Being the proud owner of a 64 544 that it took me over 4 years to restore, when I read about the folks from Holland driving their Volvo's from coast to coast and found their itinerary, I was pretty excited to see that they were going to be spending overnight in Joplin, Mo. which is only 45 miles from where I live. I thought it would be great to drive my Volvo up and visit with them. Sadly, my fuel pump failed about 1/2 way there, so I had to bring her back to the shop.
I did however get in my NEW (and I do mean New)1984 GMC pickup and went up to see them. Believe it or not, There were 100 Volvo's in the group, and George Downs was there from Bartlesville to visit with them also. These were a great group of folks, and they were driving 444's, 544's, 445's, 122's, 140's, P1800's and P1800 ES also. These cars mostly looked like daily drivers, but for that many cars, they had not had a lot of problems that I heard about.
This was a great experience and now I'm waiting for the big get to gather in Kansas city Next month. It would be my pleasure to meet some of you Brickboarders.

Yesterday (Saturday the 27th of August) Tarona adn I loaded up a big cooler with cold sodas and bottled water and headed out to try to hook up with the V44 Vereniging group as they made their way from Bishop, CA. to Death Valley, then on to Bakersfield, CA.

I figured that the shortest, most interesting route for them would be CA Hwy 178 from Ridgecrest, through Kern Canyon, to Bakersfield - about 100 miles.

When we hooked up with the group in Barstow, CA the previous weekend, I had pushed this route pretty hard, as it would get the travelers out of the desert and into the mountains much sooner than the other proposed route south on CA Hwy 14 to Mojave, CA.

We stopped at the local grocery store and came across two people speaking Dutch, but lost them in the parking lot. I never did see which car they were driving.

We found another car, a tan Amazon wagon, in Inyokern, about 15 miles from our house. The owners were in an antique store poking around...like they don't have old stuff in Holland. Maybe they were looking for U.S. old stuff...

ANyway, we found out that the Death Valley loop had been dropped from the itinerary due to the heat (about 115 degrees) so all the travelers had extra time they could spend exploring the area.

We stopped and talked a few minutes, and I scored a great little copper teapot with 4 copper measuring cups (from Portugal) for $7. eBay here I come!

We then took off and headed out toward Kern Canyon (where the U.S. Whitewater Kayaking Team practices) and found a gold P1800 in a gas station. We topped off our tank and chatted for a while (including the normal time spent with local folks who all wanted to see the car).

Passing Isabella, we entered the canyon and soon found a group of 5 Volvos parked at the edge of the road, enjoying some shade and some cold drinks. We stopped and talked for a while, and I suggested that we move on a few miles to a picnic area with a good parking lot and restrooms, as well as river access for those who might want to wade to cool off.

Naturally, after we got there we found out that the Beaureau of Land Management had taken over the Federal lands in that area, and the formerly free day use area now cost $5 per car...

Since I was leading the group (and had invited them to stop here) I chose to ignore the fee signs and wait to see if a Ranger showed up to colloct our money. I figured I could talk my way through it, or I'd just write a check to cover everyone if he/she wouldn't be reasonable.

While people were taking a potty break or going down to the river (no swimming allowed, to dangerous - wading OK) I got some interesting pictures under the hood of another PV544. Pretty much totally different from the U.S. versions! Now I understand why everyone seemed so interested in my car! I'll post some pix as soon as we get home.

I invited anyone who was interested to attend the dirt-track races with us that evening, but they all declined, wanting to get to the hotel and into the swimming pool to cool off. We did discuss the heat problem, and I recommended that if their club wanted to tour the deserts of the U.S. Southwest, that they set it up for April, May, or the 1st half of June, when the temperatures are great.

We led the group into Bakersfield, and Tarona and I peeled off to go to her Mother's house while our Dutch frineds went on to their hotel. I thought it was funny that they seemd to think Bakersfield was a 'village' when the population is about 1/2 million!

On our way from T's Mom's house to the race track we stopped by the hotel for one last round of pictures. If I hadn't already made plans for Sunday I would have joined them for their last leg, over to the Coast, then south through Malibu to Los Angeles.

Anyway, the tour is done and I have a lot of pictures to process and post. I'll get home again tonight, and I'll probably have the website updated sometime tomorrow.

Steve Stanfield 'Baron of Greymatter'

Darn... unless they altered their itinerryary they won't be by me (Carson City, NV) as they say on the web-site they will go from Stockton to Bishop via Yosemite... The highway hits US395 about 60 miles south of me... A bit far to just hang out for a day hoping for a glimpse. Sorry, not that big of a nut!

--
Mike!

They're coming by me tomorrow. How did you arrange to "meet up" with them? I'm thinking about calling the motel in Santa Fe tonight and asking them to ring the room of "one of those Volvo people" to get an itinerary. The motel they are staying in tomorrow night is about 70 miles from here but I think they'll be having lunch in Durango, which is much closer to me.

