Off We Go!
For my own personal drive, the last days before the trip were hurried. In the three weeks before the drive was to commence my wife and I purchased and moved into a new home, I started a new job, and the decision was made that I would bring my nine year old son Sidney along for the ride. The trip provided me a selfish opportunity to share the grand episode with my son and create a lasting memory for both of us. It was a boy’s adventure. I looked forward to showing him the United States up close and personal. I had the same experience as at his age as my father was a long-distance truck driver. I spent many summers with him traveling the country, seeing almost all of the 48 states. At the time I was bored silly sitting along side him in that noisy Freightliner day after day. Having grown up, I cherish the memories of it.
  
I had to figure out how to pack luggage for two, all the supplies and requisite equipment, raffle prizes, and computers for the event into the trunk of a Mustang Convertible. In past events we always had a chase truck with a big trailer. This time it was one trunk - a small one. Roush delivered the new Stage 3 Convertible on Thursday, April 8th. I spent all night packing the car and installing the myriad of radio and satellite GPS equipment I used for the drive. The packing went on into the morning of Friday the 9th. I was to drive to LA from Phoenix on this day, planning to arrive in the early evening. Once all the packing was done, and the goodbyes and hugs transpired I went to start the car to leave.
 
Sitting in the Roush pace car, I grabbed the keys to my own Mustang and inserted them into the ignition and turned. Now, if you are at all familiar with the new Mustangs, they use the “PATS” system. The switch and key to the car have a unique chip that only allows the car to start with the right key. If you use the wrong key it may turn the switch, it may turn the engine, but the computer will not allow the car to start. If you keep this up, the computer locks everything up and you have to get the local dealer to reset the system. As I twisted the key, it turned. The engine turned over and over and over. When I realized what I had done my heart sank. I immediately took my key and handed it to my wife saying, “Take this poison away!”. I then tried starting the car with the Roush key……….It would not start………CRAP! I got out of the car and had a cigarette while pondering the fact that I would now have to tow the car 15 miles to the local dealer to get reset. CRAP! After about five minutes and before dialing up the dealer, I tried one last time with the right key. It worked. THANK GOD. We were off on interstate 10 heading west to Ontario, CA within minutes.
Arrival in Ontario
For the first time in the year-long process I was starting to feel the emotions and excitement that had not come yet. All the worry and analytical stuff was behind as I pulled into the hotel parking lot in Ontario and saw a handful of Mustangs in the parking lot. I felt the magic all over again. As I pulled up people began coming out of the woodwork to greet us. First it was Bob and Barbara Lamb, then Walter and Lorraine Welsh, Rick and Randi Briggs, and then Dean and Janet Hill. All these people I have known for a decade as they had been participants of the 1994, 1995, and 1996 drive. I was so happy to be here again, amongst friends. We shortly all took a walk across the street to “Crabby Bobs” restaurant and had a long dinner, catching up on old times and talking about the drive at hand. By the time were finished I was primed and ready, emotionally energized for the trip.
On Saturday, many more Mustangs showed up and I had the chance to mingle with people at the hotel as we pretty much hung around walking the parking lot and visiting, washing cars, and preparing the last little details. The crew from Pioneer Productions had taken the day to spend “quality time” making the rounds and doing interviews with everyone. Tony and I spent a good couple hours with them doing initial interviews, outlining who MAA was, what the hell we were up to and why. It was fun learing how to act spontaneous in a scripted way. “That was brilliant, very natural”, Nikki Tilley, the producer would say, “can you do it again”? They immediately impressed me as an extremely professional crew that was going to produce a milestone documentary on MAA.
As the evening came to us, I had the chance to meet many more of our arrivals from Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and those who drove all the way out from the east coast. I cant tell your how much it meant to me that people thought enough of our event to come from so far away to begin with us in Los Angeles. It is the facets like this which make the whole thing worth it to me.
We all headed out to our first planned gig at In-N-Out Burger in Ontario. This was meant to be our first official gathering, a show-n-shine of sorts, giving everyone a chance to meet each other. The first thing that I noticed when we arrived was that since I had re-coned the location, they had torn up most of the parking lot to build a new building, and parking was at a severe premium. The first surprise of our event. We made due anyway, the weather was good. Tony Sousa, brought out his brand new Shelby American FIA 289 Cobra which he had just had finished. As long as I have known Tony, this has been his dream car. Over the years he has owned a handful of Shelby Mustangs, but always wanted a real Cobra. In 2004, his dream finally came to fruition. The car was amazingly beautiful. He was brimming with rightful pride as the crowd swarmed on the object ‘de art. He was gracious enough to let me sit in the car which was the first time I had ever done such. While in a cloud of euphoria over the exotic beast I was also educated on the fine art of getting in and out of the small car which makes my wife’s Mazda Miata seem roomy.
As the night drew to a close, we registered as many of the first arrivals at the show-n-shine to alleviate the rush at the morning’s drivers meeting. Back at the hotel, I sat at the laptop computer late into the night and programmed the car’s GPS handheld for tomorrow’s run. I checked the weather one more time. Everything looked good. Overall, my biggest fear for the event was bad weather. Not once in past MAA events had we ever made it across the US, without major rain, snow, hail, or ice. This time was going to be different. I set my two alarm clocks and went to sleep. |
