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

Bitchin!

 

Howwwwwdeeeeeeeeeee!

Okay, so ... no where on my turn by turn Route 66 bible does it tell us about Red Oak II ... but hush my mouth I'm in the south .. it's AWESOME! Our new friend Gary Turner, Gay Parita Sinclair Gas Station owner, told us about this place and man alive ... it is NOT to be missed! Reason that it's NOT on the turn by turn I compiled is because supposedly the man who owned most of Red Oak just picked it up and moved to where it stands today.

Like I said earlier, we stopped in Carthage MO for the night last night because we were losing daylight and the clouds looked like they were about to burst open right over our heads. So we thought we'd check it out first thing in the morning. So after breakfast we headed east again about 15 miles to Red Oak II from Carthage and SATANS JÄVLAR (suck me sideways in Swedish) what an experience.

This place is a retro lovers paradise! Even though they are still adding the finishing touches we were received with open arms and welcomed to tour the grounds at will.

They just plucked up Red Oak and plopped it right down on several acres off the beaten path of Route 66 to incorporate Red Oak II. Red Oak II is a COMPLETE town with a post office, restaurant, fire station, gas station, water tower, town hall, church, a cemetary and many inhabited houses ... including one that could have been right out of a Dr Suess tale or the Lemony Snickets movie! There were at least 15 30's-50's cars scattered about. Birds of all kinds, sorts and breeds scampering about and swimming in the many ponds around ¨town¨. There were steel sculptures decorating the empty spaces, bottle trees, a bathroom plumbing fountain greeted you at the entrance, and a 50's style port-a-potty on wheels (at least that's what we thought it was) at the entrance of Red Oak II.

This place was MAGNIFICENT ... and we're not using THAT term lightly! They should be finished by mid June and hopefully will have their grand opening Fourth of July Weekend! Go! It's SOOOOOOO worth it! This was a complete surpise and a total treat!

In sweet baby, infant in the scratchy hay Jesus, we love you, heal Cindy's pityful knee (it's REALLY BAD!!!), Powerade, Shake & Bake (Bread & Butter) name we pray ... A - freakin'- men! Oh Yeaaaah! Drunk, Posting ... GOOOOOD!

C K & M

 

Southern California people, check out the thread I started for a Swede Meet and Greet on Sunday, April 15th.

Thanks,
Kurt

 

Good to see the Chevy. The one I had was the same, Bel Air 4dr, 2-tone that blue/green aqua color and white, same stock caps....348/4bbl/PG....120mph according to the speedo but I kept burning up generators (and my dad kept shaking his head, couldn't figure it out). Anyway, good luck on your journey, hope you meet up with lots of folks along the way.

 

Magnus, Klaus, and Cindy made it to Yukon Oklahoma today just missing another tornado. They are staying at a different hotel than they planned so they may not have internet acess. They are coming back to the shop in the morning for a little carb work and then they should be on the road to Austin.
You should be hearing from them soon.
Pooch

 

Awesome...Looks like you all are having Great time! see ya in vegas!!!

 

The Swedes just left Yukon,Ok. for Austin, Texas. Have as much fun with them as we did while they were here .
Pooch

 

wow!! brings back memories of when i was a young teenager living in both springfield and bloomington....drove with my folks that strech many times or took the train to get back and forth...hav a great trip...look for ya at vlv...

 

Here we are again!!
Hi everybody!

Now we're in Texas, staying with Dave Wolfe and the world famous Cardinal Cyn (aka Jorie) in Austin. The drive here yesterday went OK. We had some serious rain in some places, but it did rain most of the way from JA and Pooch's Garage in Yukon OK to Austin. When we were about 100 miles from our destination we got a little scare! : ( The generator light came on and stayed on. So we decided to drive on with only parking lights! We drove all the way to the Austin City limits "hiding" behind an 18 wheeler, before we turned the headlights on. Quite nerve racking. We arrived at Dave's around 9:30 or so and he made us a little ¨midnight¨snack that was delish! We sat around an chatted for a while and then crashed.

