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Day 11 – Wednesday May 28th:

We left Denver at 8AM planning on a straight trip home with no sleep-stops. By 8PM we passed through Kansas City (the one in Kansas and the one in “The Show Me State.” From here it’s another 237 miles to St. Louis. The LA Chevrolet is purring like a kitten and only sipping on a quart of oil every 1000 miles. We ran through St. Louis at 11:30PM; traffic was light and the weather is favorable. It’s on to Indianapolis, about 340 miles away! Pilot HJ handed over the controls to Navigator SJ “The Night-Rider” after a record breaking 5 hour stint behind the wheel with no narcoleptic incidents! However, the car I saw in the rear view mirror on I-70 Eastbound in Missouri wasn’t so lucky tonight. It ended up upside down on the side of the highway facing West. Hopefully the driver is okay…

We landed in Indianapolis for refueling and breakfast at the “Flying J” truck stop before continuing. As of 2PM we were through Ohio and on the very western side of PA and looking at the final 6 hours of our trip. Temperatures are cool again and it is good to see trees once more. The LA Chevrolet has the hammer down and is coming in hot! ETA 8PM Eastern Standard time.

Arrived back in Blooming Grove, Wednesday May 28th 2003 at 8:35pm.

Mileage from Denver: 2,456 miles

Day 10 – Monday May 26th:

Memorial Day! The west-coast adventurers left at about 7AM this morning; although we found ourselves again in a time warp and it immediately became 8AM. Another day of “drive, drive, drive” through Utah and into Colorado. The LA Chevrolet found herself a little low on “go-juice” but I decided we could make it an additional 60 miles to get to Grand Junction, Colorado. We were experiencing a rough upward climb when I noticed the first signs of fuel starvation. We sputtered for close to 7 miles before coming to a desolate gas station on the bottom of a hill off of Rte. 70 East; a place they call “Mack.” The engine stalled a few hundred yards before the gas station but we were able to coast in without the aid of power steering and brakes at just a few miles per hour. Supposedly a 14 gallon tank; I could only squeeze in 12.7g. I think I’ll be more cautious with the fuel situation from now on. I almost made it a very long day…

Towards Denver the roads were getting mighty steep. Loaded with sleeping bags, tents, shoes and one complete mobile computer lab, some hills we could only make 45mph in a 75mph zone! At one point we had a rig pass us on the uphill – see the photos. Sometimes we couldn’t tell whether we were going uphill, downhill, or were on flat ground; it was very odd. The snow is still on the ground in the ‘high country’ and there’s still a substantial amount on the mountain peaks. The mountains make a nice change from the desert conditions we’ve been seeing for so long. We’re even starting to see trees and grass in substantial amounts. We’ve gone from about 80 degrees to around 55. Tonight the crew rests in the ‘Mile High’ city of Denver. There aren’t many places to get decent pictures other than while driving, so my father has perfected the”one-hand on the wheel, look through the LCD screen to drive” approach to taking pictures. Some may be a tad distorted because we just can’t seem to get the windshield free of bugs for any length of time. Nonetheless, the area is absolutely breathtaking. On our trip across the Unites States we’ve gone from spring through summer and into winter once again. From what I’ve heard about Pennsylvania over Memorial Day weekend, temperatures were in the 50′s with rain. We haven’t seen rain since the 18th and (I can’t believe we’re saying this !) looking forward to rain!

Total today: 648 miles
Total so far: 5270 miles

We’ll be making a straight-line run for home from Denver. We’re looking at a distance of approximately 2000 miles and having to cross incredibly exciting states such as Kansas. The trip could be made in about 30 hours total, but as I apparently suffer from a type of “freeway narcolepsy” and can only drive for 2 hours before I start nodding-off and lane-drifting, we may have to take a couple hours break Tuesday night. We should be back home by Wednesday evening. Good luck to Asa and George at the ComputerWise anniversary event – sorry I won’t be there, I hope it doesn’t rain! I see IRabbit is still doing an excellent job in the forums.

Day 9 – Sunday May 25th:

The pilots of the LA Chevrolet awoke rather late to a sunny but cool morning. With trepidation about heading back into LA for the third time, we started out for Santa Monica. Traffic was lighter and the freeways were more easily traveled. We arrived on Santa Monica beach for our first look at the Pacific. Although it was quite overcast and a little on the cool side. The water was much colder than expected and we no longer planned on swimming since we had a long drive ahead tonight. From Santa Monica we picked up US-1; the Pacific Coast Highway, and headed South towards Long Beach. The beaches and streets were not crowded until Laguna beach. We stopped at Huntington beach for ice cream and a good look around. This is paradise! After passing Laguna beach we headed north on Rte. 133 towards a few more Santa towns and merged onto I-15 North back towards Las Vegas. We got some more photos of Vegas while heading north on I-15; stopping in St. Georgia, Utah at Motel 6. We’re headed back east through the Rockies!

