Honeymoon Road: Pete & Me & our Model T

The honeymoon couple finally finish their adventures crossing the country in a Model T Ford. But their lives in California are just beginning. A sad note: Sadly our Uncle John passed away in September 2025 one day before his 88th birthday. www.honeymoonroad.com

We follow Pete & Gert's drive through the Arizona desert.   www.honeymoonroad.com

Pete and Gert and a hitchhiker start a hike down the Grand Canyon...but not everybody came back. Kitty and Marie do a bit of hiking and look at a treasure trove of photographs from the Grand Canyon archives.   www.honeymoonroad.com

We meet a pair of Model T experts in Wichita, Verne Shirk and his daughter Kimberly. We learn about the history of Henry Ford's car for the masses and Marie learns how to drove one.

We avoid a shootout in Dodge City, but do manage to visit all the old west statues all over town. The landscape of this part of Kansas is gorgeous.

We follow Pete and Gert to the Kansas State Fair to find out what's changed over the past century and check out quilts, llamas, giant pumpkins, and all the rides.

California cousins Kitty and Marie Felde discover real midwest rain as they visit the small Kansas towns along the Santa Fe Trail where Pete and Gert had their movie date. We also learn about that long lost "talkie" directed by Victor Flemming "A Son of His Father."

Gert called Kansas City "some town." We agree as we visit the National Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and over in Lawrence, Kansas Public Radio where Kitty visits a fellow public radio voice Darrell Brogdon who tells tales of the wild days of Kansas City.

Pete and Gert made their 1925 honeymoon journey in a very rainy year. We visit Jefferson City, Missouri to find out about another horrible year for weather. And we eat barbeque. 

Join us as we visit the St. Louis Arch and a weekend tourist town called Hermann, Missouri as we search for the scary campground Gert describes in her letters.

Day two of the road trip and already we're lost. We take a wrong turn and end up across the Mississippi River. At least we've avoided Pete & Gert's battle with mosquitos!

It's our first day on the road, driving from Chicago to Bloomington, with a stop in the tiny town of Wenona, Illinois. We learn about the history of auto camps and shop for salt and pepper shakers, just like Pete and Gert.

We begin our journey on 9-11 in Chicago, home to both Pete and Gert. Cousins Kitty Felde and Marie Felde try to find the houses where they grew up and the church where they got married. Things did not go as planned. You'll find copies of Gert's letters, photos, a road map, as well as music credits and research links at our website:  honeymoonroad.com  

In 1925, newlyweds Pete and Gert packed up their lives and headed west for California in aModel T Ford. Gert chronicled the journey in a series of letters. Now, one hundred years later, a pair of former journalists, cousins Kitty Felde and Marie Felde, follow their grandparents' route to see America through their eyes. Join us on a podcast journey HONEYMOON ROAD: Pete & Me and our Model T.