Preparations for the Mother Road

Day – Minus 5... arrived in LA at 1030 and sited our Mustang in Steve & Bonnie Brennans driveway at 7719 Boeing Ave. No Nevada plates on the car so, Steve’s trip to Nevada had obviously  not been successful. Seems the car didn’t pass a mandatory smog test – the computer was no ‘ready’ enough to pass... needed more driving in different situations to be ready!

Day – Minus 4... shopping for general supplies, a portable esky, chilly bin or even cooler as they call it here!  Ran the car as per the suggested tests to conform the last two required smog readiness tests and figured on heading to Steve Millen’s Stillen Sportparts in the morning to check whether it was OK.

Day – Minus 3... leaving the Brennans we head for Stillen to see whether the car could be convinced to conform to the required smog certification. Not faults registered, just simply ‘not ready’ and without at least one of them conformed we couldn’t get past the smog stage of rego in Nevada. Spent the morning running up and down Freeway 55 at set speeds but to no avail.



Registration American Style - 2 hour wait.               

  

Finally registered and ready to go.

Day – Minus 2... Thursday, an early start to Las Vegas to see if we could get the car registered. One last try to get the computer to complete its readiness test in the cool air on the freeway out of LA. By 0930 we were at Vinnie’s Smog booth and the car successfully passed finally! Next stop was Eddie, Steve Brennan’s brother whee the car is ‘housed’ in Vegas. Collected our insurance mail and headed to see  Ralph at AAA Insurance. Armed with maps and updated insurance we set out for the last stop of the day  the DMV to register the Mustang. What an eye opener, about a hundred and fifty people seated in the waiting area and at least one hundred in front for us! It was 4pm by the time we hit the outlet shops at Primm on the Nevada border and 9pm by the time we arrived back at Steve & Jodie Millens in Newport.

Day - Minus 1... Friday was spent in Costa Mesa Newport fitting a new tyre to the old rim for a spare and finalising the car. Had the use of the earlier model 05 Orange Mustang which certainly attracts its fair share of attention.  Visited Balbao Island while waiting for final checks on Silver / Red Musang.

                                                     Oh the decisions...which will we take?

The decision has been made and here we are all set for the journey thanks to the Millens for all the prep work and having such a great car.

Route 66 here we come.