As I've said before, with the series of deadlines that Drag Week throws at you, there isn't much time to champion your victories, before your attention must be firmly affixed to the next one in line. Darren tried unsuccessfully in Tulsa and Topeka to get his huge ET Streets balanced, and the vibration was driving him crazy, so as soon as his slip was turned in, he started calling shops in the OKC area. He was in the Dakota and out the gate fairly early in the process of preparing to begin our journey to Great Bend Kansas. I can't even remember when Robert, and John left Thunder Valley Raceway Park, it's a surreal scene every time it's played out. A slow procession of Hot Rods driving out of the facility, guys relaxingly packing up, chatting with their buddies, a few cars that are the hubs of furious activity, and a few that you can just tell, aren't leaving under their own power.

Noble marked the end of Drag Week for 2.3 Ford 4 cylinder turbo powered cars. Jon Huber's familiar high flying 79 Mustang burned a piston on his very first pass, an impressive 9.07-151, at Tulsa. Then Dale Knapke's awesome little Triumph TR6, after running 11.42-122.41 on the first day, limped to a 12.73-90 at Topeka, and a 12.67-93 at Noble, before calling it done.

The shifter cable in the Belvedere, had already started burning in just one pass, so we took the time to get the big jack from Boone's trailer, get it further off the ground, and go after it with a handful of wire ties to lock it down in the perfect position...hopefully. Rachael had pretty much lost all faith in our abilities to accomplish this, so she took a much more "hands on" approach this time!
We were pushing 5:15pm by the time we had our four car flotilla, ready to roll out the gates of Thunder Valley.

Fifteen cars that turned in time slips at Thunder Valley in OKC, didn't at Great Bend. Obviously, I'm not sure whether we lost them at the track, on the drive, or they couldn't make the call once they made it to Kansas, but I have to suspect that our relative close proximity to Tulsa influenced some of those decisions. You've got a route sheet in your hand that spells out a 307 mile trek to S.C.R.A. Dragstrip in Great Bend, or 95 miles to Tulsa, lick your wounds, and call it done. A mile out of the gate, and I was ready to take option B myself!!

We pulled out of the track entrance, with Rachael leading the group. She drove about a half mile and pulled over on the shoulder. I was next in line, and as I stopped behind the Belvedere, I noticed my voltmeter was on eleven volts.
As I opened the hood to check out the problem, Rachael walked up behind me and announced, "I don't have drive!"
"Great! Just great", I swore as I looked at my alternator.
The large battery wire was burnt for about four inches, and had melted itself to the field and sense wires.
"What's going on?" Boone asked as both he and Dale approached.
I pointed at the wires, and said, "She can't find drive, either. Just call mom, and have her bring the two car trailer down, and I'll load these two junkers up and head back to Phoenix!"
"Yeah right", Boone smiled, "You know that's not how the game is played!"
We decided to limp our way to the O'Reilly's parking lot, and re-evaluate our situation once we got there.

If you drank beer like me you'd know that you can even take pieces of cans and loosely wrap those new cables and it'll keep the heat off em.

you gotta try that Aerosleave!

We pulled into O'Reilly's, and turned it into a concrete version of Dale's back yard. With Dale in charge of triage, we began so sort through our problems. Boone diagnosed the problem with the Belvedere as a misadjusted shifter, explaining to Dale that the mega shifter is designed to ratchet four times, so he went to work on that, once we had it in the air. We couldn't locate a replacement alternator in OKC, but after Dale looked over the problem, he decided it might not be bad.
"You lost the nut that held the cable tight to the alternator, so every time it wasn't making good contact, the energy produced by the alternator has to jump across, and that creates tremendous heat. We might get lucky, splice all the wires, and give it a shot."

Rachael, was already on a recon mission to replenish our refreshments, and provide sustenance. Nothing in this world like a woman who understands priorities! She raided the grocery store in the adjoining parking lot, and filled our coolers with soda, water, and plenty of ice. Then, she found a Pizza Hut, and came back with three boxes that she laid out in the trunk of the Belvedere. The fact that this young lady is still single gives me serious concern for this young generation of gearheads!

The food and drink went a long way towards lightening the mood, and helping us regroup. We decided to use this spot to our advantage, and changed the oil on the Belvedere, Gremlin, and Barnyard, as well as the transmission fluid on the Gremlin. Of course, the best moment was when I fired the Valiant, and the voltmeter jumped to 13.5! As darkness closed in we all began to summon our fire jackets, and it became obvious that the warm weather we had enjoyed the first three days was about to take a turn to the colder side.

