Couple plans to celebrate Route 66’s centennial by traveling the highway in a 1926 car

Ed and Jackie Fogle of Oklahoma said they will mark Route 66’s centennial later this year by traveling in another century-old car.

The Fogles will travel on Route 66 in a 1926 Hupmobile. The Claremore Daily Progress detailed on how this came about:

Ed Fogle said the idea came to him four years ago when a story about the centennial came on the news.

“I immediately thought, ‘You know what, we ought to do it again in the centennial,'” Fogle said. “‘But this time, let’s do it in a 100-year-old car.’ Preferably in what’s called an orphan car, which means it’s not production company stock. So I started looking around for one, and came up with this Hupmobile.”

Fogle bought the green-and-black sedan, the production of which ended in 1939, from an Arizona man who used to run a car museum in Omaha, Nebraska. Since January 2022, he’s been working at getting it ready for the big cross-country drive.

For the uninitiated (such as me), the Hupmobile was produced by the Hupp Motor Car Co. in Detroit from 1909 to 1940.

Tentative plans are to start their Route 66 trip from Chicago in April and arrive in Springfield, Missouri, on April 30 for the Route 66 Centennial Kick-off event.

From there, they will continue westward to Santa Monica, California. Then they will double back for the big Tulsa Route 66 Capital Cruise on May 30.

He created a Facebook page where he and his wife will share updates of their journey.

I suspect there will be other similar cross-country attempts during Route 66’s centennial year. But the Fogles’ attempt is especially noteworthy because of the car’s age and the fact it’s difficult to find parts for it.

(Image via Facebook of the Hupmobile that Ed and Jackie Fogle plan to drive on Route 66 this year)