July 2016 – The Over The Hill Gang

I think that if you participate in this hobby enough, and travel enough that sooner or latter you will have a trip like this one that was related by Roger Sevison who is with the White Mountain Cruizers, a non club much akin to the Phoenix 40s…

The Durango Fiasco or two tales of one trip…
by Roger Sevision
16-19 June, 2016

So much happened on this trip that I will have to break it into 2 emails.

Since we were threatened with evacuation, ten of us decided to evacuate to Durango Thursday morning ( Dan & Elaine Carr, Phil and Sandi Terry, Gene & Val Stirling, Al Mercer and BJ plus Pat & I). Everything seemed fine until we got near 4 Corners about 80 miles from the nearest town. It was déjà vu all over again when the Mustang fuel pump quit pumping and the engine stopped just like Moab last year. At least it wasn’t on fire this time. Al loaded it in his trailer and we continued on with me driving Al’s GTO. Then Gene’s truck refused to start each time we stopped. It would finally go but it got harder every time. Then as we got close to Durango, Dan’s new Firebird started smoking badly. He never found the cause but it went away. Lastly, as we headed down the hill into Durango, Phil’s Caddy got a piece of gasket stuck in the secondary’s causing the throttle to stick open. Phil and Sandi had an exciting ride into town with both feet on the brakes. Once at the hotel Phil also discovered that a big bump on the Navajo road connecting 77 to 191 had ripped the right front shock mounting out of the “A” frame causing the tire to completely wear out. By then we were afraid what would happen when we got on the train to Silverton Friday morning.

Friday was a whole new day. I had a new fuel pump installed and Gene got a new starter for the truck. Phil got his problem’s fixed and all was well. The train ride to Silverton was fun with spectacular scenery. The train wound along the Animus River with lots of rapids, sheer cliffs and waterfalls We only had time for lunch and a quick look around before the train started the 3-1/2 hour trip back to Durango. We got back in time to check in for the show Saturday before heading back to the hotel. We thought the jinx was over until we met up with Bob and Claudia Thomas. The 39 Studebaker started blowing fuses that ran the transmission and fuel pump near Gallup. They would have been stranded but Joe and Megan Blendowski came to rescue with their trailer to tow the Stude on to Durango. Problems were not quite over yet as Bob’s thumb got crushed in Joe’s truck door. In Durango, Bob got the Stude into Al’s trailer to work on it but was unsuccessful finding the problem.

Saturday morning we headed to the show early. Bob Thomas’s bad luck continued as his Studebaker would not run and was not able to get the car to the show. Plus Bob had to make a trip to Urgent Care for his thumb that was smashed on Friday. The rest of us got prime parking and the DeRosier’s arrived a few minutes parking near the group. Durango is a great show with lots of very nice and some very unusual vehicles. The day went by quickly. We parked in front of a Chinese restaurant that had amazing lunch specials for just $6.95 that were very good and so big that no one cleaned their plate. I’m sure Steve Wing is envious! 😉

Our group did well at the awards considering the tough competition. The De Rosier’s took 2^nd in the Foreign Car class, Phil Terry’s 54 Caddy took second in his class plus the Host Club’s Choice award. Joe Blendowski won the Open Street Rod class, Al Mercer’s GTO won Muscle Class and our Mustang won its class.

Back to Bob and Claudia’s adventure, while stopped for gas in New Mexico, Bob was talking to a guy there and discovered that this guy knew Bob’s brother in law in Durango. When Bob mentioned that he did not know how he would get the car back to Pinetop. This guy responded with an offer to come from Farmington to Durango Sunday morning to pick up the car and bring it to Pinetop. What an unexpected blessing! The guy and his wife showed up at the hotel at 7 AM Sunday to load the car and caravan back with us. Claudia was concerned that this guy was a serial killer but that proved not to be true. The trip home was uneventful. We did make a quick stop at 4 Corners so we could claim we covered four states on the trip. 😉

While a lot of bad things happened, overall the trip was a fun and we experienced a lot of blessings that got us all through.