3,400 mile road trip in 73 swinger

Awesome, you will love RT66. I did the entire thing from Chicago to Santa Monica in my 1968 Dart GT (273/904/7.25" w/2.93 gears) and loved every bit of it. The car is all original, so after checking the major systems, it was mainly a leap of faith as well. I too packed a ton of clothes, parts, fluids, tools, etc. No major issues other than a tire blow out which to be fair I could have avoided had I stopped sooner to address the issue. The car even burned about a quart every 500 miles ha, but she made it. Other than that there were minor issues here and there but nothing that stopped the car from driving under its own power and I would fix small issues along the way.

I even took pacific coast highway up to meet a friend in San Jose and continued all the way up to Washington. What an awesome time. Drove all the way back to Maryland to finish out the trip. I was on the road about a month and I wanna say around 8,000 to 10,000 miles. I mapped my exact route on a huge map I had with me.

Definitely take your time on route 66. It can go by quick. Stop and take it all in every so often. Lots of roads on old 66 are dead ends or go through private property so plan for doubling back a few times. In some places you can see the original 1926 road that is now pedestrian and/or bicycle duty only. One section to avoid is a strip near the Bagdad Cafe in the Mohave desert. It was absolutely awful to drive on. Not kidding I was doing 10mph and still the car rattled and shook like a paint can so bad that the screws holding the instrument panel in backed out and onto the floor. Couldn't wait to get to proper highway while on that. I had to do 10 miles before I found an exit to the freeway. All in all, awesome experience that I will cherish forever. Seeing our country and all the landscapes it has to offer. I hightailed it on I80 on the way back and I definitely recommend that so you can see the salt flats (bonneville speedway). I raced down the flats as I had it all to myself. Keep in mind also the tune on your carb (lean vs fat). I was tuned at sea level so rising up to almost 10k elevation made me run rich, but safe to run. The elevation goes up and down so much that I opted to leave the tune as is rather than change jets or mixtures and such all the time. Its a 2bbl carter so I'm not sure how much tuneability is in it anyway. So much to say I'm sorry I have to stop somewhere haha.

The only thing I had planned was the time off of work in advance. Other than that I literally packed up, hit the road and drove as much or as little as I wanted and called around for hotel availability. Definitely stay in some of the quirky places along route 66.

You will love it. Keep that car on the road as it was meant to be.