Author: emcniff

We had a half day to make it to the finish. We were going from San Bernardino to Sylmar and then back to Pasadena. We weren’t finished yet, but we were so close.

We started the morning heading North on the 215 freeway. We had done this route before, and we were traveling toward highway 138 and Wrightwood. We were off the freeway and winding our way across the back side of the San Gabriel mountains in no time. We climbed the windy terrain as we crossed the mountain range.

The roads were relatively empty being early Sunday morning. We drove past Mountain High ski resort. We continued west toward Sylmar. We drove by burn scarred terrain and forested hill sides. We descended the 5500 feet we had climbed, and came out somewhere near Tahunga Canyon.

The 2nd to last check point appeared to be the last checkpoint. Brad and I discussed that we have always been told to rally to the last instruction. We kept going, and at the very last instruction there was one more checkpoint. It was the first time we had encountered that in our 13 rallies, but that changed a few teams days. Again, there are no throw outs on the last two days.

We drove to the Nethercutt Collection in Sylmar, Ca. It is a collection of cars that belong to the family who started Merle Norman Cosmetics.

They have two huge buildings full of cars and collectibles. Only one building was open, but they have an incredible museum.

We were only there for about 20 minutes when we hopped back in the car and headed for Pasadena.

It was a 20 minute drive East across the valley floor. We drove mostly on the 134 freeway. Yes, Californians call every freeway “the…”including yours truly. These are not necessarily interstates, but we call interstates “the…” as well.

We drove through Burbank and Glendale two suburbs of Los Angeles. Burbank is known for their studios.

We arrived in Pasadena and exited at the Colorado Street Bridge. The bridge crosses over the Arroyo Seco, and looks over the Rose Bowl. It takes you onto Colorado Boulevard. Colorado Boulevard is the primary road of the Rose Parade.

We drove through Old Town Pasadena and made a left up Arroyo Blvd. Also a famous road, the lower portion is “The Arroyo Seco Freeway or The Pasadena Freeway”, the first freeway in the United States. The freeway opened in December of 1940.

Just after turning onto Arroyo, we made our first right. There she was….Pasadena City Hall!!

We had completed the race. I have never been so happy to finish as this year. We definitely had our share of issues this year, but what made this year that much more special were the family and friends who greeted us among the throngs of people. We were so surprised and happy to see our people. We had huge smiles on our faces!!!

Maire brought Beau and the beautiful sign to the finish. We loved having both of them at the finish.

In the late afternoon the race organizers announced the winners of the race.

The Mustang Country XCup team did great and came in 2nd in their class. This was their first race and they worked well together with three young men in the car.

Our friends Mallory and Jack Fruin won the Expert Class.

Last, but not least our friends Buddy Green and Trevor Stahl won the entire race and Grand Champion Class in their 1932 Ford Coupe built and previously campaigned by Gary & JeanAnn Martin.

Thank you to all of our family and friends who made the effort to be there. We truly loved having each of you there.

Thank you again to McCollister’s for your continued support of Brad and me. The race would not be the same without Billy and Ronni pulling up the back. We are so grateful for the time and effort all of you give to The Great Race!

Thank you Mustang Country for your continuous mechanical support. You make it easy to keep moving down the road.

Thank you Barry Jason!!! Your friendship, time, wisdom and patience has been invaluable.

We are looking forward and planning for next year from Mobile, Alabama to Buffalo, New York.

For more photos from the rally go to http://www.greatrace.com.

Saturday, June 27, 2016

It is our last full day and every leg counts. We have 5 to 7 legs daily, so somewhere between 45 and 60 legs over the 9 day event. We are allowed to throw out our 4 worst legs in our class (Expert) over the 9 days. Nobody is allowed to throw out legs the last two days.

We woke up early, and after discussing our Speedo issues with other racers, we decided to change the wire and the speedometer. Brad was once again under the car. I was handing him parts, and he was wrenching under the front tire.

Our friend Gary again came to the rescue. Brad and Gary worked quickly to install the new speedometer. We had a spare (of course), but were not trusting it. Gary was kind enough to lend us his spare.

