Tuesday June 12, 2012

　
Hello All,

Been a couple of days of not blogging as we are just too dang tired to blog once we get to our room... Who knew just driving would be sooo tiring? The thing about following Rt.66 is that it is all about the journey and not about the destination... It's kinda hard to slow down after going crazy trying to see everything in every town for 6 weeks... I sometimes feel like we are moving sooooo slow, I have to keep repeating to myself, "It's the journey, It's the journey".....

Gary has given a great account of our last few days so I won't repeat it. Every day has something amazing and I can't believe that in less than 2 weeks we will be at Woodies on the Wharf... I'm so looking forward to seeing my kids and my family. Can't wait!

On to Amirrillo tomorrow about 285 miles of Rt.66!

See ya on the Road,
Ter :)


"From the driver's seat".....As well marked as Rt. 66 was marked in Missouri and Kansas, in Oklahoma it's.....not. Turns aren't marked and the signs that ARE there are miles apart. The road is better identified by business names... We have continued to enjoy the drive, a slower pace and more interesting scenery. We get to see all of America, the good and the bad, the rich and the poor, the big cities and tiny towns.
We passed through Joplin, MO, the site of a terrible tornado earlier in the year. I'm not sure where it hit but the entire east end of town looks brand new! We also witnessed the results of a tornado in Branson with several buildings heavily damaged, some being torn down completely. Signs were blown down, roofs torn off and windows broken out. The balcony railings of an apartment building showed sing of material hitting them, bent, twisted and broken out.....very scary!

The car continues to run great and as long as the air conditioning holds up for a couple more weeks I'll consider it a victory! On to Oklahoma City tomorrow....

6/12.....After getting into Oklahoma a little further Rt. 66 was better marked and easier to follow but we still got 'lost' a couple times but only by a mile or so. There is very little traffic on 66 which is surprising since so many people say "..oh I want to do that some day...". We see some small motorcycle groups and the rare classic car/hot rod but for the most part we have it all to ourselves. There are so many still existing reminders of a past time, but they won't be there forever. Frankly, I find it surprising so many are still around!
On Sunday we came upon a little local car show in some little town with about 50 cars, mostly newer (70's and later) but some old...we met a guy and his wife had a Model T depot hack (woodie) and he was telling me about a car show he went to that 'had over 300 cars!!!' Then I told him that Good Guys in Pleasanton has 3500 cars....he looked at me like I was crazy...then when we mentioned we were from California, the conversation was over anyway... I guess we're the devil's disciples.

We came across an active drive in movie theater, still well maintained and playing the latest movies....very cool! As you drive the route you see lots of things to see.... stores, gas stations, motels....the coolest yesterday was the ruins of a stone gas station originally built in the late teens or early twenties...lots of history! As we entered Oklahoma City we came upon a place called 'Pops' with a huge soda bottle sculpture out front and literally hundreds of different sodas, or pops as they call them here. We got into OKC and toured Bricktown, an old warehouse district converted to restaurants and music clubs. We had a nice Mexican 'dinch' (early dinner/late lunch) and toured the city a bit.

Had a little car trouble, weird electrical stuff again....the ignition switch went bad in the Bricktown parking lot. I was able to jump the wires and get 'home'. I got a replacement quickly installed as well as replacing a burned plug wire.

This morning we were invited by a local woodie club member, Julian Harris, to visit two private car collections. The first was about 30 cars, all perfectly restored, all in running condition and all older than 1913!!!! One was a 1912 Tincher, the only one known to exist! He also has a Mercer runabout (one recently sold for $1.5 million!) as well as more common cars like Model T's. In his work shop he had several cars in various stages of restoration, all being done in a first class fashion. Oh, by the way, he's 90 years old!!!!!

After that we went to the museum/work shop of Ted Davis....this man is the most amazing crafstman I have ever seen. He presently has several ongoing projects....one is a very early Packard touring car of which seven were built at a cost of $7,000 ($400,000 in todays dollars) but had a couple problems and were all recalled by Packard and destroyed. In a series of 'right place, right time' he managed to get the actual Packard drawings and is building one.....from scratch!!!! Everything...engine, trans, frame...evrything! As if that wouldn't be enough, he's building a replica of the Miller front wheel drive Indy car...again, from scratch excepting only the engine. He's finishing a hot rod Model A pick up he's had since he was 10 ( its gorgeous!) The visit to his shop was both humbling and inspiring to do better work. Thank you Julian, for making this happen.

After those visits we went to the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial... very moving and sad....so many innocent children killed. Emotionally draining so we returned to our room to take a break and rest up for a long drive to Amarillo, TX, early tomorrow....