The Epic Adventure Home

I would have written a post on this earlier but I have been incredibly busy. These last two weeks have been insanely busy and crazy. My monstrous adventure began little over two weeks ago amazingly. I returned from Ecuador the 21st of August. Upon return I got to spend some quality time with our TSA.  Have you ever heard those reports of how racists and abusive the TSA are? Well let me assure you they are not racists or abusive, at least in LAX. I spend a summer in Afghanistan summer of 2004. While in transit to Afghanistan, I passed through Islamabad, Pakistan. So in my passport I have both an Afghan and Pakistan visas. Every time I pass through customs, I always get stopped and such.  Anyways, I believe the combined Afghan and Pakistan visas, and the fact I was out of country for 3 months, led to being direct to the extended search line.  Anyways, I waited there will all of the middle easterners. The TSA people were skeptical, but understood haste.  I was out of there in only a few hours.
I got to spend a day in California and visit with a few of my friends.  I got to see my car buddy, Jay, again and talk with him.  He seems to be doing alright.  Jay is now in the refrigeration business and repairs refrigeration units for Slur-pee machines.  I also got to see Kirby, who was just recently married.  We had a good talk and it was great to see him again before I left.  I was excited to hear he was starting his own company.  That night I left for Mr. John Khoury's house, so that we could leave the next day. I got in at about 12 and after convincing his mom I didn't need anything to eat, we went strait to bed.
John and I woke up at about 4:45 AM and were planning to leave by 5 AM, but his mom, who was still awake (or she hardly slept) decided to make us a plate of pizza and fried chicken for breakfast.  So she kept trying to feed us and eventually we gave in and had some tea and crackers. We were on the road by 6AM and made it to barstow by 8AM or so.  Our plan was to meet up with Tyler Whitney and Roy in Flagstaff.  Tyler and Roy were coming down from Ephraim, Utah.  We planned to meet in flagstaff and drive back.  Now I was driving my Toyota Tacoma because James said he did not need it for the school year.  I had offered it to James so he could get an off campus job.  This was the hand of God that kept James from getting my truck.
JK (John Khoury) and I were hauling a truckload of butt down the freeway.  We had set out an hour after Tyler and Roy, yet we made it to Flagstaff faster than they did.  Basically we stopped for gas in Victorville and never stopped again.  Tyler and I communicated on the phone as we both entered flagstaff at the same time.   Unfortunately Tyler and Roy came in from the north and had to navigate all the city streets.  Khoury and I just cruised through flagstaff.  The plan was to find a Dell Taco or something on the east side of Flagtstaff.  Unfortunately there was nothing out that way for 40 miles. We stopped in Wilson, or something like that, and found a Taco Bell.  Khoury and I ate and waited for Tyler and Roy to catch up.  About half an hour later, they caught up and left after they finished lunch.  I decided to ride with Tyler in his Acura and Roy drove the truck.  We had initially though that Roy was a slow driver, but if 80-85 mph is slow, then he was going slow.   Tyler and I had a hard time keeping up with him. Tyler's car sounded like a piece of junk.  I didn't think to much of it because it look and smelled like a piece of junk.  About maybe an hour later or so Khoury called and had to go to the bathroom, but not just on the side of the road.   He needed someplace civilized apparently.  JK finally got Roy to get of at the petrified forest national monument exit and we went to the bathroom there.
