[DeTomaso] My Trip to Reno (Long)

Fri Jun 19 16:56:40 EDT 2009

I like happy endings!

Sincerely,

Chris

> From: artstephens at verizon.net
> To: detomaso at realbig.com
> Date: Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:32:48 -0700
> Subject: [DeTomaso] My Trip to Reno (Long)
> 
> 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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