![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dennygibson.com\/blog\/\/\/\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/valiant6301.jpg\")
<\/a>Among my “road trip cars”, this one holds a very special place. Several special places, in fact. It is the oldest car I ever used on a road trip, and it is the only car acquired specifically for a road trip. It is also the car that participated in the least road trips. I drove it on just one journey other than the one for which it was purchased. It is one of only two “road trip cars” purchased used, and the other one was acquired specifically to replace the Valiant. Despite its limited participation in the activity that is this website’s reason to exist, it’s significance to the site is at least as large as any of the other cars.<\/p>\nMy Previous Wheels: Chapter 35 \u2014 2006 Chevrolet Corvette<\/a> Among my “road trip cars”, this one holds a very special place. Several special places, in fact. It is the oldest car I ever used on a road trip, and it is the only car acquired specifically for a road … Continue reading <\/a><\/a>The trip for which the Valiant was purchased was a full-length drive of the Lincoln Highway in its centennial year. The model year was chosen so that it would be exactly half the highway’s age at the time of the drive. The picture at the top of this article is of the car in storage where I saw it initially. The pictures at left show the car when I first got it home and in the shop getting a new top.<\/p>\n<\/a>The big Lincoln Highway drive was centered around the 2013 Lincoln Highway Association Conference in Kearney, Nebraska. The 2012 LHA Conference was held in Canton, Ohio, and I used it for something of a shakedown cruise. The picture at right shows the car at the 2012 trip’s beginning. The journal for the seven-day outing is here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>The Lincoln Highway ran coast to coast connecting New York City with San Francisco. The first picture shows the car in Weehawken, New Jersey, where a ferry from NYC would have delivered Lincoln Highway drivers in 1913. The second picture was taken near the highway’s midpoint in Nebraska and the third at its western terminus in San Francisco, California. The journal for that outing is here<\/a>. It includes a section, The Ride<\/a>, which covers finding and preparing the Valiant.<\/p>\n<\/a>The Valiant also holds the distinction of being owned for the least amount of time of any of the “road trip cars” except for (at the moment) my latest purchase. I bought it December 18, 2010, and sold it April 28, 2014. I sure had fun with the car, and pulling up to that marker in San Francisco was one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever done. But I’m not really the sort of guy to keep a car like that running; The Oklahoman who bought it is.<\/p>\n<\/a>In addition to appearing in those two trip journals (Lincoln Highway Conference 2012<\/a> and Lincoln Highway Centennial Caravan<\/a>), the bright red convertible was the lead character in a book. I had to both write and publish the book to make that happen but it did happen. That book, By Mopar to the Golden Gate<\/em>, is available through eBay<\/a> and Amazon<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nMy Next Wheels: Chapter 37 \u2014 2011 Subaru Forester<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"