Judy Watson travels the country to sell art, putting thousands of miles on her 1948 truck

Some hot-rods are basically just for show, but not Judy Watson's 1948 Chevrolet panel truck "Bluebie."

Bluebie is Watson's work of art, to be sure, but it's also her workhorse. She drives it all over the country as part of her job selling art at equine events. It's gone farther than your car, and probably farther than your car and your neighbor's car put together.

"It's probably got close to 600,000 miles on it," Watson says. "At first, it wasn't really a restoration, so much as I put it on the road to use it."

She says all of the truck's insides have been updated to the point where, under the hood, Bluebie is about as modern as the trucks rolling off the assembly lines now. And Watson's job keeps her on the road more often than not -- like a trucker, she says, but less extreme.

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Judy Watson poses for a photo outside her Cape Girardeau home on Wednesday, Aug. 31.Laura Simon

"I travel to horse events all over the place," she says. "Not just shows, but expos and rodeos, stock shows, and I sell artwork. Not just my own, but other artists' as well. Anything with an equine theme."

During the first 242 days of 2016, Watson spent 211 of them on the road with only Bluebie for company.

She bought the truck 30 years ago. At that point, she didn't know quite what to do with it, but it was too interesting to pass up.

"I found it the way a lot of these [antique cars] are found," she says. "Through a friend of a friend … I let it sit for 10 years or so and didn't know what to do with it, but I really liked it, so I kept it."

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But when she decided to commit to a more road-intensive job, it seemed to her the natural fit.

"It's not something that everyone would like to do, necessarily," she admits. "But I like it."

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Plus, she says, it gives her a bit of constant marketing at expos.

"A lot of people definitely recognize it when they see it," she says. "It's pretty noticeable, but it also makes you quite a bit of friends and it makes everybody smile, so that's a good thing."

Cars are just in her family's genes, she explains. She grew up surrounded by mechanics, and it was Judy's niece was who dubbed her Chevy "Bluebie."

And although Bluebie is a business-mobile, she's got plans to get a more conventional hot rod, too.

Through her travels, she's become friends with the custom builders at Rolling Bones Hot Rod Shop in Greenfield Center, New York.

While on the road, Judy Watson often fixes three pit crew meals a day for as many as 45 people. (Photo submitted by Judy Watson)

"They go to Bonneville [Salt Flats in Utah] every year to race some of the cars they've built, and for the last six or seven years, I go with them on that trip," she says. "I'm basically part of the crew."

And although she hasn't gotten to race yet -- which she hopes to do -- the builders at Rolling Bones are putting together a 1932 Ford two-door sedan just for her.

"I've always liked the sedan," she says. "Especially the early Fords."

Everyone is entitled to their own opinions when it comes to hot rods, of course, but Watson says the early Fords remind her of the classic postwar pieces that are now iconic.

"In the early '50s, young servicemen who came back from the war would build them, since they were pretty inexpensive at that time," she says.

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Hers will take at least another two years to complete, but until then, Bluebie's still going strong.