05/08/2026
Mary and Ken’s 400,000 Mile Rideabout
Part 1 — The Beginning
Our 400,000-mile rideabout in a 1927 Essex street rod really began back in the early 1990s in Vermont.
Ken and I were out wandering the back roads one afternoon when we spotted an old car body sitting out in a pasture among the cows, propped up on rocks and slowly returning to the earth. Ken had been dreaming about building a street rod for years, so we stopped and talked with the farmer.
By the end of the conversation, we owned it.
What came home was mostly just the cab and trunk of an old 1927 Essex coupe. Ken built the frame himself and spent the next couple of years working on it whenever he could find spare time. Finally, in 1993, we got it on the road and headed to our first car show about 70 miles away.
And we never really stopped.
Over the years we drove that little yellow coupe to every contiguous state in the United States and through parts of Canada including Ontario, Quebec, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.
We crossed the country multiple times, camped in Yellowstone with gear strapped to the roof, and followed the weather wherever it seemed happiest.
Sometimes we left our 36-foot motorhome sitting in the yard and traveled with nothing more than tents, sleeping bags, a camp stove, and curiosity.
The car slowly evolved over the years. Eventually it gained roll-up windows, an odometer, and a gas gauge.
But in the beginning, it was just us, the road, and a willingness to figure things out as we went along.
One thing we learned quickly:
A bright yellow 1927 Essex coupe attracts conversations everywhere it goes. Over the years we drove that little yellow coupe to every contiguous state in the United States and through parts of Canada including Ontario, Quebec, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. We crossed the country multiple times, camped in Yellowstone with gear strapped to the roof, and followed the weather wherever it seemed happiest.
Sometimes we left our 36-foot motorhome sitting in the yard and traveled with nothing more than tents, sleeping bags, a camp stove, and curiosity.
The car slowly evolved over the years. Eventually it gained roll-up windows, an odometer, and a gas gauge. But in the beginning, it was just us, the road, and a willingness to figure things out as we went along.
One thing we learned quickly:
A bright yellow 1927 Essex coupe attracts conversations everywhere it goes.
Gas station stops became half-hour visits. Restaurant parking lots turned into storytelling sessions. Small towns waved us into parades. Car shows appeared unexpectedly along the road, and suddenly we were participants instead of travelers.
The car introduced us to America in a way few things could.
We discovered hidden towns, forgotten roads, and extraordinary people. One of those discoveries was Creede, Colorado, an old silver mining town we first visited around 1995 that still seemed frozen in another era.
Over time, the miles added up.
400,000 of them.
And the adventure still continues.
More to come.
