Mile 1007 - 9:00 am…We had another late start today.  We had planned on being on the road by 7:00 am but when we woke up at 6:30 am we both said screw it and went back to sleep until 8:00 am.  Once again, we were up until well after midnight last night.  The plan for tonight is to be in bed by 7:00 pm...but if I were a betting man...

Our goal for today is to get through Oklahoma which is a little more that 300 miles.  With a little luck we should accomplish that by 5:00 pm, then a quick dinner and bed!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New plan...we've hit the Arkansas hills so our average speed is suffering. On one hill I got out of the jeep, walked ahead, had a pee and a cigar while I waited for will to catch up in the jeep.  If we get 50 miles by 5:00 we'll be doing well.  At this point, we hope that we are home by Christmas...snow in this thing would really suck.

Mile 1072…10:50 am…we finally had a chance to take the Willys off-road when we decided to turn around, driving through the ditch between the highway.  We saw a turtle crossing the highway so Will "Bubba Gump" Morgan figured we should go back and make sure that it safely gets across the road.  Just as we were getting close to it, a dump truck coming down the highway got to it before we could.  Sadly, it is now just another road-kill spot on the highway.  It made for some funny-ass video though.  We aren't sure which is wronger...the fact that we laughed over the demise of a poor turtle or the "Flippin Church" picture.  Oh well, we are sure that he is happier now in turtle heaven.

Video of Will "Bubba Gump" trying to save turtle (Rated PG - Strong Language)...

 

Mile 1115 - 12:40 pm…we made it into Oklahoma.  We stopped at the Oklahoma welcome center and took some video and pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mile 1,194 – 3:20 pm…we are officially screwed. We are just west of Tulsa, Oklahoma (Sand Springs) and we stopped for lunch. When we got out of the Jeep we noticed that we were leaking something really bad. At first we thought it was the T-Case, but quickly realized that it was oil. Within 3 minutes we lost all of our oil so it wasn't a small leak. We still haven't been able to determine the cause, but it doesn't look good right now. As I type this we are sitting in Taco Bell having lunch and trying to come up with a game plan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mile 1,206 – 5:30 pm… yes, we have made it another 12 miles, unfortunately that was in a tow truck. We called AMA for a tow truck and (luckily) they dispatched Greg & Gary Eubanks of Towboys.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They hooked on the jeep, made few phone calls and we are now at one of his buddies shops taking things apart (Root 64 Oil Lube and more...Gregg is taking really good care of us). We are hoping that it is just a hole in the oil pan (from rubbing on the skid plate). As I type this, Will is under the Jeep taking the oil pan cover off so we can determine the cause.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6:22 pm… Good news! The source of the leak was a small hole in the oil pan, which was caused by a broken spot weld from the welded on the skid plate. It must have broken from all of the vibrations caused from our excessive highway speed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Greg E. came back to the shop to weld it up for us, which we certainly appreciate. We can't believe how fortunate we were to have decided to stop for lunch when we did. If we had gone another 2 miles we would have lost all of our oil, ran it dry and surely fried the motor. We were also extremely fortunate to have been rescued by Greg and treated like family by Patti and Gregg at Route 64. We didn't get to meet Jim (Patti's husband and owner of Route 64), but thank you for the use of your shop...especially at 6:30 pm on a Friday! We should be back on the road in an hour or so and we are going to try to get another 40 or 50 miles before we stop for the night. It looks like another late night is in the forecast for us again. Oh well, at least we won't be here for a few days. As nice as the folks are here, we will be glad to be back on the road.

 

 

 

 

 

 

While we were working on the Jeep and getting it ready to head back out on the road, Pattie at Route 64 was kind enough to give us some of her home made salsa and jalapeno jelly.  We had it on good authority that the best way to eat the salsa was with Tostitos Scoops.  Normally Vance and I  aren't so quick to follow suggestions, or advise for that matter, but we had to do so in this case since we knew that Pattie would know how to best enjoy this fine salsa of hers.

 

As we pulled out of the shop, excited to be heading back out on the road, we noticed that we were so out of gas that we may not even make it back to the highway.  Lucky for us there was a small gas station just a mile or two from where we had stopped at Route 64's shop.  As Vance was inside getting the "Scoops" (things were looking up for us, we had our Jeep running and our Scoops and salsa and we were soon to be back on the road) I got to chatting with a guy that was also getting gas and came to find out that he was overseas and had one of the jobs that became a well know movie starring Robin Williams.... "Good Morning Vietnam".  His name is Bill Martin, yes, like the baseball player for those of you that follow baseball.  Once Vance came back out we all stood in the parking lot and BS'd for awhile and came to find out that Bill was also in one of the Benji movies (you youngins may not remember but it had a little dog :). It was great to get to chat with him, and once more, we had left an area that we met great people and had new stories to tell along our trip. 

7:36 pm…back on the road.

Mile 1,298 – 10:07 pm…We arrived in Enid, OK and were damn tired and chilled. The temp was probably 60F and without the sun it's pretty nippy. We found a hotel and grabbed some dinner at Sonic.

We finally had a chance to sample the salsa that Patti makes from scratch.  If you are a salsa and chip person then ya gotta try this stuff.  We both agree that this is some of the best salsa that we have ever had.  Pattie sells her salsa and jalapeno jelly from her home and she will ship it to pretty much anywhere.  She can be reached at 918-243-7600...tell her that we referred you.  Once again, we want to send out a HUGE thanks to all of them and their help when no one else in the area other than the folks at Tow Boys were willing to help. If you're ever in need of help in Oklahoma don't waste time calling any one other than these people.

 

 

 

 

1:30 am…We have just finished posting today’s journal to the website and now we’re going to bed!