Oil boom

We've been in the Bakken oil field on a couple of trips. You have the feeling of history in the making as folk rush to get a slice of this North Dakota, Montana, Manitoba, Saskatchewan phenomenon. We scored this old mug for a spendy $4 in an antique store in Valley City, ND. Riding along in the early morning when headed for Williston, ND, you are suddenly aware of these fireballs in the distance where they are flaring off gas from the wells.

Pics by RLT and Annette.

Steelyard blues

These two Studebaker Lark compact cars were lurking in a backlot in Ely, Nevada, when we spotted them there last summer.

Note the Mercedes-style grille on the second car

Bonneville reprise

Still buzzing after Bonneville Speed Week - the smart car performed flawlessly through more than eight thousand miles on tour and zoomed across the salt flats with the best of them.

You can see our smart car parked centre right.

Day 38: South Bend, Indiana to Toronto, Ontario

Last night we stop in New Carlisle to buy some grits at Groceries By Joe - these have been on sale for most of the tour but we are now fearful of going home without. We roll into South Bend and stay out near the airport. You can tell this is a high crime area as the ATM at the Key Bank does not operate 20:00-05:00 and there are cop cars everywhere.
We are back on Eastern Time and up early rolling in the dark via Hwy 20 for Toledo, avoiding the toll road. We are desperate for money and gas but a stop in Middlebury sorts it. We see over twenty Amish buggies on the road. We get the hammer down some 165 miles to the outskirts of Toledo where we spot a Tim Horton's for a second breakfast.
We find the Libbey glass factory outlet which has literally tons of budget glassware on sale - Toledo being a great centre of glassware production. A quick look in the antique mall next door confirms there is nothing there which must come home with us. We notice streets named for Jeep and Willys and conclude the company must have some association with Toledo.
We are now back at the Great Lakes and turn north for Detroit, some 65 miles. As we approach the city the only well maintained building is the fire house, the others being burnt out. The GPS takes us on a fascinating route through the dereliction and we stop at a level crossing where I photograph a passing CSX yard engine.

Day 37: Knoxville, Iowa to South Bend, Indiana

We depart the Red Carpet Motel in Knoxville at 06:30 rolling east on Hwy 92. We take breakfast at the Copper Lantern in Sigourney (pictured) and fill up at BP with the cheapest gas so far - $2.78.9 - I tell the lady there that BP have had a bum rap. We move onto Washington, where a stop at the Goodwill store turns up some good pickings.
We cross the Mississippi at Murcatine and reach Rock Island. We follow signs for Rock Island Visitor Centre where a security guard assures us it is off limits to non-U.S. passport holders. Strange. We try to find a visitor office at Geneseo, signposted off the highway. A lady at the local library does not know where the office is to be found. Back on the highway we stop at a rest area and find the map the tourist information folk would not mail to non-U.S. residents when requested. We decide we can do without Illinois, pausing to get more gas at Joliet BP for $2.99 per gallon, and get the hammer down to the Indiana border, where the folk at their tourist office in Hammond are falling over backwards to help us. We take Hwy 20 to South Bend and check-in at the Quality Inn. Over 400 miles today and we may reach home tomorrow.

Day 36: Columbus, Nebraska to Knoxville, Iowa

Rolling at 08:08 we head into Fremont for a quick look at the tourist railroad, which only operates at weekends. We stop by a couple of yard sales which are a bust. We carry on to Elkhorn via the brick pavement of the old Lincoln Highway.
We stop by the smart dealer at LaVista, annexed to a Chrysler dealer, to see if we can get an oil change and a headlamp bulb. The sour-faced service receptionist says: "All the mechanics are going to lunch." This dealership proves a waste of time.
We cross over the Missouri River into the rolling hills of Iowa and take Hwy 92 to Griswold where we lunch at Our Daily Bread, a family-run cafe. The weather turns wet. We have to detour back to I-80 due to roadworks. We stop at a site near Adair where the James Gang staged the first train robbery in 1873. We then cut south to Winterset, to see the birthplace of John Wayne.
We are spending the night at the Red Carpet Motel in Knoxville, just down the street from the sprint car stadium which is the home of the Knoxville Nationals.

