Event Coverage Road Trip! D/FW - VLV via Route 66!

Great pictures enjoyed it from start to finish, thanks for taking the time to share!

 

I just read the whole thread and I can't wait for more!
It looks like a wonderful trip. The sort of thing everyone should put on their bucket list.
Thank you

 

It's Thursday around noon and we've seen Oatman, AZ., which was originally had not been on our agenda. But, with a whole day to spend before heading to Las Vegas, we'd decided to push on further west on ol' Route 66. After a beer and a diet Dr Pepper had been consumed, having watched a corny mock gunfight, and after doing a little souvenir shopping for the girls back home (where, appropriately I found this child's book printed in 1954 for myself in a used book store) we loaded back in the wagon and headed back to Kingman, over the same twisting hairpin curves that we'd taken to get to Oatman that morning.



While going to Oatman, we'd passed by a car lot of old cars and I wanted to stop on the way back to snap a few pictures. However, on the return trip to Kingman, the gate was open, which made it even better. Seems Rick Vopinek owned most of the cars there which were all for sale. Some were on consignment.

The one that made me really slam on the brakes for a better look was this one. Not H.A.M.B. friendly but interesting.





After asking for permission to snap some pictures, Rick stated that if he'd charged for people wanting to take pictures, he'd be a millionaire! Here's some more of what Rick had on the lot.







This shoebox Ford coupe sported a pair of real spotlights!







Go to www.old66classics.com for Rick's website.

 

While it's OT for the HAMB, I hadn't seen one of these Grabber Mavericks in a number of years.





And some sore cars that were on Rick's lot.





















This Cadillac still had the electric dimmer eye.









You're not tired of seeing old cars yet, are you?

 

More samples of Rick's inventory.















As we were ready to leave Rick's lot, an RV and three more cars of "spectators" pull up to look around. Maybe Rick was right about charging for pictures!

After arriving back in Kingman, we explored another old alignment of Route 66 by heading out south on 4th St until it turned into the Old Trails Rd. It's a beautiful drive following the railroad tracks. If you're into trains, you'll like this old route!



We followed the road until it deadended into this old race track.



A deadend road means that we had to turn around and go back into town which was fine because by now we were both getting pretty hungry. A 50's styled place called Mr. D's, right on the Route, lured us in for bugers & fries. Even Oprah ate there a couple of years or so ago when her and her bff took a car trip across America one summer that was later televised on her show. There's a picture of Oprah and an authgraphed menu by her hanging on the wall. I doubt that her car trip drew as many viewers as ours here on the H.A.M.B.!

After leaving Mr. D's, we got on Hwy. 93 and took out for Vegas! Yeah, baby! We had no sooner gotten on the highway when we spotted our first H.A.M.B. friendly car to be seen on the trip! And from Texas at that!



After passing him, he fell in behind us and followed us on into Vegas. Since it was obvious that he wanted to run with us, while approaching a red light in Boulder City, NV., I had to get on the binders pretty hard to keep from going through the light and loosing him. I saw that he had to stand on 'em pretty good himself to keep from getting into me. It was while sitting at the light that he leaned out the window and yelled that I didn't have any brake lights! No wonder that he was caught off guard when I stopped! As we got closed to the Orleans casino, because he seemed to know how to get there, I let him take the lead.



We pulled into the Orleans roughly around five-thrity, got registered, took in some of the happenings for a little bit and then headed over to our motel because I'd slept in and didn't book a room at the Orleans before the blocked rooms were sold out. I was anxious to see what the deal was with our brake lights anyway.

 

Of course, I had to snap a few pictures of the cars that were there on Thursday at Viva before we left that evening!

 

Back at the motel, Stevan and I freshed up a little and hit the laptop and our cell phones in search of the closest auto parts store. About a month before heading out on the trip, I'd replaced the stop light switch, so I was leaning towards it being the problem figuring that, after going up & down and trough all the hairpin curves getting to Oatman, that maybe that was too much for it and it went out again. Sure enough, after finding an Auto Zone nearby and swapping out the brake light switch, we were back in business. With a car wash right next door, we were soon ready for a night out on the town! Look out Vegas!

