Join me on my ’75 Days of Summer’ road trip

Drive Toward a Cure has summer-long fund-raiser tied to getting out and driving

0
1071
Two Arrows
That'a Drive Toward a Cure badge on my new Nissan Frontier as we launch our 75 Days of Summer event with a stop at the old Two Arrows gas station on historic Route 66 in northern Arizona | Larry Edsall photos

I’m writing this from a motel room in McPherson, Kansas. It is June 19, the eve of the 75 Days of Summer, a special “Make Every Mile Count” event being staged by Drive Toward a Cure, a car-centric charity founded to raise funds to fight Parkinson’s disease.

I’m writing this from a motel room in McPherson, Kansas. It is June 19, the eve of the 75 Days of Summer, which is a special “Make Every Mile Count” event being staged by Drive Toward a Cure, a car-centric charity founded to raise funds to fight Parkinson’s disease.

Starting June 20 and running to September 5, I drive and you pay, at least I hope you’ll pay. I’ve already made my initial contribution when I registered to take part in the program. My goal for the summer season is to drive at least 7,500 miles, and I’m hoping my friends, relatives, and many of you readers will support my effort by contributing 1 cent for each mile I travel. 

Should I complete my 7,500-mile goal, you would be sending $75 to help overcome Parkinson’s disease.

Because part of my route includes driving to watch a granddaughter and her teammates play in the AAU Junior National volleyball championships in Orlando, Florida, I got a head start, and in the past few days have logged around 1,300 miles.

I cannot drive I-40 through Amarillo, Texas, without stopping at Cadillac Ranch

Hey, here’s an idea: In addition to contributing a penny a mile as I drive, why don’t you sign up for your own 75 Days of Summer with Drive Toward a Cure? There are going to be weekly and grand prizes, and while you may not match my mileage, you likely have more friends and followers than I do, so ask them to contribute a dime or a dollar for each mile you drive.

As I mentioned, I got a head start on the official 75 Days event, and that first segment of my road trip involved another kind of charitable effort, which is why I’m here in farmland-flat Kansas. Though the years, I’ve accumulated hundreds, OK, maybe a couple thousand books on automotive subjects. 

I know it’s popular to try to sell such things when you’ve finished with them, or at least when you’ve run out of bookshelf space for more. But selling is not my skill, so I’ve been donating them to the library at McPherson College, the Kansas school where you can earn a 4-year degree in automotive restoration.

I loaded a trailer with the first ones and delivered them a few years ago. Now that the pandemic has ebbed, I dropped off another two-dozen boxes of books on my way East.

If you’re reading this article, you likely have car books or tools or perhaps even cars you no longer need. Sure, you could put them up for sale, but why not contact a high school shop class or one of the growing number of colleges with automotive trade and restoration classes and see if your stuff might find a new and appreciative home.

I’ve informed McPherson that I still have more car books that will be heading its way — someday. And hopefully that someday will be well into the future because I still have stories to write and need those books for reference and fact checking.

Oh, and I also anticipating having many, many more miles to drive in the coming years. Hope to see you somewhere down the road. 

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here