Route 66 and all that

[Ian]

It all started with an email asking if I was interested in the Overland Expo which would take place in Flagstaff over the weekend of May 17-19. That's about 650 miles from where I live but on the plus side, I would get to meet up with some friends who also own Dormobiles - TeriAnn Wakeman and James and Kelly Howard. And it seemed like a good excuse to explore Route 66 through eastern California and Arizona. So loading up my 1962 Land Rover Dormobile, I set off.
The trip started off badly - the engine misfiring in 100degF heat in bumper-to-bumper traffic along Interstate 10 followed by complete failure outside of San Bernadino.
I was able to coast to a stop on the hard shoulder and called AAA for a tow to the nearest garage. Which was closed of course as it was past 6pm. The coil was very hot, so I suspected failure and as luck would have it, there was an auto parts store next door that had a generic made-in-China replacement. Still no luck starting the engine.
So I slept in the truck all night and waited for the garage to open. Once the guys turned up, we were able to establish that it was indeed a bad coil (only just fitted!) and that the distributor wasn't distributing. I had brought a spare with me and once fitted and timed, I had a running truck. So off into the desert I went.

Endless desert........

As far as the eye can see........

Route 66 was the original route west in the 1920's but has been bypassed by Interstate 40. Sections of the old road still exist but are mostly deserted. I made good progress through the high desert through Victorville, Barstow and the big loop through the Mojave Desert through Amboy.

Amboy - a deserted town along Route 66 with a filling station, a post office and an abandoned motel.

It was hot! My truck has the 7:1 compression head so the speed was sedate but constant. I stayed the night in a campground in Needles, the last town in California before Arizona. It had showers and everything!
More to follow............

Ian

[DanC]

Looking forward to the rest Ian, inspiration for my 62' Dormi (only I have fitted a 9:1 head to give it just a little more)...

Dan

[Ian]

I left the campsite in Needles around 7am, hoping to make progress before the heat of the day kicked in. Needles is just on the border between California and Arizona and the bridge across the Colorado river marks the spot. Arizona has some of the best-marked and preserved sections of Route 66 so I was soon heading off into some wild countryside. The Dormie was running well and I made good time to Oatman which has a real Wild West vibe and seems to be inhabited by Harley Davidson motorcycle riders. There's a long steep hill east of there at Sitgreaves Pass at 3,650ft followed by the long descent to Kingman.

There's a neat store at Cool Springs at the bottom of the pass. A good place for a cold drink.

After passing through Kingman, Route 66 takes a wide loop through the Hualapai Indian reservation and Peach Springs (no alcohol allowed on the reservation). I had stayed in Peach Springs whilst working on a film that was shooting on location at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Freight trains ran all night past my hotel room.

As Route 66 was built parallel to the railroad for much of its length, you are never far from Burlington Northern Sante Fe's 'transcon' - the main rail line between Los Angeles and Chicago and wherever you stay, you will be certain to hear the sound of freight trains passing in the night.
Another cool place is Seligman although the kitsch can be a little overwhelming. Leaving Seligman, Route 66 disappears for a few miles with just a small remnant to explore in Ash Fork (which proclaims itself as the paving stone capital of the world) before Williams and my 3rd night on the road and just 40 miles from Flagstaff. More to follow..........
Cheers,
Ian

[RMS]

Fantastic, Ian. It's making me feel quite nostalgic - must plan another trip over that way.

Oh, and you're probably used to the sound, but for us there was nothing quite the same as standing near the Santa Fe line and hearing the horns and feeling the vibration as the monster freight trains rumble by

Of course, if it goes on all night I suppose that might be a bit tiresome................ after a week or so

Looking forward to more photos and reports

Cheers,
Robin.