That meant, once the car was cleaned up, we had to hit the strip!
(Sorry for the clarity. Left the good camera at the motel. Shot this with my cell.)



We then cruised on down a little further to the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop where the t.v. show Pawn Stars is shot. (Again, took the picture using my cell.)



But, even though they say "Open 24 hours" the lobby closes at nine and it was a quarter till ten, so I had to shoot this pic through the locked front door.



After making another pass down the strip, we decided to head back over to the Orleans to grab something to eat. From there, we went on back to our motel and put day five of our trip behind us. Our journey being officially halfway over!

 

Hey Toptinman , thanks so much for the post , I posted a Roadtrip last year from Santa Maria to LARS and it takes a lot of time and effort but you will go back and reread your post and really enjoy it . We were inspired from a Roadtrip post on the H.A.M.B. from ChevyGirlRox to do our trip so you will have inspired others for sure , again , Thanks a bunch , hey , and the wagon , swwwweeeeetttt !!! Cad

 

awesome road trip,thanks for including us

 

Ok, so we wake up Friday morning, throw on some clothes and head back over to the Orleans 'cuz we know that things are going to be good today. The wagon is all cleaned up. We're cleaned up. Time to see some action! When we got there, it was obvious that a bunch more cars had showed up. I'm not going to show everything that I saw on Friday. Just enough to whet your appetite with the intent of saving the bulk of my VLV pictures for another thread. But here's just some of what I saw on Friday.

































Later Friday afternoon, after walking the parking lot about a dozen times and after visiting the vendors booths about half that many, I left Stevan there and went back to the motel to both freshen up and to update this thread. Later that night I went back over to the Orleans to catch some of the bands, expecially Los Straitjackets, who I'd seen for the first time in the ballroom Thursday night. Where had I been? They were awesome! But on Friday night they were teamed up with Big Sandy. Great show! Afterwards, it was back to the motel to grab a few winks before the car show the next morning.

 

It's Saturday morning, the morning of the big VLV car show. I'l laying in bed, drifting in and out of sleep, not wanting to get up. After a while, I hear Stevan stiring in his bed. I hear him get up. "I think they close the gates at nine." he says to me. I turn over to look at the clock. It's a quarter to nine. Oh, crap! There's no way! We're gonna be late! We both jump up and start getting ready. I tell myself not to worry. "We from Texas! They'll let us in!" I quickly take a shower. Don't bother to shave. "We've been blogging out trip! They know we're coming! They'll be a welcoming committee! for us!" We get away from the motel. Stevan wants to hit the ATM at the bank just past the Orleans. Can't be the ATM at the Orleans or the one at the convience store across from out motel. Has to be the one at the bank. Loosing more time! He gets his money and we're off to the Orleans for the car show. "It's not like we're not registered already," I tell myself, "We did all of that on Thursday!" We pull up to the gate. It's not a quarted till ten. The security lady has to find someone to authorize letting us in. After a couple of minutes, someone shows up. No can do, he says. Should have gotten here before nine, he says poitely, but firmly. Seems they can't have cars moving about once John Q is let in. Stevan & I can see empty car spaces from where we sit. One of them is reserved for me. It now sits empty. Vacant. Desolate. Unoccupied. It's haunts me. Teases me. It points to it's watch and then shakes it's finger at me. I'm bummed. Oh, sure, I have a wristband that allows me to come and go as I please but the wagon has to sit out in the parking lot with all of the OT cars. Nobody will even notice it. It will be deprived of being able to bask in the glory of all of the ohs & ahs as the hordes of spectators praise it. Ah, yes, the spectoators! They won't even realize how great the show was supposed to be. They will leave thinking that Jerry lee Lewis was the climax of the event. Pity them. They missed out. Andwhat about the pin-up queens?! Consider them. They will have been deprived of their perfect centerfold spread backdrop! They will just have to settle for rusty coupes and metalflaked sedans. Pity them too! All because of forty-five friggin' minutes!
The cure? Next year get rooms at the Orleans and leave the wagon where I parked it on Friday. That'll teach 'em!
So, I enter the show on foot, under a cloud of gloom, when suddenly I spot this . . . . . .