Khoury decided he wanted to drive and so after nagging me I left him. Unfortunately, Khoury didn't know how to drive stick (or didn't remember). He didn't make it out of the parking spot without stalling at least 4 times, so finally I was like 'Im driving.' Khoury rode with Tyler and I drove with Roy. About maybe 15 minutes or less Tyler calls me and says his car is making funny noises. We stop on the side of the road and I drive the Acura with Roy and Khoury in the truck. So me and Tyler are driving and the engine is making this horrible knocking sound. Basically after about about a minute it went bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-BAM-KLANK... and then nothing. So I decided not to try and restart the engine or throw it back in gear. Cars breaking in the middle of nowhere has become so second nature I wasn't even worried or scared. I remember say 'Well Lord, It wouldn't be an adventure is something didn't go wrong' (I always like a challenge). It seems like the Lord has given me an abundance of object lessons in faith. Maybe he's trying to tell me something, like to have faith! If you look at an older post I kind of summarize the time when the engine in my BMW fell off the motor mounts in Flagstaff (funny how we were on the same road) and we used a come-along and Crow-Magnum Bar (as it is affectionately, concrete breaking bar) to reposition the engine on the motor mounts and then used tie-downs to hold the engine in place the rest if the drive. So apparently Roy and Khoury didn't notice that we had slowed down significantly and we had to call them and tell then to come back and get us. We got out to inspect the damage. Tyler and I though for a moment it would catch fire beause it was smoking so bad. Thankfully it was all just burning oil. So Roy seems to be a great drive in the forward direction but not in reverse. So about half a mile down the road Roy stops and starts to back up on the shoulder. Tyler and I get out to watch him. Roy starts to back up into the left lane of the freeway, and is all over the road while semis are barreling down the road. Seeing this possible disaster, Tyler and I starts to help them direct my truck by jumping up and down yelling and pointing in the direction they need to turn the wheel. Unfortunately Roy turns the opposite way and then goes the correct way too much and goes off the shoulder a little. So after a few harry moments Roy and Khoury are united with us next to Tyler's broken car.
There are two miraculous miracles here. One, we had the Tacoma, because if James had said that he needed it I would have given it to him. I had told him that all he had to do was ask and I would have gladly given it to him for that school year. It is a total miracle that I had ended up with the Tacoma. It was the day before that we had decided that I would drive it. We had decide it James took the truck all four of us would be going back in the Acura. The second miracle was that for all my stuff that Gareth took, like my come-along, tents, sleeping bags, and some of my other tools (Ill be coming for my stuff BTW GARETH), he for some reason left his navy grade rope and a tow rope in the back of my truck. There is no way to explain why this worked out other than God's hand was in it. Its kinda like the story of Gideon, but instead of less troops, we had less tools. I think God was showing me more and more that the situation is his control and he has control, not me. Anyways, we tied the rope to Tyler's car and hooked the other end to my truck. We were about 90 miles outside of Gallup, New Mexico, and I had been there before (the adventure with the BMW) and knew there was a Walmart there. So we pulled the Acura at about 50-60 mph all he way there. We made it into Gallup at about 8:00 PM just when the sun was going down.
Our initial plan was to go into Walmart and see if they have a tow-bar. Unfortunately they did not, but there was three auto parts stores in town. We went to Pep Boys first but they had just close. Second we went to Auto Zone who was still open, but they did not have a tow-bar. So basically after talking to a few people decided that Pep Boys would be our best bet. We were still towing Tylers are around at this time and had it down to a science. We even did a three point turn by pushing Tylers car back as I backed up. Anyways we all decided to drop off Tyler's car at Walmart and go to Taco Bell. All four of us piled in the cab of my base model as base model gets Tacoma. So we all drove to Taco Bell and hopped out and ate there. Now Khoury had been eating the fried chicken and pizza his mother had given us for breakfast earlier that day. Both Khoury and I each had a bucket of fried chicken and pizza, but I didn't eat to much of it. So we were walking out of Taco Bell and there was like this refrigerator with a head and limbs standing next my truck. I mean this was a big dude. I didn't think we could steal my truck because wouldn't have been able to fit in it. I have to admit he was kinda sketchy. He had that I'm-going-to-rob-you-then-eat-your-children look. So he came up and asked us for money to buy some food and before we could answer Khoury was like 'Hey I got a whole bucket of fried chicken and pizza you can have!' So as all Roy, Tyler and I are situating ourselves Khoury was looking for his bucket and Roy found it in the cab, so while the three of us are cramming in, Khoury gives this guy his/my fried chicken and pizza and then hops in with us. So he is just standing there staring at us while all four of us pile into the truck. Khoury finally gets in and the guy just starts laughing at us. So we are like 'have a good night' and Khoury, doing the prudent thing that none of us had the balls to do at the time apparently, tells him that Jesus loves him. Khoury didn't seem intimidated by him at all. So we head back to the Walmart parking lot where Tylers car.