Total today: 570 miles
Total so far: 4652 miles

Day 8 – Saturday May 24th:

The LA Chevrolet began its final westward trip today headed for Los Angeles. We left about 10AM and headed for LA via “Death Valley”, hottest place in the U.S. We turned onto Rte. 95 just before the renowned “Area 51.” Temperatures were already in the high 90′s when we left Las Vegas. During the 3000ft vertical descent into the valley temperatures climbed into the area of 110 degrees. Death Valley isn’t as bad as we had first thought it might be. We passed two small resorts with tennis courts, RV parks and even a golf course!. There were also dozens of joggers enduring (or enjoying) some kind of specialized dry heat training. We stopped at an 1800′s borax works (“20 mule team”) on the desert floor. It felt like a sauna but we didn’t start sweating profusely until after we got back in the cool of the car and the AC. The blower motor sounds just fine today thankfully. We made the climb from 100′ below sea level to over 4900′ in about 26 miles. We had to go without the AC to prevent overheating (recommended by the park service) They even have water tanks along the roadside every few miles for those travelers who choose to ignore the no A/C idea!!

By the time we got to 4900′ it felt downright chilly outside. All went well and we snapped some good pictures. After Death Valley we made good time to LA. However, in our plan to miss the majority of the LA traffic and find a motel to the north of the city, we ended up on a canyon road that brought us the best part of 30 miles further back East. We found ourselves once again on the same highway headed for LA again! It was dark as we had to start seriously negotiating the LA traffic; a place where speed limit signs are apparently only suggestions and nothing that might be considered “road rules”. Getting a motel in Burbank or Wilshire didn’t seem feasible, so we headed northwest toward Ventura and Santa Barbara. Finding our way around wasn’t exactly easy with all the Santa’s in the area. We weren’t sure if we wanted Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, Santa Clarita or Santa Clause. Every motel we tried was already booked; it’s only Memorial Day weekend! Steve left to see if we could get a room in the Motel 6 in Ventura. While he was inside, I found the car suddenly surrounded by California Highway Patrol cars with lights a’flashin’. They were looking for a Mr. Sanchez who was cohorting about in the pool area in a state of undress. Stumbling out of the bushes by the pool, Mr. Sanchez seemed in a state of confusion as his family pleaded for his freedom on this Memorial Day weekend. As he left the Motel 6 for a nights stay at the Ventura County jail. I decided to drive around the block until all had settled down. Unfortunately, Mr. Sanchez’s departure did not result in a vacancy !!.

Sleeping on the beach was being discussed at this point except for the nippy temperatures… especially to us Death Valley survivors. Also, it would appear that sleeping on the beach is virtually a felony in California. So we abandoned that plan and decided to drive back into the city and head north. There we found ourselves, “early Sunday morn near Bakersfield; and although we weren’t listening to gospel music on the college radio station, and we came across no “Girl with the Far Away Eyes” (Rolling Stones) we were out until 2AM looking for a motel. Finally checked into a ‘Best Sleep Inn’ sometime after 230am, it’s gonna be a short night!!!

Total today: 650 miles
Total so far: 4052 miles

Day 7 – Friday May 23rd:

We stayed a few miles out of Las Vegas at the Holiday Inn in Henderson, Nevada. The LA Chevrolet is really feeling the heat. The AC blower motor sounds like its about to hit the road. More and more often the car doesn’t start on the first try. We had Elvis change the oil, air filter, and check the tire pressure. We wanted him to change the spark plugs, but he just wasn’t up for the challenge. (Whaddya expect from Wal-Mart?) This is something we may have to do somewhere on the road, because we couldn’t find a single auto parts store in this area. Tomorrow we’re headed for the Pacific for a swim – and then it’s back home through Denver, Colorado! These photos were taken tonight in Vegas. This place wasn’t exactly my cup of tea – lots of flashing lights and not much for me to do except watch others gamble (I mustn’t loiter at the tables point out the signs). At one point I found myself alone as my dad was suddenly a block ahead of me dodging across 8 lanes of traffic in the night-time in search of a better shot of the Luxor. We ate dinner at “New York New York” in the America restaurant which is huge, the food was excellent, well better than jail food anyway!! Hadyn was relieved when we finally left after midnight and could return to broadband Internet access at the hotel.

