Recently found on the SquareAmerica.com website. Don Haynes, The Marvel Man "Apparently, in 1949 (Don) Haynes, a 39 year old truck driver, made a bet that he would spend the next 14 months traveling to each of the 48 states while welded inside his car... Haynes wife was pregnant at the time so when she delivered Haynes had the car lifted on a crane so he could check in on his wife and baby in their second floor hospital room. Unfortunately, Haynes gave up just three weeks short of completing his journey when he lost track of his advance publicity man." But in typical fashion, after a few similar auto related stunts dating to the early '60s, the Marvel Man seems to have dropped off the radar with the exception of a couple more recent articles from the Southern Oregon Mail Tribune. http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090315/NEWS/903150337 http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090331/NEWS/903310326 I thought if anybody might be able to fill in some of the blanks about Don Haynes, his excursions or this welded up Kaiser, they'd probably be here on the HAMB. And even if there's nothing new to add, it's still an interesting story.
I would have picked a Nash, so I could at least fold the seat down flat and stretch out at night. 14 months in a Kaiser, with just what water you can bring through the window in a bucket, and no toilet? Yikes...
Ummm...not to take all the fun out of it, but if you read the posted links it explains that the car was fitted with a chemical toilet. And it was rumored that there was a removable hatch in the floor so he could get out of the car if repairs were needed and to "freshen up" occasionally. Besides, I don't think they even had drier sheets back then, did they? Now please, carry on.
Well, as I've always understood it, she couldn't be pregnant unless her husband (or someone) "went in", as you so delicately put it. Oh wait. You're talking about him going into the car, aren't you?
I would never spend 14 months in any vehicle, not even one of those monster motorhomes. I think after a couple of days I would start going stir crazy
A bigger feat than living in the car for 14 months was departing when his Wife was 8 months pregnant and not being divorced when he returned 14 months later! Yeah, that would go off real good around here; "Honey, I'm welding myself in a car and leaving for 14 months-see ya"!
The Jalopy Journal
