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DAY 1 ... JUNE 1st ...

11:30 am ... Mile 0
Left Snow Flake pretty much on schedule. We had a few things to load into the trailer and we headed out. Our goal for today is to get to the Grand Canyon which is 218 miles. As I type this we are going 59 mph thanks to the new overdrive that we got from "Herm the overdrive guy"! We are simply amazed at the difference that the OD makes. At this rate we might even get to pass someone, or if we really push it we may even get a speeding ticket!

I pray to god that we don't get a flat tire on this trip...I managed to talk Will out of bringing the spare tire for the Willys due to lack of space. For the record, he was dead set against not bringing it. If we do get a flat I will never hear the end of it. I think of it as optimism while Will thinks of it as stupidity. I wonder what a stupid optimist would think of the situation???

The temp right now is around 85F and climbing. I expect it to get close to 100F by late afternoon. Thank god for the old school ac or we'd be suffering.

We had a lot of noise coming from the t-case when we started which freaked us out a bit. It seems to have quieted down a bit so we are hoping it was just the sounds of a break-in and not a break-down. We'll soon find out. That is just the kind of nervous anticipation that makes this trip exciting.

1:30 pm ... mile 80
Well, we have our first "issue" the jeep started sputtering while we were merrily cruising down I40. We managed to limp to a rest area before it died completely. We literally rolled into the rest area on nothing but momentum and a slight tail-wind. Once we had a chance to evaluate everything we (Will) determined that the fuel pump is pooched. We are still 40 miles from Flag Staff so there is no way we are gonna make it there "as is" so Will convinced his loving brother Travis to bail us out by driving to Glade's house (our Napa contact) in Pine Top, AZ which is 35 mile South of Snow Flake (the opposite direction from us) to get a new one and then drive the 115 miles to where we are. If things go good, Travis should be here by 3:30 pm and we are back on the road by 4:00 pm.

4:25 pm ... We are back on the road and speeding towards Flag Staff.

6:00 pm ... Mile 150
We made it to Flagstaff and had a gourmet meal at Del Taco and filled up with gas. At 6:45 we were back on the road to the Grand Canyon. The sun is starting to go down and the temp is dropping quick.

8:00 pm ... Mile 195
We found a nice motel which is about 30 miles from the Grand Canyon We figured we would call it a day since it is already dark. All-in-all I think we did pretty good for our first day, considering we were broke down for a few hours.

TOTAL MILES TRAVELED TODAY: 195 miles

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