Brian's Story...
When we arrived at Los Angeles airport I was doubtful at how fun this trip was going to be. The first thing that we did was go to the motel room to unpack our bags. After that we went to see the truck. After we got the keys to the truck and were taught briefly how to use it. We then walked around Pasadena and had dinner at a local bar/brewery/restaurant. The next day we went to get the truck and loaded it up. Two guys loaded it for us. After we did that we went to do the first fun thing on the list, play some golf. I always wanted to play golf in California. We played in the middle of condos, were dodging cars on the cart path and dogs in peoples backyards, But this course was beautiful. The palm trees were what made it look the best. I scored an 89, not too bad; Grandpa got a 47 on the back nine, hint, hint. The rest of the day consisted of driving. This wasn't a quarter of what the driving was like when we transformed from tourists to truckers. That night we stayed in Barstow, California.
On
Saturday we were on our way to "Fabulous Las Vegas". Though
we didn't get to see it in the night with all the casinos lighting up
the desert sky, it was still very cool. All the things I've seen on TV,
in the movies and in video games, I saw on Saturday. We drove right down
"The Strip" and saw all the big time casinos. The one that stood
out the most was "The Flamingo". The funkiest things I saw in
Las Vegas were the overpasses on the streets, they had escalators from
the street to the pedestrian bridge, what's up with that? We passed by
all the mini-wedding chapels and the drive-up wedding services. I got
a couple souvenirs and we were ready to hit the road. The next thing we
saw was the Boulder Dam (Hoover Dam). The Boulder Dam is 700 feet tall.
Lake Mead is the lake behind the dam, which presented a beautiful sight
while driving to the valley in which the dam is located. We saw a movie
on how the dam was made and the amount of people that partook in the building
of it. One interesting thing they said in the video was that The Boulder
Dam helped the great depression by giving hundreds of people jobs. Las
Vegas and The Boulder Dam were the most impressive sights we've seen----so
far. The rest of our day was driving and a couple of pit stops.
One of the many things that
kept me awake was the scenery that we passed by while driving. The desert
hills were something I had never seen in my life. The neatest thing that
I saw were the dry lakebeds, you could just tell that there was a lake
there hundreds of years ago. Another thing I noticed was that most of
the towns we passed by were located in dry lakebeds.
It took us about a half an
hour to get there, guess where we're goin'! The Grand Canyon! The Grand
Canyon is the most breathtaking place on earth, literally. 1000 feet down
from the little ledge that surrounds the railing. For Grandma Kohanek
it is "The Precipice of Hell". I was being told of her first
and last journey to the Grand Canyon edge. It was a little cloudy and
freezing cold, but who could resist. 
When
the sun finally came out about a half-hour after we left, we stopped on
the edge of the canyon and I snapped a couple pictures. The road we were
on ran along the rim and with sun out the canyon became more 3-Dimentional.
The cliffs stood out more and all the space in-between and it seemed so
much clearer. After we were on the highway for a little while we stopped
in at an Indian store and bought some necklaces and pottery. The place
was kind of like a mini flea market. The area that we were traveling through
was an Indian reservation I think. The population of this are was probably
99% Indian. I did not think that it was anything like that. The rest of
our day was driving and more driving, but I kept myself busy by listening
to my CD player.
The next two days were pretty
boring, but there were 12 things that really caught my attention. The
amount of overturned trucks that I saw in one day was more than how many
I'd seen in my life (14years). One truck we saw looked like it was sliding
on its side and then ran into the bridge that it was lying next to. The
funniest one looked like it was tipped over like a toy truck. It looked
like some one picked it up rotated it 90 degrees and set it back down.
One very ironic thing about one of the trucks was that a couple hundred
feet in front of it there was a white sign that said "Dangerous Crosswinds",
you don't say. A couple of them were burned, but mostly the wind took
control and had some fun. About 12 trucks were tipped over on the side
of the road. It's a good thing one of them wasn't laying in the middle
of the road or we would have been stuck there for hours. An interesting
fact was that the highways were inhabited with truckers. The truck to
car ratio was about 10:1. I guess most people travel by plane or train
and try to avoid the roads unless they aren't going very far. The West
and Midwest are completely different worlds than what we are used to.
