MAA Stories: The Ride of My Life....A Diary of the MAA 40th Anniversary Drive 2004

Continued Page 3

Wednesday, April 7, 2004: On the way to meet the Conyoy

7:45am: We are leaving our driveway heading for Henderson, NV. where we will spend some time with our daughter (Michelle) and her family. I will do the final preparations for the trip. I am not real sure how excited Elin is right now but I am sure she will get into it as we go along
8:30am: Nye County
9:00am: Lincoln County
9:45am: Ash Springs, NV. It's our first official rest stop. The car is running smooth. All gauges are where they are supposed to be. Back on road at 10:15am. after a little lunch. 19.6 MPG. Fantastic.
10:55am:Clark County. I know have mentioned alot of county names but here there are no cities! Preston, Lund, Hiko, Ash springs, and Alamo are the only cities in a 250 mile stretch. Preston and Hiko have no services at all. Ash Springs and Alamo are within 7 miles of each other. This means not alot of services available elsewhere. You know you live a long way from civilization when the first directions to your house include "Bring toilet paper!" Nuff said. On with my story.
11:30am: Las Vegas, NV. Civilization! Stopped for fill up
11:48am: Las Vegas, NV. First problem on the trip. I got a flat tire while on I 515. I had to stop on the inside of the interstate. Traffic is whizzing by me at about 80 MPH. It is not fun but I have to get the tire changed. Tire changed and back on the road at 12:15pm. I will replace the tire tomorrow and be ready for the trip. Glad I came down early!
1:00pm: Henderson. My first official day is over. We have arrived at my daughter Michelle's house. I will not start recording again until I leave on Saturday. Problem #2 has arisen. As I was approaching my daughters house the car started to run rough. When I stopped at a light I could barely keep it running. When I looked under the hood I discovered the hose to the PCV valve had come off and was making my car run hard as it was sucking strait vacuum. A trip to the local parts store for a clamp and everything is again back on track. I spent the next 2 days visiting with my daughter and her family and doing final touch ups and services for the drive. Wednesday night I finally got to attend my first meeting of the Mustang Club of Las Vegas. We met at Dream Machines, a local restaurant that had a 50's theme. It was a great time. I told the group about my planned drive and got alot of good luck send offs. Several of the members stated they wanted to go but could not get the time off. I felt bad for them because I knew they were missing the opportunity of a lifetime. I was just waiting for the morning of the 10th to come so we could be off. I felt good about the drive. The car was running exceptionally well with the new carburetor and my fuel mileage was around 17 to 18 MPG. Not bad at all. I knew I was not going to be as bad as some of the cars. Most of the drivers posted the cars they planned to drive. Some of them had big horsepower engines and some had high geared rear ends so I knew their fuel mileage was not going to be that great. I printed out the section on highway construction and it didn't seem too bad although every state showed some kind of construction. I swear the government should designate the Orange and White construction barrel as the national PITA (Pain in the a**) I also followed the weather channel in each city we planned on stopping in. It appeared we would be following a storm front the entire way. There was even a prediction of snow in Santa Rosa the day before we arrived! I didn't care, my heater worked just fine. (Even though I had to attach bailing wire to the louver arm so the defroster would work) The weather actually worked to our advantage. The weather was much cooler and made for a pleasant drive as my A/C did not work. (no money) Now it was just a matter of time until we left. (Tick tock, tick tock)

Saturday, April 10th, 2004:

The day has finally arrived for us to leave for Fontana, CA and start the adventure. For this chapter I will mostly be transcribing the tapes I made but I will expound on the more interesting areas.

7:00am: Henderson, NV. I took my daughter's family to breakfast at the local IHOP. The jitters are really starting to set in now. It is less than an hour until we leave for California and the start of "The drive".
7:45am: Henderson, NV. We have finished breakfast and are now on the road. We are heading for I-15 South and California. Let the road construction begin! We are not even 2 miles from our start and already into construction. Ahh, one of life's little pleasures. I am really getting the itch to get to California. Elin on the other hand is not quite as excited yet.
8:02am: Henderson, NV. Quick pit stop for some water and a potty break. We are right next to the interstate. I can smell it from here. On the road again at 8:10am. Have hit I-15. For some reason I now feel like I am on vacation. We passed a 4 wheel drive van with Alaska plates. I thought to myself now that van is a long way from home. The other thing that plate brought back was a game we played on the road every time we went on vacation.
8:20am: Jean, NV.
8:32am: Primm, NV
8:33am: Crossed over into California. Are we there yet?
9:10am: Baker, CA. Lots of mountains. Having a hard time keeping my speed regulated. No cruise. How barbaric. Car is running smooth
10:03am: Barstow, CA. Stopping to take a break and fill up. Back on the road at 10:30am. Gas prices going up, $2.37 a gallon. Fuel mileage is 17.6 MPG.
10:55am: Victorville, CA. Heading into fog on the road. It's either fog or smoke. There have been some wildfires. I do not smell smoke so I will assume for now it is fog.

Fontana, CA; I forgot to record the time. Probably because I was so excited about being in Fontana. The first thing I saw as I pulled into the parking lot was Mustang One's car . Sam and his son Sidney was in front of the carwith Nikki Tilly, Suzanne Brain and the camera crew from Pioneer productions. I stopped to say hello and meet Sam and the crew. I quickly pulled into a parking space so I could get registered. I wanted to get into my room so I could go out and mingle with everyone as they arrived. Sam and the crew were the first recipients of my business cards. We talked for a few moments and I went in and registered. Once I was settled in my room I set about putting on my window placard and windshield banner.

Afterwards I just kind of hung around in the parking lot and talked with the people as they entered. There were so many folks whose names I cannot recall so please bear with me. From now on I will be referring to the people more where they come from or what they drove than by using names. The party kicked off at 6:30pm so I planned on arriving at about 6:00. For the next hour or so we mingled with the other drivers. We met several folks from New Zealand and some from Australia. It was truly an international event. I met several fellow travelers from Utah. We got to the In and Out burger at about 6:00. Everyone arrived on time and soon the parking lot was full of Mustangs. What a sight. The camera crew was busy on an interview so I sat patiently waiting and meeting more of the drivers. Here is where I met Tony Sousa (Mustang 2) He was driving a cobra that shouted let me go fast! What a nice guy. We exchanged cards and I found out we are in the same profession. (Law enforcement) We became good friends by the end of the trip. At about 8:30 the camera crew made its way over to me and we had about a 10 minute interview on camera. Have you ever talked to someone with a camera next to them and not look into the camera? Man is that hard. I was so pumped up when I was talking to her I felt like I was going to explode. Nikki made it very comfortable for me and I think the interview went well but maybe a little cheesy. I did not know before hand what we were going to talk about so I did not have any answers prepared. I had to come up with them as we went along and that aint easy. I did the best I could. When the camera crew was done we left the party and went back to the hotel for the evening to prepare for the next days drive. I checked all the fluids and ended up adding a little transmission fluid. Could be that when I had the transmission fluid changed there was an air bubble. I will keep an eye on it. Everything else is OK. There was not anything special planned so we were ready to just drive and enjoy the first day. Can't wait for tomorrow! To be on the road is what I have been dreaming of for several months now. It's just a matter of time.