Coast
to coast
Use the
red bullets to navigate
-
April 20 Sacramento,
California.
- We were supposed to start for Reno this afternoon but on inspection it
became apparent that the 'Cuda needed a new
carburettor. Installing this (along with the original manifold) took most
of the afternoon, so we decided to postpone our start until Monday. While the
men worked on the car, Sarah and her friend Ann supplied food, then watched
videos of old X Files.
-
April 21 Reno, Nevada.
- We stayed at the Silver Legacy
Hotel/Casino, had a meal at the Santa Fe restaurant (Basque) with friends, and
finished off the evening at the Brew Brothers, a brew pub conveniently situated
between the Silver Legacy Casino and the El Dorado Casino.
-
April 22 Salt Lake City, Utah.
- After a long day of driving, we arrived only to find there was a convention
going on and very few hotel rooms to be had. However, we managed to get one and
even got a chance to do a bit of sightseeing after dinner and a trip to the
Squatters Pub. The Temple looks very impressive after dark. The
next morning Graham had to take the car to a
garage to get a wheel bearing adjusted, and to get the front brake hoses
replaced. That led to a very late start.
-
April 23 Cheyenne, Wyoming.
- On the way to Cheyenne, it became clear that the windshield wipers weren't
behaving as well as could be expected. Despite this handicap, we made it to
Cheyenne at nightfall, only to learn that the weather forecast called for 4
inches of snow to dump all over town during the
night. (After this experience, we took care to watch the weather channel every
night during the rest of our journey.) We bravely took this news in our stride
and had a lovely meal at the Medicine Bow Brewing Company. The next morning it
was time for a AAA callout, as the car just didn't want to start. Even after
discovering the problem (frozen choke), the AAA man could not help us with the
wipers, but we got them started eventually and made the decision to press on
east where the roads were clear past the state line.
-
April 24 Salina, Kansas.
- We took 80 east halfway through Nebraska. Somewhere along the road a
horrible flapping noise came from the engine and we had to pull over (Sarah was
driving). After finding nothing that could have been making that racket, we
decided to press on once more, and eventually whatever it was that made the
noise flew out. We decided it was probably just a stick of wood; however, it
rather took Sarah's appetite away. After lunch, we took a state highway due
south from North Platte to Interstate 70, which took us to Salina. We had
actually planned to get to Wichita but it was just too late and we didn't fancy
driving much after dark. The next morning Graham took the car to a garage to
check out the wiper motor, but they couldn't find a replacement. All they could
do was treat the windscreen, so we crossed our fingers and pressed on once more.
-
April 25 Norman, Oklahoma.
- Our route took us south on 135/35 after a little detour. Part of 35 is a
toll road, the only one on the trip. The weather was horrible and as we came in
to Oklahoma City the wipers finally packed in. Luckily we pulled off the
freeway near a shop called Interstate Auto Repair, where the mechanics (between
cigarettes, coffee, and lunch) found us a suitable wiper motor and installed it.
Oklahoma City drivers are rather AGGRESIVE; they don't like to give you any room
ever! But we made it to Norman (a university town south of OK City) and checked
out the town's two brew pubsacross Main Street from each other. After we
returned to the motel, Graham went to the car to get some cigars and forgot his
room number, giving Sarah a few minutes of panic!
-
April 26 North Little Rock,
Arkansas.
- After buying a new headlamp not far from our motel (the old one had
sustained some sort of injury), we drove to North Little Rock, where we spent a
couple of days with Sarah's aunt and cousins.
-
April 27
- We spent a quiet day doing laundry before the whole family went to
Hot Springs for a meal (cat fish). One
cannot visit the South without making time to pig out in a catfish house.
-
April 28 Memphis, Tennessee.
- The transmission decided not to work this morning, due to a lack of fluid.
After topping it up, Graham took the 'Cuda to a local shop; however, the tranny
seemed fine by then and besides the mechanics couldn't look for the leak as the
weather was too wet. Because it was a relatively short drive to Memphis, we had
time to walk down Beale Street and then visit the Titanic Exhibition at the
Pyramid before supper. While we were in the Pyramid, the rain storm (which we
first drove into north of OK City) finally cleared away and the evening was
lovely. A mockingbird even took up residence in a tree close to the car.
-
April 29 McComb, Mississippi.
- We were supposed to spend a couple of days in New Orleans, but we never
made it, due to the presence of a large chunk of metal in the middle of the
right lane of I-55 just a few miles north of the Louisiana state line. Graham
tried to drive over it, but because the 'Cuda is rather low-slung, the object
caught the underside of the car and got hurled into the front left tire, leaving
a large gash. Then it severed the parking brake cable and left several dents
under the car before we left it behind. After we pulled over, Graham pointed
out that one piece of equipment we didn't own was a lug wrench. Therefore, we
sat on the shoulder of the highway for an
hour before a kind man stopped and let us phone AAA from his carphone. An hour
later the truck arrived with the necessary lug wrench. After getting the spare
put on and pumped up, we limped ten miles back to McComb, where we spend the
evening drinking Jack Daniels Amber Lager and watching locals dance the
Macarena.
-
April 30 Laurel, Mississippi.
- After getting lost on the way, we spent three days visiting Sarah's
Uncle Aaron and getting the car sorted out.
We also went to Jackson to visit Aunt Helen and Uncle William. It was lovely of
Sarah's uncle to drive us around, giving us a welcome break from tackling the
highways.
