Hello Rustlovers!

I must say that although I started writing this as a fun way to show my projects to friends and family, my readership numbers have been improving steadily, all thanks to you! As such I want to offer my genuine gratitude. Thanks Rustlovers!

So about that gambler! The Gambler 500 SoCal 2017 took place the second week of November and my friends and I participated! Based on chatter from the facebook page I expected a bunch of rowdy crazies scattered across the desert in broken cars and I was not disappointed but there was so much more. It really was a split mix of crazies, seasoned off roaders in it for the fun and total novices in way over their heads who could neither drive off-road nor get their rig home when it broke down. It was amazing. The levels of help to which people were willing to go was truly inspirational.

At my house in Santee we had drawn straws to determine driver/passenger positions in the cars and Mr. Doctor had the misfortune of driving the postal Jeep which was already having steering problems. I rode with him.

As we got close to Cafe 247 we started to see other gamblers on the road and on trailers and the excitement was rising fast. We were honking and yelling at each other out of questionable car windows. These were my people. After parking we set up camp and mingled with the other drivers and checked out the other cars. Wow. Homemade convertibles with plumbing pipe roll cages, lifted BMWs, wooden lift blocks held on by grade 3 carriage bolts. A replica of the mutt cuts van from Dumb and Dumber. I have now truest seen it all.

One of the fun aspects of the gambler is that you don’t get to know the route in advance. The cars queued at the starting line and were let through in 60 second increments and the drivers were handed a list of day 1 coordinates as they crossed. And off we went!

2 of the craziest crazies around.

One of a couple “tank cars”.

A typical example of a gambler car. Note the age, number of doors, weight saving measures, and custom paint.

Count DrAcura and The Dispatcher.

Following the Dispatcher up a steep trail.

The terrible traffic jam started when a diesel F-350 ripped out the vacuum lines that engage the 4×4 and got stuck. The heavy truck sank deep and turned 40 feet of semi hard pack gravel into quicksand. After being helped out by the use of a tow rope and some maxtrax the eager crowd surged forward 1 car length and without momentum each 2 wheel drive took turns getting stuck. Yes the Ford has manual hubs too but those were somehow overlooked.

Try as we might we couldn’t hold the line long enough to create a runway for some momentum. To make matters worse every car that got stuck made the road softer and harder to navigate. As far as I saw, only two 4×2 vehicles made it and the dispatcher was one of them. Even count DrAcura got stuck.

A couple of heroes in 4×4’s kept going back and pulling out car after gloriously terrible car while the back of the line had dissolved as people turned around and gave up. Eventually every car made it out of the area but by then the day was half gone. As we trundled on at speeds unsafe for any of the cars involved the steering on the jeep got progressively worse. As we crossed the 15 freeway and headed to the next waypoint we came across a large group that was debating heading up the freeway to camp or carrying on. We duct taped over some holes in the cars to save ourselves from some even more dust and continued off-road.

With no other gamblers in sight we traversed a lot of awesome desert trails that ascended for a long while then widened and smoothed out into a massive dirt road that serviced a quarry or mine nearby. We flew along as it wound back down out of the hills until it dumped us out onto the historic Route 66! As big of a car nut as I am this was actually the first time that I had ever driven on route 66. We bombed north in the waning daylight, stopped for fuel for both the cars and our stomachs, then were back off the road in the dark until we made it to camp where a radiator hose promptly blew on the postal jeep.

Apparently the Jeep’s newly discovered cooling system pressure after changing the cap and heater core were just too much for the poor old hose that was possibly compromised when Mr. Pipe and I rolled it onto its side 6 years ago. Luckily we were able to slice it back and reconnect it.

Day 2 was a lot more movement and a lot less getting stuck. We headed northeast from camp toward the Mohave preserve where the plotted route paralleled the 15 freeway for a long time. We decided we would be better off taking our own huge circuit through the Mohave preserve which was a fun and stunning drive. In the middle of the dry lake we found this strange stone monument with a geo cache, a flag, memorial notes, and the funniest plaque.

This was by far my favorite part of the trip. When we got back to the 15 freeway we stopped and looked over the vehicles and discovered the right front shock was broken on the jeep. As there are leaf springs in the front with no anti sway bar, the shocks are the only thing keeping the jeep driving in a straight line. We pulled off the offending shock and headed north.

The steering was bad. Worse in the wind. We crossed the state line into Nevada and pulled into Whiskey Pete’s to call around to some parts stores but the closest shocks were 2 hours south in Victorville. There were a lot of other gamblers broken down there and we did what we could to help but we weren’t in great shape ourselves so we decided to cash out. We gambled. We lost.

I ran into the casino to get myself a birthday margarita which you pay for by gambling?? One of my friends showed me which buttons to hit on the video poker machine built into the bar and and a few minutes later I walked away with twice as much money and a margarita. Weird. Anyway the Bonnie and Clyde car was there!

Soooooooo many bullet holes. To quote John Mulaney “What, were bullets free back then???”

We headed south, stopping briefly in Victorville to throw some shocks on the jeep but the steering was still so bad and continued to deteriorate until we finally arrived safely at home.

Even being dead tired from a 6 month home repair/remodel marathon I still had a blast on the trip and will never forget it. I can’t wait until I get to ride out again with that big group of mixed nuts, only next time I’ll be in The Scoot ! Yeah, I know I said I wasn’t going to nickname the scout but it just sort of happened. I’m especially looking forward to seeing Count DrAcura again because I sold her to some aspiring gamblers after the race… for $500

Until next time Rustlovers remember:

Crappy Car: $500

2 days gambling with lunatics: priceless.