28th“ “ “ “ “This leaves 7 days in hand for staying in LA area
Joplin: Sept. 4th., 2006
Five Baby Austins
on The Mother Road:
Austin 7s on Route 66.
Six vintage Austin Sevens from Britain are driving the famous Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles. They commenced the epic journey on Sunday the 3rd. of September hoping to arrive in California by the 22nd. of September. The crews are all members of the 750 Motor Club – founded in 1939, mainly for such cars.
There is a modern car in support. The driver and her American daughter, is co-driving one of the Austins, are doing the journey in memory of their late husband and father who had hoped to travel Route 66.
All the cars/crews have travelled extensively in Europe in their Sevens and 3 of them completed a 3,500 mile journey from Buenos Aires, across the Andes, to Santiago, Chile and back in Feb 2005.
The cars date from 1929 to 1938 and are the type of car on which the ‘American Austin’ and ‘Bantam’ cars were based. Jack Rittenhouse did the journey in a 1939 Bantam in 1946 and wrote about it in his book, “A Guide Book to Highway 66”, which is another inspiration for the trip – 60 years on.
The cars arrived in New York by sea and the crews by air on the 23rd of August. On the 27th of August they left for Chicago, stopping off at Butler, where the American Austin and Bantams were made, for the start of what they anticipate will be a fascinating journey. The group plans to arrive in Springfield on Sept. 5th., leaving for Claremore, OK. on the 6th.. They plan on staying an extra day in Claremore as a "rest day" on the 7th., leaving for points west on the 8th.. Route 66 TV ONLINE has contacted the group which is scheduled make a Media Appearance in Joplin at the Memorial Hall parking lot just west of Main on 7th. st. (Route 66).
The cars and their drivers will return to the UK around the end of September.
The participants are as follows;
Richard and Marlies Bishop from Exeter, Devon in a 1938 sports.
Ken and Eileen Cooke from Hertfordshire in a 1930 4 seater tourer.
Vince Leek from Warminster and Diana Garside from Nth Carolina in a 1929 tourer.
George and Joy Mooney from Bournemouth, Hants. In a 1934 Cambridge special.
Stan Price from Carlisle and Chris Parkhurst from Aylesbury in a 1932 ‘box’ saloon.
Veronica Garside, Wendy Hider from Swindon Wilts, and River Dukes from North Carolina in a support car.
Further details from ken.cooke@ntlworld.com or Vince Leek at leek@austin7engineering.freeserve.co.uk
Route 66 TV ONLINE plans to provide more information and photos on this page as it becomes available.
Additional photos & itinerary below article.
Above, L to R; Ken and Eileen Cooke's 1930 'Chummy' (roadster), organizer Vince Leek's 'Chummy' (roadster), Stan Prices 1932 saloon (sedan), Richard Bishop's 1938 Sports and George and Joy Mooney's 1934 'Cambridge' sports at Southampton on the 9th of August at Southampton, prior to loading for sea transport to the US.
Group picture above was taken 20 months ago - before the South American tour.
TRIP ITINERARY
Hello All.
It's only a few days now 'till we start out on our 2nd trip on Route 66.
I fly to Newark this coming Wednesday and Ron will join me there on Friday. We set out on Saturday to stay with an old family friend in Gaithersberg, MD and early the next day set off for Joliet where Lulu has booked us into the Best Western for 2 nights. We'll be "getting our Kicks" with Lulu that evening (with dinner and various pubs lined up) and next morning will take Lulu to Chicago to hook up with Windy City Road Warrior David to be shown a bit more of "66" in relation to the City, (in 2001 we saw the insides of 2 of the pubs, but also did quite a bit of touring during the 4 days we spent there). Old friends will recall that we set out on Adams on August 5th - my birthday - and spent the next 3 weeks travelling the Mother Road. We met a lot of you then and others not met have been regularly in touch via e-mail.
So, although we have got plans to see some of you as we pass along the road, please look out for the little Panda --- with its steering wheel on the "wrong" side and the large British number plates (these 2 items almost
caused a diplomatic incident in 2001 when a pair of Massachusetts traffic policemen found them too much to bear!). We hope to see Bob and Kitty Harmon and Bunny and Kelley Sies while in Illinois and will be calling into Rich and Linda's Henry's Ra66it Ranch in Staunton. It would be nice if we could meet Larry Kinsey again in Missouri and we will be seeing Emily, Ron (tattooman), Julie (Bradley's Pottery), Ken (Landrunner) and Marion and Ken Clark in Oklahoma while staying with Laurel (the "one we never got to meet"). We are looking forward to seeing the restored Afton Station and will picture the Panda under the canopy as we did 5 years ago!
Further down the road we'll look in on Becky in Amarillo and stop for pie at the Mid-Point with Fran.
We look forward to seeing Debra and Ken at the wonderful Route 66 Museum in Barstow's historic Harvey House and hopefully meet Scott in San Bernardino.
I've probably missed a few out but hopefully those that would like to meet us will leave messages on this Group's message board before Tuesday evening. I'll be leaving home for Heathrow fairly early on Wednesday so will not have time to access messages.
CARTHAGE: Austin 7's stop at Powers Museum, 10:30 am..
Below, JOPLIN: KSNF Ch. 16 NBC cameraman (white shirt) shoots video at Memorial Hall stop, 12:30 pm..
Above, RIVERTON: Eisler Brothers manager Scott Nelson sings "Get your Kicks...." for group during lunch stop.
Below: Crossing Marsh Arch Bridge between Riverton & Baxter Springs.
Road Photos, Sept. 8, 2006: Above: Crew at Boots Motel in Carthage.
Road Photos, Sept. 8, 2006: Above: Lunch at Bradford-Bishop Deli in Webb City with Chamber Director, Dixie.
Road Photos, Sept. 8, 2006: Above: Old Union Depot in Joplin.
Road Photos, Sept. 8, 2006: Above/below: Crew at Joplin Museum.
Road Photos, Sept. 8, 2006: Below: Peter and Ron at the "Bonnie & Clyde" garage apartment in Joplin.
British twosome tour our area as a couple, return home as newlyweds. (Their e-mail to us.)
"It was a real pleasure meeting you and your wife at the Eisler Bros. store. As you know, we were following the mother road west. We saw some amazing places and met some lovely people in every state we went through. We even got married in Las Vegas, NV. We took over 750 photos which will help us to remember it all in the coming years. And some day we'll be back.
Attached are a couple of photos of us along the 66. One is of me enjoying a Coke outside the Eisler Bros store, and the other is of Janine outside Hackberry General Store, AZ. Not quite local, but we didn't take that many pictures of each other.
Everyone here thinks doing route 66 was a cool thing to do. We just tell them that they should do it too. It's a fantastic way of seeing the US and meeting people. My parents are thinking about going to the US, renting an RV and doing some touring. I'll get them to check your web site for ideas and advice."
Paul & Janine, Great Britain
Left: Janine on 66 in Arizona, Paul at Eisler Brothers Store in Riverton, KS..
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