What a great trip. I’d do it again in a second. It turned into a road test of our home built machines, meeting up with old friends, making new friends and, since both Kerry and I made it home with no visible scars from the fights we didn’t have, a bit of a brotherly connection kind of trip.
The point of the trip was not to get to the NSRA Rockie Mountain Nationals, it was the journey. So when I think of the highlights, this is what comes to mind:
- Meeting the guy in the Monte Carlo bar that admitted he had met a girl the previous night that “he couldn’t satisfy”. Then having the young fellow offer us a beer his girl couldn’t drink and telling us “The beer is good… I’m pretty sure she’s clean”. Ya… uh, maybe not clean enough for Kerry or I.
- Fillmore Utah Best Western. On this day we broke out of traffic and could really enjoy the wide open spaces of Utah. Also, ordering a steak sandwich and a hamburger and Larry’s Drive in and not being able to tell which was which.
- Coalville Utah – A gas stop that turned into one of the best lunches. A bag of chips, a coke and sitting by the river. Nice folks there.
- Green River – Meeting up with the gang at Regis’ place was a major part of the trip. This made use realize that a road trip was all about the people you meet along they way. There will be future trips to Green River.
- Having breakfast at Gunther Toody’s. I hadn’t seen Emily and Hailey in years. I’m glad I got to share breakfast with them.
- The trip to Pueblo. – We fixed my radiator leak with duct tape and Bob had a coil blow out in spectacular fashion. And yet we made it with virtually no other problems. It just added a level of excitement to the trip.
- Almost running out of gas and the pouring rain of New Mexico. I was at 1/8 tank and we decided to push on to the next town 20 miles away. Only that town never materialized. My gas gauge didn’t move at all for the last 20 miles, during a pouring rainstorm. But we made it. Again… adds some excitement to the trip.
- Getting to stop by and see Paul and Gerri.
Other notable things to remember.
- Kerry follows his GPS… whether it’s right or wrong. I counted 3 times my GPS was screaming TURN, TURN, TURN while his said nothing. The actual fault appears to be Microsquish Streets and Trips. Kerry uploaded his destinations while I punched mine in manually.
- My old flathead performed flawlessly. Aside from the radiator leak dripping on the distributor causing a miss, nothing went wrong. The car has a T5 (over drive) and Vette 3.90 rear end. I had to drop into fourth several time to pull a hill. But I made it up the Cajon pass in 5th. I have a Holley 390 and Isky 400 jr cam, but the engine ran great at all altitudes. I also have air conditioning (which I didn’t use in northern Utah, all of Wyoming and most of Colorado) and the old flattie had no problem handling the heat with air on in most places. Even when we arrived in Sun City (temp 110) I had the air on. I turned it off when we got caught in traffic. But I had it on when we left Sun City and left it on until I hit the cool ocean breezes of home. I run 20w50 Lucas Racing oil and didn’t have to put so much as a drop of oil in during the trip. Since I normally change oil every 1500 miles, I really thought I’d have to add some during the trip. The car averaged 16.64 MPG for 2600 miles with a high of about 20 mpg. I spent about $445 on gas. Longmont, CO, had the cheapest gas at @ $2.59 9/10.
- I have to figure out what to do about my fear of losing a gas cap. While on the road, at one point in the trip, I asked Kerry to pull up be me to make sure my gas cap was on (he assured me it was there). When we arrived at the next gas station I was horrified to look down and see no gas cap. I let out a gasp and called to Kerry accusingly, only to turn around and see it on the gas pump where I had placed it after removing it from the car. I hate being old.
- Kerry kept forgetting to put his car in Park. In New Mexico, after filling up with gas, he jumped out of the truck and said his car wouldn’t start. There was “nothing”. He started to putz around the starter and I suggested that maybe it was his Neutral Safety Switch. It was. The car was still in drive. Of course it wouldn’t start. But it wound up being a good thing he checked the starter. That’s when he found out the starter was lose and we fixed it in Santa Fe that night.
Hmmmm…. where to next? Maybe Oregon, Washington, Yellowstone down to Green River and home?
