Local Men Write a Book About Getting Their Kicks on Route 66

If you didn’t know better, you’d swear you’d seen the same plotline in a movie: Two best friends gas up a shiny, red convertible Cadillac DeVille and fulfill their lifelong dream by driving cross-country, only to find bliss on the famed Route 66. When done, they pen a book about their travels … and travails.

Call it life imitating art.

The story is real and the heroes of the tale are New Jersey residents, Robert Walton and Sal Santoro, who met through a Cadillac club back in 1991. They’ve been friends ever since. Both working men, Walton, of Wyckoff, taught at a public school in Bergenfield for 37 years and Santoro, of Rockaway, worked for UPS for 35 years. 

The minute they retired, they set out on an unforgettable journey and road trip across this vast nation. 

“We got along pretty well, and we both liked the idea of Route 66,” said Walton. “So we seriously thought about doing the trip and started planning it.”

“It was something we always wanted to do,” said Santoro. “It was a bucket list item and we got to fulfill that dream in 2009.”

Both men not only share a love of Cadillacs — they also own them.  Santoro owns a few of them, but Walton wanted to take his 1968 red convertible Cadillac DeVille on the trip, which, at the time was a 44-year-old gas guzzler.

“Detroit didn’t plan for these cars to be on the road after 41 years,” said Walton.

On May 19, 2009, Walton departed from Wyckoff and picked Santoro up in Ramsey.  The duo drove to Chicago and Ohio to pay homage to the auto gods at some car museums. Three days later they departed from the Windy City, which is the end point of Route 66, and beginning rambling south.

The buddies spent 21 days travelling the historic highway in a venerable land boat, but their journey was not without a few hiccups.

“We had a small fire in southern Illinois when we put the air conditioning on and the control unit shorted out and started smoking,” said Walton.

After that, they had to travel for the next 35 days of the trip with no A/C. They also hit severe weather with torrential rains in Illinois and drove through about a foot of water, which was a challenge.

They pushed on, though, and were glad they did too, because it turned out to be the trip of a lifetime.

“The Mojave Desert was an interesting place, although while we were there, we were blessed with outstanding weather,” said Walton. “It was about 80-85 degrees and we had the top off and windows down the whole time.”

One day, they only drove 50 miles because they were making so many stops.  It usually takes about 1-2 weeks to drive the whole route, but it took Walton and Santoro about three weeks to complete the whole trip. 

“We’re interested in cars, building, architecture, everything,” said Walton. “So, we stopped at almost everything along the way.”

 “It was such a memorable visit, because of the several people we met along the way,” said Santoro. “We met some interesting people in St. Louis who were proprietors of an ice cream store since 1941.”

Once they reached the Santa Monica Pier in California, it marked the end of their lengthy and tiring trip.

“We were ecstatic when we reached California,” said Walton. “It was such a feeling of accomplishment looking at the Pacific Ocean, that I didn’t care if I broke down on the way home,” said Walton. 

They visited some major car museums and continued on to Las Vegas for the National Cadillac Show that year. This is where they parted ways and Walton drove home alone from Vegas.  

“My favorite part of the trip was the freedom of seeing the beautiful countryside and Americana along Route 66 vistas and panoramas, and 'Purple Mountains Majesties' with nothing man-made and nature in all its beauty,” said Santoro. 

The two friends had no intention of writing a book, but once people caught wind of their 8,300 pictures and 140 pages of journal writing, they urged the men to put out a book about the trip.

“Route 66, The People-The Places-The Dream” consists of 260 pages and more than 500 color photographs. It took two years to self-publish the book, but it’s now available online.  Santoro and Walton also take the book to the car shows they still attend and some local book stores and book signings.

“Route 66 is so well-known, and is more popular overseas because so many people from other countries come and travel it here,” said Santoro.  “We’re very proud of the product and recommend that anyone who is interested in Route 66 should pick it up.”

“It’s our personal story, not a guidebook,” said Santoro. “It’s also a nice retrospective of the road itself and a buddy trip.”

“It’s nostalgic and neat to look back in time at old cars and roads,” said Santoro.

Have a question or news tip? Contact editor Joseph M. Gerace at Joseph.Gerace@patch.com, or find us on Facebook and Twitter. For news straight to your inbox every morning, sign up for our daily newsletter.