1959 Buick Electra 225 4 door hardtop
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I’ve never driven any length of Route 66 except as I live in Los Angeles I’ve visited the unofficial West Coast starting point of Santa Monica pier a zillion times. To me, roadside attractions seem a reason to go, but none exist. Here in Northern Calif we still have several fun roadside attractions in the area of the Giant Redwoods, like Trees of Mystery, the Drive Thru Tree, Pygmy Forest, Confusion Hill and other attractions that are just silly fun.
I haven’t gotten around to following up with a summary of my nephew’s story, but it was a big success. He did about 1/2 of route 66 then went north from New Mexico, almost all the way to Canada, and saw a lot of National Parks, and had a great time. He got a Honda Pilot for $4,200 here in Chicago, had to change the front brakes and got a flat, then sold it for $4,600 or something like that in California. Took some great pictures, had some fun adventures. Look for the summary and links to pics later.
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Whoops, looking back through the thread, I see I remembered the asking price. He got the car for $3,600. Maybe he sold it for $4,200.
To the original question, 1958 Packard Hawk.
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Eh, those are a dime a dozen around here. He opted for the rare and exotic Honda Pilot.
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I’ll take a dozen please.
My thought the truck from Beverly Hillbillies!
From WIKI, " US 66 served as a primary route for those who migrated west, especially during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s,"
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I vote for a 27 window Volkswagen Type 2 microbus. Peace signs, surfboard racks, and flowers, are optional, I suppose.
CSA
What is the speed of a vw bus into a 45 mph headwind?
Vague reference to monty python
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Richard , this long thread was about someone buying a vehicle to drive across the US . That was done , trip made and vehicle sold.
Thanks for the thoughts. His criteria were that it had to be able to do a little off-roading, which he did to get away from the crowds in the National Parks. He got a Honda Pilot and had an air mattress in the back. He’s 6’-4" and needed the room, and saved on hotels. He’s a savvy kid- he drove it to California and sold it for a couple hundred bucks more than he paid. Had a great trip. I will post his recollections and links to pictures at some point.
Please do, I’d love to see them 
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Move to Florida and you become a hippy…
I’d go for something with a long wheelbase, like a minivan or large SUV; maybe even an RV. Gotta be comfortable on a couple thousand mile trip.
Okay, instead of a classic “peace & love” hippie van, make it a classic Volkswagen Campmobile with pop-up roof, right from the Wolfsburg factory in the 60’s! It even has an Eberspacher gasoline heater for those cold mountain passes. Feel the magic!
CSA
For anybody still getting notifications on this thread 11 months later: my Dutch nephew pulled off his dream drive across the country last summer and I promised a follow up with some of his story and pictures. He sent me two long emails full of stories of his adventures, but I will include just two of my favorites for you. He is a very good photographer and made the most of his time in some incredible landscapes. I’ll post his pictures separately…
Enjoy!
After Oklahoma City I passed a little town El Reno. In my little Route66 book it said there was a nice little place where you could have a good dinner. Went in there, ordered the smallest possible meal, but got a huge plate with meat and fries and everything. The owner, an old woman, talked a lot to me there. Couldn’t really understand her but of course I tried to have the best conversation I could. I spoke with her about my trip and a couple of other people next to me got interested in my story as well. Then I wanted to get up and pay the bill and get going again, but the cashier said: “well, you’re good to go man”. I thought he maybe meant that as a question, so I said that I was good to go indeed. Then he said: “no, I mean this man paid your bill and you are good to go!”.
Turned out that a man, around 30-35 years old, heard me telling about my trip and that I was alone. I didn’t even speak a word with him, so I asked him “why??” (happily surprised of course). He said: “well you’re traveling man!”. So I thanked him of course, but still stood there surprised, probably with an open mouth. He said: “welcome to Oklahoma man!”. So that was of course something unforgettable. That night there was a big storm there by the way. (I was already gone by that time). A couple of days later on the radio I heard there were 2 people killed in El Reno by a tornado…
After the second time in Flagstaff I went off Route 66 for good, and my National Park adventure could begin. Didn’t have high expectations of Grand Canyon. I thought it maybe would be too commercial. It was very commercial indeed, but when I arrived at the rim and I saw the Canyon for the first time, I was blown away. The size of that Canyon and the realization that that whole thing is shaped by a stream of water gives you a real shock about the length of time behind us. But it was also just very beautiful. There were a lot of recommended hikes ‘into’ the Canyon. Each time there were 3 levels they recommended. The first one so easy that you have to laugh about it, and the third, according to the organization, super intense. They said you really had to think about that third one if you wanted to that, you had to be a very experienced hiker and in a very good condition. That third trail would take you 4-6 hours, down and up again (according to them), and would maybe go half the distance from the rim to the river. I was a little bit skeptical to these signs, I think I had a little bit of an attitude, but I also tried to be critical against my own attitude. But yeah, to be honest, for me the thought of doing such a hike started with the desire to see the Colorado River. You can’t see that from the top and in the end that is the most important part of the Grand Canyon. And it’s totally not that I thought it would be easy to hike to the river, I knew that if I would do that that it would be very, very intense. But in my mind my attitude towards these signs was a bit like “yeah, I do believe you, but believe me I can handle it”. So I had that thought in my head, and sort of made the plan to get up very early the next day, and ‘just see to what point I would hike’. I also asked a local guy who worked there for the summer if he had any recommendations. So, secretly he advised me some possible trails, he wasn’t supposed to do that because all these park rangers had to prevent people from getting in trouble with hiking and misjudging themselves.
But okay, I got up at around 6am, and got on one of the shuttle buses to my starting point. When I got out at my stop, another Dutch couple of around 30 years old got out too. They appeared to go and do the same trail as me. I went off a little bit earlier than them, so I was a fair bit ahead of them from the start. Already at the first turn downhill, there was another warning sign, but this one I hadn’t seen before. This one had a picture of a guy throwing up, with the warning that you really shouldn’t go to the river, because it would get you ill and it could even bring your life in danger. At that point I was a little bit scared and I took the warnings serious for the first time. So I decided I would only do the 3rd level-hike. But when I arrived at the last station, where the ‘hardest’ hike ended, I had only been walking for 1 hour. So I was a little bit upset with this, because I wanted to do a real good hike and not already been done after one hour and then having to go back with an unsatisfying hike. But I also didn’t know how long it would take to get to the river, because they didn’t give that information on the info-boards. I waited a minute for the two other Dutch people, and they had the same reaction as me. But they didn’t think about the option of going all the way to the river, but when I said that they were in. So we proceeded together, and that was fun. We had a lot we could talk about. It had cost us around 3 hours to get to the river, and we knew that it would take longer to get up of course. (By the way, we went down on one trail, walked a part alongside the river and got up on another trail) With a couple of eat/drink breaks and even with a small storm going over us (I don’t know the English word for it, but technically when it rains ice that happened in the Canyon —> and of course I don’t mean snow haha) we finally arrived at the top of the rim at 5pm. So approximately 10 hours of hiking, shirt soaked of sweat and legs that feel like they are really going to hurt the next days (and they did…). In the end we also spent the evening together what was really fun. This day was really a super experience.
(end)
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Excellent!
Wonderful pictures and story! Feel free to keep posting them on here @Mikedrives! Uploading them directly into a post like you did is perfect. I’m glad he had such a great trip!
Very much enjoy reading your nephew’s stories and seeing his photos. Do please share more.
Brings back wonderful memories of taking my mom on a summer and into autumn driving trip across thirteen western states thirty years ago.