AMERICA - in fact Trek America

[SIMON ARMS]

Currently Brendon & Di Reid are travelling in the States in a motor home and their reports have brought back memories of my time with Trek America. I know of a few Sundowners/Capricorn people who spent time with Trek America and I wondered if there had been more.
After I left Sundowners I had to wait for Mr Dick to conclude a court case which roughly related to a passengers right to information that Capricorn used to cross from Jordon to Israel. It didn't hurt that the Judge was Australian and had fought in Palestine in WW2 and actually knew of the Allenby Bailey Bridge which was the actual crossing point. After we won the case we adjourned to the nearest Pub (as you do), our Solicitor joined us and he had a note from the Judge for me and it read, "Mr Arms, Why are you wasting your life?" After a few drinks we relocated to the Albany in Earls Court. At 11pm Budgie and I boarded a "Fredie Laker" to JFK arriving next morning, I was a bit hung over. We were taken to Trek Americas' Staten Island base which had suffered a major fire and they were living and running the show from three or four large yellow "trailers"at the end of a long, dusty and bumpy track. I tried to keep my head down undertaking repairs on two vans that afternoon. When we finished at around 7pm we adjourned to the local Bar/restaurant for some refreshment. I ended up on a beach entertaining a local "Lady" and arrived back at the trailer park at around 3am and woke everybody up (as you do). I was none too popular with Paul (the Ops manager) but was saved by JJ (the owner) who sent me off all over the USA retrieving vans and relocating them to Staten Island. Finally I was flown too LA to repair some vans  before doing my first Trek which was a Westerner (which covered South Western USA).  There are so many stories I hardly know where to start.
Trek America on the whole was a tightly run operation, it had to be because of the over 100 vehicles they had on the road. When you picked up your Trek folder it had a passenger list, pick up points etc and emblazoned in large writing accross the top was the maximum average price you could pay for gas (petrol). It was clearly understood that if you exceeded this figure you were finished. You were armed with five credit cards and $2,000 in travellers cheques and the hunt was then on for cheap gas. There were other tight areas like Trek Milage (3,000 per three week Trek) and camping site costs. You didn't just jump into a van and diappear into the mist, you had to post in accounts weekly and some Treks took lots of organising as good camp sites were booked out weeks in advance. The national speed limit was 55mph and some states jailed speeders but on the whole I cruised around at 70mph which meant you arrived into campsites in good time.
Alcohol was a problem (certainly for me) because when we stopped for lunch the first thing off the roof was the "esky" and the first thing off at the campsite was the "esky" and there was a fair chance of a good party happening before dinner and after we would drive to a local Bar and get "shit faced". Often there would be several Treks at the same campsite which would lead to a big night or there were many famous bars like the "Wendy Mesa".
Vicar came with me to Staten Island for the beginning of my second season and by this time Trek America had a new home with lots of space and great facilities. I remember servicing and tunning vans on the tennis court at the rear and at one point I even replaced an engine piston on one of the Dodge vans. I was in charge of buying spare parts which I did at the "Mafia" controlled parts shop. Joey and I were mates and there is always some room for a mate (old habits die hard). Drivers were shown how to change engine oil and filters and how to check for brake wear and how to change front disc pads, all servicing was done between Treks. We were working with Carter four barrel carburettors on these V8's and I can only imagine the difference in reliability and power that fuel injection has made.
Passengers came from everywhere but mainly from the UK, OZ & NZ. When I got the choice I went minimal OZ, max UK and 50/50 gender. The Australians were either going to Europe and didn't want to spend any money or going home and didn't have any money left. The English wanted to Party!
I did most of the Treks covering much of the US from New York to LA both North and South routes, the East Coast from New Hampshire to Miami, the West Coast from Mexico City through Canada to Anchorage in Alaska and Canada from Vancouver to Toronto. I woke up one morning in LA (I was due to depart next day on a Mexican Trek) and said to Keith Charlesworth (with whom I was sharing a room) "my liver can't take any more" and that day I boarded a plane for Australia.
I travelled through upwards of 50 countries in six years and lived to sixty, a bloody miracle !