So back to the past few days. We were greeted in Yukon OK by Pooch and his folks JA and Patricia, Pooch's wife and daughter and a couple of very anxious friends ... who had been waiting around for 2 days for us! Sorry about that folks! I swear ... these people treated us like their long lost brothers and sister!!! We got the tour of the shop and the adjoining yard and MAN what gold lies therein! JA's '52 Chevy was beautiful. Pooch has a bad ass '49 Chevy. And all the neighbors that came to visit has some pretty cool rides too! They asked us to join them for dinner at a local Italien (pronounced Eye´-tal-yen in the south) restaurant and we had a great time as well as a great meal! Then we down the road a spell and stayed at a hotel in Yukon instead of driving all the way back to OK City for a Super 8 (our trend in hotels since the start of this journey). We got up (in the nick of time not to be late) got ourselves clean and drove back to the shop, where we were greeted by a very smiling and happy JA! Pooch joined us a little later. So, JA jumped right in and started cleaning one of his Chevy Carbs parts he found in his stash and then mounted it on the car with the air cleaner that wouldn't fwith the carb that was already on the car and then mounted the air cleaner that was doing a fine job of cleaning the trunks air up to that point! : ) Then the boys adjusted the timing and dwell. Meanwhile Pooch and Klaus were pillaging the Chevys in the yards for parts for Lady Luck. Then there was more story telling and swapping experiences. JA took us on a mini Yukon Route 66 tour ... where we saw the infamous 80 year old dog tracks that they discovered on a bike trip long ago. This was so cool ... about 80 years ago when the highway workers were laying the concrete for Route 66 in Yukon, they had left the concrete to dry overnight and upon their return the next morning ... there were paw tracks running diagonally across the road coming out of the woods. To this day ... they are still there! Some of the road leading up to these tracks have been repaved, but for now at least they are safe for us to discover!

We're off to the Lonestar Roundup! More tomorrow!

C K & M
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Kick ass coverage - keep it up!

PACO

 

I have been following your travels with interest because my wife and I are considering doing a similar, but much shorter vacation this summer. I saw a couple of Yeungling cans in the pics, and then noticed them sitting on the trunk of the car at Roundup. I love that stuff, and we can't get it in Texas. I almost tried to bum one off you guys when I passed by at Roundup!

Have a great trip...

Slonaker

 

Kllaus, Magnus and company, soooo good to meet you guys at the Round Up!

I'm really glad the weather turned out so well on Sat!

Best of luck on the rest of the trip.

The pith helmet guy,

jerry

 

It's great to read about your adventures and see that you're having a great time! Miss you heaps... Take care & drive safely! Martina

 

I see you guys didn't fix that generator light . you should have got that ass from new york to fix it , he seemed to have some good ideas. SO, i left.
anyways thanks for the yuengling & sons.

 

the swedes just left wellington texas.

the generator is now fixed and they are headed west.

today the cadillac ranch and a big texan steak

 

Hi Ya'll

Now we're in Tucumcari at the Blue Swallow Motel and it's great. New owner since a couple of years ago. A must See, even more than before..
We left Flat Top Bob this morning after a couple of great days in his home town, where he showed us around to some great sites with great cars and even greater people.. You all know who you are. Thanks from the bottom of our hearts you realy made us feel welcome. We'll be back to see ya'll

More detailed storys to come

Klaus, Cindy & Magnus. Oh and Jersey Belle

 

Isn't the United States a great place full of great people! You guys know how to live! Best wishes to ya!!

 

It was great meeting you guys, I enjoyed the drive home. We should photoshop my traditional Ford dually out of that picture, it doesnt' deserve to be there. Have a safe trip.

 

Kiwi Kev, you are right on the spot, the people we've met are truly great, and we can't wait to get to Vegas. Will you show up at the Meet and greet in L A?
All the nice people at the Round up who helped us with generator truoble, and finishing our Yuengling beers, and all HAMB'ers we've met, you are in our hearts forever. We had a blast.

 

god damn i miss you guys!
tequila dances all around when you guys come back to jersey......

 

So the Lonestar Roundup was a blast. We met a ton of HAMBers &#8230; you know who you are. A special thanks to the Kontinental Klub for letting the &#8217;58 into the show even though the show had been sold out long before we planned to attend! That was incredibly special for us! The turn out of cars was great. We all loved the green and orange &#8217;49-52 Chevy with a coni kit &#8230; and Cindy loved the &#8217;56 Gasser. It was great to meet some old friends again and wow, we made a lot of new friends.

After the Roundup we hit South Congress to check out the cruise (that is to say when we finally FOUND South Congress!) and that was a sight to see. Reminded us of V&#228;ster&#229;s Power Big Meet with lots of daily drivers mixed in with the cool hot rods, customs and stockers! The show at the Continental Club was sold out so we just heard random bits from the side walk. But the party was outside, like is usually the case.

