<– Day 9 – Mar. 28th: Charging Futility and FC Roundup Day 1 | OVERVIEW | Day 11 – Mar. 30th: Phoenix’s Mystery Castle –>

It was a busy day at the FC-Roundup. There were more trucks, more people and plenty of visitors. The weather was a little warm, but I know I relished the heat after our cold winter in Pasco.

The morning started for some of us with a 6am breakfast FC convoy, which I did alone as Ann decided she’d enjoy sleeping a little while longer. We all met over at Jesse’s. Thinking Jason’s tour jeep was going to be filled, Craig Brockhaus jumped into the rear. I was thinking the same thing, so I jumped up next to him. It turned out we were the only two in the back two rows. Certain someone would tell our wives that we were seen taking a romantic ride in the back of the tour jeep, Craig made the smart move to shift to the other side.

We made it to breakfast at Fast Eddies without a single jeep breaking down. That could be a record! For the trip back to the event, Jesse offered to give me a ride in his M-667. Well, wouldn’t you know but that two-timing Craig wasted no time inviting Dan Devries into the back of the Tour Jeep for the ride home. I feel so cheap now . . .

After a quick trip back to the hotel to pick up Ann, the two of us met up with Colin Peabody for a wide ranging chat. He had some good suggestions for Route 66 stops, so we’ll be including some of those on the early part of our trip toward California.

Just before we left, Colin showed us his DJ-3A Surrey. It’s a beautiful vehicle that he enjoys immensely.

The door-prize giveaway started just after lunch. Jason and Greg combined forces to provide several really cool customized signs. We were all drooling. I implored my wife to use all her witchy powers (after all, she is the descendent of John Ketcham). But, no matter what she tried, she could not win me a sign!  I doubt her heart was truly in it, because she didn’t think we’d be able to take it home. But, I had a solution and that solution was to come up with a plan once I won the sign. Alas, that didn’t happen. Here are a few of the signs.

After the raffle, a few of use decided to go out for dinner in the tour jeep. We didn’t get far. If you own a jeep, you know that his photo needs no explanation.

Dan (underneath the jeep), quickly discovered the throttle cable had come undone (or something like that — I was laughing too hard at our situation).  After all, these situations are what jeeping is all about.

Our chief mechanic quickly determined he needed a small tool to fix the problem. Those of us in the tour jeep pooled our resources, which amounted to a few phones and plenty of excuses as to why we weren’t better prepared.

To Jason’s credit, he wasn’t about to be denied his seafood. I don’t think there was a cataclysmic event in recorded history that would have kept that man from Red Lobster. For, after determining that our only hope for repairing the throttle linkage was an iPhone app (turns out there isn’t an app for that!), Jason grabbed the bull by the horns, or in this case the carb with his fingers, and manually operated it.

With the cowl open, Jason worked the carb with one hand, the steering with the other, and the transmission shifter with the third arm . . . which he doesn’t have. With Ann screaming next to me, “We are going to die!” . . . or maybe that was me screaming . . . Jason steered that FC onto the freeway, juggling between the steering wheel, the carb, and the shifter.

Unfortunately, the faster we went, the hotter the carb got. Jason went from using his hand, to using his finger, to wrapping his finger with a cloth. But, none of it slowed that FC down a bit as we raced toward Red Lobster. I feel safe claiming that no one has tried harder to go faster to reach a Red Lobster than Jason Monday.

Ironically, the closer we got to the restaurant, the more Jason looked the part, as he’d spent too much time in the sun on Saturday. By the time we walked into the restaurant, his face matched the lobster on the sign. He was a Red Lobster!

All-in-all is a fun trip to dinner and we’d do it all over again in a moment.

Though the FC-Roundup 2014 continues through Sunday afternoon, Ann and I won’t be there. We will be heading for Tempe to tour Mystery Castle and then spend the evening at the Chihuly Exhibit in Phoenix. On Monday we celebrate Ann’s birthday, April 1 we begin heading west. Where you ask? Roughly toward San Diego. We’ll know more in a couple days.

Here are some additional photos we took from this year’s Roundup. Thanks for all the fun everyone!

 <– Day 9 – Mar. 28th: Charging Futility and FC Roundup Day 1 | OVERVIEW | Day 11 – Mar. 30th: Phoenix’s Mystery Castle –>