The Swedes do Route 66 & VLV10 in a '58 Bel Air

Hey NADS.
Contact Flattop Bob, he's in this post further up. Car looked pretty complete to us, missed a taillight or two. In my opinion it was a good solid car well worth to restore. It would be a killer gasser projekt.

 

MCJim ... don't fret! We're going back to mile 1 of AZ after Vegas! Otherwise, we'd be cheating ourselves of over 300 miles of Route 66! : )

 

Frank Likes The Hat...

 

hoy moi kiddie's...

sorry i missed you in philly... i love that i am keeping track of your trip on here. say hello to Vegas...

xoxox
jamie

 

Frank looked good in the hat, and he deserved it. Gen worked fine got new bearings and it 's great. Thanks

 

Cool story about Lars Hellgren. If i remember right he has some really nice customs. Good luck on the rest of the trip.

 

Sorry it wasnt NOS for a straw hat and $30 that I didnt want to take... How was VLV this year??? See any fridge grill shells?? hope your all having fun and still friends, that is if you had a no fart in the car or get punched in the balls rule like we had.. not you Cindy lol.. 3600 miles and no farts on our trip but im sure one of you couldnt hold it.. cindy??ha!ha! give my love to Klaus and Cindy we go way back 2 weeks are so..

 

Life is a great!!

Today Cindy and I renewed our vows. We just had to get married for real and there's only one place to that - in Las Vegas. We did it the American way ... in a Drive thru Wedding Chapel : )
We were re-wed by this cool Hawaiian cat. I guess you can call that a real Tiki wedding : )

Oh by the way VLV 10 is great, but much more about that later!

Klaus

 

You going to Sweden for you honeymoon?
Been following your progress. Looks like you've had a great time, I certainly have enjoyed it.
Regards.
BKR

 

Congratulations!!!! You look sensational, and I can tell you're as much in love with each other as you were the last time.
Hugs & kisses,
Martina

 

Hi
I will just thank you very much for a great travel report and offcause lots of greetings on your wedding. That must be the best way to have vacation. See you somewhere in Sweden.................. Take care

 

What a great thread. I hope you guys had a wonderful time here in the states. Please come again

 

So what's the plan after Viva guys? Maybe the Santa Monica pier, Hollywood, Redondo Beach ??

 

It is my dream to do what you're doing except the other way, take my car to Europe and go all over, that would rule.

You all are the greatest, more power to you.

 

60 coupe..we're in Flagstaff today doing the Canyon thing. Then we'll be cruising in Az for a couple of days. Mother road ends in santa monica so we'll e there as well. I want to express my gratitude for all the nice comments we've got so far. A new post will come tonite.

 

Hey Klaus, Cindy and Mangus. Had a great time hanging out with you guys at VIVA ! Just for the record to all the HAMBers out there. If these guys are coming through your town, make it a point to get together with them. They're great people!
Eddie

 

Hej guys!
Magnus, I forgot to say that I'm in Stockholm Thursday so let's "talk" Friday if you can make it?
Can't wait to see the latest pictures!
Martina

 

Howdy Folks!

It’s been a few days since we have given an update … so this one will be another long one.

We drove straight through from Gallup New Mexico to Las Vegas and stayed at a Best Western because I had changed our reservation at the Orleans hotel to Friday thinking we’d not make to to Vegas until Friday morning. But we had a good night’s rest. We drove over to Harrah’s for Klaus and Magnus to take a shuttle bus over to the Las Vegas Speedway where they did a NASCAR ride along! How much cooler could it be to do 160 mph to start off your Vegas experience. Magnus rode in the #7 Budweiser car and Klaus rode in the #8 Jack Daniels car. They really had a great time. In the mean time I made my way to the Orleans and got us checked into our mini suite and was very domestic ironing the 4100 miles of wrinkles that our ¨fancy¨ clothes had accumulated. Then we went to the Gold Coast and got our wristbands for Viva Las Vegas and got Belle registered in the Shifters car show on Saturday. We shopped A LOT with the vendors selling their cool wares at the weekender and caught some great music. Our favorite musical act on Friday night was definitely the Legends of Rockabilly! Narvel Felts, Don Woody, Billy Lee Riley (who looked great for still having a bad hip after his fall!), Sleepy LeBeef and Mac Curtis. Simply amazing to have the privilidge of seeing these legends in our time! Omar and the Stringpoppers and Shaun Young were also great.