Flower of Scotland wilts at the last

In the last of his reports Rick Pearson tells a tale of woe from Bonneville:
There was to be no fairytale ending for us here on the Salt.
We knew we had just one last chance to set the record so we turned up the boost and geared her for 325mph, knowing if we could get right down the Salt we would have the fastest 1 litre car in history.
We were on the Salt as early as possible, prepped the car with fuel and ice and joined the line for our run... I’d spent 3 days preparing myself mentally for what I knew was going to be a Hail Mary pass and I was ready. The Americans who were helping us out insisted on holding a short prayer for my safety before I got in the car (which wasn’t particularly reassuring!) and despite the wind conditions being marginal I decided with Derek Sr that we were ready to go.
The push start went well, the car came up on the boost nicely and I got a super smooth shift into 2nd gear where the Flower of Scotland REALLY starts to boogie... a blink of an eye and we’re knocking on 200mph and it’s time for 3rd gear, when there is a small pop from the engine as a valve dropped and the power dropped away. With just 1 hour left in Speed Week our dream was over for this year and the crew are all shattered and pretty dejected, sitting here in the airport in silence.
Thanks for all the support over the past week. It’s been really appreciated out on the Salt.

Bonneville: last roll of the dice

Rick Pearson reports:
The Salt can be a tough mistress, but to be honest she’s virtually killing us here.
Another tough day. We had the engine back together for 7.30am after working all night once Joe Amo (fastest guy ever on a sit-on motorbike at 272mph!) arrived with the parts we were missing. One shift of mechanics went to bed, and another woke to put the engine in the car. This was completed around 11.30 and we were confident of being on the Salt for early afternoon. However on firing the engine up, we realised she was running badly and needed some pretty major open heart surgery. Including more parts we didn’t have!
Once again it looked like it was all over, and once again the Salt community managed to source us what we needed and the engine was finished by 5pm. Panels back on and we whipped the car down to the Salt from the Casino car park HQ we’ve been using. Unfortunately the wind was pretty marginal for safety but we decided to make a pass anyway in a lull. The Flower of Scotland went off the line well, but lost power within the first mile. A quick investigation threw up another small failure in the transmission, clearly the destruction of the two engines so far this week had shaken stuff up more than we thought... but this time fortunately it was a quick fix... but not quickly enough to turn the car around for another run at the Salt tonight.
So we have one last chance in the morning, the car has been geared so that if it makes it the 5 miles down the Salt and I can keep my foot to the boards, we SHOULD run the record. We’ll be on the Salt for sun up, and fingers crossed our luck will finally come good. It certainly feels like we’ve paid our dues......

Day 35: Ogallala, Nebraska to Columbus, Nebraska

Depart Ogallala on Hwy 30. We detour onto Interstate 80 due to roadworks and regain Hwy 30 at Sutherland, where we wash more salt off the car in a no-touch car wash. We ride on to North Platte and the Golden Spike Tower. This is allegedly the world's largest rail yard which can be viewed from the eighth floor. Trains are constantly coming and going. $7 for Annette, $6 for me. Only open two years the tower has already attracted 75,000 visitors.
We take a picnic lunch at Gothenberg where we see another Pony Express station and museum, where the ladies tell us about WW2 rationing and current economic troubles - more angst in the heartland. We ride into Overton and a large antique store has a sign "Open on Saturdays" but I notice the door is open so we circle round and in we go. This is Pyrex heaven. I ask the guy if he has any old coffee pot parts and he says come with me - I pick out the spare parts I need from a large box and also score a mint complete percolator for $15.
We press on via Kearney, but no ATM will give me cash. We ride into Columbus and are almost ready to quit town when we spot a Holiday Inn Express - we negotiate the rate down from $119 to $75 plus tax. Free beer and snacks before crashing out.

The fight goes on at Bonneville

Rick Pearson reports:
Well folks, you can imagine how fresh I feel after less than 3 hours sleep in a Santa Ana hotel last night and while I returned with all the parts we thought we needed, stripping down the remains of the original 2 engines showed that actually the damage was much more severe than we thought.
The crankshafts and bearings on both engines had been destroyed in the brief seconds after the cases exploded in the gearboxes and the oil pressure dropped. SO we simply don't have enough parts to build one good engine.
However, the Speed racing community have rallied around us, and legendary Salt Bike racer, Joe Amo has offered to get on a plane from his South Dakota workshop and fly up tonight with what we need... So the Speed Scotland team have decamped from the Salt (where you aren't allowed to work beyond 8pm) to the car park of a Casino in nearby Wendover and we've prepped the car and engine parts we have to pull an "all-nighter" once Joe gets here at midnight to be back out on the Salt early tomorrow!
As driver of course, I need to be on fine form tomorrow so I’ll be getting a good night’s sleep, (although I think the team are insisting on that more so that I don’t get in the way with my legendary spanner wielding talents!), so I’ll just need to make the team’s efforts worthwhile with the runs tomorrow.The fight goes on.... fingers crossed for us folks, and thanks for all the kind words of support, much appreciated!

