After years of dreaming about driving it, and after 18 months of planning, unbelievably enough, our Route 66 departure will soon be upon us. It'll be an epic journey of 15 states and almost 6,000 miles. And it will be a quest to find bits and pieces of a bygone era -- echoes of the America of 50, 60 and 70 years ago. Those pieces are still there, found in little towns and villages that the freeways have bypassed as well as on dusty roads with old cafes and Mom-and-Pop weird, funky and fun roadside attractions.
It began as a major driving adventure for just the two of us in our classic 1957 Thunderbird. But all that changed at a classic T-Bird club meeting where I wore a themed jacket that featured vignettes of Route 66 -- stylized illustrations of 1950s cars (sorry, no T-Birds), drive-ins, diners and plenty of Route 66 highway signs. Another member commented on the jacket, and I mentioned that it was appropriate because Gordon -- who had the original idea -- and I were planning to drive Route 66 in the future. She (yes, SHE) squealed with delight -- "Can we go with you? Can we? Can we?"
And so it began. Our happy little T-Bird band grew to five couples, which we determined was just right if we all expected to spend each night on the road at the same lodgings. Any more and it would become cumbersome.
So, who are we? Among the 10 of us are a retired insurance executive, retired doctor, retired chiropractor (yes, we'll all be well-adjusted!), retired travel PR consultant, former business owner, homemakers, community volunteers, editor, and two women who are still working. We range in age from early 50s to mid-80s. And we all share a love for the early, classic Thunderbirds.
For planning, we've pored over books, maps, websites and magazines. We've had several informal meetings and one big one where we all agreed on our own rules of the road, and then adjourned for a great potluck lunch. We have a spreadsheet of the attractions along Route 66, and each person has had a chance to express her/his own degree of interest in each of them. If no one wants to see the largest ball of barbed wire in the world, then we'll skip it. If everyone wants to see the world's largest ketchup bottle, it'll be a must stop.
But we won't be attached at the hip every minute of every day. We plan to be off the road by about 5 p.m., and each evening during our happy hour we'll review what we've seen and look ahead to the next day's possibilities. We may go our separate ways during the day, but we'll always have an idea of where we'll all spend the next night.
To prepare, we've improved our vintage cars -- new transmission, new tires, auxiliary electric fans, disc brakes, etc. Several have added air conditioning and every car's belts and bodily fluids have been checked, drained and flushed more than once. Still, we're planning to have some tools and spare parts with us -- more hoses, belts, generator, alternator, fuel pumps, water pumps and miscellaneous items -- thanks to one couple who is towing a small trailer behind their 'Bird.
This brings up the topic of packing for a nearly monthlong trip in a two-seater with only a trunk for storage. Gordon and I are each taking one small bag (fabric, collapsible, with a few outside pockets). We usually use these for 3-4 night trips, so this will be a big challenge for me because I always want "choices" and tend to over-pack. But this time I can't, so we'll be visiting laundromats every week or so. In addition, we'll have another small bag for toiletries, shoes and miscellaneous. Add to that a small cooler and bag of dry groceries and that's it! Oh -- and the laptop so we can keep you "up to speed,"so to speak.
We're happy to say that we're going to be meeting some fellow T-Birders along the way. The night we arrive in Chicago, we're having dinner with couples from the Chicagoland T-Bird club -- we'll be dining at a well-known, historic Route 66 eatery close to our hotel. The next day, we'll serendipitously be in Springfield, Ill., for the annual Route 66 Mother Road Cruise-in Festival with up to 1,500 classic and collector cars participating. I'm not sure how we managed this coincidence (we picked our travel dates many months ago), but it'll be a great way to kick off our tour. And before we reach Santa Monica, friends from the Southern California T-Bird Club will meet us in Rialto, Calif., (near San Bernardino) and drive into Santa Monica with us. Then we'll all go to a diner on the Santa Monica pier for a celebratory lunch. We're very much looking forward to all this T-Bird camaraderie.
As we get closer to our departure date, we get more excited. This will be a once-in-a-lifetime trip of several thousand miles, and we look forward to sharing this experience with our family and friends.
And we're hoping that our fellow travelers will contribute to this blog, so if you see someone signing an entry as Nancy, Duane, Earl, Jane, Les, Jo, Bill or Doris, don't be surprised. We each will take something special from this experience -- and differing perspectives will add to the fun for us, and we hope, for you, too. -- Judy (and Gordon, too)