Total today: 83 miles
Total so far: 3402 miles

Day 6 – Thursday May 22nd:

We left Kingman AZ at 8AM to drive the 100 miles northwest to Hoover Dam. Temperatures were above 100 degrees all day: a little hot for two eastern pale-faces! By 6:30PM it was 109! There was tight security in the approach to the dam in the way of police spot-checks. The tour of the dam was well worth the trip. We toured one of the two turbine rooms at the very bottom, which was fifty stories down inside the dam itself. Lake Mead is in its third year of drought and about 35 feet below its normal level (The white strip around the lake in all of the pictures.) Imagine Lake Wallenpaupack if it were 35 feet below normal!. We haven’t gotten close to that level in the past 4 years, but the 2003 season is just beginning in Northeast PA! We’re off to Las Vegas – 25 miles.

Total today: 245 miles
Total so far: 3319 miles

Day 5 – Wednesday May 21st:

Early start this morning – 82 miles to Flagstaff AZ; then 100 miles north to the southern rim of the Grand Canyon. It would be a bit more convenient if they could move it a little closer to town !! However, all went smoothly: no Indian attacks. Temperatures hovering around 100 degrees all day. The canyon was absolutely spectacular. A 25 mile drive along the south rim with lots of overlooks. Check out the photos. It was an hour south to pick up I-40 and a five hour drive to our next destination; the Hoover Dam. Daylight was fading fast and we were getting tired so we stayed in Kingman, AZ. Quite the frontier town; truck stops, big-rigs, and trains (definitely a place to watch your wallet and keep the doors locked!) and not so much as a local AOL access number. A big Hello to the lady-trucker from Tunkannock, PA with the tricked-out rig sure startled us when she addressed the LA Chevrolet on channel 1-9. There wasn’t a truck on the road that could keep up with that rig.

Total today: 477 miles
Total so far: 3074 miles

Day 4 – Tuesday May 20th:

Left Amarillo at 8AM. It was a very boring trip across “Deaf Smith” county in the Texas panhandle to reach Roswell NM. You can’t go to Roswell without visiting the UFO Museum and Research Center, of course. I wasn’t all that impressed; even being an avid SETI@home user. But I can say I’ve been there nonetheless. From there we headed north to Lincoln County to see the original sheriff’s office and prison where “Billy the Kid” killed two of Pat Garrett’s deputies and then escaped. The building is still original and contains many documents and artifacts from that era. From Lincoln our destination is Holbrook AZ; a distance of 375 miles. We arrived very tired at 11:30pm, but with the time change it was only 10:30pm. Checked into a rather pricey Day’s Inn but as exhausted as we were we didn’t care; tomorrow we visit the Grand Canyon!

Total today: 675 miles
Total so far: 2597 miles

Day 3 – Monday May 19th:

Left Memphis at about 7am and crossed the Mississippi into Arkansas. It is very warm and humid, so we had the air conditioning all the way up! Two hours to Little Rock and another two to Fort Smith and into Oklahoma. Three hours to Oklahoma city and then continuing west on I40 to the west Texas town of Amarillo. Checked into the Travelodge West at 10 pm, thanks to my dear wife Pat for all the Internet research and making forward reservations! Many thanks to Frank and Susie Abruzzi at Crossroads Auto in Tafton, for taking time during they’re busy day and talking me thru our power-steering pump concerns (while Hadyn ate his Wheaties – see today’s pictures) at the Oklahoma welcome center. One turkey-baster and a quart of fresh power steering fluid has got the steering problem back under control for the time being. Lots of driving today but some great scenery – check out the pictures.

Total today: 922 miles
Total so far: 1922 miles – a little over half way!!

Day 2 – Sunday May 18th: We woke up to the alarm at 4AM this morning and were on the road again by 4:30. I didn’t get much sleep in the rest area – it was rather warm overnight and with the windows open I was constantly awakened by the sound of engine-brakes and whining turbo-diesels. Compared to finding our way out of a maze of hundreds of idling trucks yesterday, the trip today was almost entirely uneventful. We made it into Memphis by 1PM and we’re holed-up at a Red Roof Inn. My father and I are very unimpressed with Memphis. Most of the restaurants are boarded up or replaced by furniture stores, pawn shops and auto parts stores. Graceland was almost a waste of time. It is a tourist Mecca – there’s even a motor-home campsite in the back. For $2 parking we could almost see the old Elvis estate over the fence and through the trees. There were a number of his airplanes out front as well, but they wanted $25 a head to walk through them. For that price I’d at least expect a short flight or at least get to taxi on the runway. How’s the LA Chevrolet doing?? The power steering pump sounds as if it’s about to kick. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow. Mondays goal is Amarillo Texas – which is good news. Bob Dylan has a friend by the name of Henry Porter who owns a wrecking lot just outside of town about a mile. Mebbe he has a power steering pump. Of course the only thing we know for sure about Henry Porter is that his name isn’t Henry Porter! So far we have traveled approximately 1000 miles.