We had about 3 minutes before it was our turn to pickup the day’s instructions. We left the parking lot to pick up the instructions, and we had not checked the tire pressure. Brad ran to pick up the instructions while I checked the tires.

We headed west up the hill out of Laughlin. Our numbers were completely different from the day before. We turned around and changed the numbers on the speedometer. We ran it once again, we figured we were out of the running to be in the top 10 cars, but stranger things have happened. We were going to continue to run our race, and felt the same stress as if we were in the top 10.

The day had a few more turns than previous days, this race has been long straight away holding one speed. We went through a large maze where we crossed paths with other racers. We went in a big circle, we followed one car into the circle and then another as we were leaving the circle.

We were on The National Trails Highway, aka Historic Route 66 in the Southern Arizona desert crossing into California. We reached Twenty Nine Palms mid day.

The weather was warm, but not intolerable. We had a nice greeting from servicemen living in Twenty Nine Palms. They offered us cold waters and lunch.

We headed toward Joshua Tree after lunch. We restarted rallying in Joshua Tree National Park.

The park is over 795,000 acres. It is larger than the state of Rhode Island. It runs through two counties, Riverside and San Bernardino.

The terrain is hilly and desert. The ground is covered in rocks and shrubs. If you looked at the terrain, you would know snakes live there. There are Joshua Trees throughout the park. The Joshua Tree is not your normal tree. It has a trunk, and the limbs jet out from side to side, but it does not have traditional leaves or even pine needles. The trees can grow up to 49 feet. Its leaves are shaped like a strap, but with sharp ends. Some people have described the leaves like bayonets. The trunk is covered with a similar shaggy pointed scruff. The trees live around 150 years. They cannot date them like a normal tree because the trunks do not have the rings like a normal tree trunk.

Although the trees are interesting and plentiful, the rock formations in Joshua Tree are even more spectacular. The tan colored rocks are made of granite and are giant. The rocks appear as if they are stacked on top of each other. The reality is they were formed through erosion from flash floods and ground water.

We continued rallying through the park and then were headed for San Bernardino. We rallied our way down to North Palm Springs. We finished rallying near the wind mills and headed west toward the 215 freeway.

We stopped for gas and headed toward the official finish at San Manuel Stadium. I had looked at the tire at lunch and it was looking bad, not quite as bad as Albuquerque, but on its way. We didn’t look at it again, but we were concerned.

We slowly made our way across the 10 freeway. I was saying prayers the entire time. We just wanted to make it safely to the days finish. It was about 5:20 on Saturday night and Brad and I discussed stopping at a tire store. We agreed they were probably all closed, but I kept praying. We needed to make it to the days finish. We also needed to change the tire. We were in Banning, and I saw a tire store along the freeways edge. It appeared like people were still there and the bay doors were open. We quickly took the first exit and found the tire store. They were open and we breathed a huge sigh of relief. We quickly emptied things out of our trunk and pulled out the spare tire.

The old tire was pulled off and wires were sticking out of the tire. The new tire was mounted in less than 5 minutes. The man at the tire store shared his stories of cross country road trips. We tried to listen politely, but we were rushing to make it to the stadium to end the day on time.

We made it to the stadium! We ended the day at the San Manuel Stadium. The Minor League Baseball team 66ers are affiliated with the Seattle Mariners, and play at the stadium.

We arrived to a small crowd, but were happy to see our friends and previous racers Ahna Smith and Della Holder. Ahna’s dad Curt and their pup Ivy also greeted us at the finish.

We were excited to see them and visited briefly with Della, and other racers. We headed into the stadium for some baseball and 66er dogs and hamburgers.

The day was still going, from San Manuel Stadium we ended the evening in San Bernardino.

Ahna and Della stayed in San Bernardino as well. We had the pleasure of spending time with Della hearing about her studies at USC, and the internships she has this summer.

Thank you Ahna, Della, Curt and Ivy for making the drive from San Diego!!! We loved the time we spent with Della!

