[JONAT-chat] Arizona Sector Report - Days 3-6

[Bob]

Mark ... great report !  I'm looking forward to the pictures!  Bob



-----Original Message-----
From: jonat-chat-admin@autox.team.net
[mailto:jonat-chat-admin@autox.team.net]On Behalf Of Mark Stephenson
Sent: May 1, 2004 10:16 PM
To: Jonat-chat@autox.team.net
Subject: [JONAT-chat] Arizona Sector Report - Days 3-6


My reports are later than planned. I'll have pictures to go along with all
of
these, but in Page, not only didn't I have high-speed access, I didn't even
have a local number for NetZero.

Day 3 Around Mesa Verde National Park

Robert MacLeay and his friend Steven took the bus tour of the park, while
Andrea, Dick and Nancy Hile, and I drove to various points in the park. We
got
some great shots of ruins with the Jaguars and Jay, the Jaguar. We have some
beautiful vistas with four cats (three of them cars) from this day. Not much
driving so not much to talk about. Pictures will tell the story far better
than I can.

Robert and Steven decided to head to Cortez, CO and stay overnight there, so
we did the handoff Wednesday night.

For Bob: We had 74 stickers and 10 plates + 1 plate still sealed in the West
Texas envelope. Both Robert and I forgot the official form, so Robert and I
signed Robert's envelope stating the contents we exchanged. I'll scan and
e-mail a copy of that to you when I get back to Phoenix.

Late in the day, we began to wonder about Gary Singer who was supposed to
join
us somewhere - we thought Mesa Verde. As we and the Hile's were dining on
more
fabulous food (I went for buffalo this time) one of the hotel staff brought
me
a message. It had been delivered to the wrong room and the guest brought it
back to the front desk. The message I received about seven hours late was
that
Gary was leaving Albuquerque. We determined that the drive was at most five
hours. We were no longer wondering if he was going to be there -- he should
have been there. Well, there wasn't much we could do about it. I had no cell
phone service, there were no phones in the rooms, we didn't even have TV.

I woke up a couple times that night, listening for the unmistakable sound of
the straight six, but come morning, there was still no sign of Gary.

Day 4 Mesa Verde, CO to Page, AZ - 300 miles - or
the day starts out well, goes badly, but ends OK

It could have been worse. The cars are all still running, but if we lost
one,
it wouldn't have been much worse.
We started down off the mesa and reached a point where we could see across
the
valley floor a quarter-mile below. As we stopped for pictures, we realized
we
had cell phone reception. I checked my messages and among the frantic
business
calls was one from Gary. It was 8 p.m. and he still hadn't left Albuquerque
but a Jaguar was running. Rather than drive into the night with little
sleep,
he was going to leave early the next morning and try to catch us as we left.
It would have been a great plan assuming we were on schedule, but with
checking out and checking all the messages we were nearly an hour behind --
and no Gary. I tried calling the number Gary left and it was no good. I
listened to the message again, and either I was suffering from stress
induced
dyslexia, or Gary was, because I had two numbers reversed. We continued down
the side of the mesa hoping that we'd find him somewhere along the way. As I
rounded the final turn before the guard shack there was a BRG Series 1 E on
the opposite side of the road. I slowed down and out popped Gary. After
exchanging pleasantries and hearing how Gary's 120 wasn't ready in time and
his E then blew a water pump and how FedEx stock is going through the roof
solely from Gary's overnight shipping volume, we pressed on to Cortez where
we
picked up Robert and Steven.

We were now four, an XK120, a Series 1 E roadster, a V12 E with trailer, and
a
XJ40 Majestic. We were now taking on the look of an entourage.

