(upbeat music) - Tom Carter is the award winning Barn Find author and host of the Barn Find Hunter series on YouTube. And he's our first guest on today's big blend radio show to talk about. His brand new book, it comes out October 1st. Of course, you can get on Amazon right now. It's called Cuba's Car Culture, celebrating the island's automotive love affair. And it features photography by Bill Warner and a forward from Sir Sterling Moss. It's a must have for anyone interested in just really taking a look at Cuba because Cuba is really changing already. It's we're on a year now, I think it's a full year now that we can start traveling back over there. And it's really just learning what's behind these cars. And in his book, he talks about Cuba's cars really it's like a brand for Cuba. When you think of Cuba as one of the first things you think about are those iconic cars. Welcome to the show, Tom, how are you? - Hi, Lisa, hi Nancy. I'm glad I finally made it on here. - Yeah, no, where are you? So you're one of those people you never know where you're gonna be when we talk to you. - Well, I live in Davidson, North Carolina, but I'm calling you from Booth Bay Harbor, Maine. I can't settle down. I gotta keep, and yesterday I was in Utah for the day before Wyoming and Idaho. - Wow, okay, so my 17-hour excursion off the Juan Patista Trail from Tucson to Gilroy yesterday. You understand those excursions, right? Where you just get in the car and wanna follow the old highways and the old roads. - I can't stop traveling. I just, if I have time and half a reason, I'm on the road, I'm gone. - And so do you think the travel part started with your fascination for cars? Because I heard that your car fascination started at a very young age. - Just a baby. And I have to say, I'm a one trick pony. I don't, you know, fisher. I've never played a game of golf my life. All I am is a car guy. And, you know, I heard somebody, a professor tell me once, if you're gonna do something, do one thing right. Well, that's the only thing I do. And so I've been employed in every area of the automotive industry. And somehow I've made an old blend into a career, writing career, and actually a teaching career. And it's all worked out pretty well. So auto racing, automobiles. But really my love is my passion is for collecting, finding and collecting old cars. You know, it's a piece of Americana that, so often they get crushed and thrown in a junkyard somewhere. And to me, it's really a part of America. - And I think this is an important thing because I just see right now the way the world is going, like, you know, in Las Vegas, they implode all these buildings. So we can't even see what the original casinos were like. You know, we seem to be losing our history in a way. And I think when we, you know, preserve things like our older cars, we're not letting that go. Because how we, I mean, nowadays people don't even know how to roll down a windshield. I mean, a window, I've got traveler's buzz here. But yeah, I mean, it's really hard to, you know, you don't even know how to change a tire anymore in these newer cars. - You can't even change a tire. They put those lug nuts on with electronic guns. It's, they're too hard to get off. So we kind of, we've lost that doing things for ourselves in this process of getting into newer cars. - You know, we're on the verge of driving with cars. And, you know, cars are already parked themselves. They can guide you down the road and they can put on brakes for you 'cause you get too close to the front of it. Somebody else will, they'll change high beat alone, low beam headlights and I call my publisher recently at the motor books. And I said, you know, we're on the verge of cars that can drive themselves. This could be the end of automotive enthusiasm. I said, what I'd like to do is next May, I'd like to drive a Model T from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and go back a hundred years to when you had to crank start a car. And not only, you know, never minded parking itself, you had to crank it to get the motor turned over to drive. So that's hopefully gonna be a book for next May. - Cool, I drove a 1917 Model T Ford. And let me tell you something. I had to learn how to double clutch, which was fine. But it takes forever to stop one of those cars. You're standing on the brink and you literally stand up 'cause you're used to a modern car that stops. Well, these just go for another couple of blocks. So, you know, it's like you never really get up to full speed 'cause you're always having to stop for something. - But this is when we were living in South Africa. And she was, you know, hanging out with friends that did this mulligan tour? - Yeah, the total mulligan, this is not mulligan. - They were like these, yeah. Everybody went driving around and just like a little race kind of thing. And what was interesting is Nancy, the only way she could actually drive this car was barefoot. - Yeah. - And tell them what happened. You squished on something. - Oh yeah, cockroach came up from under the car through the hole by the brakes. And I was trying to stop the car and I had no choices either crash or crush the cockroach between my foot in the brake pedal. Yeah, I saved the car. But, you know, what they did in that rally, they covered up your speedometer and it wasn't about going fast. It was about being able to judge your speed and going from one destination to another and finding the clue and then getting to the destination. And if you were the first one there, you couldn't go too fast because they wouldn't have put the clue out yet. So it was a really, really interesting and judging speed and you had one navigator and one driver and you could switch off. And it really, really was funny because they gave you maps without any power maiming. It just rivers and mountains. Wow, that was really cool. - So Tom, for you, I mean, the racing car racing is such an interesting thing because, I mean, that's