And then this . . . . .









While up ahead, I spot this . . . .



And this . . . .



And, suddenly it's as though I woke up to find that I don't have a worry in the world!

This is going to be a good day after all, I think to myself. The rest of the day went something like this.

 

Simply awesome!

 

I did see the Acme Rod Shop van.





And John's coupe.











I liked the looks of this Cadillac . . . . .







. . . . . until I looked in the back seat!



Ok, whatever!







Some car owners really got into it!





From American Graffitti, there was Paul LeMatt . . . . .



. . . . . and Candy Clark!



The Deuce of Spades dude . . . . .



. . . . with the dude's Deuce!

 

Fantastic thread, thanks for all the detailed descriptions. Now I wanna hook up the Teardrop and go see it myself

 

Awesome thread! Any more of the 58 F100 gasser?? It looks bitchin

 

There was this little dude . . . . .



. . . . and little dudettes!



And Little G & Calamity Shane!



There were "tats" . . . . .



. . . . . . and hats!



There was this . . . . .



. . . . that . . . . .



And girls with all of that!



There were Big Boys . . . . .



And "Oh, boys!"

 

Thanks for posting your road trip to VLV and posting your pictures.

 

There were these dolls . . . . .



. . . . and these dolls!



And one more doll!



I'll save the rest of my VLV pics for another thread. I've got a whole lot more than I've shown here! Watch for it from me! But for now, I want to wrap up Saturday's events so that I can get on and show you what happened on Sunday. The rest of Saturday's show was just as good as you see here. The highlight was getting to see and hear Jerry Lee Lewis in person! What else can I say other than, (and you know it's coming!), "Goodness gracious, great balls of fire!"

After the outstanding performance by Jerry Lee, Stevan & I hopped back in the wagon and headed back to the motel to rest up for a few before looking for some place to eat. We settled on some hot wings at the Hooters Casino. (Duh, go figure!) Then, it was out to the other end of Las Vegas Blvd. to the famous Las Vegas sign.



Where we happened upon some happy couple finishing off their Vegas wedding underneath it's glowing light.



And, wouldn't you know it, but right there in front of our very own eyes, we saw him! None other than Elvis!



Who, for a nominal fee, would pose for your picture! And, get this! And I swear that I'm not making this up! Elvis had laryngitis . . . from acid reflux! He told me himself! Plain as day! Don't that just beat all!



So we soon bid Elvis goodbye and headed back to the motel to get one last night's sleep under the lights of Sin City. Because I've shared here, it just proves that what happens in Vegas, doesn't necessarily stay in Vegas!



Ladies & gentlemen, Elvis has left the building!

 

If this isn't the greatest thread ever than I don't know what is. Thanks for the pictures and stories. This has been fun. I think I need to do a route 66 road trip soon.

Josh

 

Very cool, thanks for posting. Funny we passed you on the way into Vegas. Looked liked your drivers front tire may have been a little out of balance Great pics!

 

Make sure when you do your VLV thread that you put a link on this thread, so we can find it easy!

 

The driver's front tire is fine. It's the DRIVER that is out of balance!

And, to those inquiring about the specs on the wagon, the 292 has been replaced with a 351W crate motor w/roller rockers and a C6 behind it. The 410 gears have been replaced with 275 highway gears. Perfect traveling vehicle.

Stay tuned. When I get back from the Pate swap meet later today, I'll delve into last Sunday's happenings! As Rachael Ray would say, "Yum oh!"

