingway?
Speaker 2:A very boring guy. Let's see a quick roundup since our Army days, which were, there was good times. Scott befriended me when I showed up in Nuremberg, kind of guided me through my first year there, and then I went on to an assignment up in Frankfurt, ended up staying there three years. Then after that I left the Army and came back to Minnesota. They were kind of the heady days of the computers And so I went to work for IBM for a while and then in several jobs of applying computers to businesses to help them make money, and so I did that for boy a ton of years And I retired four years ago. I had wanted to do something other than computers and business and such, and so for the last few years I was working on writing a book. It's a fiction crime novel and it's finished. In fact we should be launching it here on Amazon within a month or so. It's called the Stonehenge Murders.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, okay.
Speaker 2:So I wanted, like I said, i wanted to do something entirely different instead of bits and bites and stuff that were all and I was a math major in school, and so, instead of all those well-defined things, i wanted to write some fiction which is all over the board and there's no well-defined at all, and so it's actually been kind of fun.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's great. Can't wait to pick that up. Family.
Speaker 2:Yes, i have Alice. my wife Alice and I have four kids And nowadays we even have I think it's like 11 grandchildren. My goodness, again, it makes me feel old talking about that. So, yeah, lots of family and most of them are nearby, so it's fun to see them and the kids quite often That's great.
Speaker 3:It's like they took after mom and dad and having children. Yeah, i think I was there for the birth of three of them, was it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, three of them were in Germany. We had one before we went over there. I was convinced it was the water over there, but it turns out it was something else and I actually ended up figuring it out Anyway that's great.
Speaker 3:Just four wonderful children.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, thanks for sharing that. So now I'm going to share with you my memories of that trip from Nuremberg to England. And here's what I remember and you guys can then correct my story, and maybe it's just something I dreamed up. I remember we left, i believe, on a Thursday evening I know it was in the dark and you guys had finished up, i guess your day and we headed off toward the English Channel and I remember us crossing the English Channel in the middle of the night with the car. So we had Scott's car and I remember sleeping in the backseat of that tiny BMW 320i. And I remember daybreak very vividly and I have photos of it to prove it, the cliffs of Dover, and then we got off and we made our way to the racetrack.
Speaker 1:And this I don't know if this is correct or not, but what I remember is we camped at the racetrack. Now I could be totally wrong, but I remember us camping one night. And then we stayed in a hotel in London one night and I have a picture of that hotel and it was called the Academy Hotel and on the sign it said centrally heated, and I remember the room had three twin beds and the bathroom and shower down the hall, and so we enjoyed hanging out in the paddock, walking the track on a Saturday, which I don't even know if you can do today without paying mega dollars. And, as I told her before the show, and Scott, i still have a poster from that race hanging in my basement framed, and I think the ticket price for race day was 10 pounds, so I'm sure it's much more expensive today. So that's my memory of that trip, gentlemen. So you can tell me if I am way off base or if that's what you remember, but to me it is a road trip I will always remember.
Speaker 3:I told Jennifer about the chandelier in the room where we stayed was a lot. I think I remember that too.
Speaker 2:It's the one thing I remember.
Speaker 3:And what do you remember about it?
Speaker 2:I remember your choice of chandelier. I remember this just a electric line run down and there was a bulb on the end and a switch and it hung in the middle of the room and that was it The one thing. And I remember we paid so much money for this room I mean Spartan would be generous, but I remember that single light bulb. So, chandelier, i mean you were joking right. I mean it's not that my memory is going bad.
Speaker 3:No, no, that's how I described it. Pretty. You described it just as I did to Jennifer.
Speaker 1:So did we actually camp at the racetrack, or did I not remember correctly?
Speaker 3:Yeah, i think we had our tent.
Speaker 1:We did. I'm pretty sure we had a tent.
Speaker 3:You and I camped at some racetrack over there.
Speaker 1:I'm pretty sure it was that racetrack. And then I remember you and I took another road trip and we camped someplace in Switzerland, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:You mentioned walking through the paddock and I remember that vividly and have, as you did there, contrasted that with today. I mean you have to pay big time bucks in order to walk the paddock, but I recall we just walked through and you could look into the, not just the cars, i mean you could look into the engine compartment, stroll on and look at the next car, and I've often thought about that. Just unheard of today.
Speaker 1:Can't even hardly get close to them today.
Speaker 2:I remember another one that a similar thing is that we were able to walk a fair amount of the track. I remember distinctly walking down the hangar straight to let's see it would have been almost to see it would have been stow. I mean that that again is unheard of. Like Gone to the Canadian Grand Prix Let's see three times now and you can kind of walk sort of close. But nothing like we were able to do with Silverstone.