Thank you again to Allan and Brandon of Mustang Country. We would have been on the side of the road without a spare. Because of you, we were not waiting for McCollister’s. We are so grateful you were able to curate the new tires. We appreciate you keeping us rolling!!!

If you are interested in photos, there are great pictures on http://www.greatrace.com.

Friday, June 26, 2026

Oatman and Laughlin are not mentioned in the old song “Get your kicks on Route 66”, but it is where we finished the day.

We started the morning in Flagstaff at about 7500 feet of elevation. The morning air was crisp as you think it should be when you are in the mountains. The smell of pines and the cool air were invigorating. You know you are in a great place when you see trees all around you and the air smells so good.

We drove toward Kingman for our lunch stop, and started the morning with one more problem. Every morning we calibrate our speedometer. This morning when we started that section of the route, the speedo became possessed it was spinning in different directions. We quickly pulled over checked the connections and reset it back to zero. We continued with our calibration run with our fingers crossed.

As we were driving down in elevation our tire pressure changed. Like a balloon they lose air as you lose elevation. Keeping good scores is based not only staying on the course and doing the maneuvers at the exact right time, but also how your tires perform. As they expand they make you faster and as they lose air they shrink making you slower.

Our front left wheel has two magnets on it and that is where our speed is measured from. Given that we have some alignment and tire issues, it changes the game for us.

We were catching up on the car in front of us after an hour of driving. Brad and I discussed that they were not a seasoned team, and we would run our race.

We continued our decent into the Arizona desert, the landscape completely changed. We went from big beautiful pine trees to dessert scrub. We saw Ocotillo plants in bloom with their tall sticks and lighter orange flowers at their tips. The ground is covered in rocks and an array of plants. You wonder how they survive in the heat and dry soil.

We made it to Kingman, where we had a nice crowd at lunch. We stopped at the old train depot. There was an old locomotive in the park.

We did not stay long, but we drove through the town of Kingman. Unlike many of the towns we saw Kingman has had a resurgence. Their downtown area was full of people and there was activity on the Main Street.

We headed out of Kingman into the local mountains. We climbed the hills in the afternoon heat testing our cars cooling system. Jane did great. We then descended and her brakes were hot. Holding speed with hot brakes becomes challenging. We made it safely down the hill pumping the brakes and saying a lot of prayers.

We drove back through Kingman to The Oatman Highway. The Oatman Highway is also part of Historic Route 66.

The desert had heated up and it was in the low hundreds. We were so pleased because when we did this route in 2015, it was closer to 120 degrees.

We made our way to Oatman across the desert floor.

Oatman is an old mining town in the hills near Laughlin, Nevada. Oatman has wild burros wandering the Main Street of town and along the highway’s edges as you are just outside of the town.

Oatman is what you would think an old ghost town looks like, only people still live there, and tourists come for the donkeys and old west atmosphere. The views from Oatman are picturesque.

We finished our day in Oatman, and made our way toward the Colorado River and Laughlin, Nevada.

We did not have our typical end of day event, but Brad and I met up with family. Brad and I enjoyed dinner and catching up.

Thank you Aunt Sue, LeRoy, Randy and Dorene for making the time and trip to see us. It was great spending time with all of you!!!

Thursday, June 25, 2026

We started the morning in Albuquerque. The weather continued to stay cool with scattered showers as we prepared to leave.

We continued driving between Historic Route 66 and Highway 40. The scenery remained enchanting. The red rocks and buttes surrounded us.

We stopped for lunch in Gallup. They had a good crowd that included Native Americans. Gallup’s population includes three different tribes. The majority of the people are from the Mojave, Hopi and Zunis tribes. The Native Americans were dressed in traditional dress. The They were doing a traditional dance, it may have been a rain dance.

We left lunch and the rain was back. We drove away from the rain and continued into Arizona. We went into The Petrified Forest and Painted Desert National Park.

As you drive through the park you see piles of petrified trees, but the rock formations in the park are what make it so beautiful. You see the layers of time in the rocks. There are both red rocks and gray mountains that are striped by time.

From the park we drove up into the mountains of Northern Arizona. We finished the day in downtown Flagstaff. Flagstaff has grown from a small mountain town to a thriving College town.

