On the road again...with a little help from new friends!

19 May 2009

After exploring numerous options, on Monday morning, (May 18th) we were able to get in touch with MAFCA member, David Casey in San Angelo, TX, who offered his Model A expertise and his garage to help get us back on the road. With the help of John, the local towing service, and AAA, we headed 83 miles south to San Angelo and David’s garage.

The two Davids spent the next two hours dismantling the engine, and once the head was off, discovered that the head gasket had blown between numbers 3 and 4 cylinders. After some discussion, they decided to replace the head gasket and put all the other parts back on to see if this was the problem. David C. was pretty confident this would fix the problem…David G. was pessimistically hopeful. Another two hours or so, and it was test drive time….HALLELUIA! This seemed to do the trick…we were back in business.

During this time, Henry was supervising from the cup-holder seat, and I was visiting with fellow Model A’er Dr. Yates Smith, who is a local club member with David C. We had the official supervisor chairs and occasionally offered our assistance.

Once the Davids cleaned up the work area, David Casey and his beautiful wife, Lynn, graciously invited us to stay for dinner and offered us a bed for the night. We had an enjoyable visit them, and this morning, they sent us on our way after a wonderful breakfast. David and Lynn, thank you, thank you, thank you! There are not enough words to describe our appreciation for your help and hospitality!

On the road again….We traveled 154 miles to Fredricksburg, TX through some beautiful country. The myth that Texas is flat is not true! In Fredricksburg, we had a wonderful German meal at one of the local eateries, toured through the National Museum of the Pacific Theater (where we learned that Fredricksburg is the birthplace of Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz), and found a campsite at the local Ladybird Johnson Municipal Park.

Tomorrow we head to Adkins, TX, just southeast of San Antonio to visit with long time friends from Coronado days, Mike and Holly Madrid.

Trouble with a CAPITAL T!

17 May 2009 266.7 miles
Carlsbad, NM-to the Caverns-back to Carlsbad then to Big Spring, TX

The day started out great, and ended with a capital T—Trouble finding camping and Trouble with the car!

We sat out a rain and high wind storm in Carlsbad, NM Saturday night, and woke to clear skies, so we headed to Carlsbad Caverns. Much like the Grand Canyon, pictures just don’t do it justice. We got there early in the day (and the week before the daily crowds begin) so we were virtually alone along the walk down through the natural entrance. Simply AWE-INSPIRING! This park is a MUST DO for your bucket list!

After the caverns, we headed east. In Hobbs, NM, the car started running hot, so we stopped to cool it down, added some water, and let Dave do his trouble-shooting; Dave thinks it was just a stuck thermostat, and we continued on our journey. We headed toward the next town, and a local county park that we were told has camping, but when we got there, it was RV’s only—no tents—so we continued on. About 15 miles west of the next town, and our stop for the night, something happened with the engine. At first, Dave thought it was the distributor, so we pulled into a hotel parking lot and he changed this out—didn’t work. He is now thinking it is a piston (#4 is not firing), so we are looking to trailer the car to my sister’s house in Houston (about 500 miles away) where he can pull the engine apart and see what is going on. This is kind of hard to do in a campground or hotel parking lot. We are currently weighing our options.

In the mean time, it turns out that a group of Texas Community College criminal justice instructors are starting a conference here (Big Spring, TX) on Monday. Through conversation about the car and other topics, they learned that Dave is recently retired from California ABC, and since they had one of their presenters cancel at the last minute, asked Dave to present on “something related to CABC.” For doing this, they have offered to pay for our hotel room for the night—which was very nice!

Hot! Hot! Hot!

11 May 2009 Palm Desert to Parker, AZ 200 miles

The drive through the desert was like visiting an old friend…memories tumbled one after another as we drove across Rice Road toward the Colorado River. This was the route we normally took for family vacations and river trips most of my life. There were a few changes: the shoe tree is now a shoe fence; the old store in Rice is a pile of rubble; and the names along the RR tracks are still there.

12 May 2009 Parker, AZ to Mesa, AZ 207 miles

We got up at dawn—no alarms, but natural awakening—and broke camp by 6:00 AM. This was partly by design, in an effort to do most of our driving in the early morning to beat the heat.