Speaker 3:Well, one of my memories was how much patience you guys had with me driving on the on the wrong side of the road.
Speaker 2:I remember that and in particular, i recall coming up over a rise You know it was, you couldn't quite see more than just over the top. And I remember coming up over it and all of a sudden, a car comes the other way and your Instinct was to like swerve to, you know, the right side of the road, which would have been disastrous. I was, i was in awe that we didn't hit somebody, or somebody hit us. Yeah, it was a challenge.
Speaker 3:It was a. It was a trip, a trip, for sure that. And just putting the car on the boat and all the humanity that we saw in the boat Getting over, getting over and back. Who came up with that idea, herb?
Speaker 2:you know, i don't, i don't know. I'm gonna blame you because, as I have, for let's see, i guess it's 45 years now that the very first Formula one trip or a race that I went to was in Hockenheim in Germany.
Speaker 2:And and I remember that you convinced me to go and I and I, you picked me up at like 530 in the morning or something like that, and I'm saying all this was a mistake And I just said, how did I I got a quick be in such a nice guy, i, i. But we went to that race and I had the best time. I Remember it distinctly that it was so much fun, the, the atmosphere of these huge crowds and the noise and the speed of it all, and and Within a few weeks we threw Alice in the back of your BMW and went down to Austria, the Osterichering and It's. I have been hooked ever since. I blame you entirely.
Speaker 3:She was. She was pregnant with one of your children. I remember, yes, and we were driving down the road and she, she indicated that she had gotten a bit hungry And I made, i made the comment well, we need to feed the mother.
Speaker 2:Remember that line. Yes, oh good one.
Speaker 3:Yeah, love Alice. Yeah, yeah, that's. Those are a couple of the memories. Yeah, i remember, yeah, trip. I remember that trip well as well. I didn't realize, i guess, that I was the Was the instigator of your Formula one fandom.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh yes, absolutely, and I thank you for it all the time.
Speaker 3:So Alice probably not so much Yeah oh no, she's an avid, avid fan.
Speaker 2:She loves to watch along with with me. We watch Qualifying in the races together and, oh no, she knows the driver. She was all excited for Landon, ours today, who had pole for about 30 seconds and then ended up at P2. So no, it's great fun. I'm sitting here. I still have my Ferrari shirt on. I usually We're one of my Ferrari shirts in the when I walk qualifying or the race. It doesn't seem to help much, but So I've been a Ferrari fan for a long time.
Speaker 1:Well, you both have, sounds like, some great memories from your time together in Germany. One of you, or both of you, tell me, how'd you meet.
Speaker 2:This is yours.
Speaker 3:I was a. I was a taxed, tasked with being her sponsor. When you, when you have, when you're coming in, when you're a new officer coming into Germany, you have someone who's been there for a while and I think I've been there for at least six months. When he arrived in In early February and I picked him up at the train station, it was it was a cold evening and I'm Herb got off and he got off the train in his shirt sleeves.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:And I made some comment about that. Didn't you hear that it's cold over here? And I recall that his remark was well, I'm from Minnesota, This is a cold.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was. Yeah, this is balmy for me.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, yeah, that's, that's where we met and when we met, you know, and we've now enjoyed 44 years of friendship. Yeah, yeah, for sure, captain, captain touch, one of the few people that I have kept in touch with from my army days.
Speaker 1:Yeah, fun And.
Speaker 3:Alice, Alice wasn't. she came later. right, She didn't come with you, Correct?
Speaker 2:Yep, yep, she was back in Minnesota for a month or two. You had to have housing before they would allow you to bring your family.
Speaker 1:Did you go to the army out of college, herb?
Speaker 2:I went to the. I was, we all, we were both in the transportation course. So I went to Fort Eustis to do sort of like officer basic kind of stuff. Let's see, I went to Fort Knox, not too far from you there, for what was that called? this kind of motor school or something?
Speaker 3:Yeah, something like that. I didn't do that one I did. interestingly enough, they sent me to data processing school. I sent you to the motor school. You're the one that wound up in computers.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:That's the army. That's the army for you.
Speaker 2:That would be the army. Yep, that's why I did that. I was, i went through ROTC and college and stuff and then on to well, i actually went on to that was another army thing. I actually went on to grad school for two years but then picked up the normal sequence of transportation school and then motor school I think I went to one other thing in there somewhere and then over to Germany.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:We were in first transportation company, Right Yeah. And when we got there, Captain Larry Bowser was the was the commanding officer that year we had 40, i think it was 41 trucks and turbine hour platoon leaders.