We were excited to complete another day.

Thank you to Mustang Country and your team for helping us with the tires and keep us rolling.

If you want to see some fun photos, http://www.greatrace.com has some great photos.

(There is no line about Albuquerque in “Get Your Kicks on Route 66, I had to come up with another song”

Wednesday, June 24, 2026

Today is Brad’s Birthday. We started the day in Amarillo, TX. We have been pleasantly surprised by the weather. We have had rain daily and it has kept us cool. I hate to write this as I think we are headed for some heat in Albuquerque.

We started the morning with a quick stop at the Cadillac Ranch just west of Amarillo. The Cadillac Ranch is famous for the cars (Cadillacs) that are buried on the property. People have graffitied the cars and road in front of the cars. It is very colorful as you drive down the road for about a quarter of a mile.

We continued driving toward Tucumcari and into the high desert of New Mexico. The ground is a salmon red color with tan grass and ever- greens dotting the landscape. We could see buttes in the distance.

The morning was uneventful and we had a great run. We briefly stopped in Tucumcari for lunch and then headed toward Albuquerque. The landscape was beautiful the rock formations, the layers of the red rocks with blue sky and white puffy clouds in the background were mesmerizing. It was hard to watch the speed and not gawk at the beauty in front of me.

We finished the morning in Tucumcari. Tucumcari like so many towns on Route 66, had their hay day in the early part of the 20th century. The trains ran through Tucumcari as did The Mother Road. Today it has little commerce and a population of about 5200. It is home to one of the largest ranches in the country.

We left lunch and headed for the Hot Air Balloon Festival Park in Albuquerque. As we sat waiting for the restart after lunch we watched huge trains carrying goods across the desert. We also had another storm come in. The rain came in sheets across the pavement with lightning surrounding us.

We continued to drive on the Historic Route 66 and made our way into the higher elevations outside of Albuquerque. We ran at low speeds through winding roads. We would go between the red cliffs and the black volcanic rocks piled on top of each other.

We came into Albuquerque and the wind was blowing, the storm had mostly passed, but the balloons could not go up with the wind.

While sitting at dinner Allan informed us that our front left tire was bald. We had not had great scores, yet we believed we had run a clean day. The tire may have explained the problem.

Our front end was likely damaged from the hard hit of the submerged pot hole earlier in the week.

Once again our friends came to the rescue and helped us change and realign the tires. We are still not running great, but with any luck will make it to Pasadena.

Thank you Roger Shacket, Jimmy, Barry, Gary, Allan and Brandon! It takes a village.

Brandon and Allan, thank you for picking up new tires for us in Albuquerque. Your help has eased our stress!!!

Go Team Mustang Country!!!

Tuesday, June 23, 2026

We started the morning with a minor hick-up. Our alternator belt was making noise. We looked at it and thought it was loose, but then had a better look and realized it was shredding. In Brad’s forever an Eagle Scout preparation, we had a spare belt in the trunk. With help from our friends Allan, Brandon and Jimmy, we were rolling once again.

We headed out of Oklahoma City and made our way Southwest toward Amarillo, Texas. The weather was dreary. At some point I said to Brad, I didn’t think you could have wind and fog, but we did. We also had a lot of rain. The roads were soaked. We would drive down Historic Route 66 with water flying like a wave out of both sides of the car. One racer told us the water actually went in their car. It was messy and the cars looked as bad as the day before, covered in dirt and mud.

We finished the morning in Elk City at The National Route 66 Museum. The museum is set up like an old town and has various shops set up like they would have been 100 years ago.

We did not spend much time at the museum, but I did spend time there in 2014 on our first Great Race. Our friend Kathleen Grace and I drove portions of Route 66 as we made our way home from Florida. We stopped at several road side attractions including this museum.

The rain continued most of the day and the fog in the afternoon made it hard to see much, but from what we could see it was a lot of scrub. When we arrived in Amarillo the weather was not improving. The car show festivities that we have at the end of each day had mostly been cancelled.

The only picture I took all day were these crazy clouds. We don’t see these in California.