part of our moonshine heritage of America too, is about car racing. But I want to, we've got so much to touch on, but just because Nancy brings up the rallies and everything, I wanted to touch on you going to Cuba because Cuba's car racing, that's actually a major portion of your book is the car racing of Cuba. And it started in Havana, right? - Yeah, at one time, Cuba was lifestyles of the rich and famous. It would be a playground for rich people, having second homes, third homes there, whatever, mafia mob bosses and showgirls and businessmen and cigars and martinis and things. And they wanted to play to a larger crowd in Europe and South America. So they decided to bring in auto racing. So in 1957, '58 and 1960, they had auto racing, they had the Cuban Grand Prix and people like O'Dangurney and Sterling Moss, Carol Shelby, people that we know from the United States and around the world raced there. And it was a big party atmosphere and it started to get a little bit funky though, when Castro's henchmen started to try to cause problems with the race. They actually kidnapped a race driver, the most famous race driver at the time, Juan Manuel Fungio, they kidnapped it right before the race and they kept him very well, they didn't hurt him, but they kept him in a hotel room, he could listen to the radio, he could take a bath, he had breakfast and they treated him like royalty, but they just wanted the international world to know that we're serious, we're gonna take this island over from the Batista regime, which was pretty darn corrupt. But auto racing does figure well into Cuba's history and we actually saw a couple of cars over there when we visited there to do this book that actually had been raced in the Cuban Grand Prix. - Wow, that's amazing. But now they still raced today, right, in Cuba. - Well, they do, when we flew in, we flew in from Miami, it's only an hour flight and passed over a race track and I said to my buddy, Bill Warner, who co-wrote the book with me, "Look, Bill, it's a race track." So we landed in where we got a car and a guide and said, "Look, we gotta find this race track." Well, it turns out there's a go-car track there. The rumor is that it was built by the Catholic Church and we never could substantiate that, but they raced go-karts and motorcycles. There is some illegal drag racing that goes on. Government officials turn their back and people drag race down an empty road, but that's all there is right now, and there's some rallying that goes on. We went to the largest rally. You're talking about rallies in South Africa. There's a rally that goes on there, but it's only, I think, 80 kilometers. And these people, they must get pictures off the internet about what a proper rally car looks like and they take their 1952 Pontiacs order, so they can try to make it look like a rally car, making homemade decals or whatever. You really have to honor these people that have so little and try to do so much. - And one part of your book, too, which I'm so glad you put in there is, there is a romantic illusion of Cuba as a whole. Just even the music makes you feel that, and then you look at the cars, and for all of us, to me, when I see those cars, and just the old Plymouth, and I just, I think they just have class. There's an era of class to them, and they're fun. And it's like drinking wine from a single vineyard and it's handcrafted, it's taken care of. It's made with love, it's artisan, versus here's your big factory boxed wine. You know, that kind of deal. There's this art and love to these, but you talk about the romance is an illusion for the actual Cubans, because they're really having to work hard, and it's actually, you know, it's not that easy with these cars. They, you know, all my car friends say, boy, when that, when relations open up between the United States and Cuba, we're gonna go down there and buy a bunch of these cars and bring it back to the States and make a lot of money. And I kind of thought the same thing, until I went there, and for a real car enthusiast, you go down there and you just shake your head and you're, oh my God, these are not cars like I imagine it'd be. They are the silhouette of an old car, but they are made up of tractor parts, and truck parts, and homemade parts, and they smoke and they rattle, and, you know, these people make repairs, body repairs with plaster of Paris. They can't afford brake fluid, so they use silicone-based shampoo in the brake lines. It's really so sad, you know, necessities the mother invention. So these people have a romance for their cars for tourist reasons, not for personal reasons. The tourists love it, so therefore, they maintain them and drive them as taxis, but they have no other choice. They can't go out and buy a new Honda or Toyota. First of all, the salaries, they make $5 a week, and there's no way to do that. You know, there's no way to earn enough money in your lifetime to buy a new car. So this is all they have, and they have to keep dads and grandfathers car going 50 years after it should have been putting a junk pile. - You know, I'm laughing because we've had so many experiences, we lived in Mexico for a while, and the Mexican peoples are fantastic at repairing cars when there's, even if there's no parts. And so are the Kenyans, when we lived in Kenya, the president at the time decided to ban all imports. So if you needed a car part, you were really out of luck. And I remember patching tires, flat tires, with bicycle patches. You know, and so you had to do it several times on your way home, you know. And it's funny things like that, and it's funny, you know, because you realize that, okay, here, you know, a car, especially a vintage car, or Lamborghinis, and all that, there's something special. They're like a toy, they're not to be driven. You know what I mean? And here, you know, in these other countries, this is how they got around, and they were really fortunate if they could afford a car, and the upkeep. I