An Ordinary Adventure

Imagine you're leaving the small town in Michigan where you've grown up. It's the middle of the Great Depression and you are about to set off on a journey of over 2800 miles to California on Route 66 which isn't even fully paved yet! The only car your family owns is a Ford Model A - boasting all of four cylinders and 40 horsepower. This was the trip that my mother and grandfather set off on that fateful October day. The time was 9:50 am and the car's odometer read 49901. How do I know this? Because Mom kept a notebook where she carefully kept track of everything they did and saw. And I still had that notebook. When I mentioned the idea of following in their tire tracks to my husband, Gerald, his fateful words were, "But it's not authentic unless we do it in a Model A!" So we did! Join us as we retrace Mom and Grandpa's 1934 trip from Grandville, Michigan to Rialto, California on Route 66 - in a Model A!