Got back about 4:30 yesterday afternoon after a nerve-wracking 3 day trip to Chino, California. The trip was necessary due to the few numbers of rear seats for the more ancient Bugs. They run anywhere from about 750 to a thousand bucks-------if you can find one. So when my wife found THIS one on the net, and the guy said I could have it for $150....... "if I drove down there and picked it up"..................well..........I drove down there and picked it up. But I had to remind myself several times on the way down, and several times on the way back, "This is for the seat...this is for the seat.....this is for the seat............

Interstate 15 is a nuthouse..an "ant colony on wheels." Driving through Ogden-Salt Lake isn't too much worse than Ada county, if you plan your trip to where you're going through there at the right times of the day, so it wasn't too bad.

Las Vegas however, is a 24/7 "hallucination", of which you can always count on TWO things..........there will always be freeway construction with lots of cones and detours............and (2), nobody will let you over, or back on if you get forced off and have to negotiate your way through a maze of 1-way streets in a town you don't know.

Remembering this from years past, I just stayed pretty much in the center lanes, where most of the big rigs were, (figuring they'd be just going through on their way to L.A.)

No thanks to a tire problem in Fillmore Utah, my schedule got a little behind and I got into Vegas just in time for the "going home from work" traffic. Sun dead center in my windshield, bumper-to-bumper, brake lights every 10 feet, and orange cones everywhere.

"This is for the seat", I would tell myself. In what seemed an eternity, traffic finally began to disperse and I was on my way to Barstow.

One of the things I had learned and long-remembered, was that you ALWAYS top off your tank just before you come into range of any city you don't desire to drive around in. That way, even if you DO get caught in a jam, you're at least 3 hours away from needing gas, so you don't HAVE to get off in the city somewhere out of necessity."***

When I DID have to refuel, I was in California, where my wallet and I "braced ourselves." Gas and diesel prices are notoriously higher in California than anywhere else. Always HAVE been. I was driving our Dodge diesel pickup, and when I pulled into a Mobil truckstop, I couldn't believe what I was seeing...........They're cheaper than WE are here in Idaho!!

I found this to be true everywhere I went down there, and I intend to contact Senator Crapo about this. I don't know all the "ins and outs" of economics, but I've been driving for enough decades to know that anytime you can buy fuel in CALIFORNIA at a better price than Idaho............WE ARE BEING ROBBED, boys and girls..........we are being HAD. Diesel is higher than gasoline (although it shouldn't be), and even at that, I never paid more than $3.74 anywhere down there for it. I don't use the "off brands" either.....we're talking about Mobil, Shell, Sinclair, etc.

Anyway, I spent the night in Barstow, which is now a city, where only a small town used to be, back in the mid-60's. Drove down the Cajon Pass Friday morning into the Riverside area, then took a few deep breaths and fought my way into Chino.

The Chino portion actually went pretty good. The guy with the VW parts had given me SUPERB directions to his house. He'd already left for work, but his mom was there and she had the seats. She'd also told me it was a good thing I came down there, because he had JUST POSTED them on the internet when my wife spotted them and I'd called. Over the next 12 hours or so, he'd gotten 2 more offers. One at $350 and a 2nd offer of "whatever it was going to take." But she said that "Eric" (her son), put both offers on hold because "some guy was driving all the way from Idaho to get them", and unless I changed my mind or something....it would be a "done deal,"................and it was.

There is a lesson to be observed here on the pitfalls of procratination. If I'd piddled around here for a day or so "thinking it over",....I'd still be needing a rear seat and be back in the thousand dollar range again.

Well, it's early Friday morning, seats are in the bed of the truck, and Camp Pendleton is only another 60 miles, so the time to hit the PX and stock up on new marine T-shirts, bumper stickers and such, would never be better! Another couple of deep breaths, and back out onto to I-15.

Two weeks later (it SEEMED like that long, anyway), I was back once again at Camp Pendleton, where the ground is hard and life is harder. Drove over to mainside, stocked up on what I needed, then over to 33 Area, better known as Camp Margarita (Camp Pendleton is HUGE.........as big as some counties........and it is made up of several smaller Camps, San Mateo, Del Mar, San Onofre, Las Pulgas, Horno, Del Rio, etc).

When I returned from Vietnam in 68, I spent my last several months at Margarita, so I took a ride up there around noon, and took a few pictures. My old barracks #33326 is still there, still as rundown as it was 40 years ago.......and there are Marines STILL living there! You know, the Navy has always been tight with their budget money, but you'd think....after 40 years.........well, Semper Fi, Mac!

Back onto 15 Northbound for home. At the bottom of the Cajon Pass, traffic came to a complete stop. Here we go again...10 feet at a time. About 3 miles later, there was the fender-bender....WELL off the road..cop writing a ticket.....everybody just slowing down to ogle..........hard to believe that in California, nobody ever saw a ticket being written, eh?

"Ok......ok........chill out, Mikey.....you got the seat...it's in the back."

From Victorville to the Nevada state line, it was the Daytona 500, two long rows of lane swapping and single file "drafting". Best I could figure, it was Friday afternoon, half the world was racing to Las Vegas to blow everything they'd earned all week.

I topped off in Jean, (a few miles north of Vegas), started down into the valley...........and BRAKELIGHTS as far as you could see! It was about 7:PM, and I was trying to make as many miles as I could, so Saturday's run into Mountain Home wouldn't be so long.

"Oh God......please........no more of this.........."

By 8:30 or so, I'd struggled through Vegas once again, nearly homicidal at this point, and as the speedometer climbed to 50.....55....60......65 on the way to St. George and Cedar City, the words echoed in my mind again as I searched for a radio station..........."it's ok.....it's ok.......I got the seat, it's right here in the back."

Spent Friday night in Cedar City, took off early yesterday morning. Topped off in Provo, another few deep breaths and on through Salt Lake & Ogden.

I NEVER thought I'd be glad to see I-84!!!

This trip had been a little costly too. That "tire delay" that put me into Vegas a little behind schedule going down, was a radial belt breaking through the sidewall on the right front. As all four were equally "weathered", I elected not to chance anything, so I replaced all 4 in Fillmore to the tune of just over $900.00...........(truck tires are high....especially when you're 500 miles from home!!)

...............but I got the rear seat...................

Not much can happen today........It's 9:AM. I'm getting ready to shower..........and heck..........I might even break down and shave this morning too!. Church is at 11:00, I pick my wife up at Wally World for her lunch break at 2:00.............then home. Gonna take my shoes off, take the phone off the hook, watch an old Bogart movie and shoot anybody who comes to the door! Ain't going NEAR a freeway today!

Let's see now....three days of aggravation, about $400 in fuel, over $900 for a set of new tires I hadn't figured on (but fortunately always take more than enough money to allow for these things), $125 for lodging and fast food at the gas stations, about $200 at Pendleton......comes out to around $1625.........for a 150-dollar rear seat!

.......But at least I've finally GOT one, and they aren't out there to be had in junkyards.

It's all just a part of the classic car hobby.

Back hurts this moring and I still feel like I could use another 12 hours of shuteye................I'm gettin' too old for this.

"What's that, honey?..........some guy on the phone with a pair of side roof pillar bezels and a new back bumper for the DeSoto?...........where's he at?............Flint, Michigan?.............Let's see now....if I got out of here by Tuesday morning and took I-80 East..................