Louise and I were the first people to show up at the Altoona Meet in May of 1989. We arrived on the Wednesday prior to the meet. In those days the meets all ran from the Thursday through the Saturday, three days. Over the years the meets slowly grew to the four days that we enjoy now. We were at Rene and Donene Kroger’s house when Don and Cathy Rook arrived in their black 57 300C Coupe. They were in the midst of their epic move from PA to Mena, Arkansas. They were attending the meet on route to Mena, so it made sense for Don to drive one of his cars. One less car to pay to have transported.

Rene’s cars, I’m going to guess around 40 or so were parked in fields and some open shelters all around his house. There was a lot to take in, but my interest focused in on Don’s black C. The story was that it had been in storage for many years. The paint was original, although pretty scratched and dinged up. The interior seats and dash were pretty tired as well. The dash pad sagged down to the point where the glove box couldn’t be opened.

Even though the engine compartment was a mess, the heart of the lion was still beating. Don wanted to go on a beer run and Don wanted to drink beer, so we set off driving the C with me at the wheel. This was my first drive in a Letter car other then my own 300K convertible. My bond with the C grew every mile that I drove it but there was a fly in the ointment. It seems that Don had blown a radiator hose on the trip to Rene’s and the car reeked of antifreeze. After the beer was secured, I spotted a 25 cent car wash and I pulled in. Don protested, telling me that the car would never run again if I got the engine wet. I told him that this car and I are already in love and everything would be fine. 25 cents later and the offending antifreeze smell was gone. After the meet, the C completed the trip to Mena and Don and I entered into an on again, off again negotiation for me to buy the car.

So fast forward to the Fall of 1993 and a deal for the 57 was completed. I sold my K convert and the St. Louis Meet in May of 1994 looked like an opportune time to retrieve the 57. We flew down to Mena a week ahead of the meet and started working on prepping the C for the journeyFor the Mena to St. Louis portion of the drive, we would have our good friends Ray and Jo Ann Jones for company. In the last few years Don had the C painted in a black epoxy paint, but no other improvements had been made. I performed an oil and filter change, fresh gasoline and a brake adjustment. An undercarriage inspection showed some scary looking freeze plugs, fingers crossed that they would hold. A test drive showed a transmission on its last legs. There was no second gear and the one time that I stepped on the throttle, the transmission screeched like a banshee. Never the less I obtained a temporary Arkansas travel permit and we were on our way to St. Louis and we enjoyed some original Route 66 running along the way. Safely in St. Louis, we attended a great meet, hosted by Jim & Karren Birr and Len & Betty Astroth. There was the Transportation Museum with its running and driving Turbine Car and other Route 66 high lights. Ted Drew’s, home of the Mud, milk shake and especially a drive around the grounds of the Coral Courts Motel. This was one of the most notorious no tell motels in America. Each unit was “D” shaped with 2 units in each building and each unit had a garage. I’m glad that I saw it, because the land that it was built on was too valuable and it met the wrecking ball shortly after. We drove the C around with the Jones and the Krausmanns. Two things came out of that. One Jim was encouraged to get going on his black 300C coupe and two, I had tried all the systems on my 300C before leaving Don’s, including the radio. I had turned the radio on, not a peep, so I turned it off. On our drive, I stopped at a pharmacy to get some aspirins for my wife, when I came out the radio was playing away. I didn’t know that those radios had tubes and they needed a minute to warm up. Thankfully Jim knew.

After the meet, we limped the C home. It was time to roll the sleeves up and start working. First on the list was to yank the squealing transmission out and get it to George Riehl’s.