Vroom, Vroom. Could I have
been more obvious? Indianapolis Motor Speedway is what you should have
thought. Earlier that morning it started to snow. We ran inside the museum
and bought or tickets. We also thought it would be cool to go around the
track. We were the only two people at the museum, accept for two other
people.I sure got ripped off though, I paid more money for a roll of film
than our two tickets cost combined. There were two inches of snow on the
ground. I didn't really get the feeling of "the 500" but it
was still enjoyable. You know how on TV the field that they play on seems
so much bigger, and then when you finally get to see one in person its
way smaller. 
Well
this was the exact opposite. Way, way bigger than I thought. We started
in the middle of the track on the back straightaway and I thought, hey
this isn't as big as I thought. The turns are ¼ of a mile around
and when we finally got around the turn I thought to myself, This track
is huge! It took us about 15 minutes to get around the track one time
going at 25 miles per hour. They had a tape on the bus that told us about
the new things they had done to the track. Two of the most appealing ones
were the new pits and the new official's booth. The old officials booth
was constructed in the shape of a Chinese building, well last year it
burnt to the ground and they replaced it with a brand new one made of
good ol' fashion metal. Aside from its 21st century look it still was
quite interesting. The second thing were the new pits that the made. Instead
of having to go all the way back into Gasoline alley while the race is
going on they decided to put the pits right on the track. They are more
convenient for the pit crews to work in. In total the Indianapolis Motor
Speedway is 2 miles around. The museum was filled with cars that won the
Indy 500 and some of the cars that they had raced in other races on the
track. One of the cars had a side engine; it didn't win very many races
if any. Imagine having a 400 horsepower engine grumbling next to you.
Indianapolis was a very awesome place. That night we decided to drive
a little linger than usual, but on our way the tires started to slip on
the road, It was pretty scary. Since I was pigging out on snacks all-day
I decided to not eat dinner. There was a Denny's next door that grampa
went to for a quick bite to eat. He said that he ice-skated to the restaurant
from all the sleet that was on the ground. At about ten o' clock I looked
out the window and saw a car that was covered in ¼ of an inch of
ice and icicles hanging everywhere. It was pretty amazing.
Finally, the last day, five
days driving in a truck for eight straight hours can get a little boring.
We drove through Pennsylvania for most of the day. This was the most boring
day because we were anxious to get home and were definitely not stopping
for anyone. Grampa said he was getting a little bit less careful with
the truck because he wanted to get home; even more than I did. When we
got to Danbury we decided not to unload the truck that day, or even the
day after. We finally got to unload the truck on Saturday, a week and
two days after we left. I was very nervous about one thing in the truck
that I thought I would drop, or fall and bring it crashing down with me.
Stupid piece of glass. This thing weighed 200 pounds and was the dining
room table. Well this ends my exciting journey. Man all this writing makes
me hungry.
Denny's Story:
Brian and Grandpa's Adventure
On Thursday morning, December 7, 2000, Brian and I flew out to Los Angeles from La Guardia to pick up 8,000 pounds of furniture and boxed items (including lots of memorabilia) Jo and I left out there on our recent move. We had shipped back to Connecticut only enough to furnish the Lake House but now decided to sell and give away all of our extra baggage.
On Thursday afternoon after we arrived in Pasadena, I picked up a 24-foot Ryder Truck I had reserved via the Web at a very good price. We also toured Old Town where Brian brought me into a few stores where he introduced me to the very latest in teen fashions (No Comment!). He also introduced me to the latest in Ski Board equipment. The cost of the basic board, harness, and boots was upward toward $1,000. WOW.
On Friday morning we loaded the truck with the help of 2 professional packers from the storage facility. They did a good job because we experienced very little damage on the trip back. After the truck was packed, Brian and I played golf at the Upland Course in Ontario, a beautiful course up against the San Gabriels. Brian had an 89 for 18 and I had a 47 on the back nine. I am not admitting any score for the front nine!
On Saturday, since Brian had not seen Las Vegas, after staying the night in Barstow, we looped up on I-15 and came back down to I-40 at Kingman. In Las Vegas, we cruised the Strip back and forth 3 times but since I don't gamble and Brian is too young to gamble we just gawked. Picture a 24-foot rumbling diesel truck crawling down the Strip at 15 miles per hour and you can imagine our tour.
