My name is Liz Leggett and I’ve been working as a freelance photographer for the past decade. Recently, I’ve been taking images of various cars for several media outlets such as “The Montreal Gazette,” Driving.ca, “Revolution Motorcycle Magazine,” “Sympatico Autos” and “Canadian Hot Rod Magazine.” Being passionate about cars is an important part of my job, as well as traveling to various shops, speedways, local cruise nights, museums and backyard garages. Builders from all over grind, weld and fabricate amazing cars and undergo the often long and arduous task of building dream machines, and I’ve had the privilege of meeting them and photographing their work.

In the summer of 2012, I went on an intense six week cross-country road trip while living in a ’74 VW Wesfalia bus. My friend Billy Ozoux and I stopped in Detroit, Memphis and Nashville, jumped on Route 66 and drove through Las Vegas into Wendover, Utah, where I took pictures on the salt flats at Bonneville Speedway during Speed Week. From there we drove to Santa Monica, California, where we attended several car events and toured many old-school hot rod shops. After that we jumped back on Route 66 and headed to Chicago, then home again to Montreal, completing the trip with a total of 15,000 images and 9,000 miles clocked.

We decided this adventure was too amazing not to repeat, and began making plans to return in 2013. However, we decided that this time, my mother Connie, father Jim and I would be driving my family’s stock ’50 Chevy nicknamed “Alice” along the same course to Route 66 and back to Bonneville Speedway for the week-long racing event.

Alice was originally built in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, and spent the majority of her life in Oklahoma. We bought her in good running condition, untouched by crooked saw blades and retaining her original inline-six engine and three-speed manual transmission. We also decided to take the road trip in the manner we’ve always dreamed, just like it was done in the days when vacationing on the road was an American tradition. So with a small trailer in tow full of clothing and a trunk packed with tools and spare parts, we set out towards the border and adventures unknown.

After stopping in Toronto to visit a friend, we continued on to Windsor and then Detroit over the Ambassador Bridge. Back in the USA, we drove to Indianapolis where we visited the famed museum filled with legendary cars. My parents had never travelled along Route 66 and it was exciting to show them places I’d photographed and share the knowledge I’d gained the previous year.

“Alice was originally built in oshawa, ontario, Canada, and spent the majority of her life in Oklahoma. We bought her in good running Condition, untouched by crooked saw Bladesand retaining her original inline-six Engine and three-speed manual transmission.”

Along the way we made new discoveries and encountered many fascinating people. When we reached Yukon, Oklahoma, we had a chance meeting with local hot rodder J.A. Luper and his son, who gave us a great tour of some of the small car shops in town. Route 66’s rich history revealed itself one roadside attraction after another, and provided much information on Chevys from the Route’s heyday. We did encountered mechanical trouble when we lost the use of the front right brake in Morrilton, Arkansas. Stopping in the parking lot of the closed brake and tire shop, we rebuilt the brake cylinder, got the difficult springs back in place, and we were off again. One after the another, we visited infamous places like the U-Drop Inn in Shamrock, Texas, with its art deco design, the Jack Rabbit Trading Post complete with giant jackalope and the infamous Arizona Meteor Crater site.

When we reached Tucumcari, New Mexico, the bright signs of Tee-Pee Curios and The Blue Swallow Motel greeted us. We turned off the mother road in Tucumcari and headed south to visit Roswell’s International UFO Museum and Research Center. This was where the road got slightly difficult for poor Alice. With outside temperatures peaking at 115˚F, we were forced to “MacGyver” a solution to the fuel boiling in the fuel line before reaching the single carburetor. Armed with tinfoil and duct tape, we insulated the line by splitting a rubber fuel line covered in foil, and we built a custom shroud from cookie sheets to force more air through the radiator. This gave us just enough cooling capacity to get out of the desert and back on route.

“Along the way we made new discoveries and encountered many fascinating people.”

Once we reached Needles, California, we headed towards Las Vegas where we picked up the RV that would serve as our base of operations during speed week. We carried our convoy along the Extraterrestrial Highway and decided to camp out at Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge, a stone’s throw away from the infamous military compound, Area 51. After parking for the evening, our vehicle was suddenly surrounded by a television crew that had been filming in the park. Actors dressed as aliens sprang up from the buses and agreed to pose for a few pictures with Alice.

Finally arriving in Ely, Nevada, Alice met with an unfortunate malfunction with her clutch’s throw-out bearing, a repair dad and I couldn’t make on our own.  We were forced to leave her for three days while parts were delivered, so we carried on to Bonneville. All in all, Alice proved to us that she was well up to the task of getting us across the country, all while maintaining her original engine, transmission, body and chassis, a feat that not many 60-year-olds can boast.

But the road trip was not yet through, as Alice still had a long haul ahead of her, bringing us to California, across the badlands of the Midwest and all the way back home. This was just the beginning of one of our craziest adventures yet.

---