By William Hall. Photos by the author and Derek Klein.

We are leaving St. Louis, and the end is nearly in sight. We are officially in the East now and have a tight schedule as we enter the last couple legs of our transcontinental road trip from America’s Car Museum in Tacoma to our triumphant homecoming at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. ACM chief David Madeira has an important luncheon meeting in Bloomington-Normal with the expedition’s major sponsor, State Farm Insurance, and we are running late due to a backup on the interstate. Our riding mechanic Dale throws out a trivia question over the car-to-car radio: Name a famous early rock and roll star living just off I-70. Answer: Chuck Berry in Wentzville, Missouri.

Well, shoot, that’s not that far at all.

Silence over the radio, except for the click of lightbulbs turning on.

Read the rest on Hemmings News.

After a great night in St. Louis at Hyman Classic Cars we crossed the flood swollen Mississippi and arrived at State Farm headquarters in Bloomington, Illinois, where we were greeted–as you see in photos – by Director of Marketing Ed Gold and colleague Tamara Harvell. It was Ed who I approached with the idea of The Drive in September 2014 the day after Rod Alberts and I concocted it. Without hesitation he said State Farm is ‘in’ and it was his commitment that enabled me to know we could do this and put the planning in gear! Thank you, Ed!

We had an enthusiast event hosted by State Farm at US Cellular Coliseum later this afternoon. Stay tuned – less than 500 miles to go!

This morning was cold and sunny as we fueled up in Kansas City and headed to The Roasterie a popular coffee haunt downtown.

Again Mark McKee of Ace Cafe and the Kansas City Automotive Museum organized a coffee and cars gathering. Nearly 40 collector cars were driven to the event and close to 90 people participated! After two hours of tire kicking and conversation and remarks by me we began the drive to St. Louis followed out of town by several cars. As before many enthusiasts thanked us for bringing the trip to their home.

We made a dash for the iconic St. Louis arch catching a few photos just as the sun set. Then headed back west to Hyman Classic Cars for a reception and dinner hosted by Mark Hyman, a successful classic car dealer and friend. About 40 collectors were in attendance in the midst of a beautiful array of cars. I focused our remarks on the Hagerty Education  Program at ACM as there were a number of young people and professional restorers in the audience. Mark was generous in his remarks about the Museum as well.

We are excited as tomorrow we go to State Farm headquarters in Bloomington, Illinois, for a late afternoon event our good friend Tamara Harvell has planned. State Farm –the Presenting Sponsor of ACM once again in 2016 –has now supported the Museum for ten consecutive years! We look forward to celebrating that relationship tomorrow.

The cars were strong today. Like horses headed to a barn they seemed to really want to run today! Fuel mileage remains well above what we expected. The Mustang and Chrysler have yet to need any oil! The Michelin winter tires which served us so well in snow and mountains continued to impress me–winter tires are often loud on dry pavement at high speed. These tires are amazingly quiet!

Only three more driving days and less than seven hundred miles to Detroit!

By William Hall. Photos by author and Derek Klein.

Today’s departure from Kansas City was the warmest we’ve had, in more ways than one. We started with a cars and coffee meet, organized specifically for the crew of The Drive Home, our continuing cross-country trek from the LeMay-America’s Car Museum in Tacoma to the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. I sent out a call to Hemmings Nation to show up in force to cheer us on and they responded in spades. Approximately 40 collector cars braved the brisk morning to show up at The Roasterie in downtown Kansas City for coffee and camaraderie. The venue could not have been better; suspended above the café is an actual DC-3 aircraft, and the inside coffee bar features a counter that resembles a huge polished engine nacelle. Caffeine nirvana for gearheads.

It’s hard to justify the argument that our ACM cars are too valuable to drive in winter when a guy is willing to show up in a pristine Tickford-bodied 1950 Aston Martin DB2/4. Kansas City is a huge car-loving town, and they are not afraid to use them. After all, cars are about experiences and creating memories. The best part about these gatherings is hearing the terrific stories that car ownership generates. Guys are wide-eyed and enthusiastic in the telling of their greatest barn finds. Cell phone pictures are shared as if they were photos of children or pets.