On Sunday morning we met with Flattop Bob and his crew and followed them back up to the Texas panhandle. Fellow Road Rockets Bob and Zenith joined us at Bob&#8217;s garage along with Jeff Norwell and we were thoroughly entertained with all the treasures Bob has and the stories everyone shared. Bob hooked us up at the local motel and it turns out to be one of the nicest, cleanest places we&#8217;re spent on the road so far! We got a good nights rest and drove into town (like we were out of town &#8230; ha ha!) and there was the Owens Salvage Yard. Damn, this place is packed with pure treasures &#8211; no lie, no exaggeration. We spent hours and hours pouring throw the parts warehouse and yard. Then we got a tour of the towns cars from Don on his lunch break! The southern hospitality was flowing over the top in this little sleepy hallow! Monday night we went to eat at a Mexican restaurant and had the honor of following Big D back to his place(s) and see all of his treasures! This was truly an overwhelming day. Please &#8230; buy stuff from Owens Salvage &#8230; he has so many gems it&#8217;s not even believable! You&#8217;ll be sorry if you don&#8217;t &#8230; JUST LEAVE STUFF THERE FOR US FOR OUR NEXT VISIT (CONTAINER IN TOW!!!)

We were forced, kicking and screaming from Wellington but to be in Las Vegas on Friday we had to make it through the Texas panhandle and New Mexico by Thursday and we had already stayed the unplanned day so we begrudgingly got in Jersey Belle and mosied north to Shamrock. The Conoco Station/U Drop Inn has been restored again since we saw it in 2003 and WOW &#8230; the neon is really incredible! Driving through all the sleepy little towns is so much fun and there are so many photo ops! Next big stop was the Big Texan Steak Ranch! None of us tried to do the 72 oz (that&#8217;s 4 &#189; pounds or 2 kilos). Magnus and Klaus both had the rib eye and I had some of the tastiest pork ribs ever! We nearly bought out the store (it just felt like that I think) then we jumped in Belle and started west again. We stopped for the day in Tucumcari New Mexico and stayed at the famous Blue Swallow Motel. The new owners are renovating the motel back to the original look of the 40&#8217;s. Unfortunately there was a terrible hail storm that skirted a tornado that hit nearby and took out a lot or most of the neon on main street in Tucumcari! Bummer, but it was still awesome!

We got a later start that normal because I did some laundry Wednesday morning, then I begged Magnus to stop at an antique shop we stopped in before in 2003 and I basically stole two chinese kids wall mounted flower pots from this lady, who evidentally knew exactly what she had but still sold them to me for $30 each. We&#8217;ve never seen them for less than $125 and in this pristine shape they probably would have been $160 each somewhere else! YEAH ME!

Then we hit Albuquerque. There are more old hotels, motels and shops on Central Avenue in Alb. than we&#8217;ve seen thus far on the trip combined! It was incredible. We stopped at the Atomic Cantina and had a tasty cold beer before venturing west a little bit to Grants New Mexico where we&#8217;ve stopped for Wednesday night.

Today, Thursday April 5th we&#8217;re going to finish the last 70 miles of New Mexcio and then drive straight through to Vegas or maybe just 100 miles outside Vegas so we won&#8217;t be beat by the time we get into town. It is gonna be a long weekend!

More when we settle in tonight or tomorrow when we hit Vegas! Until then &#8230;

Keep shakin&#8217; the shack!

Cindy, Klaus and Magnus

 

What a cool trip! You've seen more of the US than most Americans....

 

How come the black 57 Chevy have swedish license plates? Could be an interesting story.
Many thanks for the thread. For a fellow Swede with many miles on US roads it´s nice to read about your trip. There is no better way to spend a vacation.

 

It was so great to meet you Klaus, Magnus and Russ, I mean Cindy.

You are getting to do what most born Americans will never do, or even dream of doing, many, many props to you.

I'm gonna have to think about taking up your offer to go to Sweden.....our 10th anninversary and my birthday.....wow.

I'm so lucky to have known such great adventurers such as yourselves.

Be safe, and stay cool.

 

Wait a minute, that yellow car in the scrapyard, is that a damn Ford Taunus? WOW!!!!!!

 

I´m 99,9% sure it´s a Taunus.

 

Don't drive straight thru Arizona ;the best of route 66 is there!

 

Swede 64. We're certainly having the best time of our lives. The 57 chevy belongs to Lars Hellgren from Kungelv. He bought the car in 1979 in U.S and it was his first american car and he brought it back to the states for the chevy's 50th birthday. Is that cool or what? The yellow car is indeed a Taunus 17 m 1958-60 model. AND we saw a Saab 1965 in the same junkyard.
NADS, you should really consider to come to Old style weekend, it's like nothing else, really the best car meet in our opinion. It's wild....

 

Magnus, I talked about it to my wife yesterday, we'll see.

Say is that Taunus available? You got a contact number?

Be safe.