For Hot Rod Enthusiasts, By Hot Rod Enthusiasts

After the 3,207 mile journey that Robert McGaffin and I made in my ’66 Chevelle to get to SEMA, the largest trade show in the world seemed like a breeze. My car and I were in the outside Flex-a-lite booth at the event, and I was quite happy to meet so many Facebook friends and colleagues during the week. I had no less than eight petrol heads from Australia come by to check out the car in the Flex-a-lite display booth!

The film crew for Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational (OUSCI) recorded a bit of video of me and the car, and Robert and I did a podcast interview with Robert and Larry for www.Pro-Touring.com. Between the two, I’ve probably cashed in a good 7 ½ of my 15 minutes of fame.

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It’s with mixed emotions that Robert McGaffin and I descended on Highway 93 into the sea of lights that is Las Vegas. We covered just over 3,200 miles over eight days on a trip that most people would stick to the Interstate to travel just 2,000 miles in three or four days. Our reward for taking the long way was seeing incredible scenery, capturing the adventure with some breath-taking photography and meeting people who love rural America and the car culture.

Thanks to multiple 18 hour days of driving, taking pictures and yes, even hitting the computers and working at the beginning and end of each day, most of the trip is a blur. At this point, Rob and I are both firing on three cylinders. Thankfully, the pictures and our frequent Facebook updates are a great way to jog our memories. Read more

Our Facebook friend, Mick McMahan hooked us up with David Malcom, a talented fabricator and hot rod builder in Albuquerque to give us a place to repair our front accessory drive to line up the pulleys. When we pulled into the compound, we were greeted by the remnants of the 2012 Rod Father Goodguys Road Tour, heading to SEMA. Among the great people driving their street rods across county on this tour was Posie.

It didn’t take long for him to look under the hood of my Chevelle and offer up an alternate solution. Read more

Photo by Robert McGaffin

For the past two days, Robert McGaffin and I had been kicking around the possibility of driving south from our intended route to recreate a photograph of my Chevelle that I took in Nutt, NM, more than 20 years ago. It was irrational – taking us 220 miles out of the way (one way) – but we rationalized that we just had to do it. When would I ever have the car back in this part of the country?

So hung a left in Albuquerque and headed south toward Las Cruces, NM, where I grew up. Read more

We’ve had some adventures the past two days that I’ll write about in future posts, but first I want to share the details of our journey leaving Oklahoma, passing through the panhandle of Texas and into New Mexico on the Numb Butt Tour. This is where the scenery of the country that Route 66 passes through changes completely. Lush, green grass and tall, abundant trees are replaced with brown grass and dirt. That might not sound all that appealing, but the mountains, mesa and generally geography that the road cuts through is breathtaking. Read more

As I type this, it’s actually the end of day four of the Numb Butt Tour, but this post is about day three and four. But that’s okay, because I can barely remember what day it is or where we were yesterday.

In the past two days, we’ve covered over 500 miles, seeking out as much of the old Route 66 as possible between Springfield, MO and Weatherford, OK. Don’t know where Weatherford is? That’s okay, most of the world doesn’t.  It’s about an hour west of Oklahoma City. Read more

My co-pilot on this adventure, Robert McGaffin was very quick to point out that the intended route for this trip from Detroit/Chicago to Las Vegas was basically Route 66. He started doing research and ran across www.historic66.com which has downloadable routes for GPS and printable turn-by-turn directions, highlighting every pebble that was associated with the Mother Road.

In 1,776 Miles to Go on Numb Butt Tour 2012, we already shared our first stops along Route 66. For day two of the Numb Butt Tour, we started out chasing every bit of the old road that still existed. We were treated to some great photo opps at Funks Grove and also spied a section of the road that was cut off current use. We happily spent the first three hours of driving covering just 57 miles, getting a glimpse at more than a half-century of highway history. Read more

After weeks of preparation, it’s exciting to pull out of the garage, point the car in the general direction of the destination and consume the first stretch of pavement in this 2,000-mile journey called Numb Butt Tour 2012. It was also one of the most challenging days, as I mentally reviewed everything I had recently done on the car and tried to convince myself that I really did torque all of the fasteners and install the necessary cotter pins and refill all of the vital fluids. There’s also the “what’s that new noise” game as stuff in the trunk clanked against the roll cage. Read more

It’s the day before I leave on the Numb Butt Tour 2012: A classic American road trip from Detroit to Las Vegas for the SEMA show and OUSCI that promises to be adventurous, rich with automotive history along Route 66 and probably a bit comical.  I have to admit that it feels very odd not having a list of eight things left do with less than 24 hours before departure time, like “install engine” or “replumb fuel system.”  I might actually sleep the night before heading out on a cross-country drive! Read more

When Robert McGaffin and I started making plans for the Numb Butt Tour 2012, we agreed that we wouldn’t plan it too much. No hotel reservations, no set start and stop time each day. No agenda other than a fun drive from Detroit to Las Vegas, arriving in time for SEMA and the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational.

We did have to make one plan, though, and that was to determine the basic route. In late October, snow is a concern. Actually, I don’t care about snow, but I do care about the salt, gravel and sand that are laid down to deal with the snow. For this reason, we plotted a course that headed south and then works its way west. Robert quickly pointed out that much of our trip will parallel Route 66, so you can bet that we’ll be taking some detours to explore what’s left of this piece of car history. Read more