It is a beautiful country we live in. Here are the highlights (thanks to
Mike's GPS) from a couple of SEROCers San Francisco, CA to Aiken, SC road trip:
Day 1 - Saturday, Jan 21, 2006: Fly into San Fran airport and travel to Union
City, CA to pick up car. Took spare parts, soft top (came with only a tonneau
cover), tool kit, jumper cables, oh yeah - we did have room for a couple of
changes of clothes! Arrive at hotel around 9:30pm.
Day 2 - Sunday, Jan 22, 2006: Mike "The Mechanic" Harper resets the timing.
It was more than 3 teeth off and was sparking on the trip to the hotel the
night before. Can only be reset to within 1 tooth, but car is running and
sounding great. Mike pronounces it good to go without doing anything else.
San Francisco to Blythe, CA: 609 miles, windshield time 9 hours and 23
minutes, stopped time 1 hour and 40 minutes, moving average 64.9 mph, overall
average trip speed 56 mph, lowest point 20 feet above sea level in San Fran.
Non-car lesson of the day: Only on Sunday in Blythe do chicken legs count as
Buffalo wings, but that is another story.
Day 3 - Monday, Jan 23, 2006: After all is well on Day 2, Dave cannot get the
car to start on Day 3. It turns over but won't fire. Mike "the Mechanic"
Harper inspects the car and reminds Dave "New to this Mechanical Stuff" Chapman
that the kill switch must be flipped to get it to start. After that lesson it
starts right up.
Blythe, CA to Abilene, TX: 4 states, 1,038 miles, windshield time 15 hours and
15 minutes, stopped time 1 hour 45 minutes, moving average 63.9 mph, overall
average trip speed 58 mph, top speed 85.1 mph, 4, 965 feet above speed level
while traveling through Texas Canyon Summit
Non-car lesson of the day: That long in a car tests true friendships, or Mike
sure is groochy when it gets late. (Thank goodness I am writing this because I
would hate to see what he would say about me). We passed the test!!
Day 4 - Tuesday Jan 24, 2006: After 4 hours sleep, we have to be in Dallas by
10am for work for a couple of days.
Abilene, TX to Dallas, TX: 198 miles, windshield time 3 hours and 6 minutes,
moving average 64.1 mph.
We worked in Dallas from Tuesday to Thursday. Mike had to fly home to go to a
meeting and I was left alone for the last segment of the journey. Instructions
for any repairs would be worked via phone. Mike took his GPS with him , so the
last day doesn't have as much detail. Car has been running flawlessly though.
Would this continue now that Mike, The Navigator and Knowledge Guy, Harper was
gone?
Day 5 - Friday Jan 27, 2006: Left Dallas at 8am EST. All is going well until
the car hiccuped a couple of times inside the GA line, and did this several
times for about an hour. I started sweating and discussing possible cures with
Mike via phone. It hiccuped one last time about 100 miles from home, and that
was it. It must have been something in the gas line that worked itself out.
It then ran great the rest of the way. Arrived home at 1am Saturday morning
with only a couple of quick breaks along the way. I could smell the barn.
Dallas, TX to Aiken, SC: 6 states, 975 miles, total windshield and stop time 17
hours.
This was a real cross country trip and I plan on completing the coast to coast
trip by going to Mike's house on the SC coast, but this was very close. We
really appreciate everyone who sent us contact information and offered to help
if we ran into trouble.
Car's nickname is "Cali" short for California Dreaming. Plan on getting a
personalized tag CALIDRMN.
David Chapman and Mike Harper
SEROC
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