Two weekends ago, I hopped in the Roadmaster, crossed the Wisconsin/Minnesota state line and head to the bi-annual Odyssey Restorations open house in Spring Lake Park, Minn., with fellow car guys Bob Wilson and Bill Krause. This shop completes top-notch, Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance 'best in class' restorations, and every other year, owner Tom Rasmussen invites local hobbyists over for a preview to what might be heading west to Monterey in the coming year.

This February, the shop was filled with Franklins, a marque Rasmussen clearly has an affinity for, as well as a Cord 810/812 sedan that looked as though it had just entered the shop and a very late Stutz convertible coupe at least midway through its restoration.

The biggest surprise to the open house was the arrival of a heavy Classic in the parking lot, which even caught owner Tom Rasmussen off guard. A relatively young and new owner of a Duesenberg happened to be picking up his Murphy convertible coupe from a local upholsterer's shop when the upholsterer mentioned he was on his way to the open house. After loading the Model J in the trailer, they both stopped by Odyssey, and we all got a bonus Classic car sighting.

Bill Krause snapped these shots of our excellent adventure:

Franklin touring, if I recall.

Ca.-1905 Franklin runabout

Stutz straight-eight

Stutz convertible coupe coachwork