trip to Vegas

As I pulled back into my garage,3988 miles later,it finally hit me...
Not once did I set my foot set down on anything but Texaco pavement,a hotel parking lot,grass of a rest area,driveway of a relative or friend, or anywhere but a planned stop on the way to or from Las Vegas.
No "better pull over dude",no "oh sh*t",not even a "what was that?"
In a Pantera.
And even better yet, no sickening adrenaline rush as you go flying by officer friendly at 100+...thanks to my newly installed Valentine One radar detector, it paid for itself in one trip.
After hitting 150 on a clear stretch with no suprises, I was gaining trust in this car...

Let's go back to September 1999.
This is when I bought this car,a 72 Pre-L. I had little to go on as far as what its history was,so I had nothing to base my trust on. The car showed 52k and this was not the original motor.I knew one thing though, I was going to drive to the Vegas Fun Rally in this car. I had heard of the annual event over the forum emails I'd been getting as I searched for a solid stock Pre-L Pantera to buy and enjoy for under 20k, learning as I went.
Well ,a bazillion last minute man hours and a million dollars later I pulled out of the driveway,me and my ride were headed for Vegas baby!
Was the car ready?Was I ready? I reserved that answer to be answered after I rolled it back in the garage on my timely,safe return in a week or so.There I go getting ahead of myself again(easy to do in a Detomaso)...

January 2000- I set a goal,go to Vegas with no problems.

Ok so Iguess I have to replace everything that's important to ensure endless hours of safe,constant high speed travel and enjoyment.
If you fail to plan,you just might be planning to fail,or at least decrease your odds for success.
So if it was suspect,it was fixed or replaced.I started with a list of things that it would need to be reliable.
If the list was not done in time, I would not attempt the drive,but probably just fly and attend,thinking of my poor unfinished project at home.boo-hoo
I'll be damned if my first goal of the next 1000years wasn't going to be a success.

March 2000-
Ok better get busy,I've got more stuff on the list than I figured. Why does everything done on the Pantera seem to be a bitch? I seem to be taking more off than putting on....and everything takes longer than I figured it would. But I simply don't have the time to complain or be tired. I've got a deadline.
I've resigned myself to be its slave. I sacrificed family time,dental work,sleep, lotsa money and eating sitting down.
But the work got done,in fact right up to 5 a.m. before leaving. I was possesed by the damn thing.

Monday,April 25th, 5:00am-Leaving for Vegas
I'll get a few hours sleep before the planned departure time of 11am.
Was the car ready?Was I ready...

Be positive I told myself.You've done all you can do in prepping an auto for a long trip.Just enjoy the ride.
You gave yourself plenty of time to account for any roadside occurence which I've heard could occur in these rickety old Panteras. Did I cover all the bases? At any time,you could be left stranded on a lonely stretch of road, barely clinging to life, at the mercy of roadside vultures and hating anything Ford or Italian.
If I overlooked something it could cause a long delay at best and would really just bum me out. But I was prepared to deal with that too. It would just give me more stuff to write about as I told of my incredulous display of McGyver roadside engineering.
Never happened. Ok, there was that one little problem just outside of Vegas...

No problems other than cramping muscles ear to ear from a slow developing smirk. This car is doing ok!
But I still wasn't convinced,she had to show me something I hadn't seen before.
I know it sounds trivial as I never did care much about economy,but what she showed me was an average of 18.1 MPG on it's first leg.
Stop at Seven Feathers casino in Oregon for a good dinner and some slots. Hit the road ,over Grants Pass with snow flurries. Car did fine,loping along the twisties till we rolled into Weed Cal.
Ok we made it to first base.
Check in to the motel 6 and crash early,naturally .

Tues morn.-I get the most sleep I've had in a month.Check the fluids,pick some bugs outta the grill and we hit the road, next stop Sacramento to visit friends.
Woke friends up bout 7am (called on cell phone a block away,they love early morning suprises),visited and relaxed for the day and night.

Wednsday morning-Leaving Sac.-
Next stop Las Vegas,about 8-9 hours drive in warmer weather.More gas and normal maintenance,breakfast,farewells and we hit the road.
Keep waiting for something to happen,but all I can do is grin as she purrs along in 5th gobbling up interstate and spitting out Vettes in the wake.