-
May 1
- Graham started making calls to the shipping broker to enquire about getting
the 'Cuda back to the U.K. Unfortunately, the best he could do was leave a
message. Later in the evening we got the news via CNN that Tone did it and John
was out.
-
May 2
- We took the 'Cuda to a mechanic just outside Laurel to try get the
suspension sorted out, but received the bad news that it would take more time
and work than we or the mechanic had available at that moment. But Mr Laird,
who is very experienced in dealing with cars like ours, said that once we decide
to do the job, we could phone him and he would talk us through it. Maybe it
would be cheaper just to fly him out here (rather than pay the phone bill)! And
Graham got a phone call from the shipping broker, but we didn't get the fax he
promised us.
-
May 3 Atlanta, Georgia.
- As we drove across Alabama, Graham noticed smoke pouring out the back of
the car. This turned out to be transmission fluid spilling out onto the
exhaust. Because Sarah insisted, we pulled off the highway and got a mechanic
to have a look at the situation. Once the fluid all burned off, we had a smooth
run to Atlanta, but didn't have time to see
much, thanks to another time zone change. However, we did enjoy a meal at
Johnny Rocket's (great burger and fries) and a few drinks at the Groundhog
Tavern in Underground Atlanta.
-
May 4 Boiling Springs, North
Carolina.
- After one more panic (Graham couldn't get the key out of the ignition after
lunch, but solved the problem by rotating the steering wheel sleeve in some
mysterious manner), we spent a couple of days with Sarah's Aunt Rachel as well
as her son Tony and his family.
-
May 5
- We did some shopping at a huge clothing store called Hamrick's (why are
there so many Hamricks around that part of North Carolina?) and in at good old
Walmart in Shelby. Thanks to Tony's wife Joetta, who volunteered the facilities
of her office at the local college, we finally received the long-promised fax
from the shipping brokera form which Graham filled out and faxed back.
All of a sudden it seemed that things were going according to plan!
-
May 6 Nag's Head, North Carolina.
- It was a long drive across the state to the coast, but we made it! Once we
saw the Atlantic Ocean, we felt we'd
accomplished at least part of our goal. Too bad most of the town was dead (it
was the off season). Still, we managed to find a little bar that sold good San
Francisco beer.
-
May 7 Richmond, Virginia.
- On the way we spent the morning at the Wright
brothers memorial at Kitty Hawk, then zigzagged up the highway looking for a
T-shirt depicting the first flight (harder than you would think). After arriving
in Richmond we found the tourist information office by the state capitol, but it
had closed. There we were, in the middle of a big city, rush hour looming and no
detailed map in hand. Our only hope was to rely on our instincts: since the
street we needed ran near a river, we headed roughly downhill from the capitol
building. Luckily we were in the left lane when Sarah shouted, "Turn left!"
"Why?" asked Graham. "Because that's our street!" Indeed it
was Carey Street, where after two blocks we found the Berkeley Hotel,
recommended by our travel guide. We decided to look no further.
-
May 8 Washington, DC.
- On the way we spent a little time and had lunch in Fredricksburg, VA. We
arrived in Washington around mid afternoon, drove through the centre of town
(not for the faint hearted) and booked into the Embassy Row Hilton near Du Pont
Circle (recommended to us by a nice couple in the Berkeley; the wife was quite
taken with Baron). I think the valet enjoyed parking the car! Pity the name
Hilton doesn't guarantee operational plumbing: the shower was a joke! We spent
the late afternoon walking to the White House,
Washington Monument, and the Lincoln
Memorial (as one does).
-
May 9
- It was fairly easy getting out of DC and onto the freeway to Baltimore.
Too bad it started pouring down rain. We drove to the docks (where we'd been
directed by the shipping broker) only to find the Customs Office closed for
lunch. Graham took this opportunity to phone Wallenius (the shipper) only to
find that we should be at their offices (which we'd passed on the way to
Customs). Once we got there we were told that we would have to clear the car
through Customs ourselves, although we'd been previously told that Wallenius
would do that for us. Furthermore, we were under the impression that the car
wouldn't get through Customs without the pink slip, which was on its way to
Scotland; we had planned to send the pink slip back to the shipper and let the
shipper take care of the rest. In order to solve this Catch-22 situation, we
took the advice of the gentleman at Wallenius and took the car to a man across
the road who would, for a fee, take care of our car until the documents were
available, then clear it through Customs for us. However, this man had a better
idea: he simply made copies of what documents we did possess (i.e. the bill of
sale and temporary registration), notarised them, and sent us back to Customs to
try our luck. It all seemed pretty dodgy to us, but it worked and before long
we waved goodbye to the car at Baltimore docks.
Rather than rent a car and tackle DC traffic again, we took public transport
back to the hotel and collapsed on the bed, exhausted. We'd been at the docks
all day and hadn't had any lunch. What a day! That evening we relaxed over a
good meal at the Brickskeller and tasted just a few of the 700 different beers
they had to offer. We felt we'd earned it!
-
May 10
- By Graham's request, we spent the morning at the
Air and Space Museum, after which we had
lunch at the Burrito Brothers near the hotel (yum!!!). Why don't they open a
franchise in Edinburgh? We then took a taxi to Dulles airport and flew home.
-
May 11
- And we arrived home in Edinburgh before lunch time.