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News: Spotsylvania man off, at long last, to ‘get his kicks on Route 66’

Rob

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Spotsylvania man off, at long last, to ‘get his kicks on Route 66’

May 16th, 2013, 10:27 pm
By CATHY DYSON / THE FREE LANCE–STAR


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When Bob Welborn was a boy, he watched the ‘Route 66’ TV show and longed to drive cross country in
a Corvette. On Thursday, the 62-year-old Spotsylvania man got into his 2004 Vette and headed west to
chase his dream. PETER CIHELKA / THE FREE LANCE–STAR


Bob Welborn pulled out of his driveway before the sun came up Thursday morning and pointed the nose of his white convertible west.

“I don’t know how far I’m gonna go, but I’m gonna live out a boyhood fantasy,” he said.

The 62-year-old hoped to drive cross-country, just like the characters Tod and Buz did in the TV show “Route 66.”

Welborn was 9 when the series premièred in 1960, and he’s been dreaming about motoring west—with the top of his Corvette down and the wind in his face—ever since.

“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and I just made up my mind that this year, I’m gonna do it,” Welborn said. “I’m not getting any younger, and my health’s not getting any better.”

Full Story: Spotsylvania man off, at long last, to
 

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Live the Dream Rob, How about some periodic updates along the way, so we might share the 'Route 66' adventure, as we did watching the TV Series back in the day..........
 
There is no way someone can imagine how much fun traveling Route 66 was before I40 lopped off most of the East-West route. It will, no doubt, be a fun trip, but a far cry from the old days of the mother road. Traveling the old road was an experience that is not possible to relive today. (Think of the little town in the movie "Cars," and multiply that town by a couple hundred). I remember cities like Tucumcari with dozens of colorful hotels, brightly lit by neon displays that looked like the Vegas strip today. Most nights you couldn't find a room in places like Gallup, Santa Rosa, Tucumcari, Amarillo, Joplin, etc. hundreds of diners and a thousand two and four pump gas stations vied for business with great, colorful road signs that shared every mile of the road with Burma Shave signs. In Arizona, Navaho and Hopi women sat on blankets next to the road and sold their wonderful hand crafted rugs to cars that would just pull off 66 to check them out. After the sale they would leave for 6 months and come back with 2 more blankets to sell. The trading posts in Arizona along the road were real trading posts, not part of a chain of retail shops.

90 percent of the old businesses have been torn down, the other ten percent are closed or limping along. The road has long been decommissioned and mostly torn up, but the main drags of some of the roadside cities are the old route, including Albuquerque. It used to take almost two hours to snake through Albuquerque during the day.

The longest stretch of 66 today run from Seligman, AZ to the California border, and is still a maintained highway. That stretch, with Kingman, AZ in the middle gives a good taste of what an adventure Route 66 was through the desolate parts of the West. Many people come from all over the country and Europe to drive that stretch every day. Every May there is two day a hot rod and Covette fun run that runs that stretch with a big car show, cruise and party on Saturday night.
 
And come August !

This August the last week of the month I'm going to drive the "Blue ridge mountain parkway" once at the end, I'm going to pickup my brother in law in Nashville, TN and we're both going to see the Corvette Museum tour the plant next door. I still have to find out how I do this but it's in the works. Not too sure I'm any interest in what's left of Rt.66. I read an article about the old road. Damn little left of it. But if you want to do it, go for it ! I want to have some enjoyment out of my 2003 Corvette, it has 16.732 miles on it and that's going to change. But I don't want to get high jacked on the road. Maybe down to Key West FL. I was with a buddy a few years ago and stopping for gas is a great way to get robbed at night. I had my gun while Chris paid for the gas, but there was a guy in there just standing looking right at me, And I kept my eyes on him, he didn't make a move but I was the last one out of the station and he kept looking at me. I got robbed outside Washington DC one night. So I look my area of a gas stop real well before I pull in and take any cash out of my jacket. it ain't the same country anymore. :w
 
This August the last week of the month I'm going to drive the "Blue ridge mountain parkway" once at the end, I'm going to pickup my brother in law in Nashville, TN and we're both going to see the Corvette Museum tour the plant next door. I still have to find out how I do this but it's in the works. Not too sure I'm any interest in what's left of Rt.66. I read an article about the old road. Damn little left of it. But if you want to do it, go for it ! I want to have some enjoyment out of my 2003 Corvette, it has 16.732 miles on it and that's going to change. But I don't want to get high jacked on the road. Maybe down to Key West FL. I was with a buddy a few years ago and stopping for gas is a great way to get robbed at night. I had my gun while Chris paid for the gas, but there was a guy in there just standing looking right at me, And I kept my eyes on him, he didn't make a move but I was the last one out of the station and he kept looking at me. I got robbed outside Washington DC one night. So I look my area of a gas stop real well before I pull in and take any cash out of my jacket. it ain't the same country anymore. :w


I'm not sure the plant will be open for tours in August. It's closed now, and the opening date hasn't been announced as far as I know. Sounds like a fun trip.
 

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