(With apologies to Hope and Crosby) "We're on the road to Por-ortland"
It was oh-dark thirty and we arose from our peaceful slumber to back the
TR8 and head off into the wild west. I loaded the trunk (which is
deceptively large - in Triumph terms), backed the 8 out of the garage, put
the TR6 in the garage in it's place (nature abhores a vacuum) and headed
off westward. Oops, left the watch at the office. Oh well, we're passing
by anyway. Stop in, Oops, a little bit of business I forgot to take care
of before I left Friday. 45 minutes later we are on the road for real. Oh
well, only an hour behind schedule. What's an hour on this trip.
It was raining lightly as we left St. Louis but the rain soon stopped and
the further west we went the lighter the cloud cover became. By the time
we hit Kansns City (and a quick stop at Victoria British for some lasty
minute items (they had one but not the other)) It was norhtward to the home
of Brad Kahler in Lincoln Nebraska. By the time we got to Lincoln we had
covered over 450 miles in the TR8 and I must say what a fine highway car it
is. Quiet, comfortable, roomy (by Triumph standards) and much less
fatiguing than the TR6 we drove to Portland (the other Portland) last year.
If only it had criuse.
We arrived at Brad's house about 2:00 and he gave us a quick tour of his
workshop (to heck with the house) and we headed off west. The plan was to
stop for the night in Ogallala (yes folks, that's for real. Look it up)
some 300 miles futher west making for a 700 -800 mile first day.
Ogallala. "25 Hotels." All booked. Seems that between two baseball
tournements, a golf tounement and something at the lake has left them
booked solid. Even North Platte and Sidney were booked with the over flow.
Oh well. Lets get dinner, call the travel agent and see if they have
anything in Cheyenne. Econo-Lodge. $63 a night. Sounded like an oxymoron
to me but OK. Only another three hours.
11:00 PM. Cheyenne WY. We've been on the road for 17 hours. If we were
truckers we would have been busted hours ago. "Hello Econolodge, we have
reservations." "Your reservations are for tomorrow night." "What?!!!"
"Hello travel agent..." Turns out the whole place has been booked since
Jan 1. Something about Frontier Days. I thought cowboys liked to sleep
under the stars!
11:45 PM. Laramie, WY. Two rooms. $80 per night. Plus tax. At least we
won't have to drive straight through to Portland! On the bright side we
have only 1000 more miles and three days to get there.
Are You Sure This Is a British Car?
The car is running! The car is completely reassembled except for the
engine and transmission. I was concerned about the engine since the oil
pressure is not too healthy but it has performed flaulessly. When I first
put it together there was a healthy oil leak in the vicinity of the oil
drain plug. I changed the oil just before leaving and loticed that the
copper washer on the plug was all mangled (probably from someone
overtorquing it) so off to the autoparts store. "we don't have anything
that big" they said after looking in the selection box. Hello Ace Hardware
plumbing department. One fibre washer and one nylon washer that fit fine
and I'm back to the garage. I installed the fibre washer (with some
Hylomar HPF for insurance) and crossed my fingers.
So far, no leaks. Furthermore, after driving 1,000 miles there is no
discernable drop in the oil level. This thing uses no oil at all! Are you
sure this is a British car?!!!
Next time: We drive to Rock Springs and into Utah (We hope).
Dave Massey
1980 TR8
On the road in Laramie, WY.
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