Event Coverage UPDATED WITH PHOTOS! Going For Broke...50 day Cross-Country Road Trip Family Style

She's a keeper !!

 

Now thats living! Your children are at the perfect age to really enjoy a road trip. Have a good one!

 

I loved your trip to the Lone Star Roundup. But this trip? You made HERO status!

 

Countdown: 31 Days
My wagon (and I) has spent its whole life in California, and after seeing what real weather looks like on the news over the last few weeks, I began to wonder how water tight the wagon really was. (I hope you guys in Tornado Alley are all ok as the weather looks insane). I reached out to California Car Cover (they are an ALLIANCE VENDOR and give members 10% off. SUPPORT THOSE WHO SUPPORT YOU. http://www.calcarcover.com ) After talking with Tony about our trip, they sent us a custom car cover for the wagon. It fit like a glove!
It will be nice knowing the wagon will be dry when we wake up in the morning. It will also be handy for those late nights when we pull into camp and decide to just crash in the wagon rather than setting up our tent. Check out their website if you need a quality, custom fit cover for your specific vehicle. They are a family owned business with great customer service and a quality product. Thanks California Car Cover! (http://www.calcarcover.com).

 

it doesn't sound like you're leaving much time for sight seeing on the 1st leg. LOTS of things to do in Denver, my daughter lives there. Tiny Town for the kids, great Science Museum, Elitch Gardens. Mid-Nebraska: Ole's Big Game Lounge in Paxton (1 hr west of North Platte) former owner was world class big game hunter, more mounts than a museum, Stuhr Museum in Grand Island. some cool things in Omaha: world class Henry Doorly Zoo, BoysTown, Durham Museum in downtown. most things can be googled for info.

 

Sounds like an amazing trip! Might I suggest you veer a little north to St. Paul, MN to catch Back to the 50's Weekend June 19-21. Nearly 12,000 1964 and older cars and trucks and a whole lot of good people at the MN State Fairgrounds.

 

12,000 cars and trucks? Holey cow!!

 

Wow!!! Glad to see you're headed back out on the road. I've been hankering for the day when my son is a little older (he's 4 months) so we could attempt to do the same. I know my wife and I will be looking forward to seeing your updates from the road. Safe travels!

 

Yep, I went back in 2004 and it was just short of 10,000. I know this sounds crazy but I got sick of looking.

If you're in the FL panhandle and looking for some excellent affordable fresh seafood, go to Stewby's Seafood Shanty. It's an awesome place and really laid back.

This is gonna be a flatout awesome trip. I want to do the same somewhere down the road.

 

it appears you're close to the Old Lincoln Hiway things eastbound & Route 66 going back. worth looking at.

 

Looking forward to the reports.

 

Ya we are in a bit of a rush to get to Chicago, since I have a one week class for my doctoral program. Thanks for all these pointers, I will add them to our list of possible stops!

I was going to try to make it, but it seems like a lot of driving at the front end of 50 days just to make it. Who knows, we may change our mind on the road though.

Let me give you a pointer. We took our oldest on his first road trip at 4 months old. It was April and we were headed up to the Oregon Coast, taking highway 1 the whole way. It was going great, until we pulled into a camp ground somewhere a few hours north of the Golden Gate Bridge and it was 30 degrees. I set up the tent, with Kenna screaming at me, and the campground host said "I didn't think there would be anyone here tonight, it is supposed to be in the teens..." I gave him the look of "you're not helping me here man..." He gave us free wood and wished us luck. I was cozy in my sleeping bag at 3 am, when I hear the car start and I go out to find Kenna giving me the death stare with Cormac in her arms, and all she said was "pack up!" I had to do the 3am pack of shame...So my point is make sure you check the weather if you are cheap like me and choose to camp!

We will look for Stewby's. We all love Seafood.

We did Route 66 last trip, and will be doing a little again through New Mexico and Arizona, but we wanted new sites and sounds. I'll look into the Old Lincoln Highway. Thanks!

 

Your wife blogged the last trip right? Will she be doing this one as well?

Was kinda following along from two different views

 

Yep she will be at it again. Should make for some entertainment!

 

Hahaha! Thanks for the advice! That sounds like our honeymoon (minus the baby)! We're planning on starting off by doing some camping this summer around Oregon. Baby steps.

 

If you're thinking of doing stuff along the Old Lincoln Highway , I'd suggest getting a copy of the book "Greetings from the Lincoln Highway" by Brian Butko (I have the Centennial Edition). It's a great book with lots of maps, tons of pictures and will give you a great feel for what is out there. Lots to see along the LH , it's the nations first coast-to-coast highway after all (100+ years). I'm hoping to do some LH travel on my way to rte. 66 , as it runs within 1/2 hour of my place and basically runs right to Chicago.
Got my copy of the book online , BTW .

 

Guess I should have said Stewby's is in Ft. Walton Beach.

