Before I begin this post, I must take a minute to thank a very good family friend, Faye, for the time she spent with me getting this blog up and running.  Without her, you would be reading this as an email.  That I knew how to do!  I'm not very computer savvy, and she patiently helped me get to this point.  Thank you again Faye. You are the BEST!!!

 

The Car of Choice

 

After making the decision to actually be on the 100th anniversary tour, which by the way took exactly 5 seconds!, we then needed to think about what car we would drive.  Now most of you know that a few years ago we restored an old family car, a 1930 Ford Model A. 

 

 

 



Now, we actually thought about driving this one, and even mentioned it to the men we were talking to in Canton.  Needless to say, they " sort of thought"  that would be cool.  Obviously, they knew more than we did.  They told us that they had been on this tour before, and one of the cars that was on it was the same one as this....they also told us that the man driving it would leave early in the morning before anyone else, and was the last car to arrive in the evening.  They also told us that we would have a good time driving this car as we would be counting every rock, piece of gum, and any other garbage along the side of the road, as the top speed is about 45 - 50 mph.  So, both of us had this vision in our minds of what it would be like, since we take this car for a "Sunday Drive", almost every Sunday in the summer when the weather is good, which means, no rain in sight!  Let me tell you, people in the 1930's were a lot smaller than we are.  There is not very much room in the front seat of this car.  Even less in the rumble seat!!!  And where would we put our luggage, and all the treasures I'm going to be collecting at various hot spots (ie: antique stores, quilt shops, etc.) along the way?? 

  It only took us a few minutes to decide maybe we needed to leave the Model A in the garage, and focus on something else.  And we had the perfect car in mind.

 

 

 



 

 

Now, I know what you are all thinking....what in the world??? This car is a 1967 Pontiac GTO.  Now Vaughn is fond of GTO's, and when we got married way back in 1974, he was driving a 1968 GTO.  We loved that car, and drove it until we totaled it by hitting a rock in Silver Creek Canyon, in the spring of '75.  He had dreamed of getting another one, and in the fall of 2011, his good friend Steve from Vernal, called him up and said, "Vaughn, I have this car I'm loading on a trailer and bringing to you.  I have had it for years with the intention of restoring it and I'm never going to get to it.  I figure if anyone will restore it, you will."  So a few days later it was delivered.  Everything under the hood was just sitting there, not connected, not hooked up, just sitting there.  Wow what a project. 

Our youngest son, Wade, took the engine apart, took it to a place in Salt Lake, who does machine work, then he and Dwayne Sargent, a good friend put it together.  They also had the transmission rebuilt.  Then the fun began.  Vaughn and Wade started taking it apart piece by piece. Then as things progressed, all the boys have been involved, from actual work, to listening to problems with it, to  giving pep talks. Thank goodness for a family of mechanics!  We took the frame to the same guy who restored the Model A and had it sandblasted and powder coated.  Then they started putting it back together again.

 

 

 

While all this was taking place, Vaughn had been on the phone daily, sometimes several times a day, ordering parts for the car, (our poor visa!).  In fact most of the past year the family room in the basement has affectionately been called the "GTO Room", since it was filled to the top with boxes upon boxes of parts.  The UPS and FedEx delivery guys have come to be best friends of the family.  At one point, the FedEx man started going straight to the shop, walking in to deliver the daily boxes, and checking out the progress of the car.  Needless to say, they know our address very well.

 

Before long, actually it seemed like a long, long time, the car was ready to head to the body shop.  And another long series of work began.

 

In case you are interested, you can go to the website of the Lincoln Highway Association, and read more about the tour, and see photos of the cars who will be on it.  It is interesting to see how far away the people are from.  I was amazed.  Here's the link: www.lincolnhighwayassoc.org     Enjoy!

 



The Lincoln Highway Tour

So here I am, posting on our blog for the very first time!  If you haven't heard, this is the blog I started for our trip on the Lincoln Highway.  We encourage you to share this with your family....but we ask that you respect our privacy by NOT SHARING on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Thank you so much for respecting our wishes.

Now the first few blogs will be how we heard about this fun trip, and all the stuff that goes with it. Then we will take you along for the ride with us. We hope you will enjoy the trip.

Lets start at the beginning....

Vaughn and Nelda were both born in Coalville.... whoops, wrong beginning!!!  Lets try this again!

                                                                 IN THE BEGINNING

As most of you know, Vaughn has been working in West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania for the better part of 4 years.  About twice a year I go with him, and spend 2 weeks doing the stuff I love most (except the love I have for my kids(includes spouses) and grandkids, they come first and foremost!), like shopping at the local quilt shops, antique shops, spending time with the big V, and while I'm doing these things Vaughn is busy working!  Poor guy.  He is so generous to work hard for the money for me to spend in the above mentioned loves! (Kids and grandkids included)  Anyway, back to the story.....In April 2012, I went with him to work.  At that time,  they were in the process of moving the drilling rig into Ohio from West Virginia where they had been drilling,  They were having a difficult time getting the permits needed to move to Ohio.  So therefore, we had 2 weeks of vacation, and we traveled a lot of the state of Ohio and one day we found ourselves in Canton.  We were told of a really neat antique car museum in the basement of the McKinley Hotel.

 

This is a beautiful hotel, and I would have loved to stay there, maybe another time.  Anyway, we went to the basement and found so many neat old cars.  And we also found a couple of gentlemen who were on the board of the Lincoln Highway Association.  We started talking to them and they told us a little about the Lincoln Highway.  I knew that the LH went right through our little town of Coalville, right down main street to be exact!  But that is about all I knew.  It was the first road to connect the east coast to the west coast. If you want to read more about it, this is the book to read.

 

We immediately bought this book and in talking to these men, found out that in June 2013, there would be a 100th anniversary tour of the this great Lincoln Highway, which by the way was named after our great president Abraham Lincoln. I turned to Vaughn and said, We are going to be on this tour!!
We found out that there would be people starting out from San Francisco, California, and also from Times Square New York, and driving about 250 miles a day, and meeting in Kearney Nebraska for a week long celebration.  Kearney Nebraska is the halfway point on this highway.  We couldn't think of too much else for the next few days.  And we immediately knew what car we were going to drive on this tour! And we had exactly 14 months to get it ready!