So, one day I looked at my bank
account and noticed that I had several thousand dollars more than I
expected. So, like most folks I started looking for a good way to
spend my surplus. It was at this time that I discovered craigslist.
After searching through add after add, I remembered that I had always
wanted a jeep. So I began the search. After much searching I was not
having much luck finding a jeep that met my criteria, for those that
know me that might come as a shock since it is somewhat normal for me
to buy vehicles missing things like paint, windows, engines... well,
you get the idea.. all of the ones that I found, were basically just
overpriced piles of rust. Then one day (around the beginning of
December) I found an add for a 1975 cj5 jeep with a v8, and claimed
that there was hardly any rust. Now from my vast experience of
buying vehicles, I have come to learn that most folks selling a
vehicle will consider several fist size holes in the body as “hardly
any rust”, so of course I was skeptical. I sent the owner an
email asking for more pictures, and any other info he had on it.
Over the next couple weeks or so we exchanged emails. On the 23rd
After being quite sure that this was the deal of the century, I told
the owner that I was interested, and would like to set up a time to
come by ( the owner lived in AZ) and check it out. He promptly told
me that he would not hold it for anyone and that another fellow was
interested and was flying out on the 27th from Indiana to
take a look at it, and possibly drive it home. It would be first
come first serve. That night after giving it much thought, I called
up my good buddy Tom, aka cynicalifornia to see what his plans for
the next week were. I gave him a quick rundown of the situation and
asked if he would be interested in taking a road trip to AZ with me
to look at it. And him being tom, he was more than willing to go.
He asked me when we were gonna leave, I asked him when would work for
him. To which he quickly replied how about the 26th?
So, the day after Christmas I show up
to his house, we load our various tools and gear into his car, and
head out on the road. It started off, just like most of our road
trips do (we have been on several), us barreling down the highway at
high speeds, him behind the wheel and me looking for cops. We were
making great time and enjoying the drive and truck-stops along the
way making great time (as usual). Shortly after crossing into AZ I
became aware that I had forgotten to allow for the time difference
when planning our trip. This meant that we would arrive much later
than expected. I called the owner and let him know our ETA (2200)
and asked him if that was still alright. He replied that it was, but
it might be better to come in the daylight. Now due to the first come
first serve race with the man on the plane, and that the place we had
planned on staying for the night (tom's cousin, Matt Wallin's house)
was at least an hour away, I opted to come check it out that night.
The closer we got to the house, the more we realized how close we
were to Mexico (about fifteen min north). We followed the owners
directions to his place, down the road till the pavement ends, then
follow the dirt till just before the train tracks and hang a right.
If you get to the tracks you have gone to far. Follow the road
another 3 and half miles and its the trailer on the left. Yep, there
we driving out into the middle of the desert in the middle of the
night..... sounds a lot like some of our other adventures. We show
up to the house a little after ten to find several spot lights on and
the jeep idling away with its loping purr. Tom and I jumped out of
the car, stretched out a bit as we introduced ourselves. The man
pointed to the jeep, said there she is. Tom and I immediately
grabbed our flashlights and went to work combing over the vehicle.
The man just stood there slightly amused at the two of us crawling
around in the dirt with our lights in the middle of the night giving
her a good once over. After a few min of inspection, I took it out
for a quick drive down the trail and back. True to his word, there
was very little rust. I told him I would take it. He started to give
me some talk about how he was firm in the asking price, at this time
I pulled out an envelope full of cash, his eyes got big, and he
motioned us to his shop so that he could get the proper paper work
drawn up and get the title. After that was taken care of, he asked
me if I wanted the back seat with it, I said sure why not. So we
walked out to the edge of his property and after a few min of
rustling around in the dirt he came up with what was left of a seat
and a few spare parts. We threw them in the back. He then said he
was not sure how much fuel was in the tank, and we might not make it
to town, so he went over and grabbed 2 jerry cans full of fuel and
told me I could have those as well. By this time is was now around
2300 in the middle nowhere on DEC 26. at this time I discovered
that I was not as prepared as I had previously thought. It was very
cold, the jeep didn’t have doors or a top, and I was used to CA
weather, so I put on a t-shirt, a long sleeve, and my sweatshirt, a
couple pairs of socks and a beanie. I then hopped in the jeep and
headed towards town with tom following close behind as a blocker.
