Day 5: Crossing the California/Arizona Border

Well we finally crossed into another state, it felt like such a big accomplishment to get out of California. It also felt like the hottest place we had been so far, and the car felt the same way. Luckily the two states are split up by the Colorado River, so we spent most of the day there and eating tacos at a little Mexican market just over the river. It was so hot that day, that we decided to wait until it cooled off to start driving, but we soon found out that it wasn't cooling down quick at all, and it would only drop to 77 by midnight! Well we hit the highway at sundown anyway, and soon overheated, and pulled over to the side of the road. Highway patrol saw us and came to check it out, and instead of running our names an plate, he asked a bunch of questions about the car and even escorted us back onto the highway. We overheated not too far down the road and decided we had to do something so we could keep driving. It turns out that our radiator was cooling fine, but the gas in the fuel line and carburetor was boiling, causing vapor lock. We took some of the insulation and wrapped the heck out of the fuel line, and down the road we went. The carb was still getting too hot, so we ended up driving with the hood open, which looked ridiculous but worked wonders! We made it to Kingman that night and checked out some old cars and live music along route 66. We drove about 15 or 20 miles outside of Kingman on the 66 and found a great place to camp alongside the railroad tracks, off on a dirt road.

Our camp, 35 miles from the CA/AZ border.

Route 66, just before crossing the Colorado River into Arizona.

We made it to another state!