Walmart is a nice place. If you didn't know, you can park your car in the parking lot and sleep there and security will look over you. So we park our vehicle and we all went into walmart and just wandered around. I found one of those iHomes, or whatever they are called, on display and charged my ipod on it. So we hung out there for who knows how long and then headed to our vehicles. So we decide to go to sleep and wake up in time for Pep Boys to open. I claimed the bed of my pickup (that happened to be totally full of stuff), Khoury got the cab, and Roy and Tyler slept in the Acura. I made a makeshift tent in the back of the truck by stacking suitcases and engine parts (VW 1600) and making some roof supports out of Khoury's hockey sticks. I then put a tarp over it and my cargo net (bungee cord cargo net, I recommend one) over all of it. After everyone got settled, we were disturbed by a police chase that ended in the next isle over from us. I only saw the flashing lights, but Tyler says that there was a good number of police cruisers and policemen with their guns drawn. Anyways after that we went to sleep and it started to rain a little, but thank God it didn't rain heavily since we all had to have our windows down because it was so hot. So then maybe at 3AM I am awoken by this horrible noise. It was like the Walmart alarm that goes off when someone tries to leave with merchandise that hasn't been deactivated, except it was super loud. I looked out and it was the alarm at Carl's Jr. going off. So I may have possibly drifted back to sleep again but I dont remember. What I do remember is that I decided to go to the bathroom, so crawled out of my tent and stood there. there was I think two police cruisers and 4 or so police officers about 30 feet away. Thinking nothing of it I just turned and walked to walmart, but the doors would not open (went to the wrong entrance I concluded the next day) and stood there, then I turned around and walked back to the truck. Apparently, Carl's Jr. got broken into. Anyways the next morning we all woke up, visited the restrooms and towed Tyler's car over to Pep Boys at 8, when we thought it was going to open. Once there we realized it opened at 9 on sunday mornings. So we decided to go to the McDonalds that shared the parking lot. We for some reason leave the windows down and the doors unlocked while we went to McDonalds. We get in and this really sketchy Navaho guy is like, 'hey can I have some money so I can buy my old lady a breakfast burrito?' So we dug deep and gave him some money. Then after an hour or so we start to head outside and this Navaho lady tried to sell us some VHS tapes that looks like she pulled them out if a trash can. She needed money to buy her and her husband bus tickets to Alburqure. So Tyler and I just gave her money and told her to keep the tapes. Turns out that her husband was the guy that wanted money for the breakfast burrito. So we talked to them for a good 15 to 20 minutes. Khoury asked if they went to church and read scripture. Khoury is so good at asking questions that could lead to a spiritual conversation, but he is very socially inept and close minded and generally strange. If we could stop him before he opened his mouth again, we might have had a better conversation. So he asks them if they go to church, and then randomly asks how long the Navaho have been around. It was a pretty awkward moment, I must admit. They just kinda stared at him for a few moments. I broke the silence by saying that they had been around 'a while.' The Navaho lady, still staring at Khoury, was like 'ya a while.' So I let her know that Khoury was a little strange and was from LA. So then we continued talking in the McDonalds parking lot, when I noticed that our windows were down. The Navaho couple weren't the only people wandering around. I saw quite a few sketchy people. So I decided to try and roll up the windows and lock the doors as nonchalantly as possible so that people don't rob us. Anyways Pep Boys had a tow-bar and magnetic lights. The magnetic lights were expensive, so I just bought wire and decided I would wire strait into Tyler's tail lights. So we spend the entire morning trying to hook up the tow-bar to Tyler's car. Tyler and I ended up bolting the tow-bar to the bottom side of his bumper and then had to bend it up to get it on the truck. Tyler reconnected the rope so that if the bumper fell off we would not loose the car. To try out the setup we drove back over to Walmart with Tyler in the Acura. It made it fine so I decided to wire Tyler's tail lights to my harness. While I was wiring stuff, this gang banger came up and tried to sell us keychains. He was a very stereotypical gang banger. He had the whole Basketball jersey and shaved head look. Apparently this gang banger has seen us last night and came over to ask why we were still in Gallup. Tyler, Roy and Khoury started talking to him. Khoury asked if he 'read scripture' and he said he described himself as a 'backslidden christian' which is the first time I any of us have ever heard that. It was interesting. He horribly sleezy and had a foul mouth, but knew his christian doctrine. Somehow he got in an argument with Khoury over theology (we all argue with him, Khoury is far out) and suprisingly he knew his stuff. It was so strange. The guy took off after a long conversation and we got on the road.