From there we stopped at Hoover Dam (Boulder Dam) where Brian came out with his first "Aaawwsumm". Nothing like that in New Jersey. About that time I noticed a few things about the truck. Since our total weight was about 14,000 pounds and the diesel is governed, it did not go very fast, especially up hills and against the wind. Also, it drank up gallons of very expensive diesel fuel in a very short time. The first fill was about 26 gallons at $2.40 per gallon. Since the tank held 50 gallons, that was $62.40 just to top off the tank. That's more that I ever spent for a complete fill in my lifetime. Oh, Ohhhh!! Too late to turn back. Also on the LA freeways, even fully loaded, the truck bounced up and down so bad that I thought I would lose my kidneys. Even Brian complained. We eventually discovered that between cities where the road is mostly asphalt, the driving was smooth. In the cities and places where the road is concrete, the truck bounced up and down like a dribbled basketball.
Another problem was the size of the truck. I almost took out some road signs by cutting the corners too tight and when I returned the truck in Danbury, almost ran under a 10 foot clearance railroad bridge with the 13-foot high truck. That would have stopped me quick. Brian was in charge of estimating the height of the overhangs at the filling stations and to warn me not to go under the overhangs at motels.
I noted that the service
along the route was very good. We stayed at a few La Cucaracha or Bates
Motel types but for $35 to $45 per night we had good accommodations, just
stopping when we were tired. Meals at around $20 for the two of us were
the most costly. We had a cooler and bought some supplies for sandwiches
and (of course) lots of junk food.
On Sunday, our next stop after an overnight in Williams, was the Grand
Canyon. Another "Aaawwsumm". Where we stopped at the park the
overlooks were about 5,000 feet down to the river.
From there we went out the east entrance to the park along the rim to the Hopi and Navaho area where we stopped at the roadside to buy Indian wampum and pottery. I told Brian that Jo and I stopped at the same places in 1970 and wondered if the same Indians were still selling the same Juniper bead necklaces.
From that loop up to the canyon area we headed East to Oklahoma City. The mileage went up from 5 mpg to about 8 mpg once we were away from the mountains and not maneuvering through the cities and parks. Also, the price per gallon slowly fell to a low of $1.36 in Oklahoma and then slowly back up to $1.77 as we approached the East Coast.
The road across the USA is filled with semi trailer trucks. In rural areas there are more trucks on the road than cars. Most likely people are traveling by air and not by surface. The open road belongs to the truckers. When I tried to fill at a truck stop I was finally sent around to the front where the gas pumps are. The truck fill area has two pumps, one on each side so you can fill both 70-gallon tanks simultaneously. For me to fill at the semi area I had to first take one of the nozzles and lay it on the ground and then fill with the other nozzle.
On Monday, in eastern New Mexico the kind gentle warm wind from the west turned into a howling gale coming at us from the Northeast. Temperature fell to about 10 degrees. All day across Texas I had my foot to the floor trying to get the truck to go over 55 miles an hour. Normally, downhill with the wind it would go about 75: on the flat about 70. It had cruise control but not over 65.
The weather channel showed a storm coming up over the arctic northern wind from behind us but blowing straight east toward Georgia. Not to worry, I told Brian. On Tuesday, at Oklahoma City we turned NE on I-44 up to St Louis and that night in Illinois we discovered that the storm also took a turn up I-44 and was chasing us. On Wednesday morning, by the time we reached Indianapolis, the storm caught us. It didn't stop us from visiting the Indianapolis Speedway, however. At the speedway we took a tour bus around the track and visited the museum. They have almost every winning car in the museum back to the original races. Lots of interesting history about the "brick yard" and a collection of memorabilia about past races.
After the tour we headed
east on I-70 on snow and ice but after about an hour we drove out of the
storm. Since the storm was now on a NNE course we continued to travel
east on I-70 to keep south of the snow. That evening I noticed the tires
slipping on the pavement and when we stopped just outside of Wheeling
WV, everything was glare ice. On Thursday morning it was raining, the
ice was gone and we finished our trip by going north on I-81 and then
East into CT on I-84 on Thursday Evening Dec. 14. Total trip, 3,100 miles
and 7 days. We were glad to be home again!
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