Read the rest in Hemmings News.

Today we woke to a bitter Kansas breeze needing to scrape our windshields and take extra time to warm the engines. That said our relatively short drive to Kansas City was marked by sunshine and blue skies. The weather gods were with us for I’ve experienced blizzards with high winds on these same roads and those conditions are tough–often deadly. Not today, the cars ran so easily that when we found the best rest stop of the trip thus far–a Shell station with Starbucks!–we dawdled for nearly an hour. We also took about a half hour to explore the dirt roads of a nearby farm community just for fun!

Our good friend and Steering Committee member, Mark McKee, who lives nearby, had organized an enthusiast gathering and Kansas City barbecue for us! The beef, ham and baked beans were ‘out of this world’ and accompanied by great slaw and potato salad. I skipped lunch and didn’t hold back!

Mark organized the gathering of about 40 collectors at the Kansas City Automotive Museum who welcomed us to their facility. Among them were a number of ACM members who support the Hagerty Education Program at ACM. They were thrilled when I introduced a McPherson Colllege student from KC who had received a HEP internship last summer. Jason’s internship was at ACM and he worked on the cars as they were being prepped for this trip. He was excited to see the cars and proud for his part in The Drive Home. Diane Fitzgerald, our National Director of HEP joined us today and will participate with us over the next few days as we pay particular emphasis on HEP in events in KC, St Louis and Chicago. It’s good to have her with us.
The Kansas City Automotive Museum is a modest place compared to ACM –perhaps some 15,000 square feet in total. It has a small but dedicated staff and committed founder whose vision is for the museum to be at the hub of the car club culture in KC. I was impressed with their plans, their goals and their vision and spent a good amount of time with the founder and the director. Some of their staff were quick to inform me they had visited ACM and we’re delighted we had elected to do these gatherings with them –they are helping organize tomorrow’s event too. I emphasized our vision is one of collaboration and shared experience and that we will welcome collaboration where opportunity exists. They share that orientation and welcomed my commitment.

Tonight journalist Henry Payne of The Detroit News joined us and will participate with us at the Cars & Coffee in downtown KC tomorrow, take a turn behind the wheel and join us for the gathering at Hyman Classic Motorcars in St Louis. In spite of the flooding there they say we can get through!

Kansas City has a thriving enthusiast culture and reputation for warm hospitality –a hospitality which we were privileged to receive today due to our good friend Mark and new friends we continue to meet on the road.

By William Hall. Photos by author and Derek Klein.

I was afforded an interesting perspective today. For the first time in seven days, since we began this cross-country journey from the LeMay-America’s Car Museum in Tacoma to the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, I was driving something that wasn’t made before the Kennedy Administration.

A computer crash necessitated a quick trip to an electronics store to purchase a new laptop. I jumped in our modern support vehicle and I immediately felt as if I had sat on a giant marshmallow and sunk into it, its padded leather interior forming around me. Gone was the airy greenhouse of the ’61 Chrysler, replaced by high body lines and minimal glass. The purposeful Exner-era dash was now an incomprehensible array of LED lighting and buttons. Instead of a car that you could jump in and drive with a moment’s instruction, I was in a car that felt like I needed an owner’s manual and a degree in Information Technology to operate. Sensory overload. I cut two people off and was honked at once.

Read the rest in Hemmings News.

By William Hall. Photos by the author and Derek Klein.

Our much anticipated crossing of the Continental Divide is upon us, and we could not have been luckier with the weather. It’s clear and mild, but the biggest road hazard is the snowmelt spray causing havoc with our windshields. None of the cars have working window sprayers”¦so instead we employ spray bottles directly onto the glass. It works remarkably well, and is a more effective delivery of the large quantities we are going through. The only downside to the sunlit ride is the temporary suspension of the Sludgecicle Challenge, another of the amusing competitions we have developed between the three cars to hang the largest icicle off the bumpers. Sadly, our hopes of delivering a pure Pacific Northwest icicle to the steps of the Cobo Center in Detroit will have to wait until next year.

