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04/08/03; Day 1; Yuma, AZ
We’re Off!
The tires are hitting the occasional pothole on Soledad Canyon Road, not far from our home as we begin the great adventure today. Joann and I look at each other with big grins. It has been quite a long time since this USA Tour was a gleam in our eyes and now we have actually begun our journey! What all does it hold for us?
I had daydreamed, Walter Mitty-style, for years about turning back the clock and taking a transcontinental tour in a Model A Ford. I had come west with my parents and brother in 1935 – from Ohio to California in a 1934 Plymouth tudor sedan. Of course, this tour wouldn’t really be like that one; we’d be traveling on Interstate Highways lots of the time and there will be many more facilities for gas, food, lodging and even repairs for our 70-some-year-old cars. Nevertheless, it will still be a challenge to both man and machine to make this 12000-odd-mile tour.
While my father’s car was of comparable technology as our 1931 Victoria and the Olson’s 1930 fordor sedan, there are certainly many differences in the circumstances. We have in many ways upgraded our 1930’s originals with fully pressurized oil systems, inserted bearings, more modern steering, pressurized cooling systems, among the most obvious. We will be happy to turn on our air conditioning systems when the occasion demands, though we may be reluctant to admit to needing it. Certainly, other differences are obvious; if my father’s Plymouth broke down, he could find a garage in most towns and parts were readily available. However, towns were fewer and farther apart. Dennis and I will be pretty much on our own, in this regard. We have anticipated the most likely events and have prepared for them -- we think! To give us an advantage over the 1930’s tourist, we have our cell phones and we can locate parts and have them shipped to us anywhere in the US by the next day. Certainly, we’ll not have two whining kids to contend with, but on the other hand, we’re not in the vigor of life like my 34-year old father was – I have past my 78th birthday! So, you see there are pluses and minuses.
I mentioned my dream of one day making a transcontinental trip in my A to Dennis Olson some years ago. His reply was, “I’ve always wanted to do that, too.” I didn’t know Dennis very well then, but I filed the information away to be remembered later as we got to know both Dennis and Joan better. We have found them excellent traveling companions. We overlook the others faults and try not to make waves in our relationships. So as the time came to talk about this seriously, there was little doubt in our minds that we wanted the Olsons as sidekicks on the trip. We started to seriously consider it after our successful duet to Kansas City and back for the 2000 MAFCA convention. As the ladies are wont to say, my “biological clock” was running down so if I didn’t get to it soon, it would be too late. It was difficult to fit such a tour into our otherwise busy schedule, but it looked like 2003 would be the time, if there ever was one. Neither couple planned to go on the MATC tour to France, so that made 2003 available. Of course, we hadn’t figured on a war and gas prices to the stratosphere! Now, we are on the road and 12000 miles or more lay ahead before we will see Soledad Canyon Road again.
We had packed almost everything but our toilet articles yesterday and we were up before the sun to finish packing and get on the road. We have a rendezvous with the Olsons in “The Valley” at the on-ramp to the 210 Freeway at 0700. It is a “work” morning, so we must contend with the rush-hour traffic. We departed home at 0615 and took the back roads, so soon we join the Olsons and drive onto the 210 in trail formation with the Smiths in the lead. Tuesday-morning traffic is not bad until we reach the outskirts of Pasadena. We slow a bit through Pasadena, but once clear of the city, the traffic speeds up and we are at our cruising speed of 50-55 MPH. The 210 soon dumps us onto the I-15 south to San Diego. Approaching San Diego, we again encounter heavy traffic, then on the outskirts of San Diego, we veer east on the I-8, which will take us to Yuma, Arizona, our destination for today. This section of the trip was quite windy and the driving required strict attention to the road. We arrive in Yuma at 1530 (I hope you can figure out my use of “military time”). We stopped twice for gasoline and once for a picnic lunch in a rest area. As we pulled off the freeway into the rest area, the Olson’s car emitted lots of black smoke. Twenty minutes later, Dennis had fixed the problem, a carburetor float hinge pin that had worked loose. We traveled 346 miles today for an average of 37-MPH including our stops. We used 19 gallons of fuel for 18.2 MPG. The average price of gas was $2.13. The weather was clear all day, with a starting temperature of 53 degrees in Canyon Country and 86 degrees in Yuma. In all, not a bad start.
Keith, Joann, Dennis & Joan
PS: Though I have had some problems with the computer the past week, it seems to be working fine after a week in the shop and a half day spent re-installing my software and checking it . However, when I tried to connect to my Internet Provider, I was unable to setup the dialer to call through the motel’s switchboard. I’ll have to wait until I solve this problem to get this information on the Burbank’s web site.