[Ian]

If you have been following my missive so far, you might have been lulled into thinking that electro-mechanical issues had all been resolved. Not quite. The petrol gauge now has a mind of its own. This was compounded by the fact that I had fitted a new gas tank recently and with that, a new fuel gauge sender. This is not compatible with the old-style fuel gauge so now it reads backwards. E now means full - or 'Enuff' and F means empty or 'Fill 'er up'. Added to that is a gauge that swings from E to F and back again with gay abandon and bears no resemblance to reality. Acceptable if you are pootling around town but unacceptable when there's 100 miles between petrol stations in the desert. I carry a 2 gallon spare tank, but its still a worry. Oh, did I mention that the rubber filler pipe on the rear tank had decided to give up the ghost so filling the tank had now developed into what I might describe as quite an exciting process? Copious amounts of electrical tape fixed that problem. In the process, I met a recently demobbed soldier who kindly stopped to help and who was driving the length of Route 66 on his way to Chicago in a retired Ford Crown Victoria police interceptor. Fast.

Williams, AZ campsite backing onto National Forest lands

Thursday morning dawned and so it was off on the last leg to Flagstaff and to meet up with TeriAnn Wakeman. If you haven't seen her website, you must - its a treasure trove of useful information on all things Land Rover, Dormobile and Carawagon. She owns the Green Rover, a 1960 Series II that she has rebuilt and modified over the years into an awesome adventure vehicle utilising a set of Dormobile parts from a truck that had been wrecked, then upgrading the motive power from the original 2.25l petrol engine to a 5 litre Ford V8 from a Mustang. Then she upgraded to EFI. It is awesome! I got to drive it around the woods around Flagstaff and it is unstoppable! That afternoon, we both drove out to the Overland Expo in our trucks to check out the site. More about that tomorrow.

Cheers,
Ian

[jerryd]

Sounds like you had a great trip Ian despite a few problems and I'm looking forward to the next episode.

Your Dormobile looks immaculate, have you done a whole restoration on it ?? Maybe you can start a post on it to give us some inspiration On another note my fuel gauge doesn't work either so I'm frequently running out of fuel.

[Ian]

The Overland Expo is HUGE! Vehicles from all over the country gather once a year for this event. And at $10 for 3 nights ofcamping, it was good value. You could buy a 3 day pass that got you into all sorts of lectures and demonstrations - everything from knot tying to how to recover from a rollover. I opted for the more limited day pass but there was still plenty to see and do. Land Rover had an off-road course and anyone could take a turn for free and learn how impressive traction control really is.
We now had 3 Dormobiles gathered together - TeriAnn's 1960 truck with the Mustang V8 engine, James and Kelly's 1967 RHD with the Euro 6 cylinder and my 1962 truck with the lowly 2.25l 4 cylinder.

My truck foreground, James and Kelly's truck middle and TeriAnn's on the right.

We were parked next to a pair of featured Camel Trophy 110 Land Rovers. That was the good news, so we had lots of visitors.
The bad news was that after the bar closed, it became party central with beating drums until 2am.

This is what they looked like in daylight:

The vendors area had over a hundred stalls so there was much to see and drool over from simple camping accessories to humongous Earth Roamer rigs that cost a fortune. Indeed, there were any number of ways to empty one's wallet. But if you do get a chance to visit the show, I highly recommend it. Buy the whole package and do all the demonstrations. You can learn a lot.
Sunday dawned and time for me to leave. Next stop Sedona and that turned out to be quite a trip..........

Ian

P.S. I will write more about my Dormie in the vehicles section soon. Need to find some pictures of the interior.

[Ian]

One more picture before I leave:

Dormie by moonlight.........drums still beating..........

It was a 30 second exposure taken by a passerby (thanks Mike!). I'm sleeping. I think.

Ian

[Peaceand]

That Dormobile by moonlight photo is superb! If we ran a photo competition of some kind then think it would be a top contender!
(Shame about the red can though)

Patrick

[Jabbawocky]

Hi Ian

Looks like you are having a fantastic time. Love the moonlight picture. You must post that picture over on the Series 2 Club Forum. That has to be picture of the month?

Keep on posting

Cheers Mick