Roy, Tyler, Khoury and I all piled into the cab of my truck. We though if we kept all the weight in the truck, the car would be easier to pull. Unfortunately, about 15 to 20 miles down the road we had to stop because the car was pulling the truck all over the road. We thought we may crash if we went any further. So we pulled off and I sat there for a while. Everyone else was waiting on my judgement I guess. Anyways, this was the first moment for me of despair. I finally decided that the best option would be for someone to 'drive' the Acura so it would not be all over the road. I put Tyler back in his car and JK, Roy and I all piled in the truck. It turned out to work really well. From there we drove to Alburquque and stopped for gas. Khoury started to freak out when the gas gauge was below 1/8 tank. I was getting really annoyed because he kept reminding me about every second that the gauge was low. I was finally like 'I KNOW ITS LOW, ITS MY VEHICLE I KNOW WHEN WE ARE OUT OF GAS KHOURY!' Anyways, we made it to a gas station with plenty of gas. Tyler bought a map and we planed out the rest of our trip. Once on the road we made it about 100 miles or so before we stopped again to tighten things down. Continuing on, Khoury, Roy and I got into a deep theological debate that lasted at least 3 or 4 hours. Anyways we ended up driving through every city we planed to stop in and stopped in Amarillo at Taco bell. Oh one of the amazing things was that we didnt get pulled over for unsafe towing or speeding while towing. I cant believe how many cops we passes. We pasted at least 4 cops while towing with a rope at 70 mph around Gallup and Dallas. We were at a gas station and like two squad cars pull up, look at our rig, and then go into the connivence store and buy whatever. Remember that the tow-bar was bolted to the bottom of Tylers bumper and we had top bend the bumper up so we could get the hitch on the ball. We also had a tow rope on the car also. We didn't have any magnetic lights on it, so that would have warranted a ticket (we had the tail lights wired though, so we had lights). I believe God blinded all the cops we passed, or gave them a heavy dose of apathy those days of our trip. So we get out of Amarillo and head towards Wichita Falls. We stop at a rest stop to re tighten all the bolts and retighten the rope. The bolts were really loose so we repositioned everything and bolted everything down again. We got back on the road with Tyler still steering the Acura. Basically driving my truck was like driving a vehicle with 4 wheel steering, except someone else was steering the back wheels and we were traveling at 70 mph. God was really, really good to us. Between Tyler and I we worked as a team at almost inhuman levels. We drove over a 1000 miles, with no accidents at 70 mph with me steering the front of the truck and Tyler steering the back with the Acura. I definitely must say God's hand was on us. Our cooperation together was inhumanly smooth. I was able to tell when Tyler was falling asleep, the back end was all over the place and I had to slow down and yell at him. Anyways we decided to stop for the night because what we were doing was really risky and potentially dangerous, so we decided to be in the right mind.
I looked for a place to stop about 90 miles outside of Wichita Falls. I found a nice little turn off out in the middle of nowhere that was next to the road. So I pulled over and killed the lights. We all got out and decided to figure out sleeping arrangements. Khoury took the cab of the truck again, and Tyler and Roy slept in the front seats of the Acura. Since I was the only one driving the truck (not that I didn't trust Roy or Tyler, but I have pulled so many sketchy loads, that I know how my truck would react) I needed the best sleep, so I claimed the back of Tylers car. I put down the back seats and put down my old sleeping bag and slept diagonally in the back of Tyler's car. The land was flat and we got the glare of semi's lights and felt their rumble where we were parked. We were about 20 feet off the road. Now I knew that this highway we were on ran parallel to a rail road, but I didn't know how close it was. Turns out it was about 10-15 feet form our position. So we see this bright light and I don't think anything of it. Then it the ground starts to rumble a little more than usual. And then the light is really bright and about a quarter mile away the train blasts it horn. Like everyone in Tylers car FREAKS out. Tyler calmly asks if we parked on the rail road. So this thing is barreling down on us at like 70 mph and everyone starts to scramble. I then assured them we were NOT on the train tracks, but just close to them. So this train just screams by and rocks everything and is super loud. So probably for half an hour or so no one could sleep. So we start to fall asleep again and what do you know? Another train comes flying down the tracks and wakes everyone up. By the time the third train came we were used to it and just covered our ears. The next morning we wake up to the wonderful sound of mosquitos biting us. So we all very quickly get back in our designated vehicles and haul butt out of there. Probably half an hour down the road we stop and get some coffee and breakfast. I don't remember much, but we made it through Wichita Falls and about 90 miles from Decatur or whatever its called we decide to get gas.
