World Auto Tour 2020

Leg 1 of the World Auto Tour 2014 - Yokohama, Japan to Paris, France

Leg 1 Days 1-3 Yokohama, Japan

Leg 1 Day 6 Lake Biwa, Otsu, Japan

Leg 1 Days 25-27 Ulan Ude, Russia

Photo Credit: Vladimir Kvashnin

Leg 1 Day 28 Lake Baikal, Listvyanka, Russia

Photo Credit: Vladimir Kvashnin

Leg 1 Days 47-49 Moscow, Russia

Leg 1 Days 49-51 St. Petersburg, Russia

Photo Credit: Lindsay Fincher

Leg 1 Days 54-55 Vilnius, Lithuania

Photo Credit: Lithuanian State

Leg 2 Partial Route Paris, France to Hirtshals, Denmark

Leg 3 Retracing the Yellowstone Trail, the 1st Transcontinental Automobile Highway

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Back Home and Back to Reality

October 8, 2014By JohnQ

BACK IN HOME PORT:

Where it all started!!

The end of a long adventure….every mile a memory!!

The end of the journey…..16,392 miles.

WOW…..I’m back home and adjusting to staying in one place for awhile. It seems really strange not to be getting up each morning and hitting the open road. We experienced so many great adventures and met so many great people along the way, I can hardly believe it really happened…..I’m extremely fortunate to have been able to experience it all. This whole World Tour was a team effort and I’d like to acknowledge some very special people without whom this trip could have never happened.

1. MIR Corp, Seattle, WA.

Thanks to Doug Grimes and Anne Thorsteinson and the crew at MIR Corp for an outstanding job of handling the logistics that went into making this tour such a great success. Thanks everyone for all your hard work!!! In addition I would like to thank all the local guides that took care of us and got us through some very “interesting” border crossings and “road adventures”.

Japan…..Mr. Hiroyuki Tada (Hiro)

Vladivostok, Russia……Ms. Svetlana Sen

China……Mr. Yu Xinming (Sim)

Siberia, Russia…..Ms. Xenya Drozdova

Western Russia…..Ms. Natalia Ivanova

Europe…..Ms. Karen Bradbury

2. Today Sotheby’s International Realty….San Carlos, CA

Thanks to Jim Meader, Buddy Saupe and Debbie Cooper at Today Sotheby’s for sponsoring our website allowing us to post the blog you’ve been following. Great job on the web page graphics, background video’s and support in keeping us on line!

3. Yellowstone Trail Association

Thanks to Mark Mowbray and John and Alice Ridge for all the help in mapping the original YT Highway running from Plymouth Rock, MA to Seattle, WA. I really appreciate all the support and info you gave us as we made the US journey….this is a “must do” route for everyone doing a cross country drive, especially in an old car!!

4. All the people from around the world that helped us along the way……THANKS!!!!!

With all that said, below are a few pic’s to end the trip

A broken wing…..this happened somewhere between Copenhagen and NYC….I think someone tried to steal it and it broke (it’s bolted on, to prevent this from happening) Note that the tie wrap holding the radiator guard is still doing its job….never leave home without duct tape and tie wraps!!

Cleaned up and ready for the next adventure…..

Reader Input:

To keep this all going, I need a name for the ’28 Plymouth Roadster….all of you readers have been following all the adventures it has been through so it’s only fair you should have an input into giving it a name. So how about it….please send your idea via the “contact us”.

Let me know what you think….

John

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World Auto Tour Yellowstone Trail Leg #3…..Completed!!!!

September 27, 2014By JohnQ

World Tour Leg #3 is now in the history books, completed by Luke and I yesterday mid afternoon in Seattle, WA. According to the old Yellowstone Trail maps, the end of the trail was at the base of Jackson Street next to Puget Sound. The problem was that location is now a staging and construction site for a soon to be installed auto tunnel. This tunnel, when done, will be the largest diameter tunnel in the world! There was a big problem going on as the bore drill they were using, broke down so it would not move forward or backward….basically it was stuck. They were in the process of digging an extraction hole so they could bring it above ground to repair…as we were taking pictures they were placing huge cranes in the area to do the extraction.

It appeared that there was no way we could get passed the construction gate security in the Roadster, so we backed into a parking spot across the street and Luke went over to two guys in red coveralls next to the construction sight who appeared to have some level of authority. Luke explained how we just had driven around the world and this was the final stop for the world tour….they each looked at each other and said “we didn’t see you drive in and it would not be a problem”. He then waved to the security guard across the street and motioned for us to drive in….which we did. We parked as close to the water as we could get for some photo’s…..turns out one of the guys who helped us get in was from Holland and recognized some of the signatures on the car as being from Holland. We had a great time talking to him about some of the places we had visited.

Anyway, below are some pic’s of us at the Leg#3 Yellowstone Trail kickoff at Plymouth, MA and YT’s end next to Puget Sound…

World Tour Leg #3 kickoff at Plymouth Rock, MA

World Tour Leg #3 Yellowstone Trail kickoff at Plymouth Rock, MA

The final stop of the World Tour...YT end at Puget Sound

The final stop of the World Tour…Yellowstone Trail’s end at Puget Sound…as you can see, we are in the middle of the tunnel construction site. Seattle skyline is in the background

Another view looking out at Puget Sound

Me and one of the iron workers who helped us get in…he’s from Holland!

After the photo’s, we met up with Ken Jackson, a friend of Luke who lives near Tacoma….he took us to a nearby waterfront restaurant for a couple brews to celebrate our arrival

It’s hard to believe that World Tour 2014 has been completed….basically 4 months on the road of amazing adventures!! It’s going to be hard to close the book on what for me has been my greatest automotive and life adventure to date….I’ll have more to add later once I get a chance to think about all that has happened.

And finally, I hope all of you have enjoyed reading the blog and sharing our adventures….

Keep checking back as there will be more ongoing post’s….thanks for your interst

John

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Yellowstone Trail….Montana 2

September 26, 2014By JohnQ

This will be a short post to finish out Montana and tomorrow I’ll post Washington…..stay tuned! The Montana weather has been great with cool mornings and warm/hot afternoons. The back roads were once again really fun but challenging in navigation. I’ve posted a few more pic’s below to give you an idea of the terrain…beautiful part of the country.