Monday, August 12, 2013

Day 7: Winslow, AZ to Grand Canyon, AZ

The great internet debacle began with my overnight in Winslow. The hotel's connection was useless and attempting to use it for anything was an exercise in frustration. This was planned to be one of the shorter travel days to give me a little bit of time for exploration that night at the Grand Canyon. I was a little bummed about yesterday's drive, especially having to pass up the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert National Parks without so much as a drive through them because it was night. Day 7 would make up for it: "Standin' on a Corner," the massive meteor crater, Flagstaff, and, of course, the Grand Canyon made for a day of eye-popping desert beauty. Map of the day's travels can be found here. Photos here. More reflections on Day 7 after the jump...

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Day 8 preview - Video!

The road from Kingman, AZ to the little town of Oatman, AZ is one of the best parts of Route 66. It's about 30 minutes of driving to go these 9 miles. I've condensed it down to the best 13 minutes of the drive. You shouldn't miss the last two and a half minutes, so skip to 11:00 if you don't have time or inclination to watch the whole thing! Oh, and put it in "Full Screen" by clicking the box at the bottom-right corner. It's really beautiful.

Monday, August 5, 2013

Day 6: Albuquerque, NM to Winslow, AZ

First, an apology and explanation about the blog. I'm back home in the Chicago suburbs after my 5,500 mile trek. One thing I learned about driving Route 66 is that it takes a long, LONG time compared to the interstate. Looking back at my tracking data, I can see that I averaged between 30-35 miles per hour, and that was driving with the intentionality of making certain cities by the end of the day. Most days, especially out West, were about 300 miles. Therefore, with stops to eat, get gas, and take pictures, I was in the car for 10 hours a day leaving me little time to sleep, let alone write. Word to the wise: Don't try and "do" Route 66 in less than two weeks! There's so much that I wanted to stop and see that I just couldn't in order to make that night's destination. More about Day 6 after the jump...

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Technical Difficulties...

Sorry that the past few days have lacked reliable internet connections. I will attempt to catch up tonight. Lots of pictures of Arizona including Grand Canyon shots coming soon!

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Day 5: Amarillo, TX to Albuquerque, NM

Thanks to my host, Richard, I had a great night's stay and sleep in Amarillo. They got some much needed rain while I was there and the day ended with a beautiful double rainbow - a sign of God's favor I trust. Much of Route 66 simply doesn't exist in New Mexico, so a lot of the day was spent on the Interstate at 75mph. It made me miss the two lane highway! You can see my travels for the day here. Don't forget to click the "2" at the bottom of the list of steps to see my whole trip. I drove a long stretch of dirt 66 from the Texas state line into New Mexico and met up with some "roadies" (what 66'ers use to refer to each other) from Birmingham, England who were also on the dirt (the joys of being in a rental car). Photos from the day are here. Tonight it's Winslow, AZ.

Whoops... forgot to post Day 4

Day 4 was a long drive from Edmond, OK to Amarillo, TX. You can see my travels here. Be sure to click the "2" down at the bottom of the list of steps on the left to see the entire thing. This was the best day for photos thus far and I really loved the U Drop Inn in Shamrock, TX. Check out the photoset here. Sorry to say that I ran over a snake; I tried to avoid you the best I could.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Day 3: Springfield, MO to Edmond, OK

The day started with me being interviewed for a story in the Springfield News-Leader, which will probably be published in the Saturday edition. When it is, I'll post the link. The road started to open up a lot west of Springfield and I was able to drive over 50mph most of the day. Made a point of taking more photos and you can see them here. I loved pulling in to Depew, OK, which Route 66 went through for a brief time in the '20s, and then was bypassed to the north. Stopped for the night in a hotel in Edmond, OK, just north of OKC. Did some laundry in the sink, got called "pard'ner" for the first time, and now getting ready to hit the road for Amarillo, TX.

Day 2: Labadie, MO to Springfield, MO

Robyn, a former parishoner, was kind enough to put me up for the night in her country farmhouse. It was great getting to catch up with her. In the morning, her mother (Ruth) and sister (Nancy) made breakfast and we talked about kids, mostly. Then it was back on the Road to Springfield. Not many photos from the trip, but I like a couple of them a lot. You can see them here. Hosts for the night were Kathi and Larry, who made bacon-wrapped filet mignon for dinner. It was wonderful getting to know them and their pastor, Kemery, who dropped by with her husband.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Day 1: Chicago to Labadie, MO

That was unexpected...

So, I woke up at 5:30am yesterday and was on the road to Downtown Chicago by 6:15am. Hit a little traffic on the way in (seriously, why were so many of you on the road at that time?), and had breakfast at Lou Mitchell's. I was on Route 66 by 9:15am. I drove 338 miles from downtown and arrived at 9:00pm - twelve hours! Yikes. I hope every day isn't like that. I put some pictures up from the day (<- click link) on my Flickr photostream. I hope you enjoy and I hope that I'll get a bit more time to write later today. Lots of thoughts, but don't want to arrive that late tonight.