We were fortunate that our friend John Adams suggested we try a local cafe. The cafe happened to be on the street where we ended the day. We walked in and the place would have been called a “Dive” on Diners Drive-Ins and Dives, but it was delicious.

The cafe is called the Golden Light Cafe and Cantina it is arguably the longest running restaurant in Amarillo and on all of Old Route 66. The cafe is about 30 feet wide and 70 feet long. It is a tiny restaurant with great burgers and super hospitality. The people who work there love their jobs and the longevity of their employees shows how much they love it. Many of the employees have been there for more than 10 years. If you ever find yourself in Amarillo, it is worth a visit.

Thank you again to Steve Capra and Danny McCollister for making the journey to Oklahoma City. We appreciate all you do for the Great Race, and Brad and me. We enjoyed our visit!

Thank you to Allan, Brandon and Jimmy for getting us back on the road. You make this possible and so much easier for us.

June 22, 2026

Joplin, MO to Oklahoma City, OK

The morning started with pouring rain.

Despite the rain, the rally continues on. We left Joplin early this morning and headed West toward Claremore, Oklahoma.

The morning was spent driving portions of the original Route 66 roads. They are hard to describe, but it is like they are curbed and have dirt on either side. Many of them are only slightly paved. Between the rain and lack of pavement, the roads made many of the cars a muddy mess.When we arrived in Claremore, some of the cars were absolutely brown with mud.

Claremore, OK is the hometown of the Will Roger’s Museum. Throughout the town you see representations of Will Roger’s.

Will Roger’s was a cowboy, actor/vaudeville era comedian, and personality. He was loved by his home state of Oklahoma and his mark remains in Claremore.

Aside from acting, Will Rogers was a syndicated news columnist and wrote political pieces. He died in 1935 in a plane crash at the age of 55.

After lunch in Claremore, we headed toward Oklahoma City. In this part of tornado alley you see the harshness of the weather. As you are driving you see the occasional remains of trees split by lightning or broken from strong winds. The trees are bent and the tops beaten by the wind.

We saw more roadside attractions including restored old gas stations, a giant statue (think 20’ to 25’ tall) of a native American with a head dress, and another giant statue of a man grilling with a chef’s hat.

We were so happy to make it to Oklahoma City with no mechanical issues and our radiator holding together.

The day ended in Oklahoma City Stockyards.

We had a warm greeting from the people in The Stockyards. There were mounted policemen and a long horn named “Beebo”. He was a calm long horn that had been a pet since he was 2 weeks old. He is now 18.

Beebo was the big attraction at the finish. The owners put a saddle on the long horn and offered the opportunity to sit on a long horn. Having never had that experience or opportunity I couldn’t pass it up.

We also had a surprise visit from our sponsor’s Sales Manager Steve Capra and Danny McCollister (4th generation working at McCollistor’s ). The made the trip out from New Jersey to wish us well, support the brand and visit with race organizers. Steve works closely with the race organizers and provides the beautiful “sweep truck”for the rally. Billy Madsen and his partner Ronni have been driving the sweep truck for the past four years. We are so grateful for their sponsorship of the rally and Car #7, Jane!

We had a delicious steak dinner at a local steakhouse called McClintock’s Tavern and Steakhouse. McClintocks and Cattleman’s steakhouse hosted dinner for the entire field of teams on The Great Race.

Mustang Country has been taking care of Jane for many years, and this year they have their own X-Cup entry. X-Cup teams are made up of young people, typically college age and younger. The X-Cup encourages young people to share in the vintage car culture. Mustang Country’s Allan and Brandon are sponsoring 3 young men who are driving the Mustang below that they built for the rally.

Aside from making sure their car is running and all is well, they have also been there for us. We called them on Saturday at the end of the day in hopes that they would have a radiator that could be sent from their shop to a hotel along the course.

When we arrived at our hotel this evening, there was a brand new radiator waiting for us. We are so appreciative and lucky to have friends like Allan and Brandon at Mustang Country. Thank you for keeping us on the road!!!

Thank you to all who brought us one Stage closer to Pasadena. Tomorrow we head for Amarillo Texas. Go Jane!! Go Great Race.