mean, I've seen more things in Mexico held together with Bailey Meyer. - Yeah. - So, you know, it's like, that's the first thing that happens is the bumper. It's, but, okay, I just have to add this in. Daniel, I rep Moy, who was the president at the time, when they couldn't get a specific part for his Mercedes, and it was like, that was not gonna happen. It wasn't gonna be proper for him. - And then, he lifted the band on his porch. Yeah, when his car wouldn't go. - Oh, gosh, that happened really. - Because, you know, it was really funny, because just somehow, the rest of us all managed to get our cars repaired, but when it came to his car, everybody just suddenly forgot how to make repairs. (laughs) I mean, in your book, till you talk about this, underground entrepreneurship, you know, going in this underground system, I laughed because you had a guide that took you around, and you've been there a number of times, but one of the times you talked about asking your guide to take you to a junkyard, so you could find the parts, (laughs) where they're fixing their cars. - Right, in the United States, you know, one of the places we look for old cars are old junkyards. You know, junkyards, usually in the States, have the modern cars up front, the way in the back, in the weeds, are the old things. So we think, well, let's go check out junkyards in Cuba. That'd be pretty cool. So I asked Abe our tour guide, take us to a junkyard, and he's, what's a junkyard, sir? I say, well, it's a place where old junky cars go, and people strip them for parts, and he said, "Sir, my whole country's a junkyard." (both laugh) - Oh, Chad, that is sad, it's funny, though. You know, 'cause they're probably, you know, they're probably a lot happier than a lot of people that have a whole lot of stuff here. Do they trade a lot of the parts, you know, with each other, once they get the parts, it's on them? - There's no such thing as a worthless part, you know. If somebody has a front-end piece that's worn out and he gets a new one, that old one gets recycled in some way to somebody else that would be satisfied with that worn piece. You know, that worn-out tie rod end or break drum or whatever, it might not have life on your car, but it will certainly have life on somebody else's car. There are no options, you can't go to a junkyard or, and there are very few auto parts stores, and if you went to an auto parts store, most of them are owned by, I think, a Polish company, and you can't get break drums for '49 Ford, so you know, everything gets used over and over and over. - But isn't that somewhat a lesson to us all when you look at the fact that, you know, we're in such a throwaway society, that in a way, there's, I mean, of course we wanna have newer and better and cleaner, definitely with cars and all the smoke and everything that comes out of these cars, but in the fumes, but we do tend to just throw things away. So did you feel like there was a lesson in that when you were over in Cuba? - Oh, absolutely, they would gladly take old car parts, I mean, the United States, like we throw out spark plugs, or even, you know, we get rid of motor oil, every 3,000 or 5,000 miles, they would gladly take that old oil and use it in their car for years. And I was thinking the other day, you know, our town had this, you know, you could throw away large bulky items, and we rode down the street, and there's, you know, tables and TV sets, and all sorts of your baby carriages, all sorts of things on the sidewalk that would just gonna be thrown into a truck and then crushed. And I thought, that would be like a shopping mall for a Cuban family. You know, nothing could get thrown away. And in this country, you know, you look at the 40% of the food we produce is thrown away. So yeah, it did teach me a lesson. - It is interesting, I don't know why we do that here, because, you know, it's not like everybody's rich in America. Obviously, when you compare other societies, what we call poor here is like, you know, pretty happy living to somewhere else, you know, but I don't know where the waste, you know, and having to have everything new. I mean, I know my grandmother's family, they had like the baby carriage thing, the bassinet, they called it, yeah. And they handed it down, handed it down, handed it down, then it got to my sister and she threw it out, like, well, what happened? - Yeah, what happened? - What happened? - I mean, isn't that the same with cars? When, I mean, you traveling around the country and in the world, going and looking for cars, how do cars just end up, you know, I've been to a number of places in the last place where I saw a bunch of old cars, was just outside Yuma, Arizona. It was a place called the Cloud Museum. And I was out hanging on this place, Bard, California, right on the other side of Yuma, on the other side of the river. And I was out hanging out in these date groves, Majul Dategroves, and on my way back to the hotel, I saw this museum, and he has like over 400 cars. And they're all out there, rusting away. And I'm like, dude, and you walk in and he's got this German shepherd that really kind of like, looks you up and down and you're like, dude, okay, I'm just here to look at the museum. I'm not gonna steal one, they're not gonna move. But they end up in these cars. I was really amazed at what he had. He had like old, like, police cars and stuff. From way back in like the 40s, you know, and Yuma, because of the being a military destination or a military town, I mean, it's got so much Wild West history, too. I mean, it was really fascinating. Most of the people we've seen with cars also have like buggies. It's like a transportation hub. But they're all out there rusting away. I mean, can't we save them all from rusting away? You know, people end up with them, but they're out there in fields. - And the problem is not so bad in Yuma, Arizona, you know, 'cause it takes a long time for some of the rust out in the desert. Last