Then on Saturday the Shifters car show was fantastic. We tried guessing how many cars were in the show and thought it was upwards to 750 cars, someone can correct us if we’re wrong! We definitely had our favorites … the Dead Sleds flat black and scribed flamed green enamaled roof Caddy was incredible! There was a hot rod with truck tire and rims that was the coolest rod outside the show! And it was awesome to see Burt Munro’s ’27 Indian (totally restored) from the World’s Fastest Indian. We made a lot of new friends and saw many of our friends from around the US and the world. And of course, all the HAMBers who introduced themselves – it was great to meet all of you! Fast Eddie and his buddy, Keith – I hope I remember that correctly, from Albuquerque, it was great to meet you two and we couldn’t have asked for better neighbors at the car show! It was simply put a fantastic day! Thanks to the Shifters and Axel for an excellent Saturday afternoon! Saturday night was the always well anticipated Burlesque show and Big Sandy ROCKED as usual! It was pretty chaotic in the casino itself with a lot of nonattendees but what can one expect.

Sunday Klaus and I renewed our vows in the drive thru of the Little White Wedding Chapel in Belle and that was extraordinary! The Hawaiian minister was the icing on the cake! We could have never chosen a better minister to marry us again. Magnus popped the cork on some Champagne right there in the drive thru lane and we toasted our next 7 years to be as happy as our first 7! Then we went back to the room to change our clothes into our bathing suits and attended the Tiki Pool Party at the Gold Coast. It was a great day, not a cloud in the sky and a nice little breeze blowing to keep us cool. There were beautiful people prancing around in their 50’s bathing suits it was an excellent day. Then after the pool party we went back to the hotel and changed back into our wedding clothes and Magnus took us to dinner. We ate at the NASCAR Café at the Sahara and the food was nothing special but we made it extra special and fun as we have been doing this entire time on the road!

Before we left Vegas we had to check out the oil leak that had developed over the weekend. Belle wasn't just marking her territory she seemed to be bleeding black blood everywhere she sat for a minute or two. The boys thought she might have been on her cycle, but I think she's well into her menopause age being 49+ years old!

We left Vegas on Monday afternoon and drove back through Arizona and decided to catch up with Route 66 from Flagstaff. We toured through Flagstaff and then started driving west on Route 66 and drove on unpaved/graveled roads for several hours. We were somewhere between Bellemont AZ and the Grand Canyon but where we definitely weren't sure! We found ourselves 49 miles south of the Grand Canyon so we pointed Belle north and toured the Grand Canyon. For those of you who have never been to this breathtaking place … GO! The stories and pictures really don’t do this vast and beautiful place justice! It’s a sight one must see with their own eyes! Simply put it we were all awe struck! Then we headed south again to hit the small towns and villages between Williams and Kingman where we stopped for the night. We stopped in Seligman and hung out with the local business owners swapping stories of our adventure and the local lore.

So tonight we stayed the the Quality Inn in Kingman and we had a bite to eat at the Hot Rod Café on Main Street. The owner Vito was very hospitable and shared stories with us. He even gave us a Hot Rod Café license plate for Belle for stopping in!

Well … that’ll be all for now … we gotta get the tires rotated and back on the Road for the day. Until the next post … Keep shakin’ the shack!

C K & M

 

HOWDEEEEEEEE!

Okay … so we’re now just 75 miles west of Kingman in Needles CA but today has been the best day traveling Route 66!!!! We got the tires rotated at a Big O Tires (where the salesman was being a typical asswipe, condescending, pompus jerk telling car people that we really shouldn’t just rotate tires – we should purchase new ones from him of course!) After the tire store we toured the Kingman Route 66 museum, nothing to get too exciteed about, but I guess we’re all glad we did the tour through the museum. We couldn’t resist grabbing a bite to eat at Mr. D’z Diner across the street. Again, the food wasn’t exceptional but the experience was. Then it was time to hit the road. It was about 3:00 or somewhere thereabout. And just on the edge of town there was this corner house that had, I’m not kidding or exaggerating, at least 16 30’s-60’s cars sitting in his driveway and the parking lot that once was his back yard! Heading west on Route 66 we stumbled onto a dealershio that had at least 30 vintage cars for sale in his lot. We oogled the cars from the other side of the fence, although they were, believe it or not, open. On our drive to the foot of the mountain we passed McConnico and the ghost towns of Fig Springs and what’s left of Cool Springs. Cool Springs consisted of one General Store but it had more than the eyes could take in in the short time one has passing it slowly. I waved to the gentlemen sitting under the awning with what I expect were two cold beers and a couple of cigars or cigarettes. Then we cruised by Ed’s Camp that was completely desolate and very ¨junked¨ up. A very cool photo op for sure. The excitement and anticipation was mounting with every mile that drew us closer to this monster of a mountain ahead of us. Now the fun begins … we start the slow and particularly dangerous trek up the moutain on Oakman Road.

