Wendy Gibbs our traveling companion traveling in "Franklin" our Bugeye
writes
of the trip from San Diego to Chicago. The 3 day trip was necessary
to meet
their flight schedule back to Australia.
Bob
The sprint from San Diego to
Chigago 2100 miles in 3 days (3360km)
We were up at 3.30 to leave by 4am.
The weather was cool to start as is the San Diego weather in general. By 6.30
we were back in Barstow Mecca of the Mojave with what seemed half of the
poplulation of San Diego. It was Friday July 4th and many many many folk were
heading for Las Vegas Nevada for the long weekend. We'd made it here with =
gallon to spare.
Next stop was Las Vegas North for gas. Yet another mere 170
miles under our wheels. while the lads filled the cars with gas and checked
them over, Pat and i escaped into the air conditioned shop to buy
supplies...like Gatorade and water as it was getting seriously hot by now. In
the little service station shop full of groceries were half a dozen poker
machines. Pat and I put $1 through each winning a total of $3.50. To serve our
pennance for gambling the lads actually let us drive for a while.
By the
time we got to Mesquite Nevada, a further 70 miles down the road Pat and I
were nursing the cars driving by temperature gauge not speedo. We stopped at a
Maccas in what little shade there was. Everyone was too hot to eat at first
which was probably just as well because by the time the lads got to the front
of the line to order, the heat stroke we were all starting to suffer was
settling in the cooler indoor climate.
Lookout Utah here we come!
Ian took
the lead as Franklin was having the most difficulty with the heat. We lost
sight of Bob nd Pat in the rear vision mirror so we pulled off at exit 40 and
waited under the freeway in the shade for them to catch up. It seems that the
BT7 was having problems with fuel vapour lock.
By 7.55pm all of us had had
enough for the day. It was 100 degrees still at Green River Utah, there was a
Comfort Inn and restaurant that was still open across the road. After a great
meal we headed back to the motel on foot. It was till 98 degrees. The 4th of
July fireworks started but none of us had the strength to get out of bed to go
look.
As a side note between us Ian and I consumed 1 gallon (4 litres) of
Gatorade and 2 gallons of water today.
Continued in Part 2
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