priscilla on the prarie with twins

I spent the weekend in the Michiana shores with longtime friends and twin Clenet bloggers Ron and Mario and see what automotive adventures we could find. Saturday morning we were up early loading Priscilla, their 1967 Cadillac Fleetwood Sixty-Special Brougham (jeez, is that enough names?) for a run to Kankakee, IL for a driving tour with the Chicago Lambda Car Club boys. Mario drove, Ron navigated and I deployed footrests and tested picnic tables, because that's what a journo does. All for you.




















We steered south of Chicago for a rendezvous at the 1947 Jaenicke's Root Beer stand in downtown Kankakee for tire kicking and root beer. It's a way cool place, obviously a de-franchised A & W Root Beer stand, still in its signature orange. A delicious selection of cars began to assemble. besides Priscilla, there was a 9,500 mile 1973 Eldorado coupe in Taupe and companion Cotillion White 1976 convertible, a sky blue 1964 Imperial, a heavenly 1962 Imperial in Silver Lilac that I acquired for a client and helped restore back in 1992- it was great to see it looking so pristine. Lots of fun rides- when was the last time you saw a '61 De Soto coupe? Best color went to a 1972 Monte Carlo whose orange matched the hot dog stand, and oldest was a sweet 1941 Cadillac sedanette.

After everyone chugged their root beer, we went down the block to tour the Bradley House, a Frank Lloyd house on the river which was recently restored and only opened for tour this summer. It was great to see such an intact example and recall just how revolutionary Wright was in 1900.

From there we toured to a local park for a picnic and even a delightful pontoon boat ride on Kankakee river. All in all a delightful time with friends both two legged and finned. Photo link is here. Thanks to Ron, Mario, Priscilla and the LCC Lake Michigan guys for a great day. As my summer tour draws to a close, I must admit that the people of the midwest have been terrific. I'm really going to miss them.