Up until today, the roads we have traveled have been as familiar as our back yard. This was new territory for both of us. From Parker, we traveled southeast toward Wickenberg, then took Hwy 74 across the north end of Phoenix. This was a beautiful route, with hillsides covered with Saguaro, Palo Verde, Mesquite, and Cholla. We were trying to bypass the “big” cities by staying to the outside edges of town, but we still ended up in stop and go traffic. Temperature in Mesa today was 103. It is supposed to get cooler--only to 98 tomorrow.


13 May 2009 Mesa, AZ to Safford, AZ 174 miles

What a beautiful drive. The mountains east of Phoenix/Mesa into Globe, AZ are just stunning, and much of the flora was still blooming! We stopped for the night at Roper Lake State Park in Safford, AZ, and after setting up camp went into town to get some dinner. On our return trip, Dave got another shot at fixing flats...we couldn't believe we got another one. This time on the right rear tire! The tire pump we were carrying couldn't pump up the tire enough (or Dave just ran out of oomph!), but thankfully a neighboring camper had an air compressor on his jeep so he filled us up.

This lake is very similar in looks and feel to Lake Havasu, but on a micro scale. We were able to take a dip in the water to cool down and then spent the evening stargazing.

14 May 2009 Safford, AZ to Silver City, NM 180 miles

Does it seem like we are traveling more miles than intended? This is partly due to lack of camping accommodations between towns in this arid Southwest! We were strongly advised against traveling along the border by a friendly waitress whose husband was a deputy sheriff, so we headed for the hills--besides, the temperatures were cooler! Stopping to take a picture of the "Welcome to New Mexico," we noticed our water jug sitting on the running board of the car. We're amazed it didn't fall off on this 30 mile leg!

We camped for the night at "City of the Rocks State Park" just south of Silver City. This campground was amazing...very similar to Joshua Tree National Park in California, but smaller. Our campsite was surrounded by towering rocks, so it was nicely shaded. Once the sun started going down, much to our surprise, we discovered that we had a small bat cave within 10 feet of our tent site. We could hear them starting to wake up, and then got to see them fly out into the night. We tried diligently to get a picture of the bats flying out, but even on automatic, they were too fast for Dave's trigger finger. Once the bats came out, the bugs disappeared! Yeah!

15 May 2009 Silver City, NM to El Paso, TX 190 miles

We mapped our route for the day to travel from Deming, NM toward Hatch, which would allow us to follow the Rio Grande south. It was again beautiful...then....MORE TIRE TROUBLE! Just north of Las Cruces, NM, our third tire went flat...front passenger side this time. So, once again, in 98 degree temps, Dave practiced putting on the spare in record time along side the road. Using the MAFCA directory, we were able to get in touch with Rick Black in El Paso, looking for information on where to get Model A tubes in Texas. (Which, by the way, there is not a local parts store.) Rick was kind enough to meet us in his 1931 Deluxe Tudor--a beautiful, beautiful automobile--with his two spare tubes to get us on our way. Rick, it turns out, is the MAFCA Webmaster!

After changing both this tire, and checking the front driver's side, Dave decided to change it as well. Apparently, the stem was rotted on all the tubes, and he figured it was just a matter of time before the forth one died as well. Anyway, thanks to Rick, we now have all new tubes so hopefully we won't be changing any more flats. On the plus side, at the next gymkhana, if there is a tire-changing relay, we've got it covered!

We camped at Hueco Tanks State Park, just east of El Paso for the night, and are looking forward to another amazing star studded evening!

11 May 2009 We're Getting Warmer!

It has been a few days since we wrote…mostly because Peggy has not been feeling well. Because of this, we shortened our stay and visits in Southern California as planned, and holed up with family so she could rest. For those of you we missed, we promise, we will return for an extended stay! This morning she woke up feeling 95% up to speed. Thank you for your prayers.