Speaker 3:I think it was 41 trucks but we managed to put out at least 60 trips a day during that year. That Bowser was the company commander, the company just after he rotated it out of command and we had rotated off. But I think we could take partial credit for the fact that first transportation company was the transportation company of the army that year. Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:What sort of things did you haul? Was it supplies or military equipment? or tell me a little more.
Speaker 3:Anything the army needed to have hauled that could be put on a flatbed trailer Illinois. the most important thing that we hauled was the mail. We were. we had three trucks that would go to Frankfurt I think it was Frankfurt or some place of labor and collect the mail, bring it back to Nuremberg to be distributed to the area down there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a lot of times they didn't. You didn't even really know much what was on the truck, so, but you had guys hauling them all over everywhere. I am, you know, used to think that with that, if you had a platoon of guys, you know that they'd be, you know you'd be daily supervising them and such. And it was nothing like that. These guys are all over Germany and had no idea what it was. I do remember one incident Scott, it was you, do you remember this one Occasionally we had we would haul some like let's see what did we call them?
Speaker 2:They would have been like armored personnel carriers, but some of them would have like weapons Mounted on the top and unique things. And you are, we would haul these things to what was it? graph and fear was Training area where they'd drive around and try not to hurt themselves and stuff. But anyway, i don't think he was in my platoon, but he's Bobby, in your platoon. But the driver Had had a low boy for this thing But went under a bridge and it was to, the load was too high and it clipped the Weapon off the top. I mean, it was like a hundred thousand dollars worth of damage or something, and there were General level officers inquiring about the thing, and it was. Do you remember this?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, well, you were probably personally responsible. I just remember that they said oh, thank God it wasn't me, but most of the time it was just mundane supplies going all over everywhere.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Dan, these were, these were commercial truck, they were. They were nice for harvesters. Okay they weren't big army army trucks, they were over the road, that truck. So we were out there on the Autobahn test driving with going on a check ride with some of these drivers That had just gotten out, just got their drivers license, i think.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:It was a real. Oh yeah, they're all real young guys real experience.
Speaker 3:Yeah, one of my memories was getting to drive the The 47 D was what was called it. Those had D 12 one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the one big one. It was a cabover thing.
Speaker 3:Cabo cab over truck and Larry Maxwell was our. He was our high miler.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's right.
Speaker 3:I remember that name though 100,000 accident-free miles or something like that. Yeah, we were. We were up at Graffin beer. Headed toward Graffin beer, he said come on, lieutenant, get over here and show me what you can do. And so I thought well, surely I can do this. We were rolling down a hill and I missed a gear. And we were. We were out of gear tank was on the trailer And I looked over at Larry and I said this might be the end of your hundred.
Speaker 2:Oh boy.
Speaker 3:He was responsible. I tell the, i tell the people who come to talk to rotary club about the army Herb, i tell them that they make a big mistake by having the, the young sergeants, to come and Talk to us, because they should get we old guys who have been out of the army for For 30 years or more, because all we can remember are the good stories.
Speaker 2:That's right, yeah, yeah, yeah, there there were Times that maybe weren't quite so fun, but that's okay.
Speaker 1:I have long ago forgot those, So yeah well, thank you, thank you for sharing those stories. Those are. Those are great and great memories, i'm sure, for for both of you. So I know what car Scott had in Germany, herb, but I don't recall what you were driving. For some reason in my mind I had a puso, but I don't know if that was right or not. So what, what was your car?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, uh, while we were there, um, i I had a Volkswagen it's actually one that I it was a Passat that I had bought in the us And had it brought over. I drove that for a while.
Speaker 2:Okay but just before we came home up in frankfort, there were let's see myself and two other Officers there and our headquarters think somehow they learned about this deal on three Pujo 504s that were available and you could get a great price. So I ended up, uh yep, buying a pujo 504, drove it for I don't know, maybe just a few months there, and then had it shipped home and I drove it in Minnesota for I don't, at least a year or two but um yeah, when's the last time you saw a pujo of any kind?
Speaker 2:much less, you know a 504, so, and it was a diesel, oh my goodness.
Speaker 3:Yeah, ah, that's cool far craft from that to your Porsche.
Speaker 2:The pujo. I mean, it was a terrible car from Minnesota because it it uh, it just refused to start in even Cold weather, much less really bitter cold that we get you know up here in January and such, and the thing Was really just a glorified french fruit wagon was all it was, but uh, and I think top speed was 68, 69. So you were a real menace on the Autobahn. You had to be very careful. You know, going so slow But it did have torque, my goodness, you could put it in first gear and I think it would. You say it would climb up telephone poles. So it's a unique car.