November, I got in my 39 foot Woody Wagon and drove from Chicago to the Santa Monica Pier on Route 66, looking for old cars on the old mother road. And we went through eight states. And it was interesting how visible it was to start in Illinois and work our way through Missouri and into Kansas as we got further south and further west, the conditions of the cars got better and better. Up in Illinois, if a car's sitting outside, you know, they use salt on the roads and the cars get wet. You know, and the cars deteriorate badly, but boy, by the time we got to New Mexico, cars that have been sitting outside for four decades still had shiny paint on them. So the ones in Tucson are not as concerning to me as the ones in Washington or North Dakota, you know, or Chicago or something. There's no, you know, most people want to crush that stuff their eyes saws. If you remember when Lyndon Johnson was president, Lady Bird made a plea to go out around the country and clean up ugly sites such as junkyards. And junkyards then, many more closed and other ones had to put up fences and put landscaping up front to hide the rubbish. So, you know, old cars to most people are just trash. They love shiny old cars, but to see something that has rust on it, they don't have the imagination to realize that car could be turned into something and just crush it. That's too bad. - You know, in South Africa, I worked with the Vintage Car Museum for a while, and I helped restore different cars and a lot of work that goes into it and a lot of planning. But there's a whole bunch of old cars and vintage cars sitting out in pastures and barns in South Africa all over the place. Yeah, you should go there, there's some wine too. Yeah, no, there's just, when there were tons, when we, it was like, no matter where you drove, if you're anywhere near agriculture and land, or farmers, there's old cars. - Yeah, do you find it more in agricultural areas and farming areas, not in the state? - Yeah, yeah, I do. If farmers are so mechanically inclined that they can keep vehicles going a lot longer than city folk can near. They're ingenious and they're inventive and they have tools and equipment and they have space. And yeah, all the time, I love visiting farmers. And a lot of times they're, in some ways they like humans, that they're gonna fix that thing no matter what it takes. And you know, it might not be the kosher way, it might not be the way Henry Ford wanted it done, but they get it done somehow. It doesn't matter if it's a car or a truck or a tractor or a manure spreader, they're gonna fix it. They know how to weld, they know how to fabricate. So farmers are, they do maintain old cars better than the rest of us. And they do have bailing wire. - Yes. (laughing) - And duct tape. - I wanna say, because I know you travel around it in 1939, Ford Woody, and I wanna talk about the Woody's and Cuba, 'cause you said they're Woody's, but they're not quite Woody's, but for you traveling around in this, so are you taking the slower roads, like the backcountry roads, one of my heroes of life is Peter Jenkins, he walked across America and he's walked across all kinds of countries and continents, but nowadays, he's in an older car and I need to look up what it was, what car he's traveling in, but now he does the old byways of America to try and preserve the old byways and highways, the old ones, like Highway 80, before he came on the show, we were talking about that, Route 66, but there's a lot of these old routes that are in danger of staying, but for you, when you travel, are you doing those smaller roads on a kind of a nice, slow drive and do you fix your car when it breaks down because it probably does, right, or not? (laughs) - Well, hopefully now, my car has been modernized so that I wanted to make this Woody wagon, which I bought in 1969, I wanted to make it so that it was a reliable car, so it has a modern engine in it and so it doesn't break down nearly as much as if it were, have an old engine in there, but absolutely, I try to take the secondary roads. I have, I've done, I just finished my 16th book and many of them are about finding old cars and I, in the books, I've put in a series of clues, not clues, but recommended ways to find old cars and it's things like go down dead end roads because most people don't want to go down a dead end road or go hunting for old cars in the winter time when leaves are off the trees and you can see much further, make friends with police officers and landscape which will go on to private property legally and it's going down secondary roads because highways will get people where they want to go faster so who wants to go down route 66 where they can go down highway 40, interstate 40? Well, I'll take route 66 any day of the week. - Me too, it's way more fun. Have you been to Hackberry, is it Hackenberry or Hackberry up in Northern Arizona on Route 66? It's right outside Kingman and kind of getting in Grand Canyon territory. - Well, I was in Kingman, yeah. - Oh, you probably did Hackberry. - Yeah, it's about 10, 15 miles, my brain remembers and this family, it's by Pete Springs and all of that area. I remember seeing prairie dogs up there going, "What?" in Arizona, but they had taken this old gas station and refurbished the old gas station, like, wave refurbished it and the old cars out there and then it was near Seligman, that's where it was near. Seligman. - Oh, yeah, I mean, yeah. - Did you go to the snow cone guy in Seligman? He's got like toilets outside and all kinds of weird stuff. - It is such a weird person. No, he's got a garden, if you ask him nicely, he'll let you walk through his garden and he's bought all these like ceramic toilets or bowls and now he bought all these weird things. He needs like, he'll buy like a plastic bell peppers and hang them in a walnut tree. And so you'll be looking at a tree and he's done it very cleverly, so it looks like those peppers are growing in the walnut tree. It's so