The reason there are not many pictures for this leg is because this area is so familiar to us, we have permanent pictures imbedded in our brain that we basically forgot to take pictures. San Diego (Coronado) was home to us for our early married years and most of our children’s childhood before we moved to Palm Desert (Palm Springs area). We spent Mother’s Day weekend with Dave’s mom in Pomona. Before leaving Pomona, Dave worked on the car—lubing parts and pieces, tightening bolts, and checking the fluids. We left Pomona and stopped for a coffee visit with Peggy’s uncle. From Uncle Jims, we heading along Route 66 through San Timotaeo Canyon to Yucaipa where we crashed a Mother’s Day lunch with Peggy’s sister Jeri and her family. While we were there, Dave worked on changing the transmission fluid since he “had over lubed the joints” whatever that means! Anyway, he said the car is shifting much better now.

We spent Sunday night with good friends Wade and Somer Little in Palm Desert, who live across the street from our old house. It was good to catch up and enjoy the wonderful desert evening. For our Sacramento friends…when we got here yesterday, it was a balmy 103 degrees. The passenger side air conditioner began malfunctioning so Dave dismanteled it to get it in top working order for our trip across the desert.

This morning (Monday) it is currently 75 and sunny at 7:30 AM. We’ll be leaving here soon, heading toward Parker, Arizona, hoping to beat most of the direct heat driving through the desert.

6 May 2009 SLO to Mission Viejo

266 miles; 21.15 MPG

We left SLO and much to our dismay, the planned route through the mountains/high desert above Santa Barbara were closed due to the fire that was raging there. Our only options were to go back north and across the Mojave desert, or continue south on Highway 1/101. We headed south on Hwy 1, which paralled the 101 for most of the way, but were able to stop off at Pismo Beach for a photo shoot of the car on the beach.

We continued traveling south through Lompoc enjoying the sights of California agriculture at its best…yum…strawberry season. Eventually, Hwy 1 joined up again with 101—yes, a freeway—but no way around it—at Gaviota State Beach until we made it through Santa Barbara and Ventura.

Leaving Ventura, we continued south on Hwy 1 through Oxnard, and back to beach front coastline around Point Magu. I’ve always heard of this, but have never seen this part of Southern California. We hit Malibu, and then Santa Monica, with its roller coaster on the pier. Our original plan was to find a place to camp/stay in or around Santa Monica, but once we hit this area and the traffic issues we opted to exceed our 200 mile day maximum to take advantage of long time friend Laura and her boys in Mission Viejo. The trip through LA, in stop and go traffic was uneventual, but we did make it through LA without touching a freeway! Just 2 ½ hours to do it!

We eventually hit Huntington Beach, and traveled along the coast on our way to MV. Then our first mechanical mishap…about 5 miles from Laura’s, we had our first flat since we bought the car. We did learn that it was maybe not a good idea to store the jack under the back seat…we had to unpack the entire car to access it and get the tire changed!

Next stop: Backtrack to Fullerton to Moss’s to pick up a new spare tube, then we’re heading to San Diego.

5 May 2009 Big Sur to San Luis Obispo

107 miles

Our trip from Big Sur to SLO was beautiful traveling along the California coastline. We stopped a number of times for the senic views, elephant seal beach, and Ragged Point. Just stunning! We had lunch on the picnic grounds of Harmony Wine Cellars, before making our way to our daughter’s in San Luis Obispo, CA.

4 May 2009

Sacramento to Big Sur, CA

211 miles; Average 17MPG; no car problems :)

We left under cloudy skies from Sacramento and headed south, through the Sacramento Delta. Our first two lane highway challenge became apparent when we hit Livermore. How to get around the bay area without freeways? We actually found a little used highway (except for 5 cyclists and 3 cal-trans trucks) that skirted east around Freemont through hilly terrain along Calaveras Road—we felt like we were in the middle of the mountains—gorgeous views, happy “California” cows grazing, and nobody but us. San Jose was not real exciting…traffic and side streets until we hit the old mission road south, traveling through Morgan Hill to Hwy 152, east of Gilroy. We then headed west, through the enchanted forest between Gilroy and Watsonville. Finally we were able to pick up the Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1) to Monterey, where we had sea-side fish and chips at Fisherman’s Wharf. Continuing south, we traveled to Big Sur, with plans to camp…then the rain hit. At first just a drizzle, but when the campground host mentioned a guaranteed rain fall during the night, we opted to rent a small cabin at Riverside Campground and Cabins. And the rain did come down! RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY!