The ultimate rd trip 2013
On a date night in Tulsa OK with Eric Tollison driving thru
Drumright, OK an idea was born. This idea was to drive the complete Rt 66 the
mother road in a 1966 vehicle for 6 days and 6 hrs starting on 06/06. At this
time I just put the idea as a bucket list item to do some day. When I got my
tax refund I decided this was the yr to make this happen. I started looking at
1966 cars on Ebay 03/15/2013 within the 1st week of looking I saw a
car I wanted to bid on. I made my bid testing the waters to see if anybody was
watching it, no other bids came. On the same day I did the same thing on
another auction, they ended within a few hrs of each other, and I didn’t want
to lose out. Auction 1 announced me as the high bidder, but not the winner. I
asked the seller why I didn’t win, he said there was a reserve. We then went
into discussions on a price that both of us would be happy with. While this was
going on auction 2 announced me as the high bidder and the high winner. I liked
the car in auction 1 better than auction 2 and went ahead and let the car from
auction 2 go to the next highest bid.Both of these cars were 1966 mustangs. Ive
always wanted a classic car and a mustang, so I thought I was getting 2 cool
things in 1. The seller and I talked back and forth all the way thru
04/12/2013. The car started knocking so he took it the mechanic. They thought
it was something minor, turned out to be major and they took the car apart and
it was no longer driveable. Everyday thru this I was still on ebay looking at
1966 cars. We went to the DFW area to zipline on April 13 and looked at a
seller of classic cars that was close by. I decided that car was a no go.
Shortly after that I found what I thought would be the perfect car. A teal and
crème colored 1966 Pontiac Grand Prix delux. It met my criteria for what I was
looking for in a car, was within my budget and it was nice looking and in good
shape with the paint and the looks.l I bid and won!
I was looking at the most cost effective means to get it
home. The car was in South Carolina, I was in TX. On ebay it gave a shipping
estimate of $500 to get it home based on the 2 locations, when I clicked on it
to reserve it, the shipping jumped to a $1000 quote. I had spoke with the
seller, he said it was driveable. The seller had a guy who he left responsible
for making arrangements for the pickup or shipping of the car. I was in contact
with him every day. I asked him if I could get to SC if I could just drive it
home. He said yes. I made arrangements to do so.
That turned into its own little adventure full of mishaps. I
decided to take a greyhound bus. There was snow in Amarillo, TX on the day that
I was to board the bus in my hometown. This caused our 1st delay of
1 hr. I get on the bus at 4:30pm on Thursday afternoon. We had a stop in Ft
worth, TX and Dallas, TX. At Dallas we changed drivers. The new driver was
actually a very new driver. This was his 1st route and 1st
night on the job. He didn’t know where any of his bus stations were, we got
really lost in Shreveport, LA. This put
us 2 hrs behind. So from every stop we were 3 hrs behind. It didn’t affect us
too much until we got to Atlanta, GA it caused us to miss the connection. I was
originally supposed to arrive in SC around 8pm Friday night. I didn’t arrive
until 11pm at night. I was gonna drive the 1966 Pontiac home on sat and Sun and
be back at work Monday morning. The car and GOD had other plans. I got stranded
in SC and made it home by bus on Tues late night. I missed 2 nights of work.
The car is still in SC!!!
Everyone asks me why I wanted to go in a 1966 car or why I
had to have a special car for the trip, to me driving in a 1966 made the trip
more Americana, more nostalogic, more unique, more route 66. Anyone can drive
in an everyday normal car, but not everyone can go in a classic car. To me the
car is what made the trip. We are taking our route 66 trip in a 2012 chevy
cruze eco. I had a friend tell me well look at it this way 6+6=12 so in a weird
kinda way I do have a 66. I was trying to see if I could get a 66 with the yr
the road was made 1926 and the yr of the car 2012 but that came out to 86. My
everyday driver is a 2002 Pontiac Sunfire. The trip will still be fun, but that
extra something will be missing. On this particular leg of the trip we’ve seen
several 1966 cars just out & about,but I think there are several car shows
going on this weekend.
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