It's getting kinda warm outside but the car is doing all the right things.Water temp reads 180deg and dual Flex-a-Lite fans work well with the new laydown rad. Now I can enjoy the fruits of my labor as peace of mind settles in knowing I can count on every square inch of tubing and hose I've replaced.
If there is a problem, it will be a learning experience. There isn't too many places left on this car I haven't become intimate with in the last 3-4 months.
Starting to relax and enjoy it. Running with a gal in a new Mustang Gt Convt.we switched on and off playing follow the leader, slowing at the "brap" of the ValentineOne before and after overpasses (spot on radar from smokie possible,most difficult to detect early). At least one time it saved my butt in this situation. There he was,just parked on the overpass,shootin' his little gun at me as I coasted by at 71mph. See ya later gator!
Anyway,we musta went 200 miles with that gal,couldn't shake her. But then again you can't blame her for wanting to keep up with us....

I will say there was a lot of trucks and slower traffic ,but they seem to know the rules of the road once you get south of Washington. You know,"the left lane is for passing only stay outta my way I'm faster" rule.

Pulled into the Plaza parking lot and spotted the Pantera area. Decided to go unload first then come back and park as it was a little walk to the casino.
There was a spot right next to the Valet entrance so I backed in and told the lot jockey we'd just like to unload stuff into our room and we'd be back to move it in about 10min. He said no problem.
Well an hour later as we went back to move it the guy comes charging at us full bore saying something about "that sure was a long ten minutes!"
After he calmed down we talked about leaving the car where it was as it seemed like a nice secure place for my faithful ride. I guess it's called teaching em English in Vegas but a few bucks seemed to help him learn the language.
At least I got a return on my money,hard to do in Vegas!
He assured us that his English was good now and we could come and go as the spot was ours until we checked out.

Welcome to Las Vegas Mr. Wells

The thing was they wanted the keys.In case of a fire or something. I wasn't crazy about the idea of anybody having the keys to my car in Vegas,or anywhere for that matter. C,mon,didn't you see Ferris Buellers day off?
So hopefully Bill,Nick or Brian aren't reading this when I tell you I just took the little green knob from my quick disconnect battery cable with me for peace of mind. I also brought an extra set of keys for the trip,which I would recomend to all who use any sort of valet parking while in Vegas.
Something about not having the keys to your car if for some freak reason a quick exit is necessary or yours end up "missing".
Again,be ready to teach a little "english" but most casinos love having cool cars like Panteras parked out front.

Pulled up to the Bellagio and the guy said PLEASE leave the car there sir...ok whatever dude here's 2 bits,car moves you are a deadman.

We decided to hit the highway at night going home.Cooler temps and less traffic made for a more enjoyable ride. The desert is a beautiful drive at night.
The drive was galactic as we sliced through the starry wide open spaces of the desert night. The car even seemed to get better milage,19.1mpg on the way back. Turns out we would make 10 gas stops the entire trip.
After stopping at Sams casino by the Nevada border for one last good cheap dinner we headed out,next stop Sacramento to visit my cousins,who happen to have a nice pool and much needed HOT TUB as the Plaza was without.
Those self-service Texaco stations are great! We filled up 3 times using the gas card and they are clean,well lit,and all over the interstate.
Arrived in Sac.7:30am with no problems.Very impressed with the reliability so far. Not to say that something couldn't happen, it just hasn't on this trip so far. Spent the day soaking and sleeping and bid farewell to my hospitable relatives at 11:00pm that evening.
Last leg- Well this is it,last chance for failure,or success. If something were to happen to shake my trust it would happen in the next 12 hours before arriving home. Up to this point on the whole trip we've only used maybe half of quart of oil. And it never overheated even in extreme heat at a standstill.
With good preparation the Pantera ,as with any machine ,can be a reliable mode of long distance travel I thought to myself. Sure it's got it's quirks but it really contains nothing beyond common sense engineering.
Well except for all the Ford and Italian stuff which makes no sense sometimes.But I guess that's one of the unexplainable reasons why I like it.
That's when advice from the helpful Pantera folks all over the world is very welcome.A big thank you to everybody on the forum who helped me make this dream come true and especially to Phil Rosson my friend, mechanic and co-pilot. Also thanks to Greg Stults for help in checking out the car and the lord above for a good,safe trip. I hope to make it an annual vacation.

As I pulled into my garage,3,988miles later,it finally hit me...
You mean all I had to do was click my heels three times and say "there's no place like home..?"
No thanks,I think I'd rather drive my Pantera...