Right now I, Cameron Todd, am thinking of food.  Mike "Worm" Young is thinking of food, too.  But first let's embark on my sleepless journey.  

Lesli and I arrive in Mobile to pick up Worm and, anxious to drive the brand new van I received from Flying Eye, we set out for California. I was estimating we'd stop somewhere among the 12 to 14 hour mark.  22 hours later I decided that maybe it was finally time to rest. So somewhere in Texas we stopped in a rest area and I lay down to sleep.  I could hardly sleep from the excitement, so 45 minutes later I was back on the road, trying my best to make it through Texas. 

It's hard to remember why Texas was so monotonous, maybe because it's 900 miles across, or maybe I was too tired to remember anything that would have made it interesting. As soon as we were out of Texas I got my second wind and ended up driving 36 hours straight (ignoring the 45 minute nap).  Never again, I say.  Maybe I could've made more ground, but we had a blow out on one of the tires on the pop-up camper, and this was no ordinary blowout.  

I'm not sure how long I drove on the rim, but as soon as I saw sparks I pulled over.  Ouch.  The tire had tattered and something, maybe the tire, had busted a hole in the bottom of the camper which allowed an extension cord to fall through and wrap around the tire.  As if that weren't enough damage, the extension cord has broken through the side of the camper and then thrust through the floor.  That took 10 minutes to cut off.  It had flailed around so much that it actually bent the frame of the camper.

The rim was bent in half. Unbelievable.  I didn't feel a thing.  Must've been the new van...   We ended up putting a spare tire on and filling it with Fix-a-Flat (thanks to Lesli's mom) from the roadside emergency kit. Luckily we made it 12 miles to Wal-Mart and bought 2 new rims and tires.

The other stall was quite comical.  We stopped to check the tires every so often to make sure they were ok (because we had hanging wall aluminum from the trailer).   On one of these stops this truck pulls over, I assume they're going to see if we were ok, not so...  they were breaking down.  I talked to the guy and he said his transmission had died. I wanted to offer him help or a ride (and he wanted the same), but for some reason he didn't ask. I asked, "Are you from Texas?" (Because his license plate was a Texas plate)  He said no, just bought the truck, blah, blah, blah. Things didn't quite add up. I guess he figured, enough small talk, so he broke down and asked for a ride to the store.  I said, "Sure, no problem."  Worm gets in the back with him and was a little nervous.  He kept his hand reached over the seat as he pretended to have a weapon. Soon I arrived at the store, he got out, it was then Worm said he was nervous and a little worried, and then I told him how the guy was a cop and had showed me a legitimate looking badge.

Well, we made it to Cali in record time and things started to look up.   We were hooked up with a place to say thanks to Denise and Gregg.  You guys are swell!  

I also went to the West Coast Innova warehouse. Awesome!  Thanks Innova for the treatment and a special thanks to Lynx/Flying Eye for making a more comfortable year.  See ya' next week after the Vegas Open.