Starting out on the second day from Wendover UT (Bonneville for those of you in Rio Linda), they got the bad news that Andy Brizio, their run coordinator, lost his ride due to someone in front of him in line starting his car while standing outside, with the neutral safety switch not working. Well, you can imagine what happened, the rod was in reverse when it fired and it crashed back into Andy's roadster, taking out the whole front end (how'd you like to be that guy )? They were pretty bummed out about Andy's misfortune, and had all but written him off for the run.  

 

        At 6:00 AM the next morning the guys were hauling ass for Rawlins WY, when Denny Cissle lost his engine due to installation of a spark plug that was just too long for the cylinder. Lucky for Denny, they had a great safety valve, in that one of the guys on the trip owns this huge trucking service in Fresno and he had his man Friday chasing the run with a two car capacity 5th wheel trailer. They promptly scooped up Denny's roadster and went ahead to Speedway Auto Museum. They had a new ZZ4 engine installed by the time the group got into Lincoln NB, which came with the right size sparkplugs already installed.

 

        The next leg out of Rawlins WY, found the run all together about 6:30 AM for Lovelands CO to a Goodguys event, which treated the long haulers like VIPs. After taking in the show, it was then on to Sterling CO. for the night. About two hours out of Rawlins there was a mass need for a potty break and some go juice for the small tanked guys. 

        They were on this country road and spotted this little house in the middle of nowhere with a two pump station out front and  promptly descended on it. The little lady proprietor, who probably never saw a street rod before in her life was in shock, as Dick walked by her she exclaimed "My God it looks like a plague of locust."

 

        After getting his roadster totaled, Andy was offered his old roadster by it's new owner, who happened to be on the run in a different rod. He had Andy's old roadster in for some minor repairs at Roy Brizio's shop.  Andy promptly took him up on the generous offer and got back on the road. After driving like a bat out of hell for two days he caught up with the run in Lincoln NB. He pulled in just as the group was starting to enjoy a parking lot happy hour and was cheered by all, only to find our very own Duane McKinney and a couple of other guys mooning him, (classic). Again, I think alcohol must have been involved in this high school stunt.

 

        The highlights of the trip were Bill Smith's Speedway Auto Museum (awesome), where Duane found the sprint car his uncle use to race, driving the track at Indy, Chet's roadster turning into a bath tub thanks Indy's inclimate weather, our fixit stop at someplace near where they filmed Deliverance (dueling bango's) Cissles welcome home party in Lake Havasu at his new mega garage which has it's own zip code and finally arriving back home with no breakdowns.

 

        "So, who's with me for next year's run", Dick wants to know?  This is something every roadster guy has to do at least once in his life. He said he and Duane are already committed, and wants a good showing by the California Roadsters.