POLAND – They loaded an extra motor, an alternator, a starter, a distributor and a few fan belts into the back of Charlie Jordan’s Volkswagen bus. Then they packed in their luggage, a tent, 20 disposable cameras and a cooler filled with Gatorade, chopped meats and cold cuts.

A sign in the back window added the finishing touch. “Two old farts traveling from Maine to California via Route 66,” it proclaimed.

And so, Jordan and his Army buddy, Jerry Marx, set off on adventure that Jordan had dreamed about for four decades.

Six years ago, the semi-retired mechanic rescued the 1966 Volkswagen bus from the dump and set about renovating it.

“I always wanted to run 66 in my ’66,” Jordan said.

Jordan, 68, found the perfect traveling companion in Marx – the kind of person who also opts for the back road because it may lead to a sale on the side of the road.

In nearly every state, Jordan and Marx drove by empty buildings that had once sold food and gas to travelers. They came across entire towns that were deserted in the years since Interstate 40 superseded Route 66.

Despite the slew of maps printed from the Internet, tracking Route 66 could be difficult at times. In some places, the route proves elusive, turning from highway to street to dirt road.

“Route 66 isn’t Route 66 the whole time,” Jordan said. “It could be Route 118, Route 30, Main Street. We had to look for the historic Route 66 signs, and sometimes you wouldn’t see one for 50 miles.”

They often feared they were lost. When they spotted the marker, they celebrated by slapping signs. Sometimes, they needed help from others on the road.

“I figure we got lost in every state but Kansas,” Jordan said, laughing. Route 66 only runs through Kansas for 13 miles.

From time to time, the two ran into others traveling the entire route.

At a rest stop, they talked to the Russian woman they had caught staring in their direction. She told them she was admiring their beautiful bus.

“And I thought it was us,” Jordan told her.

In Arizona, they met a German woman who had seen their sign and tried to find “old farts” in her dictionary.

The 36-year-old bus survived steep moutains and rush-hour traffic until the trip back, when the starter died in Zanesville, Ohio.