Well finally found time to document some of our travels. We arrived in San Francisco last Sunday 29th April and collected the Hudson from the shipping depot. Hit the road for Bakersfield and made it there late afternoon. Doubly worn out with the flight and driving 300 miles to get part way along on the trip. Next stop was going to be Flagstaff. We stopped in Williams AZ to show my traveling companion a bit of R66. Came back to the Hudson and wouldn't start. Drama as my new SIM card hadn't connected so no phone. Next morning got a tow to a mechanics shop and it appeared to be a repeat of an old problem a few years back with a relay to fuel pumps overloading. He got us fixed sort of and we headed off again heading east. Had a repeat of the problem a few hours later but resolved it temporarily with a hot wire from the ignition.Just a temporary solution. Made it into Albuquerque Tuesday night and headed off next morning bound for Shamrock Texas. Unfortunately we missed connecting with Hamber Larry(Winduptoy on HAMB). We were stopped at a servo filling up and asked the attendant if she knew Larry and she pointed to a house on the hill in front of us and said that is where he lives!! Larry was out and couldn't make it so that was a shame. Continued on and traveled some of 66 and stopped in Santa Rosa to check out the car museum there owned by Bozo and his wife.Been there before but there are always different cars and it was a first for Bill. Next stop on the road was the Blue Swallow Motel,an iconic R66 experience. A 1957 Hudson in the driveway and a Pontiac on the sidewalk. Made it into Shamrock and got lots of pictures of the car at the Conoco Station which is a landmark of Shamrock. Back on the road and heading to Dewey. Stopped at Russells Truck Stop at Glen Rio for lunch and they had another museum there with some nice cars. Made it to Dewey Thursday afternoon after battling heavy traffic around Tulsa and out on the new turnpike.At last a chance to relax a little and let the stresses of 1800 miles with incredible traffic all the way virtually. I hadn't driven over here for a few years and the volume of tractor/trailers now is phenomenal. At anytime you could look at the approaching traffic and see 10/20/30 trucks heading down the Interstate or past a rest area with 50+ of them parked up. So we had to be on alert driving a RHD on the RHS of the road. Here are some early photos. Collecting the car and getting ready. View attachment 3889086 View attachment 3889087 View attachment 3889088 View attachment 3889086
Next lot is a stop at Kingsman and a car sales yard next to the diner. A lot of foreigners like French and Germans doing R66 on motorbikes.
Next stop Williams AZ and disaster strikes with electrical problems. Got that resolved temporarily and moved onto Albuquerque.Then a stop in Santa Rosa for museum stuff
Next Shamrock TX. Did the Conoco and on the way out saw this yard of old cars with lots of Edsels,. As we were checking it out a pickup truck pulls up and the owner talks to us. His father was the local Edsel dealer and at his house he had his own personal collection of cars(the good stuff) like a 58 Chev convertible with a W motor and a whole lots of other stuff. Would like to have had time to check it out but had to get going.
More to come late with Dewey and the Stray Kat 500. Well over 500 cars but some very agricultural. Mickey and his crew do a great lot of work to make this run a success. Thanks to Travis(Too Tall Okie) for use of his hoist to an under car inspection and his friend Wendell the auto electrician who fixed our wiring properly. Have to sort the photos from Friday and Saturday and will get back to you all.
Good to see your travel pictures, and that you have had the electrical issue fixed. Look foward to seeing more pictures. Hudson looks great over there.
Sorry I missed you but glad that things are lining out for you. Travel safe and I'll ride along with you on this thread. Larry
Still here but have a bit of catching up to do with photos. Busy schedule to keep up the program. In Imperial yesterday and today. Went to Kurt McCormick's collection yesterday and Mann Restorations. Heading off tomorrow morning about 9am for Auburn IN. Stopped off for a photo opportunity in Lebanon at the Munger Moss Motel and met Ramona the owner who turned 80 on Tuesday. Then another photo at the Wagon Wheel Motel where I stayed with my wife back in 2009.
Maybe time for Kurt McCormicks collection. What a great guy. He extended the the most gracious hospitality and I get the impression that not a lot of people get into the inner sanctum. I guess rolling in to his beautiful house in the Hudson and then Kurt coming along as the passenger to lunch and Mann Restorations helped. Kurt remined me of John Cleese from Monty Python and Fawlty Towers and he did say that he had been told that before. He has an incredible collection of memorabilia, magazines and old parts including manifolds, steering wheels and hub caps.
But wait there is more. The Buddy Alcorn Merc, Barris Buick, Tony Pasano Buick, Valley Custom 32 Roadster,Harry Westergard Cadillac, and lots of others.This man is dedicated to preserving the history. A project at Mann Restorations now is the oldest surviving Barris car, a 38 Ford coupe, Here is the link to Kustomarama site https://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?title=Kurt_McCormick
Kurt McCormack is one of hot roddings true gentleman and a living encyclopaedia, His personal collection is second to none. We called by last year after a personal invite, thought we would be there an hour maximum. 6 hrs later we were on our way after taking Kurt and Amy out to their favourite restaurant for lunch. Turns out Amy had a pen friend in NZ who just happened to work with my wife in our little town. Small world!!
So here is Mann Restorations and Kurt's Barris 38 Coupe being worked on.Reputed to be the oldest surviving Barris car. The early work they did was ROUGH and a lot of reworking necessary. I guess they were learning on the job as they went.
Yesterday we visited a childhood friend of my sons in-laws from Imperial is Bill Hill. He was a funny car driver for the Budweiser team and best ET was 6.27 at 260mph. That was some years ago of course. Bill is a dedicated Studebaker man and has restored his fathers old 53 Studebaker truck and his son painted it. They also have a bullet nose sitting in the shed and a 1963 Grans Turismo Hawk fully restored but no pictures as it was locked in the garage. He also has a great collection on memorabilia and his suit from drag racing days.
Paul great news that car arrived in one piece enjoyed your photos . have a safe drive we fly over in 22 days Noel and Elaine
Hudson48,all I can say is WOW. What a great road trip.Thank you for your time to document it. Good luck on the rest of your trip. and welcome to the U.S.A.
Today was a big day in Auburn with the Auburn/Cord/Duesenberg Museum, National Auto & Truck Museum and the Early Fird V8 Foundation. All were outstanding but not all HAMB friendly. So I have chosen some that should be OK for here. The picture with the "twisted" axle is when Ford had an exhibition and twisted the axle to show the strength of it. The Early Ford foundation is obviously a lot of restored cars.Tomorrow is Dearborn and more car stuff.
All I can say is ENVIOUS! You are getting to se a lot of COOL stuff! Thanks for taking us normals on the road with ya! Joe
Yes we went to the Cord Auburn museum expecting a hum drum Museum, Our only regret was we did not allow enough time to soak up every aspect of this awesome spectacle of a place. As your pics show its well worth the visit. Thanks for refreshing our memory.
The Jalopy Journal