To say the road was dangerous is an understatement, but it was spine tingling and thrilling and awesome not to mention the awestriking views. For almost the entire trek up the mountain there were no guardrails at all and sometimes there was a 150-200 foot drop straight down the mountain side. We’ve heard stories from the locals in Kingman that many a man have plunged off the side of the mountain to their death and even worse destruction of those precious vintage cars for careless, reckless or high speed driving over this trecherous pass. I filmed the entire way up and down this mountain while Magnus drove and Klaus took pictures with the digital camera. Once at the top if the mountain, Sitgraves Pass elevation 3,550 feet above sea level. We stopped Belle for a well deserved rest while we took in the incredible mountainous view from the lookout point. Then we piled back into the very stuffed Belle and pointed her west again and started the equally trecherous decent down the mountain. After decending about 1,550 feet we drove right smack dab into the middle of a former Ghost Town now turned souvenir heaven of Oakman Arizona. This town was absolutely incredible!!! There were burros (mules, donkeys jackasses call them what you will) roaming the street eating anything you offered them. We pulled Belle into a parking space in front of an Indian Jewelry shop and started walking back up the hill we had just decended. WOW, WOW, WOW! All kinds of cheesy T Shirts, ponchos, turquoise jewelry, gadgets and gizmos thinkable were being offered for very modest prices in the 30 some shops that line Oakman Road. We couldn’t help ourselves from visiting nearly every shop and helping the economy by buying more stuff we already don’t have room for! Klaus bought a bag of carrots for a buck from a shop and we feed the jackasses! Some were aggressive and some were lackadaisical but all were willing to chomp those tasty carrots from our hands. We stopped into Joanne’s Pub for a cold brew while sitting on the patio watching the passersby. We must have been in Oakman for the better part of 2 hours and probably would still be there if the shops hadn’t started closing up. Then we piled back in Belle and continued our decent down through Old Trails, Golden Shores and finally Topock where we had to join interstate 40 to cross the Arizona California border. We had an amazing view of the Colorado River as we made our way onto I40 and exited on the first CA exit to drive a bit on the 1927 and 1940’s alignments that are both dead ends in the river city of Blythe. Then we ventured west to Needles where we are getting our rest tonight for an early departure tomorrow through the Mojave Desert into Barstow and on to Claremore CA for the night so we have the entire day to check out everything there is to check out in Pomona on Friday. I just have to say that this has been one incredible day and definitely a highlight of this Route 66 Adventure!

That's all for today ... stay tuned as the adventure unfolds in this last leg of California!

C K & M

 

I'm so glad to read that the trip is still going well and that you guys are having such a great time. I'm looking forward to the next installment of your adventure. Thanks for taking us all along.

Safe travels

 

I saw the car twice last weekend, but no Swedes around it. The first time I saw it, it was in the parking lot of the Orleans. We were on the bus that goes between hotels, and my friend says, "Look at that Chevy". I said thats the one that they came over from Sweden and bought the car to take on 66 from jersey to here, then to Cali. The guy in front of me about came unglued, "They drove that all the way from Jersey????" So I told him the story, and he gave his good wishes on the trip.

Good luck on the rest of the journey, and have a safe trip home.

 

Derek, sorry we missed you, but the VLV was such an awesome event with so much to see and do, so we where occupied with watching cool rides or listening to music, not to mention checking out the beatiful girls all over the place...

 

I have only one word to sum this all up....Awesome!

Thanks for sharing and most importantly...DOING IT!

best of luck in the rest of your travels

 

great pictures I love it out there I wish I had the cash to follow right after loneStar.. Hey Frankz hats better then the new one ha!ha! See ya in BadRock maybe, Im gonna try.. The Kustom is home, I wish it could have made it.. WELL GUYS AND CINDY,KEEP IN TOUCH WITH YOUR SELFS AND IF I DONT SEE YA!!!!!

NO BIG DEAL!!!

 

Didja all go to Carlsbad Caverns? Unfriggin' believeable it was, so was camping in the Guadelejara Mountains.

 

Awesome ...Looks like You all had a great time! I saw your Car in the parking lot of the New orlenes I snapped a picture and was telling the mr ..Look its the Hambers on the Rt 66 trip! hahaha I will post picture soon..photobucket is being a jerk!


Alexis

 

Hey all.
We made it to L A yesterday and went to So-Cl speed shop today friday. A guy working in the shop had followed our trip and recognized us by the hats we've had since the beginning.... More to come later.
Take care and let's meet on sunday for those of you living in L A.

 

Hey We saw the chevy at the Orleans, it really put a smile on our faces. The magnets on the dash were classic!

 

Hope you have a great weekend! See you in 5 days!
Martina

 

That must be the ultimate trip, route 66 - glad to hear your having lots of fun and to see you still love eachother...best whishes.

Bjarne