Story By: Jon Stalnaker AKA The Studebaker Dude
Mel and I got the tour of Bozo’s with a behind the scenes look at some of the projects he was working on. Turns out I was quite impressed with the quality of his work. He also had a wrecking yard full of old cars in the back. Mel lit up at the opportunity to look around the junkyard. That was Mel’s kind of place and it kept him busy for a while. We also walked down the hill and paid a visit to Bozo’s Route 66 car museum. Turned out, Bozo was “The MAN” in Santa Rosa. The museum was great, and it kept us distracted while they worked on the Studebaker.
It took a while, but they discovered that the fuel pump relay had taken in water and rusted out. So, a new relay was installed, and we were on our way out of town by 3pm. We checked out of the hotel, stopped to gas up and jumped on the Hwy 40 onramp. We didn’t even get on the freeway before she conked out again. We got Bozo on the phone, and they sent the tow truck out to bring us back in. By now it’s too late to fix it so another night at the hotel and they would jump on it first thing in the morning.
Without going through the mess that was the wiring harness, they decided to power the fuel pump relay directly to the battery. They ran the wire and installed an inline fuse, and we were good to go early. That temporary fix worked fine, and they promised me the car would make it home without further incident. Now we could resume our Route 66 adventure, but I was still apprehensive. I couldn’t lock the car and I didn’t know if it would make it without another breakdown. Furthermore, I had to act like it was all okay in front of Carlene. She did enough worrying on her own without having to deal with my fears. I was confident that Bozo knew what he was doing but never-the-less… We were still a long, long way from home. I don’t know if I could have done it without knowing that Mel was right behind us with a trailer that had a car we could drive home if our car didn’t make it. We were actually having a great adventure. The drama just made it more intense.
All along, we planned to break away from Mel at Barstow and continue to San Bernardino to finish the Route 66 adventure. After that we intended to meet up with our daughter and family in LA for a visit before getting back to Dixon. We had some hard decisions to make but it would be another two days before we had to decide so on to the next hotel somewhere in Arizona. We were in New Mexico but as far as the song goes we’ve only made it to Amarillo. The next stop in the song is Gallup, New Mexico, which is clear on the other side of the state. So, we drive on with confidence.
The next big city to see along the way was Albuquerque. I watched Bugs Bunny cartoons as a child, and he would frequently “make a wrong turn in Albuquerque”. I always told myself if I ever got to Albuquerque, I would make a wrong turn on purpose. Being the sick, twisted person I am, this was kind of important to me. However, the trouble I was having with the car made me a little paranoid and overly cautious. I still wanted to take a wrong exit but as we were passing through, the freeway system was pretty confusing, and it wasn’t just us. Mel was following behind towing a trailer and I just couldn’t bring myself to take such a silly tangent at his expense. Besides, it was so busy and confusing that I was afraid I might really get lost. So, that corny little bucket list item remains on my list. Our next mandatory stop is Gallup, New Mexico. Carlene’s job was to seek out interesting stopping points and she found a “Duesey” in Gallup. The Hotel El Rancho was promoted as the “home of the movie stars”. It was in our pathway and about time for lunch, so we made it our stop. I’ll tell you about it next week.
