May 11, 2007.....Day 2.....

Today was the first official day of our Road Trip.  We met Colonel Nick Fallier at our hotel at 9:00 a.m. and then headed over to his house so we could spend the day with him and check out his amazing collection of  war artifacts.  There is no doubt that Nicks collection of war memorabilia is second to none, and I doubt that there are many museums that have a collection as extensive as Nicks.  What's even more amazing are the detailed stories that Nick tells about each piece and picture.  Meeting with Nick and strolling through his house is one of those events where the pictures and words simply don't do it justice, and it is truly a shame that more people will not have the opportunity to spend a day with Nick in his house like we did. 

He has all of the items in his house divided into different segments, with the first room displaying various artifacts and relics that he has found  and collected over the years while diving, traveling and hunting around the world.  This room has everything in it from a massive 3 million year old sharks tooth that he found while diving, to his vast collection of authentic arrow heads.

The next room is the one that he seems most proud and excited about, as he should be.  That room is the one with all of his military medals, photo's and models of each airplane that he has flown (he estimates that he has at least 14,000 hours of flight time, which is equivalent to 583 days @ 24 hours per day).  In this room alone we spent well over an hour going from one item to the next as Nick told us detailed stories about each picture, model and medal.  "I've flown every one of those planes", he says as he points towards his collection of 12-15 model airplanes.  He then picks up each one and tells us a detailed story about an exciting mission or close-call that he had in one of those planes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The basement is where he keeps the rest of his military artifacts that he has collected over the years.  This is the one segment of his collection that left me speechless.  He has everything down there from machine guns to a full instrument panel out of a P-47 Thunderbolt, which is mounted exactly as they were in the planes.  It even has power running to it so that it lights up and you can look through the machine gun site to see a plane on one of the pictures hanging on a wall behind it that just happens to be lined up in the sites, just like it would have looked in real life to one of the pilots in a dog fight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To say that Nick is a character is an understatement.  To give you a better idea, following is a picture of one of his business cards that he had made several years ago.  The funny thing is that I am not quite sure exactly which ones don't apply to him.

 

Another example of his unique character is this picture of the tombstone that he has already "pre-booked" as he put it.  This was the first thing that he showed us on the way to his house.

 

Picture of Nicks buddies from the 39th Fighter Squadron...

 

Picture of Nicks basement, showcasing a very small portion of his vast collection of military memorabilia...

 

After spending most of the day at Nicks house we headed to Cairo, GA to pick up the Jeep which had been stored in Josey's shop.  The old Willys had been in very good hands for the past several years and that was ridiculously evident as soon as we walked into Josey's shop.   Aside from an amazing collection of jeeps (6 in total), Josey has a shop that would make any man drool.  I don't think that I have ever met anyone as meticulous and detailed as Josey.  The floor was so clean that I would have eaten off it, and every single thing in the shop had its own special place that had been perfectly planned and well thought-out.  he even ensures that the labels on each product are facing forward and perfectly lined up on the shelves.  He had also kept a detailed maintenance log of everything that he had done on the jeep, when it was done, and when it needed to be done next.

I need to rescind the statement that I had made earlier that "the jeep hadn't done much except collect dust over the years".  That couldn't be further from the truth.  In fact, I doubt that the jeep would have seen more dust if it had been stored in a hospital operating room.  Sorry Josey.  And I thought that I was the only one that got stressed when the items on my shelves don't line up perfectly and in the exact "right spot".

 

We needed to remove the ball hitch from the Jeep and install the pintle receiver so we could tow our M16 military trailer.  Will is sitting on cardboard so that he doesn't get the floor dirty :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are the rest of the pictures from May 11, 2007

click on the pictures to view the full size...

 

previous day     next day