bizarre. - 20. - And then you go around the corner and it's like this is with Styria Vine and the toilets he's hanging in it. It's just so weird. - And I just, it's so funny. - But he just sells the snow cones and he has this little snow cone place that his parents had and his grandparents had. - They had the barbershop and their family was a band and then they really were the ones who established Route 66 of the historic highway in Arizona, they started that whole movement because it just went off the map pretty much for people. And even now, it's really kind of hard to even connect the road. And so for us, I'm glad you did a book on this too. - Is it like that all the way on Route 66 where people do fun kind of stop-offs? Like, you know, they even had mannequins on buildings and saloons. - I know, that's right across the street. That was so weird too. - They kind of keep that feeling. But you have that sense of place and that's, I think, one of these cars and old signs and so we don't lose that, that we don't become just another strip mall like across the country. - It's a national treasure, it's a national treasure that when the interstates went through, I mean, basically I-40 wiped out Route 66 in Arizona. I mean, it's so little of the original road and if you go on it, so bumpy. And then you might wind up driving miles and miles and miles and find out if it's a dead end, you gotta turn it, go all the way back. There are a couple of very good route books that I would recommend, which I don't have in front of me here. But you can get some route books off the internet that give you mile by mile turns and instruction and tells you where the snow cone shops are and where the Hubcap Museums are and the wonderful neon signs on the old hotels, the Fomingo hotels, the New Mexico and whatever. So I would recommend that, you know, and it really only works that well if you have a navigator, like a driver and a co-driver because while the driver's driving, a navigator can say, oh, and another mile, we're gonna see the world's largest ball of fur or whatever. So, you know, if you're driving by yourself, it wouldn't be half as instructive. - Yeah, yeah. - It is such a shame that I was very glad to know we were in a town called Atlanta, Missouri. - Okay. - But it was Atlanta, Illinois, one of the others. It was Atlanta, I said, well, that's funny. I've only heard of one Atlanta. And in that town, we had lunch there and met the mayor. And he is the president of a Route 66 Preservation Society. And he said, the problem is some states, like Illinois was really good with signage and telling you where to turn and whatever points of interest on Route 66, but then other states are not anywhere near as good as that. And what they're trying to do with this preservation site is get all eight states together and try to get them to sign off on common signage and kind of consistency in signage. So, that one state doesn't have a lot and the next state has virtually none. So, I sure hope that comes to pass. - You know, I think that's a really important thing. I mean, just on these historic trails, like even like the American Discovery Trail, you know, I know that's more hiking, but when you look at the Juan Patista Danza Trail that I thought I'd think about. But, you know, that was this expedition. I mean, it's really fascinating. Then you've got the old routes like old Highway 80. There's these old routes that we have. And some of them have turned into new scenic, you know, there's the old trails from the explorers and, you know, all the expeditions, you know, Lewis and Clark and things like that. But, when you can turn around like the Natcheth Traceway and Parkway, you could make this into these scenic routes that people may go out and drive and kind of have a communication and an experience instead of being boxed up at home. You know, and what better way than to go in an older car, you know what I mean? That's like going back in time and really remembering what America is. And I think that's what I really love what you're doing, not only going out and collecting and restoring and finding and telling these stories, but actually putting them in books and a video series that people can really identify what America is about. Do you have a large European following? - Well, I don't know. I don't know. - I think you would, yeah. - I know that my publisher and Amazon makes an effort to sell and market these books in Europe and Canada. And actually, I've communicated quite a few times with people in Australia and New Zealand who have old cars. So, yeah, word is out there about this kind of renaissance and finding junk. So, it's interesting that I'll go to a car show, just go there to look at cars and somebody will come up to me. And while you're Tom Connor, I know you. I've seen you on the video or read your book. And if they're American, that's cool. But if they're European, that really gets my attention. Like, wow, you know who I am. That's pretty amazing. - Well, aren't we lucky? We have you on the show. - No, it is cool. Tom, and here's the other thing too. I mean, you're traveling, going back to Cuba, you've got Bill Warner out there doing photography and you guys are friends. And you're saying it's good to have like a co-pilot with you when you're traveling. So, what is it like you've been, how many times have you been to Cuba? I think I counted like at least three or four times. - I've been there twice, 2009 and last July, and Bill has been there four times. - Okay. - Bill is also the founder and chairman of the Amelia Island Concorde's De La Gone. It's a very fancy car show in Amelia Island, Florida. So, he had other business to go down there several times. We were on a cultural exchange. That's how we got into the country. So, that's combined six trips between the two of us. And that's a lot of time there. That's probably more than a month collectively that we've spent there, maybe five or six weeks. I would love to go