Rat Rod

Up early in Los Angeles. We're on our way to KTLA for a live TV interview. Sorry for the quiet week. We spent most if it in Vegas. I can see why people call it Lost Wages, Nirvana.

We were there for the SEMA Show - a huge specialty auto exhibit. A hundred-thousand so called gear heads turned out to show off their cars and specialty parts and services. That's a lot of gear heads. There were thousands of cars. Lamborghinis, old-school muscle, even Bentleys dressed up as taxi cabs. It was a good look at car culture down here.

Alex was in his element, hanging around with other car lovers. Jay Leno was there, who apparently owns about 100 cars. Alex tells me he has around 140. Although I think only a few of them still turn over (Alex guesses about 20). The rest are yard decorations back home in Yellowknife. Alex's son, Curtis, calls them junk. Alex disputes that and calls them collectibles. I've seen the yard, it's hard not to agree with Curtis.

With Alex's collection of beaters, it's no surprise which car was his favourite at the show. There was an absolutely hideous looking, gnarly old station wagon parked in the middle of a sea of polished-up show cars. The wagon's owner called it a rat rod. A hot rod engine in a rat of a car. It would not have looked out of place as one of Alex's "collectibles" out in the yard.

Ok, off to Sunset Boulevard. Have a good one.

Loren

The Red Giant

Greetings from spectacular Las Vegas.

We got in later than we expected last night because of an unplanned tour stop in Salt Lake City, Utah. The compressor on the Red Giant started acting up so we had to pull off onto the thin shoulder of the humming interstate. The truck's driver and owner, Bryan Dax, spent three hours crawling around underneath and eventually resolved whatever ailed it. While he worked under the truck, his feet stuck out the side just far enough that I was worried they'd go the way of oh so many deer and skunk we've seen on highway 80 west and now 15 south.

That three hours on the side of the highway (in front of a big jail) was plenty of time for all kinds of people to stop. We had a visit from a local trucker who thought the breakdown was actually pretty lucky because without it he and Alex wouldn't have met. Prison guards, motorcycle riders, and a bunch of others either pulled-over or hopped the fence to make sure we were alright and had all the tools we needed. Everyone of those kind souls was rewarded with a bookmark and a couple of signed information brochures for Yellowknife and the Northwest Territories. It was a good stop. And it was good to get going again once the truck was sorted out.

A number of people have asked about the truck, so Jay and I put together a sort of "MTV Cribs" tour of the big machine. I'll let driver/owner Bryan Dax take it away...
Loren

80,000 people and a marching band come out to see Alex!!!

Just bunking down after a beautiful drive through Nebraska and much of Wyoming. From the great plains into the foot hills and then in the evening through some incredible rock formations. The rocks and mountains are a sign of things to come. We'll pass though Utah tomorrow with the goal of getting to Las Vegas by supper time.

Yesterday we pulled up to the bookstore on the University of Nebraska campus. Just so happened the book signing was scheduled on game day. The U of N Corn Huskers' football team, ranked 15th in the country going into the game, took on the 6th ranked team from Missouri. I can not begin to explain to Canadians what a big deal college football is in the US. And Nebraska is a perennial powerhouse. They've won 5 national championships.

With kick-off scheduled for 2:30pm, by 9:30am the streets were packed with Huskers fans dressed in red & white. Parking lots in the downtown core of Lincoln were turned into little villages of haywire tailgaters. Picture a scene from Mad Max, but everyone is wearing red and white and they're all in a good mood. Definitely no big deal to see someone hollering at passing cars, chowing down on a smokie, and enjoying a wobbly-pop at 10 in the morning. All part of getting ready for the game.

Our massive tour truck, the Red Giant, is...well...red. Which made it an accessory to the fan madness in Lincoln. We were also parked on one of the main walkways leading to the Memorial Field, which some say is a "cathedral of college football." If I didn't know better I would have thought that there were 80,o00 people lined up to get their copy of "King of the Road" signed. No such luck, but the excitement of the day was definitely part of our stop there. And there was no shortage of people in face and body paint who lined up to say hi to Alex before heading into the game.

Jay and I were wheeling and hustling through traffic and managed to get in place to see the Husker team arrive out front of the stadium. Thousands of people were absolutely rocking, including the marching band. The whole production was out of this world. A nice little slice of culture from this part of the world. And an absolutely contagious energy level to get into our veins as we filmed the street level action.

The Huskers put a whooping on Missouri: 31 - 17. Add the big victory to Halloween festivities and I think Lincoln was the most exciting place in the country yesterday. Eventually we had to split, but I'd bet there are a few people in Lincoln who are still celebrating. Jay and I are now big time Huskers fans. We've got the hat and shirt to prove it.

Loren

ps - Coming soon: thanks to a request from a reader, our next post will be a video tour of the Red Giant with owner/driver Bryan Dax. I'll post it tomorrow.