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Chrysler's hottest cars

One book that my car won't be appearing in...

The Definitive List

You always remember your first...
It struck me a few years ago that I've owned a lot of cars. Some good, some bad. Some for years, some for a few weeks. Some for years that only ran for a few weeks. But I had never written down a complete list... until now! I've spared you a few details of the master list (price paid, years bought and sold, etc.). 

The List

YearMakeModelTrimExterior color
1978Oldsmobile98RegencyWhite
1971Porsche9141.7Adriatic Blue
1967CadillacSedan deVille
Pinecrest Green
1992ToyotaTercelBaseLight Green Mica
1976OldsmobileCutlassSMahogany
1981CadillacFleetwoodBroughamCotillion White
1980Mercedes Benz300D
Light Ivory
1968CadillacFleetwood
Gray
1976CadillacEldoradoConvertibleClaret Metallic
1986PontiacFieroSELight Gold Metallic
1996DodgeNeonHighlineEmerald Green Metallic
1964BuickElectra 225SedanArctic White
1990InfinitiM30ConvertibleBlack
1994Hondadel SolSiSamba Green
2006ScionxB
Blue Onyx Pearl
1984ChryslerLeBaronTown & CountryGunmetal Blue

I must add that almost all of the cars up until the Fiero (which I bought when I was 24 years old), were less than a thousand bucks. Needless to say, I learned how to work on cars by having a bunch of unreliable ones. 

Least favorite car: The Porsche - a glorified VW that ran for less than two weeks, but lived in parents' garage for four years.

Favorite cars: I'll always love the '67 Sedan deVille I had during my senior year in high school, the del Sol was my favorite of the "modern era" up until the LeBaron, which is a car I always liked as a kid and now get to drive across country!

Leaving church in the rear view mirror

My Last Sunday

June 2nd was my last Sunday at church until September. My temporary replacement, Acting Pastor Ruth Costello, started two weeks before my departure. While that time passed quickly and it seems that there was more I had hoped to share with Pastor Ruth in those few days, in other ways it seemed like overkill to have her arrive that early. I'm confident that she would have done just fine if she would have showed up with a couple days overlap. It was good, however, to get to introduce her to some church members through home visits that we did together, especially for those folks who can't make it to church. I'm so grateful that God sent us exactly the right person for the job!

Friday, May 10, 2013

Welcome!

1984 Chrysler LeBaron Town and Country Convertible

A Brief History

Welcome to my blog. My name's Alex and I'm a pastor. While I consider myself a Jesus guy first, "car guy" is probably a close second. I bought my first car (a 1978 Olds Ninety-Eight Regency) when I was fifteen years old in anticipation of my sixteenth birthday. Since then, I've owned at least fourteen different cars. It's been awhile since I've recounted them all (I smell a future post here), but you get the point. What you see here is my latest acquisition a 1984 LeBaron Town and Country Mark Cross edition. Believe it or not, this is a car that I've wanted since I was a little kid. While Chrysler's K cars might not be the most exciting on the planet, I've got fond memories of my parents' 1984 Plymouth Reliant wagon which was a great, reliable, efficient car that soldiered on even after a friend of mine (who bought it from us) ran it into a tree.
1964 Buick Electra 225, mine from 2002-2010

I sold my last "fun" car, a 1964 Buick Electra 225 sedan, soon after the birth of my son in 2009. The car was nice, but a major gas hog, had no rear seat belts or air conditioning, was due for some relatively major maintenance, and I had owned it for seven years, so it was time to sell.

1994 Honda del Sol Si, destroyed by soccer mom in 2005


I was really starting to miss having a convertible; there's just nothing like them except motorcycles, and, well, I'm a family man now and don't trust other drivers enough to go around on two wheels. My last top-down car was a 1994 Honda del Sol Si in samba green and I totally loved that car until it was totally totaled by a soccer mom who blew a stop sign in her Volvo station wagon. It was probably my favorite of all of my cars. My wife and I had just graduated from seminary and used the insurance money to buy furniture, which we needed more than a third car at the time. I started looking around in 2012 for a four seat convertible that had some style, wasn't too expensive (I am a small church pastor, after all), and was in good shape. After searching Craigslist posts from around the country, I found the LeBaron that I'd eventually bring home in Des Moines, Iowa. She had 23,500 original miles, a perfect interior, a couple of bumps on the outside, but nothing major, and the right price. While my wife wasn't convinced, she also indicated that she probably wouldn't divorce me for buying it. So I brought it home in October 2012 with an uneventful six hour drive from Des Moines to the Chicago suburbs. In a couple of weeks, I'll be driving her the entire length of Route 66 to our General Synod meeting in Long Beach at the end of June. It's been a lifelong dream of mine to travel "The Mother Road" and I'll be sharing the story of my trip here.