Been searching for a Chevy Panel truck for awhile. Finally found one at Sherman Oaks California on Craigslist. Had a good mate go check it out and buy it for us in May 2017. It was sitting in a gravel yard all dusty under a carport. The previous owner didn’t have any time to drive it so was selling it after he had done improvements for holidaying in, as we say in Australia. It was a totally different truck once we washed and waxed it. What a find, we were over the moon to find such a lovely truck that drives and runs just like a new one.

It has a jag front end, 1997 LT1 Camaro engine, electric leather seats, air conditioning, a nice over drive transmission, Dakota Digital gauges. We went over there in Aug. 2017 with our Aussie mate Ron to try and find him a Corvette while travelling to iconic Route 66 to the Route 66 Festival at Springfield, MO. My husband, Ian, and I and Ron headed off from our mate’s place at Palmdale, CA, and we had 4 days to get there for the festival at Springfield. We headed off Monday morning and got 50 miles out of Palmdale and the alternator started having issues, so we limped back to our mate’s workshop, The Shop in Quarts Hill, CA, to get a replacement one from Napa. He lent us his tools as Ian’s a mechanic. Just delayed our trip 4 hours and we were on our way again.

Our first stop was Barstow after the Bottle Ranch on Route 66. Had a nice run through the windy roads out to the old gold mining town of Oatman, AZ, then off to Hackberry, Radiator Springs, Winslow AZ, Wigwam motel Holbrook AZ, through Tucumcari to see the Blue Swallow motel. Looked like we were heading into a bad storm so we brought umbrellas and headed off to Amarillo, TX, to stay the night and see out the storm. While there we went to the Texas steak ranch for tea.

In the morning had to head off to Springfield, MO, and had flash flood warnings as it was a huge thunderstorm. It was clearing by the time we got to Shamrock, TX, to see the Do Drop Inn. It’s just beautiful the staff is friendly. We had a coffee and headed off again. All fine weather from there and we viewed a lot of rusty relics on the way. The next stop was the Big Mac Donald’s at Bridge Restaurant that goes over the highway at Vinita, OK.

We got to Springfield on Thursday at our other friend’s B&B on Route 66. We were ready to head to the The Birthplace of Route 66 Festival on Friday for the street cruise in the Chevy. We had a ball and everyone was so friendly. We did 1,700 miles or so getting there. We took it to the show on Sunday and they had over 700 cars and hundreds of motorcycles.

We received an award for the furthest distance travelled and got up on stage for a speech. Got to meet the major, chief of police and the event organizers. Hope to go back again this year and finish the rest of route 66 to Chicago and back to the west coast before we ship him back home to Australia. If you see us on the road stop and say G’day. The USA is the best place to travel in your old car as the car scene is huge over there. We’ve made heaps of new friends on our travels.