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We enjoyed a full range of temperature swings from a high of 55 degrees the first day to 116 on day twelve. Man that A/C felt good. Our journey began, much like the Bobby Troupe song. Since Chicago area lodging was booked up due to a Tiger Woods thing and something to do with a race in Joliet we opted for a gathering point outside the Metro areas congestion. This had several benefits not the least of which was to give those “Newbie’s” the opportunity to learn the ins and outs of traveling as a “Parade”, albeit unofficial. All the way to LA we were just that, a parade.
Key to smoother progress was the inexpensive portable radios that allowed us to stay in voice if not always visual contact. These also work well for the impromptu audio guide service about the passing sites and the playful ribbing that went on, in addition to alerting each other of mechanical problems or potty stops. Stop lights are the mortal enemy to a passing parade, with the radios it is much less a hassle then it might otherwise have been. Few lights are programmed to let 15 classic cars by without encumbrance, but this gives the bystander a chance to gawk, and boy was there gawking! An added benefit about the all the driving we did was the envy. You saw it everywhere. OK, old Chevy owners are not smart enough to envy us but everyone else was. You saw it in the faces of other drivers, or on the face of a guy with his chin dragging on the sidewalk just before he plows into a mailbox. Driving your Gal was what it was all about!
Don’t get me wrong, the sites you see, the people you meet and the things you experience are wonderful. About half of us had not done anything like this before as a group or otherwise, while the other half are old hands from multiple Ride Thru Time Chapter travels we have had since we formed in April 2000. We truly buy em to drive em. We have two couples, the Grubbs, that have brought cars to every Nationals we have had. Before we finish the trip we are on I hear “When we gonna do this again?” We can be counted on to have a plan for the next destination already started [and we do]. An added bonus is the thrill on some of our travelers’ faces when he or she is wowed by a mountain or canyon or other wonder that they have never experienced. It makes all the time spent on prep work seem worthwhile.
As for those sites, we worked at stopping at those that had interesting backgrounds, well mostly. There IS an inside joke here. They are far too numerous to list here. Also included were some of the places that had fine and not so fine classic cars for sale or on display. We saw everything from “Put your tongue back in” to “He’s got to be on drugs” and had a blast doing it. After all it is in our blood.
The ladies had many opportunities to part with their money as well. Museums, gift shops and tourist traps of every description are to be found along Route 66. So much so that we were usually late arriving at the “next stop”. Have I mentioned anything about herding cats yet? The next topic was the eating; we dined in some truly great places that treated us like family or truly honored guests and a few not so great. Gaining weight seemed to be everyone’s biggest enemy. As you can imagine walking in to a restaurant or café unannounced with 25 people in tow can give coronaries to the staff and be a disaster to a time line. We waited at a well known café in Texas for over ninety minutes while the lone cook and one waitress demonstrated how to have a nervous breakdown without killing someone. Attached gift shops can really save the day. Other establishments handled us without so much as a stutter; advance notice was the ticket here. We usually gave such notice of when and how many well in advance.
As for the makeup of our parade we had a 63 sedan owned by Bob and Fay Whitman, a 63 convertible owned by Ed and Reta Riley, a 63 fastback owned by Ray and Linda Grubb, a 65 fastback owned by Roland and Evelyn Leonhardt, two 66 7 litre cars, one owned by Bill Johnson the other by his son Chris, a 66 convertible owned by Greg and Lori Lankard, a 66 sedan owned by Tim and Marlo Miller, a 68 convertible owned by Len and Donna Fauser, a 68 fastback owned by Scott Grubb, a 68 convertible owned by Barry Temple, and a 73 4 door sedan owned by George Means II.
Also participating in the fun was a last minute substitute 76 Lincoln owned by Denny and Carol Decker, their recently purchased and painted 66 LTD sedan developed a rod knock the day before they left, BUMMER! A 57 T-Bird owned by Bob and Elaine Homer, and a 59 drop top owned by Murrel and Kathy Hollis rounded out the Classic car list.
We experienced mechanical delays to be sure, a newly re-cored radiator shooting a small stream of coolant was the first issue, U joints, A/C systems, tires, exhaust systems, TIRES, distributor caps, wheel covers, carburetors, and finally a timing chain that gave up our last day out, giving the car trailer its only passenger of over 70,000 accumulated miles. Oh, and DID I MENTION TIRES?!? There is a tire dealer in Tucumcari that will be able to upgrade his children’s college education because of our second visit to him. What fun we had with three cars jacked up in a rain storm all at the same time. We jacked, he changed. Would not have missed that for the world. A breakdown on the road was like a Chinese Fire Drill. We lived for breakdowns and a chance to do our imitation of an Indy pit crew. With so many car lovers [read wrench heads] along we almost got in each others way vying for “It’s my turn to fix this”.
A huge thank you goes out to Gary and Candice Schleicher for giving up on driving one of their fine classic cars and being saddled with the repair truck and trailer. Dragging and empty car trailer with a truck crammed full of tools and spare parts over five thousand miles could not have been that fun.
No small thanks can be given to Tom Yanulaytis, his bride, and Richard Bouman, FGCoA members from Southern California. The generosity of these people and there friends can not be overstated by us. Between escorting some of the members around a junk yard play ground, or aiding us with theme park tickets, we were very well taken care of. We wish to be able to return the favor someday.
Additional note needs to go to the owners of the historic “Blue Swallow Motel” in Tucumcari, NM. We ended up staying with Bill and Terri both out and back, there is that tire issue again. They made us feel welcome and that is saying a lot these days. They are excellent at finding wandering hats, helpful, funny, and the morning coffee Bill has going is very good. In short you can do no better on RT. 66 then to stay with these fine folks.
Make no mistake, when you start a journey in cars with 600 years worth of experience, and over 70,000 miles tallied in two weeks, and had as few incidents as we did, you’ve done well. Careful and extensive planning must go into an endeavor such as this. Good prior maintenance is a must, and the car must be driven a lot before hand to find all those gremlins. But it is worth every minute you spend waxing and shining to make them look and run good. We even had one member that washed his car for the second time in four years for this. We were really “livin large”.
The folks over at the “Ride Thru Time Chapter” are game for anything. Hey Joe, Portland, Oregon for the Nationals in 2007?!?
And we’re off.
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