 

You may want to upgrade to an AC system before the trip...July in TX can be pretty brutal.

 

Good info, thanks!

Perfect! We will look it up!

What fun would that be? (Unless you are a rep for Vintage Air, in that case "Let's do it!")

 

Countdown: 24 days until departure...

I have been busy giving the wagon a going over when I am not packing boxes or painting our new place.

I received a call from Custom Autosound saying the owner "was moved" by the story of our road trip and he would like to send us out some goods for our audio needs. He sent us out an AM/Fm radio for our original dash opening, a set of their kick panel speakers, and a set of their under seat speakers. I used to have a radio in the glove box and 2 5" inch speakers zip tied under dashed.

Last weekend I installed them in a few hours, and for the first time in 11 years we can actually listen to music while driving 80mph down the highway. The radio is their top of the line USA-630 model. It includes an iPod connection that is controlled through the radio, a USB port (this will be handy since my son goes to Spanish Immersion school yet neither his mother nor myself speak Spanish. We can play his mp3s to keep him going in Spanish), and an AM/FM radio. I took a cheepo Autozone antenna and tucked it under the carpet up by the firewall. You can't see it and it get pretty dang good reception.
The sound quality from Custom Autosound is clear, the install was painless with only a few very simple modifications necessary. 1) I had to move the parking brake mount on the dash over an inch since the pedal must be bent from 55 years of use. 2) I had to cut a notch on the passenger side for the vent cable. I like that don’t even notice them in the wagon’s interior looking from the outside, and I didn't have to cut my door panels to install in the doors. 3) I prefer the under seat speakers only halfway under the seats as I thought the sound was a little crisper and the kids could her better. Thanks for the good Custom Autosound (You can check out their link in my signature).

 

Darn , that's a nice-looking setup ! I still need a stereo for my shoebox , or else dad and I will be singing to ourselves on our route 66 road trip (and noone wants that , lol !) .

 

Enjoyed your last trip to Texas, and I'll be following along on this one too. Best of luck!

 

no rep for Vintage Air. Or my 65 would have AC too. Since you need sponsors maybe you need to contact Vintage air.

 

Looking forward to following your trip! Loved the last one!

 

So here is a little video on our way to surf a couple weeks ago! Custom Autosound took good care of us and sounds really good.

 

Countdown: 17 days and counting
So in the midst of moving to LA, packing boxes, painting walls, etc., I’ve had a chance to take care of a few details on the wagon.

First order of business was trying to cut down on some of the road noise, especially in the cargo area. It isn’t bad, but 50 days and 10K miles any noise reduction would be appreciated. After reading all the horrible posts about Peel and Seal, I decided to test it out myself. I removed the rear cargo panels and lined the floor underneath and spare tire well. I used 2 layers on the floor and one layer in the tire well. There is absolutely NO SMELL at all! For $48 I am stoked. If I have time over the next couple weeks I am going to try and get down to Lowe’s (nearest Lowe’s is 45 minutes away) and pick up some more Peel and Seal for the doors and quarter panels. There is a noticeable reduction in noise from the back.


In October I had my good friend Danny from Black Sheep Kustoms in Santa Maria rebuild the wagons front end while I was in the Middle East for 3 weeks. The frontend had been pretty shot and my front tires had worn out pretty bad. Before heading out to the West Coast Kustom’s Cruisin Nationals show I swung by the tire shop around the corner from my house and picked up 2 new shoes.


On our way to Santa Maria for the show I started noticing a vibration from the left front end when we let off the throttle above 65mph. I cruised to Danny’s shop when I got to town, we popped the hood, and we found the drivers side motor mount was shot! (side note: I swapped the motor 2 years ago in less than 24 hours including a trip to LA to pull the new motor. In my rush I did not put new motor mounts on. Its always when you rush that it comes back to bite you in the rear.) Danny said to take it to the cruise and Saturday's show, and then to just leave the car with him for a few days after the show. He wanted to give the wagon a total going over before we hit the road in less than 3 weeks.







If you are looking for a trustworthy shop that does fabrication work in the Greater Los Angeles/Central Coast area, look up Danny at Black Sheep Kustoms. Here is some of the work going on out of his shop.












So as of right now, the wagon is at the Black Sheep Kustoms Salon and Day Spa with Danny, and I am fixing nail holes and painting walls in our rental to get ready for our walk through.

 

This is a great, great pic!!

 

Got some good looking kids !

 

What Dave said! Great pic!

 

I just put in 12 stinkin rolls of the peel and seal in our 46, havnt driven it yet but the sound reduction just shutting doors, knocking on panels and working on the car is pretty noticeable. I also noted pretty much zero smell, I was worried about that and was relieved to not smell a dang thing.

And my wife with super smelling powers never commented on it either so it must really not smell! Lol

I'm Going to hit the seams with some seem sealer tape and take it for a hundred or so Miles saturday and see how much difference it makes on the road. Got my fingers crossed!