Weather reports along the way indicated that even the worst days would make
it
into the sixties (F). There was one day where isolated showers were
predicted.
That was today. In Phoenix, "isolated showers" means plan a picnic because
the
most you are going to see is clouds that are dark on the undersides. I think
it's the weather forcaster's way of covering his backside when there is an
ever so slight chance that a drop of water might fall from the sky
somewhere.
The other term is "breezy." Now this to me conjures up pictures of happy
children with kites that have tails with a few knots in them being able to
play out string and get the kite sailing with perhaps a few backward steps.
Just as "isolated showers" wouldn't make me think of alternating bands of
rain
and sun cascading across the high desert, "breezy" doesn't make me think of
kite strings snapping or kite flyers being dragged across the ground on
their
bellies. But that pretty much described the weather of the day. One Kodak
moment, at the north edge of Monument Valley, the Marcel Marceau routine of
"Man walking against a strong wind" was a reality. The temperatures were in
the fifties at best and we estimated a sustained wind speed of 40 mph with
gusts to 60. It was coming from the west and we were traveling south. There
is
not much worse in a car with no top. Driving into the wind you have a wind
break. Driving with the wind is deceptively fast. 70 mph with a 40 mph
crosswind combines to create something like an oblique 95 mph fury that
blows
past the windscreen and blasts you in the side of the head. Needless to say
it
was my poor wife Andrea's head and by the time we reached Goulding Trading
Post, she was madder than a cat getting a bath, except the cat can't
complain
about someone leaving the top and side curtains under the bed at home to
make
more space for clothing, tools, and spares.

The only way it could get worse -- rain. We saw it, at first, mostly sunny
with wisps of virga beneath a few thick clouds, then mostly cloudy where you
hoped the road took you under the wisps of virga rather than under a
full-blown drenching. We skirted a few, but then our luck ran out. A light
rain left me wishing my wipers worked. Fifteen minutes later we hit the next
band of rain, heavier. Following that, in the distance we saw the biggest,
blackest cell of the day. We could not see through the downpour at the base.
The road weaved left and it looked like we'd pass it on the right; the road
weaved right and it was ahead on the left. We breathed a sigh of relief as
it
became apparent that we would pass by on the north, but our relief was
short-lived.

Even though we were at least three miles away, the temperature dropped 20
degrees (F). It was freezing, and I don't mean that subjectively. Even
though
we had dropped to about 6000 ft. elevation, this was the coldest we had
experienced. Gary, with the top up, windows up, and the heater running, was
chilly. The wind spreading out from the bottom of the storm cell was now on
my
side and even the heat from the exhaust did little to cut the chill. I
alternated driving with each hand to warm the other; I sat on my left and
laid
my right on a warm spot on the transmission tunnel. Andrea, behind the
windscreen in terms of relative wind angle, wearing a second jacket loaned
us
by Dick and Kathy, and with both hands in her pockets, was faring much
better.
It was twenty minutes or so before we broke that icy grip and an occasional
bit of warmth wafted up from the floorboards. Either that or frostbite was
setting in. We discussed it briefly through cold-stiff faces and weren't
certain which it was initially. Finally as we descended the final fifteen
hundred feet into Page, AZ, warmth began creeping back into our bones.
As we pulled into the Holiday Inn Express parking lot, Andrea staked her
claim
to first shower and the friendly faces of Pete and Donna Hilgeman greeted us
from a second story window. Pete and Donna had stories of the drive through
the snow, about two inches, in Flagstaff, and getting their windscreen
sandblasted by an ill-timed wind gust as they passed a gravel truck.

We pigged out at a favorite Mexican restaurant of Dick and Kathy's in their
home town of Page. The staff came by, distributed sombreros to all the men,
including two giant ones for me and Dick, as el Jefe and el Segundo, and
serenaded us with a rousing Spanish version of "Happy Jaguar to You." We
finished off the evening snapping pictures of Jay in a sombrero.

Day 5 - Page, AZ to Grand Canyon to Williams, AZ or,
The best laid plans...

The wind died down a bit and Page to Cameron was almost balmy by comparison
to
the previous day. We were still bundled, as the high temp at the Grand
Canyon
was in the low sixties. However, the sun at 6-7000 feet is hot this time of
year, even if the air is cold.

Dick and Kathy did a great job of making all the arangements for the first
half of the Arizona Sector. The food was excellent, the roads were beautiful
(for people in cars with tops), and the arrangements were flawless until we
got to the Grand Canyon. It wasn't Dick's fault, it was more a convergence
of
small things that created a bump in the journey.