I guess if I have to, I'll park on the side of the road, wait till I see a few dozen Volvos go by, and follow them.
--
Volvo Farmer:

21 Volvos '58-'91

445-544-122-144-1800-240-740

sorry, no FWD

They are not traveling together. I drove over to Joplin and stayed in one of
the two motels they were staying in. (it is 100 miles from Bartlesville)
They started coming in about 4 pm and were apparently glad to see me.
I found them very friendly. I started out after about half of them had
left in the morning but did not see very many of them along the road, and
some were actually going back toward Joplin (perhaps to see some point of
interest they had missed). When I reached Tulsa I turned back north and
arrived home about noon. Part of this may be due to the fact that there were
at least two different routes, and maybe 3, that old 66 took over the years
before I-44 was built. Some of it is good 2-lane road, some good 4-lane road
and at least a few miles is a single 8-foot-wide slab with dusty gravel on
both sides. I stopped to talk to some folks working on their driveway in this
stretch and they told me that quite a few old Volvos had passed and several
of the folks stopped to talk to them. I was pleased because in spite of being
a native of northeast Oklahoma, I had some trouble picking out the route,
and until I came upon these folks I was not sure I was on the right road.
In that area much of the old 66 shares the same route as US 69, still in current
use. In fact from around Vinita west almost to where US 60 and 66 split,
60, 66 and 69 share the same route although 60 runs east-west (Norfolk to
LA), 66 runs northeast-southwest (Chicago to LA) and 69 runs north-south.
BTW 60 (which runs through Bartlesville) crosses 66 again at Amarillo).

So in answer to your question I would say "Lay in wait for them, probably at
their motel." At least that is what I did. Susie enjoyed the trip also, in
spite of the fact that the Yellow Peril doesn't have AC and it was around
100°.
--
George Downs Bartlesville, Heart of the USA!

Thanks George.

It's not really possible for me to go and stay in their motel. I have a wicked idea though. I'm pretty sure of the route they will take. There's not a lot of choice in the matter unless you get way off in the dirt roads. I think I might grab the Swedish flag off the wall, drive to a wide place in the road, put the hood up on the 544, put the flag on the radio antenna and let them come to me.

By tomorrow PM, I should have some sort of a story to tell about it.


--
Volvo Farmer:

21 Volvos '58-'91

445-544-122-144-1800-240-740

sorry, no FWD

That sounds like fun! I can sew up a Swedish flag in no time, but it might be nicer to have a Dutch (Nederlander) flag instead. I think I'll just settle for laying in wait at their motel(s) in Barstow.

I went and parked by the side of the road. I brought coffee and some Fig Newtons and some Milanos, and a little table and chair. A couple of Amazons drove by and beeped their horns, then one stopped, then another. They had coffee and cookies and I got to see their cars. I would not call the cars I saw daily drivers, I would call these concourse cars. The interiors were perfect with no rips, dashpads were not cracked, paint was outstanding. There were some tasty modifications like a center console in the green car with a large opening and leather boot to accomodate the long "pudding stirrer".

After these two, nobody drove by for an hour so I packed up and went home. I did see two other Amazons later that evening at a gas station on a different route and spoke to those folks as well. All four cars I saw had custom wheels. I saw two sets of MiniLites and those nice 5 spoked ones you see on the blue car. Also a set of widened regular 122 wheels.

I saw something I'll probably never see again, The green car is a '69 122 2 door with factory B20. The blue car had a nice pair of 40mm Webers under the hood.

Someone told me the Dutch Volvo club has 4000 members and thats about equal with the VCOA, if you can believe that. They make these jaunts regularly and have been across the Sahara, across part of Russia, and a few other exotic places. Everyone I met was very nice and I highly recommend getting out and looking at these cars and talking to these folks!













--
Volvo Farmer:

21 Volvos '58-'91

445-544-122-144-1800-240-740

sorry, no FWD

Thanks for the update and pix Bob!!

Pretty crafty dangling a PV as bait!! I need to trout fish with dude!!

Damn, I like forest green coupes!!!

Betcha there was no "bellyachin" about gas prices!!

Mike

Gasoline in Holland is about $3.75 a LITER. 3.8 liters to the gallon, you do the math!

Other than the fact that these folks were really tired from nearly a month of living on the road - talk about your road trips! - and the summer heat here in the Southwest, they seemed to be enjoying the trip a lot.

I suggested to several of their members that the next time they plan a trip over here they might want to get in touch with some local residents to figure out the best time of year and what goals to set.

Some daily driving goals were nearly beyond the tolerance of the drivers and their cars, although the cars seemed to be in overall great condition. I know that if I had planned their visit to my desert home they would have had a great time and had a chance to see things most folks never hear about - like the Trona Pinnacles at Searles (Dry) Lake where the original Star Wars and the more recent Planet of the Apes remake were filmed. Nearly every place you go around here has a history of some movie or other being shot because everything is so scenic.

Virtually every old Western movie was filmed just down the road at Red Rock Canyon.

I'd also have had them visit here in April, May, or early June when the desert wildflowers are in bloom and the high temperatures are in the 80's!

Very cool Bob... I like your setup! Too bad you couldn't catch the main group, but you done good none the less.

--
-Matt '70 145s, '65 1800s, '66 122s wagon, others inc. '53 XK120 FHC

Now I'm REALLY looking forward to their visit here on Saturday. They're staying the night in Barstow, CA, so I'll have time to meet a lot of them and use my digital camera a lot!

Thanks for the update!

He he he. Who are all these goofy people driving Volvos?? How did they get here??
More importantly, how did they get their wheels here???

Incredulous

1.) Western European 'goofy folks' from the Netherlands (Holland)
2.) They flew on an airplane, just like us Amurricans
3.) The cars came primarily by sea, although a few may have been air shipped.
Any more questions? ;-)

I'm planning to hook up with the group when they stop for the night in Barstow, CA - about 90 miles from my home. Then, after the group splits up in LA, I'll catch up with the remaining group in Death Vallety (just over the hill from here) and escort them through Kern Canyon into Bakersfield and on to Buck Owens' Crystal Palace, where they have something or other planned.

As far as I can tell from the route information I've gotten, they have been driving pretty much on flat roads following old Route 66 as best they can. Kern Canyon should be a pleasant surprise for them! It's a great drive in a old car.