For the most part, Route 66 has been replaced by long, uninterrupted stretches of four-lane interstate. But that hasn't stopped the American Truck Historical Society from gathering about 40 classic trucks together to follow the classic 2,000-plus mile route from Chicago to San Bernardino.
The convoy — which will include everything from antique pickup trucks to classic dump trucks and trucker-era tractor trailers — plans to arrive in California by Saturday morning; in time for San Bernardino's annual Ode to Mother Road. If you happen to be around when they drive through Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, keep your eyes peeled for some of the Society's notable highlights: a 1940 Ford cab-over, a 1948 GMC semi, a 1938 Kenworth, and a 1953 GMC pickup, among others.
I'd love to see this parade, and would really love to drive in it, so long as someone else was picking up the tab for gas and I got to be the guy driving the '40s-vintage tour bus (sorry, secret bus driver fantasy). The trucks in the convoy are the kind that ruled the roost when trucks were trucks and buses were actually an affordable way to get across the country (nowadays, it's usually cheaper to fly across the country than to take a Greyhound).
Oh well, one of these days, the companies that build our trucks will realize that there are those of us who love trucks for their rugged simplicity, rather than their creature comforts. Because after all, if you drive across 2,000 miles of summertime highway in an un-airconditioned box with canvas seats, a really stiff clutch pedal, and nothing but an AM radio to keep you company, you earn some points toward your manliness credential, right?
Photo credit: American Truck Historical Society