As you may know, these days you can't cross Hoover Dam with a big rig, (or anything else) when you've got gallons of nitro in the truck, because of security concerns. So we had to take an alternate route that crossed back into Needles, CA. That was when the trip started to go badly.

We passed a California Highway Patrol car and must have got his (turned out to be her) attention since she pulled in behind the rig and soon flashing lights were in our rear-view mirror. After we pulled over the state cop looked at driver Craig Michael’s papers and told him the tow rig is "improperly registered” and his license is not valid to drive this rig (he licensed in that very same truck, by the way), and to take it to Needles and park it! After some conversation the lady officer decided the license and registration aren’t an issue after all but wrote us a ticket for a turn-signal violation. After 45 minutes we drove on. What a waste, so she started receiving new nicknames (that I cannot write) for the rest of the trip.

After making a fuel and eat stop in Quartzite, AZ, where there was a great little sandwich place featuring a “special” lobster sandwich, but none of the crew (Ernie "Macho Picky” Faiz, Trey Breeden, and Roger, the Michael brother) or myself would order it. Seafood in Arizona just doesn’t seem right.

About eight hours into the road trip and being pretty close to Tucson we all were breathing a sigh of relief. But it was too soon. All of a sudden the right front tire on the Freightliner exploded like a bomb. Craig Michael got to use all of his experience from driving an AA/FA keeping the rig off of the concrete guard railing and bringing it to a halt. After surveying the damage -- which consisted of the front headlights being blown out, a bit of cosmetic front fender damage and a tire that was, of course, history -- we were happy to see that the aluminum wheel had survived.