Circa July/August 1987
Hal Wing purchased some custom crafted wooden furniture in Vail, Co. and needed it picked up and brought back to Utah. Steve Chase and I made the trip. We arrived early in the morning at the Provo plant and Doc Shell was just finishing up the services on the Chevy box van, which was known as the "Rocket-Van". Doc's last words to us were: "Well, it should get you there and back without any problems!"
The first part of the drive was uneventful, and as Steve was driving through Eastern Utah, I climbed back into the cargo area and took all the rope and blankets we had on-hand and tried making a hammock by running the rope through the various metal loops on the walls. The end result of my labors with the rope and blankets looked encouraging-- as far as being able to climb on and comfortably rest while Steve continued to drive. I carefully tried to positioned my body onto the newly crafted hammock, but immediately fell through and down to the floor. It seemed like the van suddenly jerked as Steve realized what had just happened and had started laughing.
We stopped in Green River, UT at a truck stop for lunch. As we went to leave, the van wouldn't start. Nothing happened when the ignition key was turned. The hood was popped and we could not see anything obvious as to why the van wouldn't start. A Good Samaritan came over to lend a hand. He crawled under and after giving a wiggle to the wiring leading to the starter, the van then turned over and started up. The guy showed us the wires to wiggle if by chance we were had the same problem again.
Sure enough, the next time we stopped, the van wouldn't start, so one of us had to crawl underneath, do the wire wiggling to get it started again. As we neared Vail, the van started having issues with vapor-lock-- causing us to have to pull off the highway and let the engine cool down at regular intervals. Then, someone again would have to crawl back under the van and shake the wiring so that we could get moving. After hours of stopping and starting, we finally made it to Vail where we had planned to spend the night.
The following morning, we went to the store and loaded up Hal's furniture items and started off- expecting to arrive back at the Provo plant in the late afternoon. By this time, we had become quite accustomed to quickly crawling under the van in order to get it to start. We were hoping that the previous day's vapor-locking problems were just an isolated issue and wouldn't carry over to the new day. Wrong!
As soon as we hit I-70 the van started to vapor-lock once again. Our advantage this time was that we were primarily traveling downhill, so we could go for longer distances before having to pull off and let the engine cool down. Once we got to the area of Glenwood Springs, we decided that we needed to get into a mechanic to have both issues with the van addressed. As we traveled South on the main road in town, the van really started acting up while Steve was driving. Each time we came to stop on a red light, Steve would have to quickly throw the transmission into neutral and keep revving the engine to keep it from stopping. As we spotted and pulled off into an auto mechanic shop, the van was basically doing a bunny-hop as we pulled into the parking lot.
Since it was late in the afternoon, the mechanic told us that the most he could do was to look at the van in the morning. We found a cheap place to stay for the night, then found a payphone and called the Wing Ent. office to advise of our situation.
About the only thing that I can recall of the following day in Glenwood Springs, as we waited for the Rocket-Van to be repaired, was watching "ANCHORS AWEIGH" with the great Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly. Though my memory isn't quite clear on it, maybe one of us sang along to all the catchy tunes?
At around 2pm, the van repairs were completed and we were happily on our way back to Provo. The van ran perfectly during that last leg of our arduous journey. No more pulling off the highway and no more crawling under the van! Arriving back at the Provo plant late in the late afternoon, Steve and I made sure that the furniture was secured and then prepared to head for our homes. If Doc Shell had still been there that evening, I'm sure that we each would have given him the Stink-Eye!