again. I think it will become easier to get around. And I went down to the first time, 2009, very naive. Here I am, you know, an American. Thinking, well, I'm gonna go down. I'm gonna find it where Castro lives. And I'm gonna poke around his garage and see what cars, see what cars he has in his garage. I mean, he's probably got, you know, because he's the president of the country, he probably was given by other countries over the decades, all his old cars. He's probably has a cool collection. And as soon as we left the airport, see these guards and machine guns all over the place. And you start hearing rumors about Americans and other foreigners who are sitting in jails for decades because they did things like that. I said, well, maybe I won't do that. - Maybe not, because it's so easy to get in trouble like the first time I went to Kenya. You know, I went to the movies because I was sitting waiting for someone who didn't show up and I was supposed to do this tour and all that. So like, I've never been to a movie in Africa. Let me go see what's in there. It was a pretty exciting movie. I didn't understand a word. The Indian movie and women were killing people and before Bollywood. And then it rained and there was a big, like a foot diameter hole next to you, like in the aisle seat there. And pouring rain was coming through and then they played the national anthem of Kenya. And I didn't know it was the anthem and people stood up and I'm like, well, I'm not, you know, I don't know whether to stand or not. Next thing I know, here comes cops with guns. You will stand up. I'm like, okay, I stand up. You know, you wouldn't make a good football player either. Now, you know, at least I didn't kneel. I thought I stood up and they're like, then they go, hmm. And then people all around me started, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Telling me how you have to stand. And then when you leave the theater, there's a portrait of the former president. And you have to like bow to the president on the way out of the movie theater. So there's twice I could have been arrested. You're like, there's no signs that tell you how to behave and you have what I call American brain. And, you know, when you go to these places, it takes about three days to lose the American brain. And the idea that, oh sure, don't let me do this or I can do anything I want because I'm American. But I mean, you can't go to the White House and just go look at Obama's cars. You're gonna get people with guns. Well, you know, I'm naive, I'm a naive Yankee, you know, what do you mean? It's just, I mean, this is the way it works, like the same in Mexico. Yeah, it's like, you get in trouble real easy over there. Well, you just have to be, yeah, you have to just, yeah, I have the, I'm naive and I'm walking around and I'll do what you want, but you know, just be nice. I think, you know, you just communicate with people as much as you can. And that was the other thing I wanted to be out communication. You know, all your books are in English and they're being translated in Hong Kong and being put in translated, you know. But what's it like as a journalist, when everyone speaking, you know, Cubano or speaking Spanish, you would talk about it. It's still different. It's not, it's not, every, you know, dialect is different. I like it. You know, it's become, you know, in Mexico. It's not like Castilian, is it? No, well, I took three years of Spanish, but you know, I don't know anything about speaking Spanish anymore. And so you rely on your translator who travels with you. Very few Cubans speak English. Very. So if I wanted to interview a guy about his car, I had to ask the translator and the translator asked the man and the man told the translator and back and forth. So every interview took two or three or four times as long with that translation cycle going on. It just made it, so, you know, like usually when I write a book, I interview people on a tape record. I go home and put my earplugs and start transcribing it. I really couldn't do that very easily because I couldn't understand what they were saying. So it did make it somewhat complicated, but it also made it more adventurous. And, you know, I feel very fortunate to have spent time in Cuba to write a book. And, you know, when so many people would love to have squat places to me and do that same thing. Yeah, two, I wanted to touch on, I have to bring this up because I'd never heard of this and it just is funny to me because I'm warped. But going back into all the different companies that had actually been, were affiliated with Cuba, just thinking about the original car companies, right, and then, of course, they pull out. And car companies and tire companies are always the first to bail when there's trouble in a country. You know when the trouble is going down. You know when you see that happen. But all these car companies and you see all the different names and then, you know, in the park companies and everything. And then all the companies in touch, in regarding the racing and everything, do you, and the one name that stood up, I had no idea there was an actual midget car company. I mean, is that true? Like they called their cars. Yeah, I did not know that that was, those are race cars, right? Those kind of, that's, it's an actual name. Yeah, a midget racer is about a half size of a half size of an Indy car back in the day. So, there were big cars and there were midgets. And that's, you know, if you wanted to become an Indy car driver, you started out at midgets usually and worked your way up. Now, would they use that now? Would they use that term now? And, you know, because we're going to take it up now. Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, they do. Very active midget racing series in the United States. Sure. Yeah, an oval track. And there was a big following in Cuba for midget racers. And there were a couple of times, in the winter time, when it was winter time in the States, but it was still warm down there. They would fly midget racers and their teams and cars from, like, New York area, Pennsylvania, Ohio, down to Cuba to race against their best drivers. Yep. Did they fly them in midget planes? Oh, man. They have those little planes. I know. But also, now, do you think all these companies now with everything that's going to be changing to me? We've interviewed a number of people who've gone to Cuba and once they go, they keep wanting to go back and they do go back. But they're saying, like, if you want to see Cuba, like, the way we all think about it in our minds, you need to go now, because it's going to change. Yeah, you want to go before Home Depot opens up. You know, when Home Depot and McDonald's open up, you might as well be in Levitown, New York. Yeah. That's what Mexico happened. When we lived in Mexico, that's what happened. Yeah. But then, it kind of goes back to the car situation in Cuba to me. And when we lived in Mexico, they wanted Applebee's. They wanted McDonald's. And you could get all of it. Home Depot, Costco was there. Yeah. And for us, we were losing that sense of place, just like we've lost that in a lot of places in our country. Thank goodness we have downtown projects and things and Main Street associations to kind of keep that. But when you look at Cuba, the Mexican people, though, they were going, "We want to be like Americans. We want what you have." And so, how can you argue with what they want? You know, we're the ones in their country going, "We want you to be back where we want the aspects here, too." You know, we want all of you to be like what's in our minds and what we perceive as being who you are as a country and what you are. But yet, they're going, "Oh, no, we want the McDonald's." And so, it just kind of like, "Oh." But you have to kind of realize, like, you know, all the Cubans don't want to drive the cars with all the fumes. Really, they want to have something a little cleaner and easier, too, right? Oh, they would trade places in a minute. That old junkie Kia that you're ready to get rid of in your driveway because it's 12 years old, they would swap their 56-view of their heartbeats to that car because, I mean, it has air conditioning and you can buy parts for it. You know, so, yeah, those people really have it tough. But, you know what, they're proud. They wouldn't swap places with anybody. They have no money, but what they have, what they've earned in their lives there, they feel very good about it. They're wonderful family people. It was, and to your point, I felt very fortunate to have gone there, especially back in 2009 with the guys of the machine guns, because that's the way it was. That's, you know, now it's cleaned up and I didn't see anybody with machine guns on the trip I took their last summer, last July. So, it's getting somewhat homogenized and gentrified. And, you know, it's fine, but-- It takes, you see, it takes some of the excitement out of it, you know, and that's one of the things we always worry about when we travel, and the worst is to go back somewhere after about five, ten years, and it's completely changed and you think you'd lend it in the United States again. And, you know, and that whole thing you went for is gone. And, yeah, I think, well, okay, so, you know, 50, 60 years, every place is going to look exactly the same. Why would you bother to travel? Yeah, I guess that's why we're so out of, about protecting at least protect the nature, so you can go and see the wildlife in a different country. Right. And, you know, with the cars too, you know, I'm enthused now when you were talking about, you know, your 1939 Woody, that you've made it modernized. So, just on the environmental side of things and not just throwing everything into landfill, right, why can't we take all the old cars in the country and just refurbish them and make them clean and green and yet still keep their sense of place, their idea? They're heavy. Can't that not gonna work? They're heavy. Well, I thought it was a good idea. Yeah. It's a cute idea. It's a cute idea. I'm not sure it's a good idea. I think it's probably impractical. Old cars tend to pollute. They're not safe. You know, they don't have airbags. And to retrofit a car with all those modern things, you would spend four times as much as it would cost for a new car. So, old cars probably should be honored and used in a, you know, in special settings, parades and special tours, shows, you know, trips across the country on Route 66. But to wear and tear an old car every day and rush out with traffic in that Los Angeles, it would not be very good for it, you know, so-- And even going as fast as what we go now, I don't think you can go that fast in those old cars because you can't stop it. Just a thought. Well, no, because to me it's just I'm tired of our society throwing everything away. It's just, it's out of control. OK, last question. I still wanted to talk about the cocoa caps. They're like little tuk-tuk, but there's a whole section on just really the campus and how people get around. And the one thing, I think the maxi-taxi you talk, that reminds me of South Africa and Kenya. And then the army had things they were called buffals, which is for Buffalo and in Afrikaans. And I've been in the back of them with my army friends. It doesn't sound right, but it was a good clean front. Your mother's sitting here. I know. But they look exactly like those maxi-taxis. It's like a big truck. They look scary to people. But in South Africa and Kenya, man, you get on a bus. You've got chickens on your head. You've got cabbages. You know, you're sitting in laps. Yeah, and you're going to have like-- you wouldn't be amazed how many people get onto-- It's like for these. Yeah, and with that, when you saw the maxi-taxi-- I mean, are people cramming themselves into that? Like, just like what I'm talking about. You don't see them in the city, but it's possibly people that maybe work in