09/14/2021
This a great read!!! The navy vet it speaks of is our very own Tony Young!!!! Enjoy!!
Good morning, Ms. Shannon. Hope you enjoy!
The story of a boy and his Bonnie……
This story begins much like a fairy tale. The boy in the story gets the opportunity of a lifetime to be a part of an HBO series as an extra with the added benefit of using a car in the shoot, should he have one available, as they’re looking for late 60s to early 70s vintage cars for the shoot.
As luck would have it, he’s got a project car, a 1968 Pontiac Bonneville, that his Dad got him when he was just a little kid. For a little background, it was owned by a distant relative of his Dad’s who was a musician, bought it new, used it only on the weekends to go play gigs, keeping it well cared for and stored inside at all times. His Dad was able to purchase it when the relative passed. The car has less than 40,000 original miles on it, almost perfectly spotless interior, great body with very few minor imperfections. So over the next 20-odd years the car got upgraded with work to the engine, transmission, and body with a killer new paint job. This saga with the car began when the boy’s Dad purchased it in the late 90s. So, as luck would have it, the boy is now a musician and the car has come full circle, serving two musicians.
Fast forward back to the current time, September of 2021, and back to the opportunity that’s presented itself.
The boy is in LA, the car is still in Oklahoma……time is short to make all this happen.
Lots of options were discussed for how quickest and best to get the car to LA. It’s finally decided that the boy’s Dad will drive it, with Mom in a chase car, to meet he and a friend in Albuquerque to deliver it to them for the continuing journey to LA.
That’s when the real entertainment and excitement begins……..
Mom and Dad began making preparations for the trip on a Tue, planning to meet the boys on Thu afternoon as they’re arriving by airplane into Albuquerque. As an added complication, they’ve got to be back in LA by Fri afternoon for a fitting to get ready for the shoot.
Lots and lots of things needed to be completed in short order to ready the car for the trip, the most urgent (at least at the time) being locating a spare tire. Dad calls many friends and salvages with no luck. Low and behold one was located in his brother’s scrap pile…..1st crisis averted.
Mom and Dad get underway on Wed about midday after locating the spare and getting everything else loaded for the trip west.
Made it almost 60 miles and the entire tread separated from the driver’s rear tire. Luckily, the tire did not deflate and we were able to limp it in about 5 miles to a tire shop. A couple hours later, we’ve got all new rubber on the ground and the best of the old tires mounted on the spare…..2nd crisis averted.
We get back under way and make it to within about 30 miles of Amarillo when the Bonnie overheats. Find a spot to get off the interstate and spend an hour or so getting the car cooled down then limp on into Amarillo for the night……3rd crisis averted.
First thing Thu morning, Dad’s on the phone talking to lots of garages and stumbles upon a guy who’s a Navy vet that takes compassion on our plight and gets us in immediately to do a coolant flush. Found the radiator fan clutch wasn’t working right so replaced it and just for good measure replaced the thermostat as well. A couple hours later we’re back on the road and headed for Albuquerque.
Traveling I-40 there were at least hundreds of people waving, giving a fist-pump, mouthing “nice car”, coming over to take a closer look and talk about Bonnie and old classic cars in their history. Needless to say, the old girl turns lots of heads!!!
The boys arrive via their flight at 3:30 and we meet them at a nearby hat shop about 4:30……..damned tight scheduling for the missteps that occurred!?!
We grab a quick bite to eat and visit for awhile and the boys are back on the road by 6:00 headed west. Dad gets a call from them not an hour later that the temperature light has come on again……no fu***ng way was Dad’s first response!!!
The boys got pulled over and went thru a series of checks with Dad and we ultimately decided that the temperature sensor must be bad. Back underway again……4th crisis averted.
The boys make Flagstaff by about 1 am, get a quick night’s sleep, sleeping in the car for convenience and to ward off any attempt to steal the car. They’re back underway, LA-bound, and hit the road at about 6:20 the next morning.
Only a few minutes into the trip the temperature light illuminates again only to reaffirm our suspicion that the sensor must be bad.
Not 2 hours into the day’s travel and there’s a horrific noise from underneath the car at the rear of the engine compartment……stranded again, this time in Kingman. Panicked calls and FaceTime videos with Dad to try and diagnose the problem and figure out the starter has engaged on its own and shredded itself. The boys call 8 or 10 tow services with the shortest being a 3-hr wait, mind you they need to be in LA in about 8 hours and still have 5 hours of driving to go.
While the boys are busy trying to get a tow, Dad mans the phones again to try and locate a rental car so they can still make the LA fitting appointment in case the Bonnie has to be left in Kingman. Only one rental car company in Kingman that rents for cross-country trips and, of course, they don’t have any cars. So, what’s the next best thing? A U-Haul moving truck, but not just any truck. The only one they have available for pickup in Kingman and drop in LA is a 26-footer, dammit!?! But, preparations are at the ready in case we need to pull the trigger!!!
The boys next start looking for a garage and find one that’s about a mile away, call them and find out they can look at the car immediately but cannot come tow them. After talking to them further, they figure out it’s only like a couple blocks away so they push the car and coast it to the garage…..thank God it was downhill!!! A couple hours later they’ve got a new starter installed and they’re on the road again……5th crisis averted.
The boys would have been styling had they pulled into LA in a 26-foot U-Haul truck!!!
As the boys departed Kingman and trekked west into the desert, they learned the importance of hydration very quickly.
So next stop is Ludlow for fuel (and hydration as they said their throats were as dry as the desert), which is basically out in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the desert. The first place they pulled into was closed but the pumps were active. Tried to pump fuel but it was just dribbling out. Went across the street, same issue. Bought a gas can and could fill it more quickly and then pour it into the Bonnie tank, spilling fuel profusely. They were just about done and a guy tells them, “You know you can press this lever on the nozzle and fix that problem?” WTF?!? Apparently to do with Cali’s v***r recovery system at the pumps that for some reason won’t interface properly with the Bonnie’s tank spout. After a 30-min loss of time wasted pumping fuel, finally back on the road again…….6th crisis averted.
They go thru the checkpoint at the Cali border, drenched with sweat, no shirts, looking a lot like wet dogs. The agent takes one look at them, waves them straight thru and says, “I’m not even gonna look in the trunk!”
So, the journey ended at 5:30 pm LA time…….off the road, and off to the fitting with only minutes to spare!!!
So 56-1/2 hours after departing Calvin, America with the Bonnie, all is right in the world and the old girl is now in the best shape she’s been in in many decades.
The names have been changed (except for the car) to protect the innocent…….well, perhaps more aptly described as the beaten and downtrodden.
WHAT A RIDE!!!
