Took Susie and left for Joplin at about noon yesterday. Stopped to eat in
Vinita and made it in a little after 3 pm. Some of the advance team were
there but none of the members of the tour. They began showing up at about
4 pm and were arriving up till about 8 pm, having come from the far side of
Saint Louis, about 325 miles. Lots and lots of 544s, Duetts, Amazons (121)
and a few 1800 and 1800ES cars, nearly all really beautiful machines.
I understand one person blew an engine in Chicago, and I came across one fellow,
"Ton", who had run over something and got a cut in the bottom of his gas tank.
We found a radiator shop in the yellow pages and called them. They were closed
for the day but said they could get right on it the first thing this morning
and when I saw him last he was being taken to the shop by the support staff.
(He and I went to the shop last evening and found the fellow but he was through
working for the day and Ton had not removed his tank yet.) We left Joplin this
morning about 9:30 and took OLD route 66 through Galena and Baxter Springs,
Kansas, on down through Picher, Miami, Narcissa. Afton, Vinita, Chelsea, Foyil,
Bushyhead, Claremore,Catoosa and into Tulsa. Since we were seeing other old
Volvos rarely by that time, we came on home from Tulsa.

I was interested to note that there are a few miles of the original route in
Northeast Oklahoma where the full width of the pavement on old 66 is 8 feet.
I had not remembered it being that narrow. Much of the old route around there
is shared by US 69, which is an active and pretty good highway.

The Kansas City club had a number of people in Joplin, setting up a tent
and offering "Volvo" bottled water, courtesy of a sponsoring dealer in KC.
They are pushing the Kansas City meet (16-18 September) and so am I. Let's
get together in KC and trade Volvo stories (maybe some parts too?) Looks like
it is going to be an outstanding experience, as well as the first one within
reach for most of us "Centrists" (from the center of the US - the only folks
NOT on the fringes!)

It was great to meet the folks of the V44 Volvo Club from Holland and it looks
like they are into a GREAT experience and a tremendous adventure. As nearly
as I can tell they restrict their membership to REAL Volvos, which I would
briefly define as "pushrod engines". There was one 240 but I understand that
the owner was going to bring an older Volvo but had insurmountable problems
just before time to ship the car and since he had already paid and registered
they let him bring his 240.

There are very few 122s in the group, but many 121s. I was aware of them but
had never seen one before this get-together. Many of the cars are rigged for
LPG but they had to remove the LPG tanks before they could ship them.
I saw one 121 whose right rear reflector was actually the cap for the LPG
fill port. The reflector looks completely normab but it unscrews off and
the fill port is underneath.

It as a great trip and the Yellow Peril gave us no trouble except a very slow
idle and a muffler rattle. So Susie will still travel with me. The Yellow
Peril's engine now has almost 300 miles on it!
--
George Downs Bartlesville, Heart of the USA!