An Introduction

Hello, my name is Kelly. It seems a little odd to type that, like I'm writing a letter to a pen pal that I've never met. I suppose that's what I'm doing, really... writing a letter to the internet. So welcome readers! I'm happy to have any.

First, a little about this blog. The tagline makes it pretty obvious, I guess - I created this to chronicle my adventures in a 7-week, 7,000 mile road trip across America and to share them with the world. Part of the purpose of my road trip is to see the best of the American West, which is well known for its endless roads and not so well known for its endless wifi. Nevertheless, I'll try to update as much as I can so that people can get a taste of what I get the pleasure of experiencing! This first post will be extraordinarily massive so that I can provide the background for this expedition, so bear with me.

Now for me... I'm 23 and newly graduated. I majored in geology and marine biology in school with a concentration in paleontology. Obviously, science is my deal. I love adventuring, exploring, discovering, learning, and experiencing. So it's really no surprise to anyone that as soon as I graduated I announced my intention to take a huge trip as the first chapter in my post-academia life. And it’s really no surprise to anyone that I actually followed through with my intentions, as I am well-known for my “bulldog” nature. Once I get an idea I’ll grab it in my teeth and I won’t let go. Which brings me to the next part…

The car I’ll be driving. Meet Calamity Jane, my 1966 Ford Mustang fastback.

I’ll take the opportunity here to give a brief (for me) history of how I’ve come to be driving this 48-year-old monstrosity on a cross-country road trip. I’ve had this car for nearly 4 years now, and everything that this car is is a direct product of my inability to let something pass me by. Back in the spring of 2010, I decided that I was tired of sitting on my butt twiddling my thumbs and that I should learn to work with my hands. And if I was going to work with my hands, it might as well be something useful, so I decided that auto mechanics would be my new thing. But modern cars are very complicated and honestly not that fascinating to me, so I decided that I should get a vintage car to start my new hobby off. And naturally it followed that if I was going to get a vintage car, I might as well go for the gold and get my dream car - a 60’s Ford Mustang. Specifically, I wanted a ‘65, ‘66, ‘69, or ‘70 fastback. It had to be powered by an all-American V8 and a manual transmission - nevermind the fact that I had no idea how to drive manual. I figured I would learn when I got the car in a “sink or swim” type situation. The car needed to be in serviceable condition with no structural body rust or damage (though poorly running engines, fudged transmissions, and dented or rusted exterior sheet metal was fine with me). Mostly I wanted a good “starter project” car. I spent a few months perusing Craigslist and eBay looking for THE car. There are many cars in this world, but I assumed that only one would be exactly right for me.

In September, I stumbled across a Craigslist ad for a ‘66 fastback with a 289ci V8, 4-speed Toploader transmission, running and driving, with a decent body. It was nearby so I hopped over to the guy’s house to take a look. When I saw that car sitting in his driveway I was a goner. Couldn’t have any other car. Someone could have put a concours gold Shelby GT500 in front of me and I would not have looked twice at it. So, that weekend my new old car came home with me. It was the start of an absolutely absurd, totally ridiculous, extraordinarily frustrating, and oftentimes hilarious partnership. After the first month the car had already earned her name - Calamity Jane.

Fast forward 3 years. My obsession with this car had really only gotten worse and I was determined to build her into my perfect ultimate daily driver. This included extra safety (3-point seatbelts, late model Mustang seats, LED taillights), better street handling (rack and pinion power steering, improved disc brakes, throttle body EFI, subframe connectors), and some creature comforts (A/C, a radio with an auxilary port, and that’s about it). It took me three years of weekends to get her exactly right, but in April 2013 she was DONE. I took her to my college in North Carolina for finals week for a “shakedown week” in which I ironed out all of the problems that could and would crop up. This was done in preparation for driving her halfway across the country to Colorado, where I had a summer job lined up.

I got to drive Jane for three days. On the morning of the fourth day, I was driving to pick someone up for lunch and was rear-ended by a guy who was going about 40mph faster than I. Jane was totaled, for lack of a better word. The entire rear half of the car from the doors back was completely crushed. The guy had been fiddling with the dash controls on his brand new Toyota Yaris and failed to watch the road for who knows how long, which is how he ended up with his car’s front end in my car’s trunk. Jane took care of me though and I came away with only minor whiplash and no cuts or bruises. I was completely devastated. Here was my car, my dream, my crowning accomplishment, my everything… and it was smashed.

