The Blues Mobile - The Transformation

Day 1 -And so the adventure begins, after an open call to have the car transported from its current location in St. Louis, MO to Moorpark for over two months, the Church and MPC could wait no longer. Call it divine intervention: a business trip came up for me in Springfield, MO. So I flew out to St. Louis, had my representative pick me up at the airport and drive me to the location of the Blues Mobile, finally taking possession for MPC.

The seller of the car had added a few fun bits to the car in the two months prior and remains keenly interested in the transformation to the official Blues Mobile. From his house, I began the first leg of the journey to bring the car home to MPC, hopefully by Sunday night, by driving the car to Springfield, MO. Pictures of day one at the house in St. Louis are attached showing off the tie the owner gave me to go with the car. The car is now officially on "A Mission from God"

Day 2 starts in Springfield, MO, where I took the car to have all of her fluids changed and everything checked that could be checked. It was a fun shop that loved the story of how we came about the car and the mission we were on. In the course of their work, a technician came to me and asked if I had noticed the VIN (vehicle
identification number) of the car. I thought he was going to tell me it was stolen or something. I told him that I had not seen the VIN number, so he approached and presented me with his findings: "GOD" was in the VIN number. This car is definitely heaven sent. How Awesome is that?

From there it was on to Walmart to stock up on everything I hoped I would not need for the journey, met up with my representative and on to our business meeting in Springfield. John Q. Hammons is all over this town and our meeting was with his company. Our customers so loved the whole Blues Brothers story that they actually chose to ride in the car to lunch; That's true faith. We stalled twice on the way to some fine Mexican cuisine. On the way back, the car was perfect. We even stopped at Hammons Field to take a very fitting Blues Brothers movie parody shot. Day two pictures are also included here. The end of Day Two has me comfortably sleeping in Oklahoma City, OK.

Day 3 - OK, so we know all things big usually happen on the third day. So on the journey of the Blues Mobile, this was the day for drama. She started out happy in Oklahoma City, passing Tinseltown, the Cherokee Nation and plenty of miles crossing the border into Texas. Then it started: she needed gas, so I pulled off the highway into the tiny town of McLean, TX, where she stalled just as I rolled up to the pump (hint number one of more troubles to come). Managed to start her after the fill up, with combinations of brake, neutral and the gas - two feet driving. Back on the road through Amarillo shooting for Albuquerque. It was not to be, The car wouldn't drive at any speed other than 70-75; would die if I slowed down or tried to speed up. After ten minutes on the phone with Triple AAA, we found the one shop open in a town called Tucumcari, NM, 60 miles out from where I was. Playing "dodge the big rigs" and praying to the blessed mother of acceleration-not-to-fail-me-now, the car made it to the exit nearest the shop and died at the top of the hill. I coasted her down the hill without power as far as she would go and the boys from Auto Smith had to come and get me. Check out the pics: The story does end well and I was still on the road. Praise be to God!

Day 4 - Finally home, but not without a bit more drama. Started in Flagstaff with my brother Daniel, who I picked up the afternoon before in Albuquerque. We drove down Route 66 with a cool stop in Ash Fork, AZ. Drove over the Hoover Dam, saw big trucks going backwards, rolled into Las Vegas where we had a great lunch, and dropped Daniel off. The car was running great. Then I headed toward California. That's when I had my second near death experience by having to slam on the breaks from the fast lane at the state line, swerve past the right lane heading for the shoulder on purpose, only to find it blocked by a stranded car, swerved back into the lane and the car stopped. Thank you, God, along with 40 year old brakes.

Then I headed on through Barstow, where the car gave out a few huge backfire explosions (kind of cool after the fact) for my third and final near death experience... and ended with a very cool tow truck from Barstow Towing driven by Joe Blackford. Thanks again Triple AAA and another great auto shop, Barstow Fuel with Danny, who found a nut that fell off a wire from the fix that happened the day before.

Boom, back on the road and finally to Moorpark, where Conner, my son, was excited to see the car. I was excited to see him along with my wife, Karen. Conner and I brought the car to Moorpark Presbyterian Church, where Pastor Dave had a quick look—and you can too until we take her to the body shop for her transformation into the actual Blues Mobile.

Thanks to all of you for praying and keeping my family company. The trip was a grand adventure that I will never forget. Praise be to God!