the city, live out in the country, don't have cars, and they just pile on these trucks. And you feel so bad, because it might be 100 degrees out, or it might be pouring rain. They're waiting on the side of the road for this truck to pull up, and there's no room. You know, if 12 people need to get on and only three people get off, well, then a lot of people are going to be waiting there for the next one and say, oh, these people have it so hard just to get to and from work. Those are like cattle cars, and I feel so bad for the people that have to rely on them there. Unreliable, they're old vehicles. They smoke. They break down a lot. But taxis are a big way of life. The interesting ones, besides the cocoa calves, which look like a little-- I don't know, like a yellow lemon. It's like a little bubble and has a lawn mower engine on it. And you can tell a mile away when they're coming. Did you hear the noise and it's smoking? But the most common taxis are the 1950s American cars that are shined up, as best they can. And people pay $25 to get tours around the city. You know, those kind of calves that we've been on in, especially in East Africa, they expect you to help. Like, if you get a seat, if you actually get the sit, the person next to you will just put their baby in your lap or put their cabbages in your lap. And, you know, the Americans will be all like, hey, you're in my personal space. Yeah, and there's no such thing as personal space. And if it breaks down, you're all getting out to push it, too. That's exactly-- That's true. I've done a lot of pushing in my day, man. And I don't know about being the driver's room when people start pushing, because that's something-- that's how you first start to learn how to drive a car in Africa. When they start to push your steer and you see what it's like. Talk about, OK, real quick before you go. There's just so much in this book that everyone, you just need to go get as Cuba's car culture. Ernest Hemingway. I mean, you're in Hemingway country. I know that, you know, they're looking at even, you know, the keys, the Florida Keys. If you want to go see his house out there, you better go now, because the climate change eventually, you know, they're saying that he's on the highest part of the island. But going to Cuba and seeing his old car-- and it's on bricks. It's like on those-- Oh, no way. Those men bricks. I mean, so he drove around there, and they kept his car. It disappeared, you know, it's really funny, because I read a story today on the internet about that-- that very car. I read this morning, and it was information that I didn't know about. That car disappeared when he died, I think, in Idaho in '63 or so. His then-wife gave the house to the Cuban government, and they gave the car to kind of their butler, and they gave all these things away. And the car, didn't that butler gave it to somebody else, and gave it to somebody else before you know it disappeared. And it was gone until several years ago when a man just 10 miles from where Hemingway lived mentioned that he had it in his backyard. And interestingly, David's soul, who played Hutch on Starsky and Hutch, was down there doing a documentary. And he saw the car and said, I'll pay for the restoration of that car, and do a documentary around it. So that's going on right now as we speak. Wow, so you've got to get in there. You've got to get involved, Tom. You've got to-- you need to go to control. You need to go back to Cuba and report. But listen, I know that you're going to probably go back to Cuba, right? I know it's going to happen. You're going to have to, so this is the ticket in. But Tom, when you do this cross country with the crank, the old car with the crank, you've got to call it. A Model T, yeah. The Model T, you've got to give us a call. And I mean, those kinds of great, great grandmother, but drove one from California to Canada. Yeah. She's one of the first women to drive a motorcycle in her time. And she was like, man. Oh, man. You were a venture guy. I've got to say that. Well, you guys were a venture, so I'd say that. She was only 4 foot 9, and she was from England. And she was a bit fired, man. She would hit you up ahead, even if she was shorter than you. You know, don't mess with her. Yeah, she could be in this little midget car. She was a little bit of that. But she was a little Spitfire, for sure. But she cranked, and her husband would spit in the car not knowing what to do. He was like, you know, he would never die. He was a bit of a wet blanket. But she would sit there and get out, and she'd got kids in the back, and she would go and crank the car, and changing the wheels and those cars back then. Yes. She would be out there doing it. So she was just talking to you, reminded me of her. And I think what you're doing is an amazing adventure. So call in any time from the road. And as you're doing new projects, please keep us up today, because it's fascinating chatting with someone off traveling around, and with a really cool mission. All right. Well, Lisa and Nancy, it's been so much fun. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Again, the book is Cuba's Car Culture, celebrating the island's automotive love affair, and it features the photography of Bill Warner as well. And a forward from Sir Sterling Moss. Of course, get on Amazon. It's out on October 1. But you know, this is the thing about Amazon, the digital world, is ready for your pre-order. So go get it now. Very cool book. It's beautiful. The photos are beautiful. The writing is perfect. It's just one of those great books. And hey, it's the holiday season is coming now. So don't wait. Just get on it. Just do it. Do it. Thanks so much, Tom. You take care and travel safe. Have a great adventure. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. I'm ready to get in the car and keep driving now. After I'm going to go to Route 66 now. I know. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] (gentle music)
