5000 miles from TX to CA and back in a 40hp '66 Beetle

[cmarino929]

Man that story was fantastic! You writing skills are stellar and your descriptions put me in the passenger seat along for the ride. I drove from nj to california and back 12 years ago in my 96 jetta and i thought that little 4cyl wasnt much power for the mountains. Your car had 75 less HP than mine wow! Thanks for taking the time to post your story and pictures that was a great read.

[rugblaster]

Great story and photos. Thanks. I have a sister in Seattle and I always wanted to take my '69 camper up there, but my wife is a wuss. Her father once rode a army surplus Harley from Del Rio, Texas to New Haven, Conn. to go to school and although he had lifetime memories of that, I don't think he ever wanted to do it again.
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'69 Karmy, '69 Camper, Meyers clone, '65 drag bug, 10.78 @ 128 (sold it) '51 Dodge farm truck,
'09 MB E350 '18 MB E400, '65 Plymouth Valiant convertible and a '19 Ford F250 King Ranch (nicer, but dirty, farm truck)

VWoA factory trained line tech 75 till 90 or so
ASE Master Certification
VWoA Assoc. of Quality Technicians inductee (One of 25 in the five state southwest region)
La Confrerie des Chevaliers du Tastevin (San Angelo Chapter)
TCU ......GO FROGS!!!!!!

[Cali_Army_Guy]

What a phenomenal read, and some incredible pictures as well. Throughly enjoyed reading about your adventure. Thank you for sharing.
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2015 VW Passat Wolfsburg Edition
1966 VW Beetle - Sold

[TheRustySuper]

Just read your story. Definitely inspiring, a road trip in my Beetle is something I've wanted to do since I got it 12 years ago. You're living my dream, lol. Beautiful photos as well, you've really got an eye for stuff like that!
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My '72 Super

[supercub]

Thanks for the replies everyone. It's been over a year since I have visited The Samba. Nice to see people are still enjoying this old thread. Last summer I traveled a bit around the Great Plans and Midwest in the '66. Here are a few pictures from that trip.

Driving an original segment of the Lincoln Highway in Iowa. The Lincoln Highway is or rather was one of the original cross country routes from the early days of the automobile.

Sunset at camp on Blackhawk Lake, Iowa.

Getting lost on a random Nebraska dirt road.

Road through the Nebraska National Forest. It had rained hard the night before and some of this road was really muddy, but the VW made it through it all, even a 30 foot long water crossing on a flooded section.

Chimney Rock, Nebraska. This was a major landmark on the Oregon Trail, Mormon Trail and around 5 or 6 other major westward emigrant trails from the 1800's.

Scottsbluff National Monument in western Nebraska.

Carhenge outside of Alliance, NE.

Morning storms brewing in Northwestern Nebraska.

Devil's Lake State Park, Wisconsin.

I still use this '66 VW as a daily driver and it continues to provide very reliable transportation. I have been living up north in NH and now WI so the car hibernates for 4 months out of the year. I just drove the Beetle on a 200 mile day trip to hike in and around Devil's Lake State Park here in WI. Two summers from now I hope to head out on the road again for another longer adventure, hopefully still in the old '66.

[mukluk]

Very cool story and pictures. Brings back memories of wandering around and road trips back in the '90s.
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1960 Ragtop w/Semaphores "Inga"

[63 vwnotch]

absolutely fantastic journey!!! awesome photography and story telling.. I plan to do a road trip once I get air cooled again, longest I went in my bus was a couple hundred miles... with no tools I learned once the hard way about 100 miles from home to always have a pully in your road trip pile....

question: did you map out your trip by hand using Google? a simple back road trip from Tulsa to Bullhead city only shows the main drag, in fact route 66 won't even pull up as an alternate..

how did you go about mapping your journey??
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WANTED: 67 earlier Type 3 seats, Z rests

[supercub]

Definitely go for it. I think for spare parts I had a fan belt, distributor cap, rotor, points, condenser, fuel pump, fuel filter, a couple of feet of fuel line, and a clutch cable, as well as the tools to change those things. It all fits in a tackle box I keep in the trunk.

