Driving Coast to Coast
Leader photo by Nancy Bergeron Todd Touchberry waves as he and his wife, Jennifer, get back on the road in their 1920 Model T pickup. The couple, along with a three-person support crew, is driving 3,000 miles from South Carolina to California to raise awareness of and funds for hydrocephalus. They were in Ruston earlier this week.
Elizabeth Touchberry wasn’t supposed to survive. At best, she’d be severely impaired, doctors said.
“They suggested having an abortion. We were against that. We said we’d take whatever God gives us,” Todd Touchberry, Elizabeth’s father, said.
Before Elizabeth was born, she was diagnosed with hydrocephalus, an incurable condition in which excess fluid accumulates in the brain and causes dangerous, potentially fatal pressure.
The only treatment involves surgery to insert a shunt into the brain to drain the fluid and relieve the pressure.
At three days old, Elizabeth underwent the first of what would be 19 surgeries.
Over the years, her “brain has basically rewired itself,” Todd Touchberry said.
His now 22-year-old daughter’s courage has been such an inspiration that he wants to spread hope to other hydrocephalus patients.
That’s why Touchberry is driving his red 1920 Model T pickup on a 3,000-mile, cross-country trek from his home in Sumter, South Carolina, to Huntington Beach, California, to raise awareness of hydrocephalus and funds for future research.
Touchberry and his wife, Jennifer, who’s traveling with him, hope to raise $10 per mile. Donations can be made here.
The Touchberrys and their three- person support team spent Monday night in Ruston. If all goes according to plan, they’ll arrive in California on Nov. 29.
“It’s been good so far,” Todd Touchberry said Tuesday morning as he and support crew members Patrick Lewis and Philip Gebler checked the iconic Model T for last-minute adjustments before getting back on the road.
For the most part, the Touchberrys are traveling U.S. Hwy. 80, with short stretches now and then on I-20. Top speed: about 40 mph. They log about 270 miles a day.
Other than roll down the road, the open-air Model T does very little like a modern vehicle.
“It’s basically a glorified bicycle,” Todd Touchberry said.
There aren’t traditional brakes. The right foot pedal — there are three foot pedals on the floor — applies a band around a drum in the transmission, thus stopping the rear wheels from turning. The wheels have wooden spokes; the tires have tubes; and the body is wooden. The vehicle has an electric starter, though you can still hand crank if you want to.
Todd Touchberry’s modified the headlights to LED but kept the original kerosene cowl lamps, the small lights mounted at on either side of the windshield that were originally designed to show oncoming drivers how much room a vehicle took on the road.
The Touchberrys stop about every 80 miles to fill up the Model T’s 10-gallon gas tank. Preferred fuel: Non- ethanol gasoline.
Todd Touchberry started dirt racing when he was in high school. Classic cars are a hobby when he’s not flipping burgers at the café he runs inside the Sumter Cut Rate Drug Store.
He bought the Model T in January 2022 “in Connecticut in the snow and in a junk yard.”
“Which he decided to buy online,” Jennifer Touchberry said. “He told me we had to go to Connecticut, to take off work Friday and I’d be back at work on Monday. He didn’t even know how to drive the car when he bought it.”
A couple of weeks after bringing the Model T home, Todd Touchberry had it running.
“I wanted something over 100 years old,” he said about his decision to go for a Model T.
The Model T is said to have changed the way people lived, worked, and traveled because it was the first car to be affordable for most Americans.
Todd Touchberry said he got serious about the trip in September 2022 and began mulling a route. He chose Hwy. 80 because, like the Model T, it’s historic. Hwy. 80 was the first all-weather coast-to-coast route for auto travelers.
He officially announced his intentions last December. The Touchberrys partnered with Love Sumter and Discover South Carolina.
Their chase trailer, which doubles as a RV, is wrapped with Sumter and South Carolina tourism scenes.
As of Monday, the Touchberrys had had only one breakdown: Twelve miles outside Sumter, a battery cable jarred loose. But they’re carrying a second engine on their trek just in case.
Until Monday, Todd Touchberry had never been west of Mississippi. Tuesday’s itinerary had the group headed for Marshall, Texas, and Thanksgiving in Fort Worth, then on across New Mexico, Arizona, and into California.
The Touchberrys said they like traveling in the Model T, even though it lacks windows, air conditioning, heat, and even though the rain and wind can come pelting inside.
“I love hearing the sounds of nature,” Jennifer Touchberry said.
“Just the people waving, honking horns,” Todd Touchberry said. “This is definitely going to be a trip of a lifetime.”
