<div style="FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman; COLOR: rgb(0, 0, 0); FONT-SIZE: 16px">Greetings from the Santa Monica Pier.&nbsp; Diane and I made it to the finish of the first leg of our trip.&nbsp; Route 66 is about 2200 miles long.&nbsp; We came from MA to Chicago, a little under 1k miles. and managed to put almost 6k miles on the bus.&nbsp; Side trips everywhere (thanks Dean for some of them).&nbsp; Usual time for the trip is 2 to 3 weeks, we did it in 5 weeks, but we heard a lot of amazing stories from the people that were there.<br />Bus problems included A/C pressure switch stuck the fan on high, melted fusebox and pinhole in the oilpan from dragging it across a flooded, dirt, abandoned stretch of rough road in a flash flood while dodging tornados in Texas (fixed by Bill at Affordable German in Phoenix - 117 F- too hot), had to hot wire the house battery, and faulty fuel pump wiring.&nbsp; Boy, am I glad I brought lots of tools and bits and pieces.&nbsp; The Bus brought us through though. and we're looking forward to the Cali coast, Crater Lake and a few Northwest mountains next.&nbsp; I'll try to keep in touch.&nbsp; What a wonderful, varied continent we live in.&nbsp; There are so many things to see.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dave B.</span><br /></div>