Speaker 1:It's great. Maybe you should have hung on to that, because we don't see many of them today.
Speaker 2:No, they're. I haven't. I don't think Bujo is sold in the US for I don't know, 30 years or so. Yeah, probably so.
Speaker 1:Coming near to the end of our virtual road trip. But is there a memory besides those F1 memories or Army memory, something that sticks out from your time in Germany that you just looked back on and that was just a great memory.
Speaker 2:Well, we had three kids over there and we were really busy with just day to day life, i mean growing up time for our kids. It was the day to day stuff. So I mean, alice was just being worked to death every day and we lived in a complex. It was just sort of a big, it was more than a barracks, but it was for families and such, and she'll tell you about having. You would get your two days out of the week to do laundry and here we had all these kids and diapers and stuff And you had, like Tuesday, from eight to 10 things like that.
Speaker 3:I'd make an appointment to have access to the washing machine.
Speaker 2:But anyway, that was fun, and then I mean experiencing Germany. I love the food and the beer and all that stuff.
Speaker 1:How about you, scott, anything besides those things that stick out?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was just such a great time in my life being there, traveling all over. Much of my time there I was single and I had a lot more freedom to travel and do things than maybe Herb did And I spent a lot of time with them. I spent a lot of time with Herb, alice and the children Got to know them and that was just a great treat. You know, driving, driving has always been going on road trips. That's always been a thing for me Driving up and down the Autobahn and the cars that I had, yeah, 74 2002 turbo and showing it off to Herb.
Speaker 3:I'm sure he remembers, remembers, remembers that first trip after I bought that before 74 turbo and we were driving down the road. But wasn't that in Herb.
Speaker 2:He says I remember you got it and you were so proud, and here I mean this was a real coveted car and it was. I remember it was just wicked fast. But when we got it, i mean we were nowhere close to the Autobahn but we took it out of town. I recall somewhere outside of Nernberg and you were hitting the accelerator a little bit and looked in the rear view mirror and here I remember your eyes. You turned to look at me. I'm in the passenger side. You looked in your eyes, you're like looking out, and you said, oh my God, it's smoking like a freight train. And we looked back and there was this cloud of blue going out the back and I said, well, it's quick, but it does smoke a little. Yeah, yeah, it's smoking like a freight train.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, yeah, that was a fun car. My other memory, i remember I think it was probably the second I arrived. I was exhausted, i'd never flown before, i'd never been out of the country, but anyway, i arrived and it was your other friend, scott, and I can't remember his name. He's a lawyer, i believe, from maybe down in Texas. Yeah, you guys decided, i think, he was leaving and you decided you'd never toured the Red Light District. So that is my first memory of arriving in Germany as you guys taking me on a tour of the Red Light District.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah, that was down at the wall, Herb.
Speaker 2:The wall. I haven't thought of that in forever and yet again, a unique experience. We certainly don't have those in Minnesota.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I only remember one lady and again I could be totally wrong or I'd dream this up, but she looked out the window and her door or something and she goes group rates And I'm like, oh wow, this is really interesting, it's one more Torte. Well, hey, i've enjoyed my time with you both. I haven't seen Herb in 44 years next weekend. I just really thank you for coming on the show and just sharing some memories that you have with Scott in particular and our little road trip together 44 years ago.
Speaker 2:Thanks for thinking of me, it was fun.
Speaker 1:Before we wrap up Herb, i always give my guest an opportunity to say hey, and so you've got a book coming out. Tell people the title again and how to find it, and hopefully they'll pick it up and enjoy a read.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's called The Stonehenge Murders. Within about a month area it should be out on Amazon. It's both an e-book and a paperback. Pretty sure we're not going to win any Pulitzer Prizes with this thing, but it's just kind of an entertaining read. I think it's kind of fun. The protagonist, or hero, his name is Dino. He's an Italian second generation immigrant, so I think it's kind of a fun story. So I think it's a good read.
Speaker 1:Well good, Hopefully people will pick that up. Yeah, me too, Scott. How do people find you? Yeah?
Speaker 3:Oh, i'm at Eastcott Neal Incorporated bsneelecom. Check out our new website.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, I've enjoyed our trip together, both of you, and hope you have a good weekend and then enjoy the British Grand Prix.
Speaker 2:All right, okay, thanks very much.
Speaker 1:Yep, see you guys. Thank you. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Dan the Road Trip Guy and we look forward to having you back again next time. In the meantime, if you want to find me, you can find me on the internet at daniedannynealnealcom. Until we meet up again, keep having conversations and keep driving.
