We snapped our required picture in Abilene, and I let Darren behind the wheel. I have a light spring on the throttle, and it's a solid rod set-up with a custom pedal, toe hook, and solid stop...perfect setup for index/SST racing, not so much for long cruises!! The plactic racing bucket is also a little snug in the hip area...I was ready for a break. The passenger's plastic seat is not a match to the driver's, just a cast-off from a buddy, when I sank into it, I realized it had more hip room, and it was nice to stretch out my legs!! So far, I was very happy with my decision to add 25lbs. of Dynamat to the car, there was no heat coming through the floorpans at all.
The 3rd checkpoint was a Coca-cola mural in McPherson, it was dark by the time we pulled into the spacious parking lot in front of it. The mural is lighted by neon lights that change color, which is about all our pics showed! The parking lot had the feel of a late night cruise car show, and we spent some time checking out the cars and BSin'.
Denny Turzich's 69 Camaro rolled in with Jeff Lutz behind the wheel, pulling a trailer, and being followed closely by 2 Daily Driver entries. Now, I've always tried to adhere to Kyle Petty's famous quote about a nascar crewchief who got in trouble, "Daddy said people who live in glass houses don't throw rocks"! I'll just say that the 3 or 4 people around that car all had a job to do, and knew how to do it. Despite that, it didn't appear things were going well, and they didn't turn in a time at Great Bend, so I don't know what went wrong...it was certainly interesting theatre!!
Dale would tell me later, as we were processing the whole event in a phone call, "McPherson was my favorite checkpoint of the entire deal..just a really cool atmosphere."
We fueled as we were leaving town, and all 3 little brothers were complaining, "You drove by all the restruants, when are we gonna eat"? Crybabies!!
I took the wheel of Boone's Belvedere for the next drive, with a stern warning from him, "Watch the brakes, they aren't so good right now".
Not so good?? NOT GOOD AT ALL! It used up most of the first pump just to start slowing down, the second panic pump had me veering hard to the driver's side as I realized he had never adjusted up the right side front after we swapped drums. That combined with trying to get used to a reverse manual valve body, and a B&M rachet shifter...it took a few miles to get comfortable. The lowback buckets are out of a Ford and nicely re-upholstered...that was definitely an improvement.
We entered a small town, and I saw a competitor's 72 Chevelle in a DQ parking lot, and figured despite questionable lighting, the place may be still open. We went in and ordered at 9:47, the food was great, the staff was freindly. We realized when they were mopping and cleaning up as we ate and chatted with the Chevy boys, that official closing time was 10:00 pm, but they never complained! Love that small town hospitality...
I realized as we got ready to leave that I couldn't find my paperwork for all the Motels I had booked,so I called Travelocity, and got a woman obviously in another country.
We worked through with her strange accent and she was very helpfull in spite of it except for one detail, I couldn't understand the street name..it came out as Spence, or Peach.."Spell it", I asked.
"Won Sera"
"What?, no, spell it"
"P-E-N-C-H..."
"Ok, Ok, I'll figure it out, thanks for your help"!
As I drove into Great Bend, I realized the main drag is 10th Street, "One Zero" I thought to myself, "Lady probably thought I was a moron"!!
We drove by about 6 Motels on the way to ours, each one with competitors in the parking lot, still milling aound thier cars talking, and hanging out. When we pulled into ours several were drinking in thier lawn chairs and cheering when we pulled in. I was thinking, "I just want to shower, and pass out. They have way more energy than me".
We grabbed our gear, and I stuck the aluminum key into the 50 year old door locks, and locked the doors smooth as silk. "Amazing, something else I never expected to use on this car", I thought to myself.