So we were going about 75 mph now and we pulled off the free way, and as soon as I got into the gas station, I made a slightly sharp turn (wasnt very sharp) and the bumper ripped off. So God was good to us AGAIN. This could have been very disastrous if it happened on the free way. Basically what happened is the sheet metal that held on these cones that the bumper mounts were on sheered off at the boxed sheet metal that the suspension was mounted to. So the four of us pushed his car around to the back of the gas station. After a coffee break, Tyler decided he would call his dad and see if he could pick his car up. His dad said that he could pick it up if it was closer to Ft. Worth. So I went and filled the truck up and we attached a rope to Tyler's car and down the road we went again. By this time we had the whole rope thing down to a science. Tyler did all the breaking, I did all the accelerating. Anyways we ended up going 75 mph again and were passing people. We made it 90 miles and dropped the car off in a Walmart parking lot in Decatur. So now with one less vehicle, all four of us piled into my single cab Tacoma and we drove a little over 2 hours to the far side of dallas near Tyler's home.
We ate at Jack-In-The-Box this time and went we all went in we stunk up the place. We didn't have AC the whole trip and we all smelled soooooo bad. We drove through the south west in the middle of summer so it was super HOT. After lunch we headed to Tyler's home and another 45 minutes later we all rested in the nice AC. Tyler's mom said that she reads my blog, so I know now of at least three people that read whatever I ramble on about. Tyler drove his moms car and we headed back to school. I was super tired from driving for almost three days so Roy drove the truck and I slept.
Unfortunately when I got back to school I learned that my roommate Ben had car troubles when his suspension broke on this Porsche 914 he just restored. I pretty much just wandered around until I found Brad and got a key from him. Then school started and everything got a little hazy. Anyways so I had quite the adventure and I am so glad I had Khoury, Tyler and Roy with my on our adventure. If it wasn't for these guys and the COUNTLESS miracles that God provided, who knows where I would be. What a lesson in faith!

Seeing America with the Cousins

Dated: August 2005

I may add more to this post when I feel like it.  Anyways this Is a brief post about my adventure.  So basically the trip begun when I drove out to Longview, TX from Redlands, CA to take some stuff over to LeTourneau where I was going to school. So after that trip, which was an adventure in it self (I left on the hottest day of the year that actually was the hottest day in like quite a few years and drove through the pass out of california and the Mohavie desert with the heater on full blast, drank a gallon of water every hour, was pretty crazy and I was by myself) I had stayed at my grandmas in Ohio for a month and then decided to drive back out to california to get the rest of my stuff.  So My cousins decided to come with me.  Well, one flew out and the other rode out.  Anyways nether of them could rive stick, so I taught my cousin Ben to drive stick the day before we left.  So to make a really long story short, in flagstaff I noticed that the car had overheated.  I popped the hood to discover that the engine had bounced off its motor mounts and was lying on its side, and the reason it was overheating was that the fan had been stopped by the shroud.  So we were convienetly near a sears, so I got a new tire, because one separated, that had a shipping container in the middle of the parking lot.  So I parked it next to the shipping container and my cousins watched as I put my come-along on the shipping container and then connected it to my engine.  Next I had one of them ratchet it as I maneuvered it with a massive crowbar.  Once in place we left it and drove another couple hundred miles and stoped for the night, next morning we found out that the engine had fallen off the mounts again and was on it's side again.  So I grabbed a few of my tie-downs and ratcheted the engine into place.  So then we drove another 1000 miles or so and made it to Longview.

Getting an E-Type

Apperently I didn't finish this.
Dated: October 3rd, 2006

The Great Journey
“Want to come with me to get my Samurai?” my friend Joe asked. “Sure, why not.” I replied. From that point our great journey had begun. So what was this journey of ours you may ask? Well, originally the plan was to drive out to Hereford, south of Amarillo, in Texas, and pick up Joe's Suzuki Samurai and turn around a come back to Longview, but our plan changed along the way. At at Taco Bell just over the border from Oklahoma, I decided to take a two thousand mile detour to California and back while Joe fixed his car. Through sleet and snow I came sleepless always pressing on. My reason for going back home to California was to pick up my British Racing Green 1965 Jaguar E-Type that had been parked at a friends house for half a year. Thankfully, my friends were around. They graciously help me load my car onto the trailer I had brought and sent me on my way home. The journey back lead me through the pine-tree-covered southern Rockies, down into the White Sands Missile Range and on into Roswell, New Mexico. From there I made it to Hereford where Joe had his Samurai. When I arrived back on the dusty ground of Hereford, the Samurai was not running as planed, so we formulated a solution and brought both Joe's Samurai and my Jaguar back to Longview.
