Departure time - 4:40 P.M. Friday March 23.  Troy at the wheel,  John organizing the tunes and ensuring our food & drink are enough to feed a small army,  myself on the keyvboard typing and Limp Bizkit blaring through the speakers.

6:02 P.M. - Donner lake to the right and who is this coming up on the left?  Wendy's cousin Sharon drives by and gives a wave.  Will this be the last person we know pass us, time will tell. For those who don't know, Wendy is Troy's wife.

7:09  P.M. 128 miles to Winemucca.  Trucks computer says 119 miles until were out of gas and Troy is not stopping until we get to Winemucca. This proves it, History and English were Troy's best subject in school.

11:50 P.M.  173 miles through nothing but straight roadway and salt flats till Salt Lake City.  At 12:23 am, our eyes open wide to see a convertible pewter firebird pass us by, hope he saw the website on the trailer and drops us a line. It looked like a 98-01.   We filled up at the Flying " J" in Wells NV with diesel and Mountain Dew, should get us to the next town.  According to the computer, our average mpg is 9, and we have gone 488 miles, just 1700 more miles to go, and a lot more diesel. 

March 24, 2001

3:38 A.M. PST. Saturday. Just re-fueled at a closed  Chevron, luckily the credit card reader was working.  Signs say 412 miles to Cheyenne, just us and the tractor trailers.  It's official, we have all taken a turn at the wheel and have gone 692 miles.  The pewter bird just passed us again for the 3rd time, license JJO 3##.  The highlight of the last leg was seeing a chevy pickup riding on 3 tires and one rim going about 45 miles and hour, these Utahnians really know how to have fun.  Sorry for the lack of pictures, not much to photograph at night.  The good news is it has been dry up until now.

7:17 A.M.. PST

937 Miles, 7000 feet above sea level, we have passed the continental divide and it is all down hill from here. 

8:12 A.M. PST

993 miles Note to self - Do not stop at the Conoco station at Elk Mountain as the six fingered gas station attendant advised us not to drink the water as it was contaminated with blood.

1300 miles, I just gave up the wheel to Shane for the next tank of gas.  Troy handed me the wheel at a rest stop after I ate my sandwich.  We filled up at Cheyenne where we got 3 footlong Subway sandwiches for the price of two.  Troy was kind enough to let me finish mine before we pulled off at a rest stop to swap seats.  I  drove through a long boring part of Nebraska where it was in the low 30's and snowing.  The snow was not sticking to the ground but it made for poor visibility.  Now Shane is taking us to a truck stop for showers about an hour up the road. 

John Gibson

1:30pm  PST

1357 miles.  Our first accident on the side of the highway.  I green late model Chevy Cavalier and a late model Lincoln Town Car decided to test the laws of physics and they realized a painful lesson.  The Lincoln had very little damage, but the Chevy had spun out and had a lot of damage done to it.  severe body damage as well as broken glass, the occupants seemed okay, no rescue vehicles were on the scene but a lot of helpful truckers and travelers were at there aid. 

2:00pm PST

odo 1439 mile marker 300

3:00pm PST

Our first sighting of a white ram-air WS 6 Trans Am on the highway.

3:55pm PST

odo 1490 m.m. 349

Shane spies my red 94 Trans Am, with a black bra, so where is my car at the moment?  On a highway in Nebraska of course.

4:40 am PST 3/25, TTT= 36 hours

odo 2162

It's been 12 hours since the last update.  Total time has been 36 hours and we have gone 2162 miles, so our average speed is exactly 60MPH.  We've been driving and catching up on sleep.  Not much to talk about as it was dark and cold.  I don't mean cold, I mean COOOOLLLD.  We did hit a small snow storm for about 10 miles.  The 4WD works great.  As you will notice, we passed the double milennium mark on the odometer. 

9:15 a.m. PST 12:15 SLP Time

We have arrived.  The last 20 miles we were subject to cold icy conditions and drove by no less than 15 wrecked cars due to the weather conditions.  Normal icy conditions over and under the bridges,etc.  Temp is about 21 degrees, so for us Californians that is a tad bit chilly.  John is still wearing shorts, what a rebel.

That is it for now.  We are going to get some sleep, and awake tomorrow for a tour of SLP, and Troy will get to load up his X-Men car.   We will post more pics of the car and our return trip when get back.

Later,

Troy, John, and Shane