I took a day to have a complete meltdown and then I set about saving Jane. She took care of me, so I was going to take care of her. And, you know, bulldogs don’t like to let go of their bones. So my family and I fought with insurance, we got what we needed to fix her, and slowly Jane was brought back to life. I got her back from my good friend and body man on December 18th, 2013. 

I then had to reinstall and rebuild a lot of my accessories. Jane was officially put back on the road on April 15, 2014 - just in time for the 50th Anniversary of the Mustang. To celebrate, we headed to Charlotte, NC for the Mustang 50th Birthday Party at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. I met a lot of members of the Vintage Mustang Forum (where I learned to build Jane) and spent most of my time hanging out with new friends wandering around looking at all of the vendors and cars. Though the weather really put a damper on things Saturday, on Sunday everything cleared up and all celebration participants were given the opportunity to have a go at the track! Of course I wasn't going to miss that opportunity, so we zoomed around a bit and had a blast. The speed cap was 70mph so it was nothing too wild, but it was still a great experience. 

The event photographer made fun of me because I was crusing around the speedway with my arm hanging out the window... but hey, we weren't going incredibly fast and I hang my arm out the window at faster speeds on the interstate!

Anyways, at some point in time during the rebuild I had decided that there would be no better way to celebrate Jane's rebirth and the 50th anniversary of the Mustang than to take a cross-country road trip. That brings us back to the whole "road trip across America" part that you probably came to this blog for originally (and what you're likely more interested in). Back on track now...

You may have realized by now that I am the kind of person who tends to make absurd decisions based off of initially logical or at least somewhat sensical ideas, which are then warped until they fit my idea of "really interesting". So of course I didn't want to just go to California and back. I wanted to see the best and most beautiful of America (the natural parts, at least, as I still have an aversion to cities for fairly obvious reasons). to make it a truly cross-country trip I wanted to start at the beach on the east coast - and what better way to start a trip than with Mustang Week 2014 in Myrtle Beach, SC?!

I headed down to the East Coast's biggest annual Mustang gathering for a weekend of cars, sun, and sand with my dad. It truly was spectacular. Though the crowd was mostly late model Mustangs, there were quite a few classics scattered around. And man, the whole place REEKED of horsepower. I spent the weekend chatting with people about cars - one of my favorite pasttimes these days - and watching people showing off on the strip. Traffic was absolutely abysmal but it was very cool to chat with other Mustang owners at stoplights and to cruise around looking at all of the other cars. Jane was wonderful the entire trip (which caused intense suspicion on my part; Calamity Jane is not named Calamity Jane for nothing) and we had a great time.

Here she is parked next to the Roadtrippers Mustang (purely by accident) - thought it made for a cool shot:

We stopped at an old school gas station on the way home to fill up:

I spent a few days at home gathering all of my gear to get ready for the really big leg of the trip - the part where I go to California! I decided that camping would be an interesting thing to try out. Though I've been camping before, I've never tried to camp out of a very small, very fast, very loud car so I thought I'd give it a shot. First step was modifying the car a bit into a true road warrior. I made some brackets for the rear seat to clip a cargo net to in order to be able to tie down all of my gear on the fold-down deck. I figured that it would not be great if I had to brake suddenly and then had a cooler go flying into the back of my head, so this step was essential. I also added mudflaps to the rear (which I cut to fit out of universal mudflaps, then secured with removable clips) so I wouldn't completely destroy my paint on gravel roads. Jane likes to dig holes in the dirt, you see.

As a final touch, I created a sun shade for the rear window with the help of my mom. The fastbacks have enormous greenhouse-like windows, and man does it get hot in the parking lot! I didn't want my stuff to melt so a sun shade seemed like a pretty good idea. Additionally, it gave me the opportunity to show off a map of the United States, to which I will be adding route details and information as I progress! I think it turned out great and I am very excited to be able to fill it up.

As of today, Jane is packed and ready to go on our trip! I have deliberately not stated my exact destinations, but they will be revealed as I hit them and move on. My dad and I leave tomorrow morning at 9AM sharp (hopefully). Stay tuned for more updates on the insanity!

I welcome any comments, queries, advice, etc. I can be reached on this blog or through calamityjaneblog@gmail.com!

P.S. - I apologize for the lighter-colored text, as for whatever reason this blog won't let me type consistently in black... not sure why!