Cannonball Run

....We passed through Kingman, without checking the map, thinking there are towns like Kingman all through Arizona, right. Turns out Kingman sits on the west edge of a huge expanse of nothing, that stretches 70 miles to Seligman. Probably the longest empty stretch on the whole trip. Renee was asleep. I was too lazy to check the map, there was a sign before the last "empty" stretch that said "25 miles" to the next gas so I felt they would warn me if that happened again. There were lots of excuses.



I have run out of gas before, maybe even a couple of times,............ but never in the freezing desert,............never without cell phone coverage,..........never in a windy fog at 5500 feet elevation,...........and NEVER 25 MILES SHORT OF THE GAS STATION.

Not good


We pulled out our thumbs and got rescued almost immediately by an angel in the form of an undertaker from Flagstaff on a return run from delivering a body. This unbelievable guy, named Norvel, took us the 25 miles to the gas station, then BACK the 25 miles to the car! He would not take money, but we sent him a big cheese and sausage box from Swiss Colony in Monroe and a card.


Still, there is no way to thank someone for something like that.............

....and all that in the first 100 miles. The other 1700 lay before us. This is Albuquerque in the foreground with the Sandia mountains behind wearing a crown of clouds.

Neat..........

........the old Buick proved to be much tougher than we thought. Never missed a beat. There were some irritations, however. This is the dash. the speedometer needle never moved off the peg. The temperature guage never moved off the needle (this may have been accurate as the heater was, well, underwhelming. Adequate in Arizona, but not destined for greatness in Minnesota) The gas guage was suspect (off by at least 25 miles!) The dash did accurately point out that I was in "drive", a handy thing to know at 80 mph.............

.....Wichita?



Who knows..........

We ran into snow in Kansas City. It stayed with us all the way to Spooner, a storm that was 400 miles wide. What fun! We saw 30 cars in the ditch, including 5 SUV's. None of the cars or trucks had rolled over. ALL of the suv's had rolled over. Do you see a pattern? Suv's are sold to us as being safer than cars, but their center of gravity is so high that, if you get them sideways, 100% WILL roll over. The profit margin is so high for an suv that the car companies are addicted to them, and they go on happily killing 500 Americans each year who roll their beloved suv's over.

Go figure.........

....We drove 31 hours straight through. In a blinding snowstorm and with no sleep, your mind starts to play tricks on you. Here is a picture I took of Renee asleep on my lap in the front seat ( I think)............

But we accomplished the main objectives of the trip:

1. We delivered an old Buick to Renee's son's girlfriend, so she could get to her college classes.

2. We had a great time in Laughlin, visiting with Rex and Mary.

3. We strengthened our relationship (we ARE still together, contrary to rumor)

4. We proved the old "Cannonball" run movie was not a hoax.

5. And we delivered this precious Deppler's Baby Swiss Cheese to Rex on his Birthday!! Hoy! Hoy! Hoy!

Uncle Hans