The Quad City Times in northwest Illinois has the story about Paul O’Brien, who drove a 1935 Ford Tudor from Seal Beach, Calif., to his home area of Grand Mound, Iowa — much of his trek on Route 66.
It took him eight days to complete the trip. The Ford was prone to overheat, and he went through a lot of spare parts to keep it running.
O’Brien followed Route 66 and met an interesting variety of people along the way.
“You meet a lot of people when you stop 12 times a day,” he said. “The smaller the road, the better the stories.”
He met one man in his 90s who was pleased to see that the car had its original engine and explained, in rather profane terms, his dislike of “hot rods.”
Another couple originally from Texas described their first sight of air conditioning in cars in Needles, Calif., where they saw people driving around with socks dipped in cold water hanging in their car windows to create a cool breeze.
“When I got to Needles, I understood that real well,” he said.
Two former hot-rodders in Kansas with knowledge of flathead Ford engines helped him make some repairs.
“You don’t find those folks in Los Angeles,” he said.
O’Brien is heading back to California on Monday in the Tudor.