LAKE STEVENS – Twenty-four days, 6,304 miles, 240 gallons of gas, one official breakdown, 10 days of golf, two men, a 1968 sports car and a road known as Route 66.
It all adds up to a dream trip for two Lake Stevens Rotarians who hit the road in early October and rolled home earlier this week.
On Friday morning, they made their triumphant return in a Triumph pulling up to the weekly Rotary club meeting.
The trip raised more than $1,000 for the Rotary’s scholarship fund.
“It was a fantastic adventure,” said Loren Hole, 81, of Lake Stevens.
Hole and traveling companion John Morrison, 52, of Robe drove east to Chicago and then southwest, tracing old Route 66, or what’s left of it, to Santa Monica, Calif. They took a 10-day detour to play golf in Sedona, Ariz.
“We had a good time,” Morrison said. “We did some golfing and saw a lot of America, a quarter of it at least.”
Morrison did the driving, Hole the navigating from the cramped insides of a red 1968 Triumph TR4A convertible.
Somewhere along the way, the men named the car Victoria, or Vickie for short.
During rainstorms, Hole had the job of keeping her dry.
He used a rag to mop up water that leaked through the ragtop roof.
“The Triumph is really not leak proof,” Hole said.
More worrisome than water coming in, motor oil starting flowing out.
“Frankly, I was really worried when she started polluting most of Idaho and part of Montana,” Morrison said.
The men were adding oil every 10 miles. At one point, the gas mileage was better than the oil mileage, Morrison said.
Turns out a pinched gasket caused the leak, and after a three-hour stop, the pair was on the road again.
They explored the ghost towns that now line old Route 66 and took joy in getting lost, seeing new scenery, they said.
One highlight was visiting the birthplace and grave of President Abraham Lincoln, they said.
Each day, they wrote detailed e-mails to family and friends. That e-mail travelogue is on the Rotary Club Web site, www. rotary.lkstevens.com.
Mostly, the trip was about the driving.
Even the car seemed happier along the broken road and bends of Route 66, Morrison said.
“She ran a lot better shifting gears and turning corners,” he said.
Now, he’s happy to be home and isn’t sure he’s ready to leave his wife for such a long time anytime soon.
Hole said he’s ready to go again. But the next time he sets out on a two-week, multistate road trip, he might try a different set of wheels.
“Oh yes, I think I’d like to go in a different automobile, like my Mercedes,” he said. “It’s more reliable and has far more creature comforts.”
Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437 or jholtz@heraldnet.com.
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