Read the rest in Hemmings News.

A beautiful drive from Grand Junction to Glenwood Springs and on to Lakewood. Rather than stay on the interstate through the Eisenhower Tunnel I decided to take us up over the 11,000 foot Loveland Pass on two lane road. Spectacular! And thank goodness for Michelin tires which easily conquered snow and ice!

That put us over the Rockies and a great downhill run to Lakewood where Hagerty is generously sponsoring a New Year’s Eve party!

Check out my shots, but then visit The Drive Home page for a video recap. Happy New Year!

David

Why drive vintage cars on a journey like this?

Most of the journalists, persons following the drive online and those we meet on the way want to know why we would undertake this winter drive? Many wonder why, in their minds we ‘risk’ these vintage vehicles to the rigors of such a journey and to the winter elements. We do our best to explain it and in truth there are many reasons.

First of course was the always present search for innovative ways to present the Museum to the world, to raise public interest with the hopes of increasing attendance, membership and support. Related to this was our partnership with the North American International Auto Show and our mutual desire to celebrate America’s love affair with the automobile and the resurgence of the auto industry and its center – Detroit. I will write more on these things another day.

Of real importance to me is the desire to distinguish America’s Car Museum from traditional notions of a Museum with cars idling lifelessly as relics of an age gone by. I argue that while driving vintage cars may put them at ‘risk’, not driving them makes their ‘death’ certain. Cars that don’t move are sad objects to look at. And driving them is the only way to give them a chance for a meaningful existence giving pleasure to driver and passengers.

I espoused this differentiating attribute of the Museum early on as I endeavored to raise funds for its permanent home. Yet it really took on real meaning for me seven or eight years ago when I drove our 1931 Duesenberg Murphy J roadster on the 1,500 mile Pebble Beach Motoring Classic. In decades the car had been driven only a handful of miles–the most some 140 miles to a regional concours. It ran but not well as the seals had hardened and dried and sludge collected etc through years of inactivity. The Pebble Beach Motoring Classic is a challenging trip especially on the first day with its climbs of the flanks of Mt. Rainier and Mt. St Helens. The first few days of the journey the car’s innate strength kept it on the road but it balked on climbs and engine felt tight and as if not always firing on all cylinders. After a night of labor making valve and other adjustments the car drove more easily, it hummed and did not throb. It was able to reach higher speeds without straining as before. After some 1,200 miles or so it easily climbed the Santa Cruz Mountains and on the descent to the coast and Highway 1 the engine ‘sang’ and car loped easily down the highway feeling as if it was eager to run and run it did hitting 70 mph joyfully.  At the Concours the Duesie seemed to enjoy the tour to Big Sur and cruised through Carmel drawing attention from bystanders.

That drive confirmed my belief that cars must be driven and that ACM must be known for giving vintage cars new life bringing pleasure to those who drive them or watch them on the road. The drive in the Duesie, the ’31 Lincoln on a similar trip and the ’27 LaSalle in the Mille Miglia also confirmed the marvelous relationship between man, or woman, and machine as those wonderful cars brought the pleasure of the open road to me.

The Drive Home seeks on a larger scale and, among other things, to demonstrate ACM’s commitment to using cars for their intended purpose and to bring to mind wonderful memories to those we meet on the way, pass on the road or follow us on-line. I can tell you that one third of the way through the journey we are accomplishing these parts of our mission as truckers blast their horns and raise a hand in salute, cars keep pace with passengers smiling or calling out in support and online viewers commenting and urging us on. Many say the are ‘living vicariously’ with us as they follow our progress.

The Drive Home is ‘driving home’ the point that  ACM is an entity which promotes and celebrates America’s automotive heritage and is relevant to the car culture today providing opportunities for cars to be put to their intended use–driven–and giving the public the joy of seeing them on the road and resurrecting their own stories of life with the auto.

More random thoughts from behind the wheel tomorrow.

David