driving 35 Auburn Speedster from MI to NM

[Amphicar BUYER]

Amelia Earheart's car is in Covington, Ohio being restored.....

Depending on which one of her cars you mean. Her yellow Kissel Bug is at the Forney Museum in Denver where it has been for many years.

[mikespeed35]

We were told the plane was a Beech 18 military trainer. It was owned by a crop dusting company , the owner is planning to restore it. Kudos to all of you that guessed!

We traveled to Enid and visited with friends there. They showed us their car collection, gave us a tour of the town and took us for a fabulous lunch.

We ended the day in Winfield, KS. Tonight was wash day for car and clothes. The computer server is very slow, so my post will be short tonight. (no Photos tonight)

The Auburn cruises at 60 very comfortably. We usual stop and take a break every hour or so, not for the car but for the passengers.

We are from Hudsonville, MI near Grand Rapids.

[TailfinEra]

This is such a great story/thread. I love to read about people out enjoying their vintage cars, especially when they are as unique and rare as yours. Thanks for sharing and I have really enjoyed the pictures.

[mikespeed35]

Because the computer service was so slow last night, I did not post the day’s photos; therefore I added them to today’s post.

There are many huge grain elevators in this part of the country. This is not a photo of the largest!

It is interesting how these vehicles got up here.

There were many areas with interesting geological formations.

As we were driving yesterday, Mike noticed the reflection in the speedometer and thought it made a cool picture.

Today we drove to Kansas City, and we visited a couple of good friends. The temperature is in the 90’s today.

[mikespeed35]

This is what an Auburn that has been driven looks like…. I was told that the reason the L29’S are so clean on the front is that the bugs can fly out of the way. Not so, with and Auburn speedster!

Ethanol Fuel production plant in IL.

Another car on a pole.

Love these vintage barns!

This morning we traveled from Kansas City to Canton, IL. It was a beautiful day. Most of the day the temperature was in the mid 70’s, the sun was shining and we traveled along the secondary roads. We are nearing the end of our tour, we should be home tomorrow.

[Larry Schramm]

:DAAAAhhhh, Hudsonville. The home of excellent ice cream.

[mikespeed35]

We left Canton, IL this morning: It was a cold 40 degrees and didn’t warm up quickly. The high today was 55. In an open car, that’s cold. We stayed on the secondary roads until Michigan City, IN , then we got on the major highways for the remainder of the trip home. As we got closer and closer to MI we got less amazed looks when we told them we were indeed driving the car, and more looks for being crazy people driving with the top down.

We were traveling mainly through farm country. Some of the fields were being worked up and others were planted or being planted, others had not been touched. We saw lots of grain elevators and huge farm equipment. The corn was just beginning to come up in rows. We drove past this corn field with an assortment of kids toy horses lined up along with an inchworm toy, so we inquired about it. It’s a neighborhood joke. It started with one horse and just grew into a horse farm! The inchworm inches its way forward in the line.

We got home around 6 PM tonight. We traveled a total of 3513 miles on this trip and we used 287.5 gallons of gas and got 12.4 MPG. We had a lot of head wind. Gas averaged $3.69 per gallon.

[oldcarfudd]

What a marvelous trip! Thank you so much for these posts. I hope they'll stir a few more people to take their rare or valuable cars and drive them.

Gil Fitzhugh, Morristown, NJ

[mikespeed35]

I am trying to encourage every one to drive any car, the value is not the point. I don't care if it's a Bugatti or a Bug. The back roads of America are waiting.

CORDially Mike

[Shop Rat]

One of the members here has a tag line that if you don't drive 'em you might as well collect clocks. I think you fit the bill of driving them.

[petri]

I too am very impressed with your "drive 'em don't hide 'em" attitude. That's what these cars are good for.

I would like think I can do the same thing with my '32 Packard but I just finished the restoration this year, after 10 years of effort, and I need to get some confidence in it's reliability. So far it seems to be ok but I haven't had much of a chance to get away with it yet. I notice you are VMCCA members as am I. Perhaps we will meet on the Amana Iowa tour this July. I doubt I will even get 12 mpg with the big straight eight but I will soon find out.

Keep up the "motoring" and thanks for the reports.

regards,

Howard Petri

1932 Packard 900 Coupe-Roadster

[Guest mr hipster]

Great report. We have taken a few similar trips in our vintage Wanderlodge so the lunch/bathroom breaks aren't a problem. However as with all restored vehicles the relability issue has visited us from time to time.

Our last years trip following the Oregon trail, significance of the tractor engine is it's the same as the one in the Wanderlodge. Out back pics from the Burns OR/Steens Mountain area.

[mikespeed35]

Yes Howard, we will be in Iowa. Will be glad to meet you. Look for a blue L-29 Cord.

CORDially Mike

[petri]

That's great, we look forward to seeing you and the famous touring L-29 Cord. I've attached a picture of the Packard that we'll be bringing.

We're pretty slow I would imagine. The Packard seems to like 45-50 mph for cruising thanks to the 4.36:1 rear end. What speed does the L-29 like to cruise at?

regards;

Howard

[mikespeed35]

I drive at 55-60 with a 3:91 ratio.

CORDially Mike

[Pomeroy41144]

The plane is a Lockheed Electra, I think.

No it is not. It is a Beech C-45.

Edited April 28, 2012 by Pomeroy41144 (see edit history)

[Pomeroy41144]

That was my first guess too. But the images I came up for an Electra don't quite match.

That looks right based on the photos I've found.

I'd like to "ditto" what Howard wrote...

See the link:

The link has failed.

Sorry.

The Beech C-45 airplane in the photo was manufactured in 1945.

I tried to provide some back story on this but the link has failed.

PP

Edited April 28, 2012 by Pomeroy41144 (see edit history)

[Marty Roth]

Joannie and Mike,

Congratulations on yet another fantasticaly CORDial series of notes on a wonderful trip. Dale and I have been in awe of your many trips across the country - we have done the same, but they were in the '58 Bel-air or the '63 Impala convertible. We have visited so many of the same places - Santa Fe, Los Alamos, Florida, California, etc. We hope to do the VMCCA Lake Erie Tour Kenny is planning in between the Founders Tour in Altoona, and the Reliability Tour in Richmond, VA.

Hope to see you both on these and other tours (Southern NJ, Sentimental, Heritage, Nebraska) this year.

Joan - we wish you success with the coloring book, and hope it is well received.

[petri]

A Beech C-45, also UC-45, also AT-11 are just the military designations for the Beech 18 in it's many variations. A real workhorse of a plane it was in production from the late 30's until the 60's or early 70's. Lots of them are still flying and are coveted by restorers that can afford to buy the fuel for those twin engines. On average each engine is burning around 22 gph. Thus 44 gph total and avgas is around $6/gal right now. That's $264/hr to fly that plane just for the gas. And we thought we had problems with our gas guzzling old cars.

Marty we were on the Chrome Glidden tour with you in Petoskey, MI last year and also the Blue Ridge tour a couple of years ago. We were driving the little red 1959 Triumph TR-3A. This is the first year we will be able to use the 1932 Packard. We're looking forward to seeing you all on the Iowa Heritage tour.

Howard