Day 34: Rawlins, Wyoming to Ogallala, Nebraska

Depart Rawlins at 06:10 eastbound on I-80. We struggle in the sunrise negotiating lengthy roadworks. We stop at the Wagonhound rest area in the Medicine Bow Mountains. We reach Laramie and take coffee at The Grounds, a newly-opened shop downtown, free wi-fi. Back on the highway we climb to Sherman Hill Summit at an elevation of 8,640 feet, the highest point on the Interstate system.
In Cheyenne we shop at three thrift stores before crossing the border into Nebraska. We reach Kimball for lunch at Greg's Grub and I choose Chicken Hobo Pocket, chicken and veggies cooked in foil with salad, which turns out to be the best meal of the tour at $6. We take Hwy 30, the old Lincoln Highway, a two-lane road that runs through the small towns alongside the Union Pacific railroad. We check out the antique store at Potter, and other shops along the highway at Lodgepole and Chappell.
We reach Ogallala and shop for grocery at Sunmart at 17:15. We check in at the Best Western Stagecoach off I-80.

Bonneville bitsa in chain reaction

Rick Pearson reports:
Disaster struck the Speed Scotland team today as a chain snapped and damaged our last good engine/gearbox. Smashing the casing. Given we have no further spares with us, it looked like the dream of a record for Scotland was over for 2010... but the team were not prepared to give it up that easily.
So we tracked down a guy with the right engine casings that we needed, and a machine shop so he could adapt them to our requirements and he agreed to work all night until they were done. I’ve hopped on a plane from Salt Lake City out to the West Coast to collect the parts and am now sat in a hotel waiting for the flight back the other way with half an engine in my “hand” luggage. There are gearbox parts coming in with UPS from Texas which should arrive as I land back tomorrow morning and the crew are currently tearing the car and the old engines apart to gather enough parts to put one good engine back together and in the car in time for a full-bore pass sometime on Thursday. We will not now be able to afford the luxury of stepping up the speed gradually, so I’ll be getting in the car with the turbo turned up high and giving it one big run down the Salt and see if we can crack the magic 300 and perhaps even threaten that 313mph record...
Never surrender! Fingers crossed for us please.

Day 33: Salt Lake City, Utah to Nawlins, Wyoming

We head out to the State Capitol in Salt Lake City, following a tip from Jo Martin in New Zealand, to see the Mormon Meteor record breaking car of Ab Jenkins. Unfortunately the car is no longer there but we see a bust of Jenkins on the fourth floor. We discover that the car was sold by the Jenkins family to local businessman John Price, who planned to open a Museum of Speed in Salt Lake City, a project that is shelved in the downturn.
They are setting up a tent outside the Capitol at the startline of the Tour of Utah. Racing cyclists are warming up on local roads, learning the course for the prologue.
We head north out of the city then following the UP railroad east and joining up with I-80. We lunch at Evanston across the stateline, finding a Pyrex cup in a local thrift store at 10 cents. We detour through Fort Bridger, traverse the badlands, and reach Rock Springs, finding two Corelle Burgundy flared mugs at 25 cents the pair.
Tonight at Rawlins, Wyoming, in the oilpatch. To the City Market for grocery and crashing out after charging for the last couple of hours at 70 mph on the interstate. Nebraska beckons.

Rick turns up the wick at Bonneville

Rick Pearson reports:

Monday August 16 update - the engine change we had to do took a long while, and it was 5pm before the Flower of Scotland was ready to run. We needed to make a pass between 175mph and 200mph for the next licence level. The rules being that we must run within each speed band as we increase. So I passed the 2 1/4 mile speedtrap at a 200.213mph and had to pull the chutes before reaching 3 miles as the car was still accelerating hard (peak speed was 214mph) and I didn’t want to exceed the limit we’d been set!