Dick had the foresight to arrange a secure place for all the Jaguars to park
and a shuttle bus to take us to the South Rim. We got a late start from
Page,
spent more time than we wanted to at Cameron, and were over an hour late
leaving. My MapPoint timing was generally conservative, giving us a cushion,
but the road into the Grand Canyon was slower than MapPoint used as an
average, so that put us even further behind.

My MapPoint instructions to the meeting point at the Canyon were different
from Dick's because I hadn't taken into account the meeting place. I didn't
have the foresight to bring a club roster with me, so I didn't have the
phone
numbers for the people arriving from Phoenix, but I did have Dennis Eynon's
number. I got a hold of him Friday morning and he tried to could find the
guys
at the meeting point, but had arrived a bit late. Thinking they had already
left, he took off like a bat out of hell up I-17 for the Grand Canyon. They
hadn't left and was just putting distance between him and them. He never
found
them and waited at the South Entrance to the park, but somehow missed them.

So, the Phoenix/Grand Canyon group except for one, proceeded to the rim and
parked there, while the rest of us took the shuttle. Eventually we tracked
everyone down for dinner at the scheduled time and place. It wasn't a big
problem, just a bit frustrating, and took a bit of the lustre off what had
been nearly flawless up to that point. Unfortunately, in the confusion, we
left Jay in the car at the meeting point, so we have no shots of him at the
Grand Canyon.

The Grand Canyon was, well, grand. It's indescribably beautiful and immense.
Pictures don't do it justice. Even if Jay isn't in them, we'll do our best
to
give you a hint of what it was like. Andrea and I took a long walk before
dinner, and it was exactly what we needed.

What started as a entourage had now grown to a convoy of Jaguars. We added
the
XJSes of Phil and Andy Eisenberg, Jim Baum, and Dick Hauger; and the XK8 of
Dennis Eynon to our three E-types, one XK120, and XJ40, as we took our
twilight drive to Williams. The temperature drops quickly in the high, dry
country of northern Arizona. It was almost as bad as the day before, but I
didn't have anyone to commiserate with, since Andrea hitched a ride with
Dennis in his XK8.

I was happy to unload into my caboose-suite at the Canyon Motel. It was a
great experience sleeping in a converted caboose with the hushed sounds of
the
night trains rolling along the BNSF main line a half mile to the south. The
only thing missing was the rhythmic clicking of the rails beneath the floor.

Day 6 - Williams to Kingman - The Rt. 66 Fun Run

Saturday we awoke to frost covering the 120. We had arrived at 8:30 p.m. and
although I recognized some of the cars, I didn't have a chance to take stock
of who was there until the morning. Steve Guinn had his XJS and Greg Meyer
had
his E. This represented the highwater mark of the Arizona Sector with ten
cars
and fifteen participants. Steve just drove up to spend the night with us and
headed back to Phoenix so we were back to nine cars as we headed to Seligman
for the start of the Fun Run.

Imagine a Cruise Night times ten and you have Rt. 66 in Seligman on Saturday
morning. There were close to 700 cars participating. We took our place in
line
without Dennis, because he had to return to attend to some family events. We
made it through as a group to the Grand Canyon Caverns, where some of us
took
the tour and others didn't, scattering us. It's a very interest cavern,
different from most you may have seen, in that the humidity inside is about
6%. A fossilized giant sloth and a mummified bobcat have been found inside.
Robert MacLeay should be uploading the picture of Jay being cradled in the
stubby arms of the Tyrannosaurus Rex that stands guard out front. It is a
fantastic shot guaranteed to bring a smile.

We have a bunch of other great shots from along the way. I'll try to upload
mine when I return home.

Remember we were freezing just a day ago? Well, by the end of the day we
were
sweating. The high in Kingman today was in the upper eighties, and to my now
cold-acclimated body it felt much warmer. Tomorrow it will be much warmer,
topping out at over 100F in Lake Havasu. I'm not thrilled at the prospect.
Andrea and I will be making another twilight run back to Phoenix, not to
look
at the stars, but for car- and self-preservation. Summer is here in Arizona.

My final report will be from the comfort of home sometime Monday. I don't
think I'll have time to get through the pictures by then, but maybe.

Mark - AZ SC
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