I did a lot of hand laying out on Google maps for the Cali trip to avoid interstate and stay on back roads. I am kind of a map geek and enjoy plotting different routes to get places, most of which I have not gone to yet and may never get to. I have no GPS but simply wrote down the route in a small notebook and took a road atlas for backup. I took a few random detours if I saw a road that looked interesting.

When I traveled the Great Plains last summer, I had no specific route. I just had a basic Rand McNally Road Atlas and rambled around whatever roads looked like they would head where I wanted to go. I did end up pretty lost one time in north central Nebraska after miles of driving random dirt farm roads.

[Cubey]

Awesome thread! I'm crazy (in the good way) like that too

Around 2014, I drove 1993 Geo Metro 3cyl (55HP) / 3spd auto trans / 4 door hatchback from WA state to AR and back (~4500mi) with a blown head gasket (consuming oil & coolant, but not mixing). A rear wheel bearing went very bad on the way back but I got back thought losing the wheel (amazingly). Still got 35mpg too. I was on a slight time limit, so I was on interstates mostly. I was between semis going 20-25mph on the steep grades. So, needless to say, I don't mind a slow car.

Back on the topic of VWs... a few months ago, I bought a 64 baja bug, with a '65 40HP engine, that I'm still ironing the kinks out of as far as lack of maintenance and replacing worn out parts, but it's slowly getting there. Right now it wants to stall half the time when RPMs drop down near idle speed, so that's what I'm trying to fix right now.

It's something to drag behind my motorhome for a runabout/light off roader, but I might just be crazy enough to take it on a very long drive, once I'm sure it's reliable enough for such a trip.

[scottyrocks]

I'm a bit late to the party, but I just saw this thread for the first time.

Great story and photos! Your prose is clear and concise, yet emotional at the same time. And your photos show amazing compositional skills. I thoroughly enjoyed the thread.
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“If you care for a thing long enough, it takes on a life of its own, doesn't it? Mending old things, preserving them, looking after them – on some level there's no rational grounds for it.”
– D. Tartt, 'The Goldfinch'

[supercub]

[supercub]

[PatJr]

wow, great trip and some really nice photos
Thanks for sharing the adventure
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1970 Transporter a orange one
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[pondoras box]

Just re read the entire thread. I’m only one year out from retirement and working to have my 65 bus done about the same time. This still continues to inspire me to hit the road. I think the blue ridge parkway in it’s entirety will be my first trip.

Thanks for putting this all down to be enjoyed for years to come. Hopefully you’re still out there traveling.
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Looking for anything from Hal Casey Motors out of Hamburg New York, from license plate surrounds to matchbooks.

1961 23 Window (Bobo)
1965 11 Window (Zelda)
1965 13 Window (Lucas)
1957 Oval ragtop
1988 Cabriolet VR6 conversion
Plus a lot of other rusty junk

[supercub]

Glad you both liked my story. I don't check in on this section of the forum much, so my reply is a bit late.

Pandoras box, I'm glad this trip gives you inspiration to get out there in your bus. I still do get out and travel around some. This spring I went out to Kansas for a week in the VW and barely made it back with a hammered #3 exhaust valve seat. I replaced the cylinder head this summer and have put another 4-5 thousand miles on the VW since that repair. I camped and hiked at Fort Robinson in western Nebraska in October. This may be a bit blasphemous on this forum, but I bought a 2012 Toyota Sienna for my new road trip vehicle. Lame, I know. I do love the space though. I stowed the rear seats, removed the second row, and built a sleeping platform inside. I like it. I'm planning to take most of next year off to travel around the country a bit. I've never driven the Blue Ridge Parkway but it looks really pretty. Enjoy your retirement.

[Cubey]