 

I almost forgot to share this with you. Ok, so I've told you about what a bummer the day started out to be on Saturday at the show but haven't told you about the highlight of the day. So after listening to Los Straitjackets and becoming a fan of them, I hit the two CD vendors that were upstairs in the Orleans looking for some Los Straitjackets CDs. Didn't find any but I found this CD called "Fort Worth Teen Scene Vol. 3". It was compiled of a bunch of local garage bands from back in my days in high school. I recognized a couple of them, those that had played in the Denton, TX. area. (Denton being the closest big city to my home town.) Well, anyway, the CD behind it was Vol. 2, so I scannned it over. The next CD behind that one was Vol. 1. It was while scanning it that I saw that the band that I was in in high school was one it! Oh, sure, we had cut a 45 rpm record. Thought we were good. Sold maybe fifty copies to family & friends out of the minimum of 500 that we had to order. The record sucked but then, try telling that to some sixteen year old Lennon/McCartney inspired kid. I've got the record framed and mounted with a picture of the band hanging on my wall now. I mainly framed it to insure that nobody would ever be able to hear just how bad that it was!
Anyway, it was a hoot to actually see that our band made the CD. I won't tell you which band that it was. That would be a HUGE mistake!
That story did however add more fodder to the lighthearted kidding that took place between Stevan and I. Someone previously had posted on this thread that I ought to have been a photo journalist. Well, I took that and ran with it. Every time that I pulled over to take another picture, I usually caught grief from Stevan about having to stop again. My comeback was always something like, "Hey, you question the judgement of a photo journalist?" Or, "Hey, I'm a photo journalist! Back off!" But, after discovering that our old band was on a CD, it then became, "Hey! I'm an acclaimed photo journalist AND a renowned recording artist! Zip it, fella!"
Ah, the fun we had!

 

While I'm waiting for my ride to the swap meet, I'll start updating our trip on Sunday. Before we checked out from the motel, we'd already decided, "You know what? It's gonna suck to go back the same way that we took to get here. Let's go a different way." So, that when I gave Stevan complete control over getting us back home being as I was the one who got us to Vegas. He chose to head north out of Vegas and then cut over across the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Sounded like a plan to me, so we took out on I-15 heading north.
Just barely out of town, we heard the electric fuel pump start chattering. As I don't have a working gas guage, we used the odometer and our mileage to figure out our gas stops. Uh oh! maybe we misfigured. We're about out of gas. We haddn't gotten gas since before we left Kingman for Oatman, so that Seagraves Pass thing sucked more gas that I thought. So we took the next exit in search of a station. About a couple of blocks away, we whipped into a Shell station. Made it! The wagon has got a twenty gallon tank. It took on 19.8 gallons!
With that almost-a-dilemma behind us, we were off again, with our sights on the Grand Canyon.

We were barely back on the freeway when we saw this coming us. The Las Vegas Motor Speedway!



And, lo & behold, right next door . . . . . !



Unfortunately, the Shelby Museum was closed on Sunday or we would have had to stick around for that! After a few pictures of the the wagon parked in front of the museum, it was back on the road.

About an hour or so out of Vegas, we started running into some mountains. I don't remember the name of this pass, but it sure was pretty, especially for a couple of boys from Texas!

 

Epic thread. Seriously epic.

 

Not to sound like the rest of the praise, but this is a great thread and definately sounds like you guys had a blast! Thanks for sharing.

 

A true 5 star thread! Thanks for taking us along...

 

This is high on my bucket list, Inspirational, nice pics

 

As if this epic scenery wasn't enough, this Viva car came rolling into view headed for home.





There isn't anything like cruising down a nice smooth highway with the rumble of the engine filling your ears and only your thoughts to entertain you.





East of Hurricane, UT., we turned east with the intent to cruise through Zion National Park.



We were a pair of rubberneckin' fools within the park itself! Around every corner the park offered another majestic view!





The noble mountains make one feel so small.















One halfway expected to see a cliff dwelling in the cave up ahead.