Airlines being airlines, he arrived at 7:00 PM Friday, instead of the scheduled 11:30 AM. After Jason picked Brock & his friend up and they headed for the garage. In a word, "sweet". On my monitor, it looks sort of orange-yellow, or maybe "butterscotch" w/crème colored side "inserts." The test drive proved two things: 1) It was an unfiltered tire-smoker. Wow! But 2) the brakes were "going south" (and they hadn’t even left town yet). With temp down to a "crisp" 15º F outside, they set their compass for the garage, where they found the master cylinder to be the likely culprit. Yup, too late to find one that night, but not too late to find a motel where they could thaw their frostbitten toes for the evening.

Saturday morning was like a treasure hunt, trying to locate the part. Finally, success. After replacing the master cylinder, Brock & Co. left Buffalo at 12:30 PM. At least they didn’t have to worry about anti-freeze. But that’s the stuff heaters use. Get my drift?

Antarctic survival training should be a requirement for these trips. They thought they were prepared for the 1000 miles of frozen "tundra" which lay ahead of them. They had plenty of warm clothes, gloves, hats, & a wool blanket to put over/under their legs. Jason even set them up with a 12V heater, which ended up UNDER the blanket (no.. repeat… NO chance of starting a fire! ;). 20º F was the high, which can be life threatening if a poor soul were to break down. So they carried a 3 gallon jug of 87 octane "motion lotion" too. Guess they could always start a fire, but oops, no hot dogs.

Since the gas gauge didn’t work, Brock had to stop every 100 miles along the interstate, making sure he didn’t run out of fuel. What a welcome relief from the cold! GOOD NEWS!… no rain… no snow…33 MPG @ 65 MPH! "Is this engine going to hold up?" Next stop, Cincinnati @ 10:30 PM Saturday and more "thaw time" at his friends, Howard Johnsons.

Sunday was a "warm" day… about 30º when the sun was out. But not warm enough. Somewhere outside Louisville, KY, the speedometer cable decided to freeze and started squalling. Brock thinks maybe the starter relay froze too. Had to push start it for a while after that. Oh, yeah… the dual quiet pack mufflers are no longer "quiet." They finally sacrificed themselves, just on the Memphis side of Nashville. But he only had to listen to them until 6:30 Sunday night when he rolled into Memphis. "Start that fire, the Conquerors are home! …. Ahhhhh!"

Ron "The Brock" says, "Kids, don’t try this at home. Leave it to a professional, like me." In a nutshell… it was an adventure, yes… maybe even exciting… but fun?….. nahhhh!