Day 2, June 21, 2026

Happy Father’s Day to my dad and all the dad’s who support their families!!!

We started the morning in Collinsville, Illinois and headed West toward St Louis. We were not on the road for long when we spotted the St. Louis Arch.

Before we knew it we were through St. Louis and heading West on Route 66. You still see the road side motels from yesteryear and some have been recently refreshed while others have been abandoned. There are still plenty of road side attractions along the road.

The Tee-Pee gift shops along Historic Route 66 iconic. We passed them today with a quick glance. We took the pictures in February while we were doing a little scouting before the rally.

As we traveled down the very straight but rolling road we continued seeing road side attractions; Uranus Fudge Factory, a giant rocking chair, and each town has a 66 with there town name.

We stopped for lunch in Waynesville, Missouri. The highlight was seeing our friend and past racer James Goode. We raced many years with James and his brother Lou. James and Brad Epple helped us with Jane for many years when we would leave her in Missouri after Spring rallies.

It was a long day from Collinsville to Joplin, we were in the car around 8am and arrived in Joplin, MO after 6pm. We were so excited that our stop leak worked and our radiator did not drip a drop.

The day was long, but good!

This is the 100th Anniversary of Route 66.

The 2026 Great Race is running from Springfield, Illinois to Pasadena, California.

We have been in Springfield, Illinois since Tuesday, June 16th watching the different cars coming into town for the beginning of The 2026 Great Race.

The field of cars is large this year. There are about 150 entries. There are people from all over the world, and every state. There are people from Japan, Australia, Canada, England and Sweden.

Springfield is an historic city because of Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln started a law firm and his political career in Springfield. Aside from starting in Springfield, Mary Lincoln wanted Abe to be buried with one of their son’s in Springfield. Abraham Lincoln’s Presidential Library is also located in Springfield.

We visited the library and museum on Wednesday and enjoyed the different exhibits. One of the original copies of the Emancipation Proclamations is located in the Library.

After visiting the museum and learning more about Honest Abe and his family, we returned to the hotel. The weather was turning for the worse.

We returned just in time for the impromptu festivities in the basement of our hotel in Springfield. Wednesday, June 17th was scheduled to see over 24 tornadoes in the Midwest. The sirens went off at about 4pm and the participants and their crew (along with hotel employees and other guests)headed for the basement. We spent an hour catching up with friends waiting for the weather to pass. We had experienced a tornado at a rally where we were told to be ready to go to the middle of the hotel, but the sirens never rang. This was our first experience going in the basement for a tornado warning. (For those of you not familiar with tornadoes, Warning, danger is eminent, Watch is watch out it might be coming)

Thursday was a day for registration and technical inspection. It was a beautiful day and there were no weather concerns. The cars were taken out. We passed our technical inspection and spent the late morning driving to calibrate our rally speedometer.

Friday began with a meeting with the entire group of drivers, navigators, support crews, and the team of more than 50 who put the event on. The entire group is over 500 people.

After the meeting, we headed out for our first day of rallying. We rallied throughout the afternoon and stayed mostly local. We headed South out of downtown Springfield where the state Capitol is located and crossed over Springfield Lake. We left the new highway and made our way to the old parts of Route 66. We went between the original Route 66 and rural roads that crossed back and forth over the infamous Route 66. We continued along roads with tall stocks of corn and beautiful farms with red, brown and white barns. The areas where we rally are rural. You see huge combines and other farm implements on the roads, along with trucks pulling trailers full of hay, and an occasional Amazon guy. The area is green and lush. We ended the day along some of the original brick section of Route 66.

We finished our day by stopping at an Americana Route 66 road side attraction, Motorhead’s Route 66. It was a restaurant with a bar and big screen tvs, but more importantly it has a ton of auto memorabilia.

We finished the day with a clean run. We were so happy to have a great first day.

Saturday, June 20, 2026

“Well it winds from Chicago to LA, More than 2000 Miles all the way! Get your Kicks on Route 66”

Today was the first official day of the 2026 Great Race. We started the cross country adventure from Springfield, IL. to Pasadena, CA. The race began next to the old Capitol of Illinois. It is just down the street from the “new” Capitol.