-idea formulating, spontaneous
Spring break was coming up and a group of us had just gotten back from working at Automotive Society with a few pledges, including pledge Joe, a friend of mine. We were conversing about our automobiles when Joe mention he would like to go get his Samurai over spring break. Now at this time I was planning to go get my Jaguar in California, but every time I made plans, they fell through. I either didn't have a truck to borrow, or a trailer to borrow. So spring break for me was going to be a time for me to work on my other cars and just relax in general. Joe on the other hand wanted to take three or four days to return home and come back with his Samurai. So finally the Thursday before the spring break rolled around and I had no plans of my own when Joe came up and asked if I wanted to come to Hereford and get his Samuari. “Well I cant think of why not,” I replied, So we made some simple plans to leave for Hereford the next day, after class and back in two or three days or so. I wasn't super thrilled to go on this road trip, but I had an itch to get out of town for a few days and Joe needed a companion for the trip. With our plans set, we headed off to do whatever work needed to be done to finish off the weekend.
The next day was what I called a bleach bright day. It was a perfect day, the sun was overly radiant and classes were out for spring break. It was one of those days that even if you were hit by a car, it would still be a good day. Joe had borrowed a friend of ours massive Doge Ram 2500 long bed truck and a twenty foot trailer from someone he knew. I gathered up a change of clothes, some CDs I had burned for the trip, my set of tie-downs and my sleeping bag and pillow, and threw them in the back of the truck. The trailer got hooked up to the truck and I waited in our little convoy for Joe to get his dirty laundry. When the moment came, we turned the key and started our trip.
Our first day was what we had expected, slow and dull. We sat in air conditioned bliss and listened to the CDs I had brought while we moved along at good pace. Joe drove the first, as I tried to relax and sleep. We went through numerous little towns taking everything from four lane highways to little country roads. Every now and then we would run into traffic in the downtown of some little rural city that surrounded by farmland on all sides. We plotted a course north and around Dallas to avoid the city driving. The plan was to made it to Witchta Falls by dinner and to arrive in Hereford early in the morning. Unfortunately, on the drive north, we missed a turn and found ourselves crossing into Oklahoma. At that point we checked our maps and figured out where we had made our mistake. So we turned around and headed back into Texas and then west towards Hereford. It had been some time since we had last stopped and the seats and pillows seemed to have lost all comfort, so we stopped at a Taco Bell.
The sun was setting as we pulled into Taco Bell. The town was an industrial town with a rather large river running through the center of downtown. The banks of the river were made of concrete and was surrounded by many abandoned red-bricked business buildings. Joe and I got out and walked into Taco Bell. We ordered our food and sat down and talked a bit. During our conversation, I mentioned that I should go to California since I finally have a truck and trailer together. Joe urged me on so I finally decided that since I will be almost halfway to California when I get to Hereford, I should just go. So, there at Taco Bell I made up my mind to just go.
Darkness had fallen and the moon was rising high into the night when we left Taco Bell. Joe drove through the night and after driving through the darkness for what seemed eternity we arrived at Joe's house far out on a farm road north of the city, with no neighbors for miles. I planned to leave the next morning for California so almost as suddenly as we had arrived we went strait to bed. I woke up the next morning to a bright ray of sunlight coming through a window in the room i was sleeping. The house had a charming musty country home smell to it. For the first time I saw the country side in the light. The was nothing but fields as far as the eye could see in all directions. The horizon was so clear, strait and defined in all directions it almost seemed unreal. Next to Joe's house was a barn with farm equipment. Joe had parked the truck in front of it, so I got out there and turned the truck around in the space between the only two building in sight. I left a few hours before lunch and headed north. My plan was to head to interstate 40 and take it through Albuquerque, on through Flagstaff and strait into California. This was my plan, but it was not the path I as going to take.