The crew tried hard to turn the car around before the 7pm curfew on the Salt, but with checking the new engine fully we ran slightly out of time. So we’re ready to go, first thing in the morning tomorrow, we’ve been asked to make a pass between 200 and 250mph as the next stage, we’ll then be allowed to run in the next band, 250-300mph which we hope to do around lunchtime, then all being well, we’ll turn up the boost and make a pass at the record of 313mph towards the end of the day tomorrow!

Day 32: Elko, Nevada via Bonneville to Salt Lake City, Utah

Up early at Elko and we score a second night at the Travelodge for $25 due to a double-booking snafu. We ride east to Wendover and shop at Smith's for food and gas. Looking for Starbucks we meet some long time rodders and agree to get in touch. Out on the salt we marvel at being able to park close to the startline and watch from our car. Bonneville charge $15 per day for a ticket, $40 for the week.

At 16:15 we head for Salt Lake City in 95f heat, checking-in at the Comfort Inn downtown. We take supper at Romano's Macaroni Grill - poor service for a dinner for two costing $47.02 incl tip.

Day 31: Bonneville

Yesterday we really knocked ourselves out in the heat at Bonneville and needed to regroup for a second day on the salt. Staying some 120 miles away in Elko we cruise into Wendover and shop for lunch and a T shirt at Smith's supermarket, avoiding Speedway prices. We have learned that too long in the sun and walking about in the thin air at altitude is a short cut to exhaustion.
We park by the staging lanes and watch the cars assembling for a run on the salt. The informal atmosphere is infectious as you can stroll around the startline area and take pictures to your hearts content - even from the shelter of the smart car.

Flower of Scotland team gets "salt fever"

Bonneville is proving to be a strict mistress for the Flower of Scotland team. When you are hooked on setting a record, also known as salt fever, the rules are exacting. The rookie acclimatisation requires three qualification runs at set speeds:

"D" license at 125 mph to 149 mph
"C" 150 mph to 174 mph
"B" 175 mph to 199 mph

Ideally these runs should be set in sequence but in a streamliner with the potential to exceed 300 mph it is not that simple. As of Sunday afternoon driver Rick Pearson had earned his "D" and "C" licenses and came to the startline in pursuit of a "B" license - the car was pushed off by the pickup but the motor died shortly into the run and he pulled off the course. Another attempt was planned for later in the day to secure the opportunity to run for the record.

Rick Pearson too fast at Bonneville

Rookie Rick Pearson was set to complete his very first shakedown run on the Bonneville Salt Flats today at the annual Bonneville Speed Week. A little shaky off the start he shed the push truck rather early, and then experienced blurred vision due to lack of padding for his helmet and methanol fumes from the engine. He was instructed to run no faster than 150 mph but his right foot got the better of him as he went through Mile 4 at 170.865 mph. A mild admonishment from the SCTA saw him cleared to prepare for his second shakedown run at 175 mph. A successful run at 200 mph will see him cleared to go for the class record.

The 1-litre Flower of Scotland streamliner has plenty left in the tank. Pearson plans to attack the Blown Fuel Streamliner record in class I - that is for one litre cars - later in the week. The record is currently held by the Castella/Yacoucci streamliner at 313.984 mph set in 2003.

The team report that they are pleased with the media reaction in Scotland and in the UK in general to their efforts and are confident the car can set a record and put Rick Pearson in the 300 mph club.

Day 30: Ely, Nevada to Elko, Nevada

We hit the road before eight o'clock and take Hwy 93 towards Whitehorse Pass. We get our first view of Bonneville Salt Flats - like a wonder of the world. Into Wendover we stop for gas and coffee at Pilot Casino. Out to the salt flats where we park close to the staging lanes - we blunder about mesmerised by the variety of vehicles. I chat to the Moon team about Dante Duce and what we can do to find out more about him.

We hook up with Rick Pearson and his car Flower of Scotland and ride down the course in the trailer truck as he faces the salt for the first time.
Mid-afternoon we head for Elko on I-80 - now at the Travelodge for two nights before heading back east.

Day 29: Ely, Nevada

To Cave Lake in the hills off Hwy 50. We watch a family of Coots feeding among the reeds. Back to town where we photograph some hot rods headed for Bonneville. We do laundry at Soak n Suds, then visit The Zoo thrift shop.

The Big Apple family restaurant for lunch then downtown to the White Pine Rodders 17th Annual Car Show. We meet Tony from Chicago with his '53 Chevy custom. He insists that Annette be pictured behind the wheel but declines to be photographed himself.

Willie Nelson plays Red Butte Garden, Salt Lake City, Utah on September 10th.