We started early and it was a perfect day. Blue sky with puffy white clouds. Springfield rolled out the red carpet with their modern day Abe Lincoln and all the glory and fanfare of the start of an exciting event.

The day started out smoothly as we headed Southwest toward Collinsville, Illinois, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. We followed each instruction and all was well. A little over 2/3rds of the day was behind us. We went through a check point and then a stop sign. When we reached the far side of the intersection, there was a huge dip which neither Brad nor I noticed. We hit the dip so hard the horn button on the center of my steering wheel fell into my lap. It was not good! I started smelling radiator fluid shortly after. I didn’t say anything, but kept an eye on the thermostat. It remained cool. I continued to smell the fluid, but didn’t say anything. Within five minutes we had a transit (not on the clock) so as we pulled in for gas. I told Brad to check the radiator. Sure enough, we had punctured the radiator. Brad was never a Boy Scout, but had he been, he would have been an Eagle Scout. He is always prepared. We had stop leak in the trunk. We quickly poured it in the radiator and we were rolling again.

We finished the day in Collinsville, Illinois. Collinsville is a pretty little town that borders Illinois and Missouri. It is full of beautiful trees and rolling hills. They greeted us in there old town with the biggest Corvette Club we have ever seen. Over 100 Corvettes were in attendance.

We were so happy to finish the first day. We are so grateful to all of the people who make the rally happen. We are also thankful to everyone who helps us along the way.

Thank you to Mustang Country for shipping out a new radiator (in case the current one gives out). It should arrive Monday!!! Mustang Country does incredible work prepping and supporting Miss Jane!

Thank you to Jeff Ferdette for sharing your stock of leak stop when ours was depleted.

Thank you to Barry Jason for teaching us how to rally, and keep cool heads at unpredictable times.

100th Anniversary of Route 66

Saturday, June 13 – Sunday, June 28, 2026

The Great Race has become a part of our lives. For the last 12 years, Brad and I set out every June to drive the back roads of our beautiful country.

We are ready to drive again, this year along the historic Route 66.

At the end of each race when Jane arrives home, she immediately goes into the shop. She has her fluids and brakes changed, and anything that is not right repaired. So, our planning really starts the day she returns for the following year.

This past winter we took a quick trip to visit our friends Jean Ann and Gary. We met up in St. Louis. We were there in February and visited some of the fun sites of Route 66. We stopped at road side hotels and road side attractions that we won’t be able to stop and explore while on the rally.

This year like most we practiced driving Jane months before the race. We also competed in a 3 day rally in late April.

The rally took place in Spring- field, MO. There were 75 other cars in the rally for the 100th Anniversary of start of the “Mother Road”. There were all kinds of celebrations in Springfield along with many other car/Route 66 enthusiasts.

Aside from being the “Birthplace” of Route 66, Springfield, MO is also the birthplace of Bass Pro Shops. If you know Brad and me, you know we love fishing.

We spent a couple of evenings in the Bass Pro Shop in Springfield, it does not disappoint!!! We could probably spend 3 more days there. They covered cars and fishing! Johnny Morris the founder of Bass Pro Shops created a outdoorsman’s wonderland.

Aside from giving you a quick overview of our recent excursions, we really wanted to give our family and friends this year’s race information.

We start June 13th in Springfield, Illinois. We are looking forward to seeing our friends Lisa and Jake at the start and hope if you are in the area, we hope you will come out too.

The race continues Southwest through Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and we finish in Pasadena, California on Sunday, June 28th at 1pm. The finish is at Pasadena City Hall.

We should be one of the early cars. Being home town people, they bring us in early.

Below is the map with each city we are stopping and spending the night. Lunch stops are tough for us to visit, but we love seeing friends at the overnight stops. Please let us know if you are planning on being at one of the stops. We can’t wait to see you on the road!!!

We are looking forward to share our stories, and our experiences as we drive across “The Mother Road”.

Thank you to everyone who makes this possible for us!!!