The Road to Marfa (continued from page 3)

My preparations included some deferred maintenance on my trailer including replacing the wheel bearings, which were a minimum of 15 years old and patching up some hangar rash to keep the dust out. I believe the trailer to have been one of the more dust proof places in Marfa. Also purchased were sectional charts, a first aid kit, another Camelbak, and a few components to complete an on-board landout kit. The extra on board equipment led me to do a trial Weight and Balance from which I was happy to conclude that the ship would fly. It was not the weight but the placement that had me concerned.

I invited Gene Bouchard, a former colleague at General Electric in the mid-seventies, to accompany me as he needed to get out and away for a bit and I needed some help with the driving and hopefully, not any retrieves. Gene arrived as planned the evening before departure. I already had the trailer at home, ready to go, all we had to do was to pack the Mountaineer.

The road trip was the Bob Hope movie part. I had pre-arranged to meet Terry Wools and Bill Paris at the truck stop at I-70 and SR 39 at 6:00 AM for breakfast. The restaurant was only partially full; that seemed odd for a restaurant of that sort on a weekday morning. The reason became more obvious when we realized there was just one server, and the food was marginal at best. We were already running late and had not yet left the metro area.

I had driven about 2 or 3 hours when I asked Gene if he wanted to take over. His response was "I guess I should have told you I've never driven a car pulling a trailer, but I'm willing." The road was not crowded, and I thought as long as you don't go too fast or too slow, the Interstate is probably one of the safest places to do this for the first time. Gene fell into place perfectly and quickly became very comfortable with the open road driving. He never wanted to go through a city area, gas station, or park however; as he was concerned he might hit something. That was good enough for me, we switched off at or near those places as necessary, and he did a great job driving almost half of the total 47 hours and 2880 round trip miles. Even though our driving days were long; with time for meals, fuel stops, rest stops, and overnight stays, we were never too fatigued to be safe drivers.

I had gone to AAA for maps and Tour Books and checked MapQuest for the suggested route we followed most of the way to Marfa. The only segment I did not care for was I-44 across Missouri and the discovery that it had replaced old US 66 in that area. Actually, it looked and felt like good old 66 was the foundation for the westbound half of I-44. When the SUV and trailer were both on the pavement at the same time, I attempted to sneak a peek at the surrounding countryside.

When you spend any amount of solid time with even an old friend like Gene, you learn some things about them you never knew before. I never realized that he could not stand the late Mel Torme (a former glider pilot) or that he would spend all of the next 24 hours other than when CDs were being played, speaking, singing and trying to remember all of the words to the song "Route 66" and getting the names of all of the cities passed in the proper order. It soon became my mission to keep the CD changer freshly stocked while I was resting.

I got lost in the Tulsa area, thinking that the "Creek Expressway" vs. the "Business Route" would be best. Based on how many times we had to drop $1.05, no toll takers, no bills, no nothing to get off for; I became convinced that the Creek Nation had successfully lobbied the Federal and Oklahoma governments to let them have a portion of the Oklahoma Turnpike instead of a casino full of slot machines.

(continued on page 5)