We Rendezvous

Today we united.  I literally did, as I flew United from Vegas to Detroit to Moline, Illinois.  Dave and Lola (his beautiful '66 Cadillac) picked me up at the Moline airport.  Steve and Renie dropped off their rental car at the airport, and we all jumped into Lola and headed up to mikE's farm (Officially known as Shardo Farms) to pick up the Cobra.

mikE invited us to a steak barbeque with his family.  Before dinner, I had the opportunity to go out in the fields and ride along in the combine.  mikE's dad (Doug) was operating the combine, and it was fascinating to see how far technology has entered into farm equipment.  The combine has GPS controls and a video display to track where it has been.   The display showed layers with all the crop and overlays of the harvested portion.  It is driven with a joy stick with several controls on the head of the stick, similar to a Jet fighter.

After hauling the harvested corn back to the elevators and dryers, mikE and Steve took the Cobra out for a ride.  Then, mikE showed us part of his car collection, including Doug's '57 T Bird, mikE's '55 Ford pickup, and his barn fresh '36 Chevrolet coupe.  David took the coupe out for a test drive, and was impressed at how this 77 year old car drove.

Dinner was wonderful.  The food was excellent, and the chance to catch up with mikE , his wife Lisa, and their 3 daughters was great.  After the meal, we were introduced to Whitey's ice cream.  it is deeeelicious!

After fond farewells, we headed to Davenport to check into the motel. Driving through the farmlands in Lola and the Cobra, we were treated to nature's light show.  There was an electrical storm just to the northwest of us, and riding in convertibles we were able to see all the action.  No rain, just lots of crackling and light.  Awesome!

It was a great rendezvous, and the trip begins!

Renie takes a ride in the tractor with Doug while Steve tries a hand at the combine operation.

29 Days 'till Take-off

OK, the Cobra in the picture on the last post belongs to Jeeping friend  Steve's.  He is going along on the trip.  This sweet Caddie belongs to David (another Jeeping guy).

Once I decided to go ahead with the "66 on 66 in a 66" project, the challenge was to find a '66 car that would meet some specific requirements:  1)  It had to be capable of over 2,000 miles without major breakdown.  2)  It had to be comfortable for travel,  3) Decent fuel mileage and range.  And... 4) Something I could afford to acquire.

There are plenty of cars out there that meet the criteria above, but after a long search, I couldn't find a car that I could afford.  It was especially hard when I thought of buying the car and then turning around and driving it over 2,000 miles.  I came up with an idea that if I could find the right car, I could "flip" it to help pay for the expenses.  Collectors in the mid-west are always on the lookout for classic cars that don't have rust issues, so I reasoned I could buy a nice rust-free car from the areas south of my home in Utah, then drive it to Chicago via Route 66.  I hoped to be able to sell the car there for a profit that would also help defray the cost of driving and pay for the return flight from Chicago.

After several days of research, I determined that the prices of classic cars in Chicago were not going to make it affordable for me to pick up a car and flip it after driving it there.  It's hard to gauge the value of a non-rusty car in the mid-west, because all the ads there say the car is "rust free".  Most of them have had rust repair during the restoration.  The prices for those cars were very close to the cost of an original car with no rust here in the dry climates.

No sooner had I decided I would have to scrap the project than my Jeeping friend Steve told me another of our Jeeping friends, David, was looking for a co-driver to drive his '66 Cadillac convertible on a route 66 trip.  Eureka!!!  I called David, and we started putting together a plan.  David is going to ship the Caddie to Iowa where another Jeeping friend (Mike) has a farm.  Steve is going to ship his Cobra on the same carrier.  David, Steve, and Renie (Steve's wife) are going to fly to Chicago and then drive a rental car to Iowa to pick up their cars at Mike's farm.  I'm going to fly to Moline, Illinois and join the fun.

So, the "66 on 66 in a 66" is underway.  In 29 days we will be ready for the launch.  Since we have all been to Chicago multiple times, we are going to jump on 66 in Joliet, just south of Chicago.  Joliet is a lovely town, famous for it's prison.  It was immortalized in the "Blues Brothers" movie where Jim Balushi was set free and picked up by Dan Akroyd.  That sounds like a great place to begin the excellent adventure.

Stay tuned!