Now some of you are probably wondering why I would need a blocker,
well the jeep had plates that were about 4 years expired, and it was
missing a few lights and was squirly as all could be to drive. We
pull into the first gas station we come to, I get out and fill up the
jeep, buy some oil and the only pair of gloves the gas station
offered. As I get back to the jeep, the first thing I see is a cop
car parked in the parking lot not far from the gas pumps. I try to
be as inconspicuous as possible as we pull out and get back on the
road. It was a miserable drive. It took everything I had just to
keep her on the road, every car looked like a cop coming to bust us
and it was freezing cold. The only parts of my body I was able to
keep warm were my feet resting on the warm floor boards, and my left
hand that I would stick out the side (where there should be a door)
to let the exhaust heat it up. After what seemed like an eternity,
we pull off the freeway and begin making our way through
neighborhoods on our way to Matt's house. Since its pretty late, I
am trying to be quiet but the jeep is so loud that it sets off car
alarms as I idle by. We find the house, park the cars and head to
the door. After some introductions and a little small talk about the
trip so far we are given a place to sleep and immediately pass out.
The the next morning, we get up, have breakfast and are given the
grand tour of the house. Shortly after, we pack up all our stuff,
throw it in the vehicles and we all head over to check out Round Trip
Bike Shop ( http://roundtripbikeshop.com/
) that matt owns and operates (so if your ever in the area you
should stop by and check it out). After a tour of the store we
decide to get back on the road and begin the long trek home, only on
the way back, tom will only be following me for a little while, then
he will switch freeways and head up through Utah to Idaho to visit
his parents new place. As we make our way down the road toward the
freeway, I start noticing that the jeep wants to stall every time I
let it idle. Of course I think no problem, just need to push on the
gas a little to keep it going. We get to the freeway and after a
little while tom sends me a text cause I cant hear the phone ring let
alone someone talk over the sound of the jeep, informing me that I am
now on my own as he is heading off on his own course. After about an
hour of so of me bouncing back and forth like a ping pong ball
between the lines struggling to keep the jeep on the road, I notice
the gauges (only half of the gauges were working when I bought it)
are starting to bounce around too, and the temp gauge is thru the
roof saying the engine is way to hot. So I get off at the next exit,
and am quite happy to see an auto-zone right there. I pull into the
parking lot, I don’t have to turn her off, cause she stalls as soon
as I come to a stop. I pop the hood, grab a rag and start making
some basic checks to see how bad the damage, if any is. After
letting it cool down for about a half hour and adding water from the
jug I had in the back and topping off the oil which was a qt low I
noticed that the temp gauge did not go down any. So I bought a
couple jugs of coolant, 2 five qt jugs of oil and topped off my water
jug and headed back out on the road. I decided that the gauges were
just going bad. After about ten min on the road the speedometer
stopped working, this confirmed my guess that the gauges were bad.
My now only working gauge was an after market oil pressure gauge
which I monitored religiously the rest of the way back. Since I had
no speedometer and expired tags I decided to go pretty slow the rest
of the way, barely keeping up with the speed of traffic. Since I
didn’t have a working fuel gauge or odometer, I used the road signs
to guess how far I had gone and when I should get gas. I used the 2
jerry cans several times when I rant out in the middle of nowhere
cause there was not a station in sight. I checked my messages every
time I stopped to add fuel and oil, and in doing so discovered that
tom was stuck in a snow storm and the roads were a mess ( but thats
his story so I will let him tell you about it). The weather was
amazing the whole day, until the sun went down. I resorted back to
my multiple layers of clothes and using the exhaust to warm my left
hand while driving. Around 2100 I was coming over the pass near
wrightwood where I had to stop at a red light. As I was sitting
there at the light struggling to keep the jeep idling I looked around
only to notice the ground was covered with snow. The people in the
other vehicles on the road all just stared at me in disbelief. Made
me laugh to myself the last 2 hours home.