I turned onto Interstate 40 and traveled west into the direction of the wind. Hundreds of miles of prairie grass swayed in the wind. In this stretch between Hereford and Albuquerque I got the wost gas mileage of the entire trip. The rolling prairie soon turned into rocky hills and I found myself in Albuquerque. Albuquerque then went by and about twenty miles out, it started to snow. I stopped at a Popeye's restaurant and sat and watched the snow peacefully flutter down and cover the desolate countryside. This proved to be bad in two way, the first being that I had one set of clothes that were shorts and a t-shirt, the second being that the truck was two wheel drive with bald tires and I was pulling a trailer.
A light dusting of snow covered the freeway entrance as I turned onto the freeway. A chill ran down my spine as the heater kicked in, but what gave me the chill was that I hate driving with a trailer in the rain and i knew that snow would be even worse. I aimed the truck to drive in the tracks left by other vehicles but every one in a while I would hit a water puddle and things would get a little harry. I kicked it down to about thirty miles an hour as the snow turned to slush. I kept going the direction I was going hoping that the snow fall had been spontaneous and would clear up at any moment. Unfortunately for me that wasn't the case. Snow fell heavier around me as I passed cars that had pulled over or spun out of control. Soon It turned into a blizzard and strong winds were blowing the truck all around, while heavy snow fall blurred my vision. My heart was racing and there wasn't a second I wasn't on the edge of my seat. I started praying that I would get through this blizzard alright. The sun went down and all that I could see was snow in my headlights. My skin was starting to get sticky and my hair sweaty from the tension of driving. It didn't even cross my mind to stop for food, bathrooms or drinks.
I started to get into Flagstaff, from what I could tell from the signs. I now had been the only vehicle on the road for sometime and I had been traveling at about fifteen miles per hour for about the last three hours. The freeway had turned into what looked like a ski slope run. The road had ten to twelve inches of snow covering it. The guard rails and bridges were now lost under the snow. I switched from driving in one lane and decided to take up the whole road. Panic turned into excitement as I drove through downtown flagstaff, that had been buried under a heavy blanket of snow with no sings of life. It was peacefully quiet as I plowed my way down the freeway, passing warehouses with snow drifts totally covering the loading docks. I found a junction to the interstate that headed south and drove over what papered to be a overpass that had been blanketed with snow. The city gradually turned into pine forest as I climbed in elevation. I followed a semi truck up and over a pass and soon the elevation dropped and a rest stop came up, so I stopped for the night.
The next morning I woke up freezing, but I was finally out of the snow. For ten hours I drove at speeds below twenty five. My stop for the night lasted two hours when I awoke at dawn. The road sloped down and out of the mountains as I approached Phoenix. The rest of the trip from Phoenix was familiar ground. I arrived at the McNair's residence in the late morning and slept until just after dinner. The McNairs had been friends of mine throughout high school and are like a second family to me. I stumbled out into the living area where I was greeted and sat and chatted for the rest of the night. The Jaguar was just parked down the hill near the shed so I placed the truck next to it. The next day I spent with my friends and topped of the day by eating at Macaroni Grill. Earlier in the day we loaded the Jaguar onto the trailer and tied it all down and parked the truck so I could get out easily the next morning. I got to bed early and headed out the next day.
On the Road again and so soon. The returning trip wasn't as exciting as the trip out to California. I planed a route that avoided Flagstaff and passed through Phoenix and went north at Las Cruses. I headed north up through the souther Rockies and out into the White Sands Missile Range. I stopped for the night in Roswell at a Super Walmart. I pulled into the Walmart parking lot at about three in the morning and wandered around Walmart for an hour. After I was satisfied in the amount of wandering I did in the store. I went out to the truck and slept until about ten in the morning. From there Hereford was about a five hour drive. The landscape around Roswell was very eerie, almost a haunting presence. The land was very desolate and covered with black barbed wire fences with strange dirt roads leading off into the horizon.
I arrived in Hereford and checked up with Joe on the progress of his Samurai. Joe told me he spent all week and couldn't get it running so he could drive it back. We sat for a while and stared off into the endless fields. Finally we came up with an most magnificent idea. The Doge Ram we had borrowed was a long bed and our measurements showed that Joe's Suzuki would fit perfectly in the bed. We were filled with with that overwhelming joy that you can only get when you find a way to do the impossible. We unhooked my trailer
-heading back to herford
-Samurai wont run and solution to problem
-trip back and conclusion – yellow light and a blue moon, backroads, lots of stop and go