Originally posted on August 11, 2018.

Well, even though Mike and Marshall lost a few hours due to flat tires on the trailer they made up for it by driving the next 24 hours straight through.  They made it to Wendover by Thursday midday and went straight to the Salt Flats.  The compressed schedule since retrieving the engine has caused a multitude of details to be left undone.  So now we are playing “catch up” to get the car ready to go through the technical inspection. 

While Mike and Marshall were working down the to-do list, we were on the way.  Our son-in-law Adam, grandson Cary, a friend from church Trey Williamson and I drove to Charlotte last night to make our morning flight.  John and Joey Watkins were on our flight too.  We arrived in Salt Lake City at about 10am.  From Salt Lake City it is approximately 120 miles to Wendover.  Here is a photo Cary seeing the salt for the first time at a rest stop on I80.

We met Marshall at a Sinclair gas station just a couple of miles from the Bonneville Speedway site.  We parked our rental cars and piled into the tow truck.  The rental car companies don’t take very kindly to renters taking their cars on the salt.
As soon as we got to the Salt Flats Mike put us all to work.  The temperature was approximately 95 degrees.  Marshall said it had been considerably hotter on Thursday.  There was no question that it was hot.  Not South Carolina humidity but hot nonetheless.  Here is the group so far.

The plan was to try to make it through “tech” before the end of the day.  There was a pretty long line of racers waiting when we got there but we hoped to be in line by 5pm.  However, we soon determined an issue that would seal our fate for the day.  Mike discovered that our C02 bottle was empty.  The car has an air-shifted transmission and it won’t work without the C02 bottle.  The regulator had a minor leak which had drained the bottle.  Marshall, Cary and I rode up to ask some staff members if they could help us identify a source for a replacement bottle.  We came up empty.  Adam and Trey and I began calling around to different vendors.  Our main concern was that we may not be able to get the C02 bottle refilled until Monday if we could not contact someone before closing time today.  Adam was the first to find some help.  He called Airgas in Salt Lake City and they agreed to get the new bottle and regulator ready for someone to pick up.  John and Joey took off to get it.  So we had just completed the almost 2-hour ride from Salt Lake City and they went back to get the C02 bottle.  Mission accomplished as I write this.  Thanks, John and Joey!

While we were searching for the C02 we found out that completing “tech” was not possible for today.  A new streamliner takes 1-1/2 to 3 hours and they couldn’t accommodate us before closing time at 6pm.  The new plan will be to get in line for “tech” as soon as possible in the morning.  If “tech” goes well we hope to make a run tomorrow.  Gene Fulton, his brother and a friend hopefully will join us sometime tomorrow.

We have now checked into the Rainbow Hotel and Casino in Wendover.  I write this as Mike sleeps beside me and I am looking at myself in our mirrored wall.  Gotta love it.  We all ate supper together after John and Joey got back. 

Maybe I will have some video to share tomorrow.  I hope so . . .