When I left ya’ll last I was timed out by the Amarillo Airport’s (international airport, at that) wireless site so I didn’t get to finish the last blog.  Here we go after picking up leaving Oklahoma City.

I made the  last 225 miles without Steven.  He decided to drive back to Dallas with Susan.  He didn’t miss a lot as most of the original route through east Texas is little more than a frontage road for I40.  My first stop was at the old car show in El Reno, OK.  This was the show we were going to  be  in had we not lost the 24 hours in Joplin.  I parked El Gigante outside of the show and walked around.  When I got back from looking at the car their were several people hanging around looking at the Caddy.  “What year is it?” “Boy, it sure is big.” “How do you get such a giant around corners?” and “Hey, big fella, you want to take me for a ride in that beauty?” (Well, that last comment I made up, but it should have been asked.)

Leaving El Reno I proceeded west toward Texas and the windy, dusty plain of the Texas panhandle and Amarillo, also known as the largest truckstop in the world.  The trip was uneventful, but there are two great Route 66 museums, one in Clinton, OK and the other in Elk City, OK.  I arrived at the Clinton museum just before noon, but the museum didn’t open until 1PM so I skipped it.  In Elk City the museum was open so I spent about an hour going through it.  The highlight was a replica of the Joad family truck (from the Grapes of Wrath movie for those of ignorant hicks unfamiiar with the great movies of the twentieth century.)  The truck looked just like the one in the movie and it even had a wax figure of  Henry Fonda in the driver’s seat. Really cool.

Crossing into Texas I finally put the top-up and turned on the air conditioning when it reached 102 degrees in the car.  The AC worked great, but when, 15 minutes later,  I stopped to take a picture of a restored Conoco gas station in Shamrock, TX (I think) I noticed that the AC compressor was making some unhealthy sounds.  AC got turned off and the windows went down.  The rest of the way in it was hot and sticky.  Pulling into Amarillo and about 2 miles from Quentin’s (Keren’s brother) house the car overheated. I parked it and called Quentin who was having some beers with some friends of his at the Applebee’s down the street from his house.   All I really wanted was a shower, but Quentin thought it best that he come get me and we could have a few beers while the car cooled.  So I end up, sweaty and miserable, spending two hours at Applebee’s downing beers with Quentin and his friends.  After the beers we got the car and, finally, to the house. 

The next morning I checked out the car and it turns out that it threw the fan belt that operates the water pump. The belt broke because the smog pump on the car (driven by the same damned belt) froze up and the built came apart.  So El Gigante is sitting at Mitchell’s garage getting a new smog pump, a new water pump and a new AC compressor simply because I don’t want to take any chances.  The guy that runs Mitchell’s, I think his last name is Mitchell, is about 200 years old, but knowledgeable.  Hell, he was probably collecting social security when the Caddy came off the assembly line.

So there you have it.  The first half of the trip without a hitch.  Come July 5 we head for LA, sunglasses on and the air conditioning blowing strong. 

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