"What happened to you at the second checkpoint?" I implored Dale to elaborate, but the waffle had his attention again.
"We actually weren't at the second checkpoint too long", Boone took over the discussion, "it was a pretty crazy scene there, so we left pretty quick!"
"What do you mean", I asked, deciding not to explain how it went for us, as I was in full information gathering mode at that point.
"There a was a local police car in the parking lot, and an officer in full gear, so we assumed he was on duty, but he was clearly a car enthusiast. Still, we were on our best behavior when we pulled in. Then crazy Nick climbed all the way to the top of the bull statue to take pictures. Right after that Clark pulled out in his seven second Camaro, and does an eighty foot burnout leaving the place, so we decided not to hang around too long and tempt fate!"
"Yeah, but it was Nick Plewniak and Jeffrey Lutz in that little Honda that saved our butts an hour later in a gas station parking lot!" Dale jumped back into the story, as he wiped his mouth with a paper napkin.
"How was that?"
"Well, Darren and Shari baled on us after the second checkpoint, so Boone and Billy were leading and I was following along in the Gremlin", Dale explained.
"He was slow as heck and I had to keep waiting up for him", Boone interjected.
"I just chalked it up to being really tired at that point", Dale shrugged, "but I could barely keep the Gremlin in my lane at anything over about fifty mph, it just seemed like it was taking way more effort than usual."
"We pulled into a station beside the Honda a few miles later, so I could try to wake up, and Nick noticed that my passenger's side slick was rubbing on the front of the wheel well", Dale shook his head.
"Between the three cars, all we had was my little 2 ton Walmart floor jack", Boone laughed, "which wouldn't even raise the Gremlin up high enough for Dale to get under it!"
"So I looked under, and the bolt on the front of the ladder bar is gone. Then Nick crawls under enough to see the backside, and finds the bolt lodged between the bracket and the bar, but we still have to shove the rear end back far enough to get the bolt lined back up and worked through the brackets and the rod end."
"Mind you", Boone jumped in gesturing with his hands, "all this is taking place with the car supported on this spindly little jack with 12 inches of travel, and not a jack stand to be had!"
"Nick, all 5'5" and a buck thirty, crawled under the car, and is using his leg to push back on the rear end with all his might, while I tried to reach under enough to fish the bolt through", Boone continued, "It was pretty sketchy!"
"I was holding onto the car with a death grip", Dale smiled,"just so scared it was going to fall off the jack and pin one or both of them!"
"Once we had it in place, then we had to figure out how to secure it, since we didn't have any nuts or washers that would fit, and Nick came up with the idea to use zip ties. He put small ones on the threads, and bigger ones around the whole bar end, and that's how we made it to the motel."