[DeTomaso] My Trip to Reno (Long)

Art Stephens artstephens at verizon.net
Fri Jun 19 16:32:48 EDT 2009


     I planned to visit my sister in Colorado on my way to the Fun Rally this year,  unfortunately she was here in southern California the exact days I wanted to be at her house!  Oh well,  I had to come up with a plan "B".  I was planning to go to Utah anyway to visit the Best Friends animal rescue facility,  I'm kind of a dog fan.  So anyway I leave at 5:15 AM on the Sunday morning before the Fun Rally started.  I had no sleep as I was getting the car ready and loaded up for the trip.  I headed up one of my favorite highways,  that being California 395 to Big Pine.  From there I headed east to Tonopah Nevada.  Prior to reaching Tonopah,  I had a discussion regarding the finer points of the rules of the road with one of Nevada's finest.  Fortunately,  the exam was oral and not written.  :-)).  With sweaty palms,  I behaved myself for quite some distance.  When I left Tonopah,  I passed a sign that said "No Gas For 163 Miles",  piece a cake!  About half way thru the 163 miles,  the cake went bad.  The road was rough,  but I thought I better get out and take a look at my tires just in case something was wrong.  Something was wrong!  On of my rear Pizzuzis had grown a sizable bubble in the tread.  WTF am I going to do now?  After giving it some thought,  I decided to try to limp to St. George  Utah for another tire or tires.  I had a lot of time to think before I came to the road heading to Las Vegas,  I didn't want to go to Vegas.  After coming to my senses,  I decided that the prudent thing to do was to make the detour to Vegas where I would have a better chance of finding what I needed.  I also thought,  if I can't find a tire and have to be towed home,  Vegas was a lot closer than Utah.  I'm thinking to myself,  I'm on the first day of what turned out to be an eleven day road trip,  I really shouldn't be driving on these old cheap tires of which one has already gone bad.  I decided to suck it up and buy four decent tires even though I would only use them until this trip was over.  (I'll be buying new tires and larger wheels before I drive the car much farther).  While driving after dark to Vegas I notice my ammeter is showing a significant discharge,  YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME,  son of a _____!!!!  I'm thinking this sucks!  So now I gotta spend five hundred dollars on tires that I'll probably have to give away and I've got to spend the next day in a hot Vegas parking lot replacing an alternator or voltage regulator.  I decided,  screw it,  the tire seems to be working good enough to get me home,  maybe?  If my battery goes dead,  I'll get AAA to bring me another.  I figured I could stop along the way and charge the dead battery so that I would have a spare when the new one went dead.  So I'm on my way home and I figure I'll drive the Civic to Reno,  boring. I pull into the Vegas truck stop for gas.  As I'm driving up to the pump,  the tire goes flat!  No ___ing way!  I am fit to be tied!  OK,  now I'm rattled!  I'm running options thru my head and I'm pissed!  So I call my Pantera buddy Bill Wright to help me sort things out.  After calming down a bit and weighing the options,  I decide to go to Sam's Club to buy a tire in the morning.  Bill was kind enough to spend a bunch of time on the computer trying to locate a tire.  Sam's website indicated they had what I needed and they were just down the street.  I thought if I could borrow a jack and get the tire off,  I might just walk it over to Sam's and save myself a AAA tow.  (I have used four in a previous year so I didn't want to waste one).  I decide to sleep in my car in the truck stop parking lot,  there were some unsavory types around so I didn't want to leave my car.  Six foot three and trying to sleep in a Pantera on a hot night in a Vegas truck stop,  not exactly the vacation I dreamed of.  Sam's opened at 7:00 AM.  I thought that maybe I should wait to talk to them and confirm that they had the tire before being towed over there.  (I didn't even want to leave the car while I walked the half mile to Sam's).  I'm thinking,  "they'll have the tire and I may save myself a couple hours by being there when they open".   So I get towed over there and,  THEY DON'T HAVE THE _____ING TIRE!!!  They can get it,  in three to five days.  I had to walk away from the guy,  I was too hot to talk.  After I settled down again,  the nice guy found me a tire down the street.  So I get towed again!  That's two tows in an hour!  I've only got two left for the year,  oh well.  I had decided to take my chances and just replace the one tire.  So I get my tire installed and now I thinking,  "what about the charging system?  It didn't fail me getting to Vegas even though it had shown it was discharging for an hour.  The car was starting right up so I thought,  "what the heck,  let's see what it does?  So I continue on my journey to Kanab Utah.  My A/C doesn't work and it was hot out on the road.  I decided to take the long way to Kanab to get up out of the heat.  I went thru Cedar City where the weather was great!  I then drove to Kanab where I spent the night.  From Kanab,  I drove out to eastern Utah to visit some friends I had made after my accident last year.  From Green River Utah I made my round about way to Reno on some great two lane roads.  I had a great time visiting friends at the Fun Rally.  From Reno I headed south to Bishop California.  I ran into Grant and Susan Stockwell in the beautiful little town of Bridgeport,  they were on their way to the ghost town,  Bodie.  I met up with Bill and Cindy Harris in Bishop for a great dinner at Whiskey Creek restaurant.  The next morning we went our separate ways.  Bill and Cindy headed home to SoCal while I headed to the Grand Canyon to see relatives that were there sight seeing.  I hadn't really planned to go to the Grand Canyon but I was having so much fun on my trip that I didn't want it to end.  I went back to Big Pine where I had been a week earlier,  and I decided I would make the same drive to Utah until I got it right!  :-)).  Things went much better this time,  no flat tires and no driving instructions.  I had a great visit with family at the Grand Canyon where we saw a condor fly maybe fifteen or twenty feet over our heads,  very impressive!  I finally got home yesterday at 1:00 AM  after eleven days and almost 3800 miles.  What a great trip!  I hope to do it again next year after doing an engine swap and having my car painted,  I can't wait!!!

Art  


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