Boone took the lead of the group as we left Noble, and I noticed Dad was riding shotgun with him in the Barnyard. I'm guessing two days in the Belvedere with his headstrong granddaughter was enough for the old guy!
We jumped off the freeway about five miles later, and he drug us through six or seven miles of stoplight to stoplight action until we finally pulled into a station to buy gas.
"Geez, Boone, we passed four other stations, why did you drag us all the way down here?" I asked.
"Well, we have to load up on E-85 for Darren..."
"So you decided we all needed to follow you for that?"
He shrugged his shoulders, "Well, I didn't think it was this far out of route..."
I spun around, finished pumping my gas, and "waited" in my car for everyone else to get ready to roll.

From here to GB is my backyard.I love towns that Main Street is mostly brick.Makes a different sound.Pratt America FTW.

This was the first check point on the way to Great Bend.

Those Rocket stickers ended up in some interesting places all week.

ROFL! Didn't they?!

We found ourselves on I-40 West, headed towards Amarillo, and the cool night air had the small block purring along comfortably at 3 grand, and 190 degrees. Exiting onto US-281 North found us at the Indian Trading Post, AKA checkpoint #1. We were 73.2 miles into our journey, and it was 10:20pm, but everyone was of the same mind, and same goal: we must get to Great Bend, no matter what.

"Darren called, he's broke down up the road", Boone informed me before we left the checkpoint.
We hadn't heard from Darren in about five hours, so I was hoping that meant he was well out in front of us, and having a trouble free run to Great Bend. "What'd he say the problem was?"
"Said all the lights went really super bright, then went out, so I guess we'll figure it out when we find him."

We found him, only about ten miles up the road, and it took quite a while to diagnose the problem in the pitch dark, especially since Darren wasn't going to admit to any wrong doing. First things first, he had melted down battery #2 with his use of the full field toggle switch. In fact, the toggle switch itself was melted, and the headlight and taillight bulbs were all blown!
Apparently Darren found the time to get his tires balanced, but replacing Boone's battery, wasn't on his list of priorities, so now Boone didn't have a second one to loan him. The Belvedere has a single battery. The Gremlin has twin batteries, but they built the battery boxes behind the wheel tubs, installed the batteries, and then riveted in all the interior aluminum above them, so it would be major surgery to retrieve one of them. That left everyone looking at me and the Valiant.
"I'm not loaning him a battery as long as that stupid alternator is hooked up...period!" I named my terms
Dale looked at Darren, and he nodded, "Alright, we'll disconnect it, and we'll just have to stop and charge it when it runs down."
We managed to get the truck running once again, and decided to put him in between us and limp to the next town to attempt repairing the lights. We headed out at Midnight, so most of us had been awake for 24 hours at this point, since we left the motel in Topeka.

We limped in to Watonga Oklahoma, and pulled into a well lit Truck Stop/Convenience Store parking lot. Rachael and I parked at the pumps, and went ahead and filled up our rides. The rest of the guys gathered around the Dakota, which Darren had parked under the biggest pole light he could find.

We were at the intersection of US-270/US-281/OK-8, and OK-3/OK-33, there was another Truck Stop across the street. James made his way over there, and he managed to come back with two headlight bulbs and two taillight bulbs...what are the odds? Rachael and I were in the Belvedere, with the front buckets reclined against the back seat, when Boone tapped on the window.
"Why don't you guys go ahead to the next checkpoint, then sleep there and wait for us."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, we've got some wiring left to do, then we'll be along, but at least you can get those miles behind you".
I was groggy from my little nap, and nearly missed the left turn on OK-51A three and half miles later.

With 182 miles under our belt, Rachael and I took our picture at the Visitors Center in Alva Ok at 3:20AM, which was checkpoint two. We backed our cars into a couple of parking spots along the fence, and jumped back into the Belvedere for a nap. I'd like to tell you more about the drive from Watonga to Alva, but it was all I could manage to stay between the white and yellow lines.

Five minutes later, I heard The Barnyard drive into the parking lot, and stage for his picture.
"Dang it! I thought we were further ahead of them than that", I exclaimed, bringing the passenger seat to the upright position.
Rachael rubbed her face, and brought her cell phone up in front of her, "We've been asleep for two hours, Dad."
"Oh, Ok...well, it sure didn't feel like it!"

Here's what it looked like in the daylight. Great job writing Billy. I can feel the exhaustion and fatigue!