| Rain, or maybe virga, over the mountains in the desert east of ElPaso. Between a last minute, near-show-stopper problem with Frank's brakes and the usual procrastination we got a late start out of Austin. |  |
| We weren't too far into New Mexico when the sun set. By the time we got an hour outside Tempe it was late enough to be counter productive to drive any farther. |  |
| Desert landscape between Phoenix and Kingman AZ. If you look closely you can see a couple of giant dust devils at the bottom. Just outside Kingman on I40 we felt a mechanical jerk in the steering like something had broken. Since I'd just put in a new steering shaft I feared the worst. Expecting a complete loss of steering control, I dove for the median but soon realized that the steering was normal and nothing looked out of place. We drove the rest of the way into Kingman and made the turn onto US93 before getting gas. One more once-over showed nothing amiss so we continued on our way... |  |
| Until we were a few miles out of town and loud screech developed, accompanied by a jerk to the right. As we stood on the side of the road Sophia said "I think the tire is leaking." When we leaned in closer we realized that it was the grease in the hub sizzling! Once I got the wheel and locking hub off it became apparent that the outer wheel bearing had completely seized, welding the rollers and retainer into slag, and welding the outer spindle nut to the spindle. Luckily, amazingly, Tim from AZ rolled up and asked if we needed any help! Even a breaker bar on the spindle nut socket didn't budge it and it was too deeply set to get a good purchase with a punch. After Tim ran down an impact wrench we were able to get the nuts off but we couldn't pull the rotor until I smashed the slag out from between the races with a punch! |  |
| I had a spare spindle and bearings so we were able to limp back into Kingman and get a motel next to the NAPA in anticipation of getting a new spindle nut when they opened in the morning. Sure enough they had the part and we were on the road shortly. This is the sign for the Chinese restaurant across from our motel on old US66 in old town. |  |
| Even though the race had spun in the hub/rotor, essentially destroying it, it continued to function without incident for the rest of the trip. One associated bit of traumatic carnage occurred in Tonopah while I removed the locking hub to see how the bearing was faring... I set my Maui Jim Ti-framed shades on a rock and, being so feathery light, they blew off onto the pavement getting a pit on the left lens in the process. AAARRRRRRGGGGGGG!!!!! I'd almost rather have the front hub explode at a high rate of speed tearing the wheel off the axle and sending Frank into a series of barrel rolls out into the desert! Traffic across Hoover Dam was light and the water level in Lake Mead was low. |  |
| Lonely desert highway north of LasVegas. |  |
| Mountains west of Tonopah on Hwy6. |  |
| A strip mine a little farther west toward the California border. |  |
| White mountain in California just before picking up Hwy120. |  |
| Looking back east from the foothills of the Sierras at twilight. With the late start from fixing the wheel bearing and getting lost somewhere near Markleville we didn't get to Loon Lake until after 2:00am. We knew where we were going this year so the usual NorCal postage-stamp-size event sign wasn't an issue! Ha ha! |  |
| The next morning we knew we were in the right place when we awoke to Mike spraying starting fluid into an unseated tire! Before long we had broken camp and headed over to Gate Keeper. |  |
| Bob watches the Dick work his way through. |  |
| Todd watches Kirk get IFS-core. |  |
| Bob and Official Brian watch Anthony get jiggy with it... |  |