Starfire

Thanks guys for the warm welcome! Denny my two favorite vintage cars are a '58 Mercury Montclair and a '62 Oldsmobile Starfire (thus the handle). Restoration works in progress include another '62 Oldsmobile Starfire, a '56 Cadillac Eldorado Seville, and a '57 Cadillac Eldorado Seville. We also have a pair of heavy duty road cruisers in the form of a matching pair of '76 Lincoln Mark IVs (really great road cars). Of course those '50s and '60s cars are not exactly easy on fuel consumption, particularly those Cadillacs which were what I call "luxury factory hot rods" both having been produced with dual 4bbl carburetors and loving premium grade fuel at around 9 mpg tops, down hill with a tail wind. Dave, I'll keep you and everyone else up to date on the partial U.S. 90 photo essay I'll be doing. This is really a neat stretch of road as the original alignment is clearly visible where the present alignment replaced portions of it. There are very old bridges with bronze plaques indicating the construction dates on some of the bridges, which are still in use today as county maintained roads. We have many two lane roads in Texas which either are or were formerly U.S. designated highways. Some are absolute treasures. Among those are U.S. 75 (now Texas 75) from Conroe, Texas on the South to just South of Corsicana, Texas to the North......but that is another future photo essay. Dave if your Washington trip will take you through Texas let me know the general route and if you have the time to spend I can put you on some fantastic two lane trips to take as you pass through. Now the folks in Louisiana ain't going to like this but I would recommend you avoid I-10 through Louisiana, the Western parts of it have been in really bad shape in places for years (they have been working on it). Jim

Until I ran across this now somewhat older post I thought I was the only person who could look at the ruins along the old roads and paint a mental picture of what was happening there 40, 50, 60, or 70 years ago. It can get real spooky for me when it happens along a stretch of now almost abandoned roads like parts of Route 66 traveled with parents when a child. Not only do I see the buildings no longer there but people going in and out, cars in the parking lots, and music heard on the radio at the time plays in the head. Being a collector of recording music one such occurrence lead me to go searching for a copy of a song recorded in 1948. After years and years of searching I finally came up with a copy a few days ago. Sometimes visions in the mind are a blessing, sometimes I think they may be a curse. Jim

Hello all from another "Road Warrior." The given name is Jim and I would describe myself as a two lane highway nut case. My passion is restoring vintage automobiles from the 1950's into the mid 1960's. For fun and enjoyment I hit the old two lanes in one of my restored cars with the top 40 recordings from the '50s & early '60s blaring away through the speakers. Stuck in time? No, but I do get a kick out of finding those eateries and motels still in business from that era. There are many if one hits the right highways. A secondary hobby is collecting old maps, road atlases, and post cards. Living on an almost untainted stretch of U.S. 90 I'll soon be doing a photo essay of the stretch of that highway between Columbus, Texas Westward to Seguin, Texas. Many, many motels, restaurants, and service stations just as they were fifty and even more years ago.