[Colin Davidson-2]

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[SIMON ARMS]

Vicar and I arrived at the new Staten Island location in early April and by mid May the neighbours were complaining about the amount of traffic and TA were forced to lease a garage where drivers could leave their vans and comute to the Mansion. A pain in the arse it was. The "clunker" solution just caused more frustration.
Paul was a problem from my point of view, he was very intelligent and had been with TA forever, he had a very good memory and he was just waiting for me to stuff up. Rumours were around that he actually checked my accounts personally and I would normally be able to pick my own Trek and group but Paul was out to make my life difficult and on one occassion he instructed the LA staff to send me on a Westerner with a group of 15 Germans of which one spoke english and two were females over sixty. The "Panzer" trek worked out OK although I got slightly sick of "we must go here...we must go there" but fortunately they liked a drink so I was able to revisit all my favourite bars. I over did the mileage for the Trek but fortunately Chris who was the LA manager though it was hugely funny and I got away with it. Paul was sure I was fiddling my accounts but he could never work out how, I am pleased to be able to report that I had a few wins on that score and I bet Paul is still trying to work out how I did it even now.
The LA crew were much easier to work with. On one occassion I had to tell Chris that I had lost a van somewhere around Hermosa Beach area of LA. I had met the owner of a very famous Hermosa bar while I was in Mexico some six months earlier and we had got on very well so when the first opportunity presented itself I went for a visit. I walked into this up market establishment and asked the if Walt was about and the Barman said "hello Simon, Walt said that if you ever came in you can have whatever you want for as long as you want". We had a party that lasted a couple of days with lots of different substances consumed and when it came time to go home I couldn't find the van. We did eventually find the van where I had left it in a car park and just in time as well because I was off to Alaska the next day.
My wife and I visited the new Head Quarters of TA in LA in 1992 with Tony Church incharge, Tony and I had been mates back in 1979/80 and he had organised Lou Hockel Jnr to be around so we could catch up. Lou was the only American driver I had time for and we had some unbelievale times together, he visited me in Albury NSW in 1983 and he now runs a Limousine Service at the Vegas Airport.
They were great days and a bit more relaxed than the Overland.

[Vicar]

I can’t believe that some of you people have such a good memory, especially you Simon.
I must say that you did jog my memory when you mentioned peoples' names like Paul and Chris from Trek America. You were fortunate that you did a couple of seasons with them which led to you having some pick of the groups etc.

I do remember the house they had on Staten Island, a few bars down the road from the house and back towards N.Y. but after that I am lacking details.

I must say that I had a great time with Trek America and thank you for suggesting I go there. With smaller groups than what I had been used to, more or less one language to deal with, one currency, no extra visas or passport controls made it what it was. Having smaller groups meant we could roll up to say a Pizza Hut for lunch or dinner without a booking, making it so much more flexible.

Admittedly there was only one crew member to navigate, drive and keep the punters peaceful but that was again not too hard given the numbers. Getting about the States was relatively easy as long as I planned the route numbers and the directions I wanted to travel in.

Selecting the camp grounds was a little different as I recall. One night I had picked a nice spot by the lake’s edge, it was so peaceful, beautiful and scenic until 4.30. As we enjoyed the sun setting we started making the evening meal, it was the same time the mosquitoes became air born from their own nearby runway.

As the sun was setting so the number of mosquitoes increased, to the point where people ate in pairs, one would try to eat and the other slapped the incoming fighters. Being the slack but privileged tour director, I slept in the back of the van, not a good idea. It was a warm night so I had to open the side window for a bit of air, the bombers could actually fit through the opening. Enough of that I put up a tent and got bitten as I went even though I had covered up most of my body, by this time with clothes. The hot needles made their way in any space that was revealed as I bent over or moved to put the tent up in the moon light.

Next morning we each started to count how many hits we had taken but I know after counting about 27 on one leg I gave up. I did that for two reasons, (1) I am not good at counting and (2) or was that (3) I can’t remember, it was futile.

Most of the pax I carried were either from Europe or England with the splattering of Aussies or Kiwis.
The other thing I noticed while driving over there was our vans getting targeted by the police for us working there, I don’t know if this got any worse as time went on but they were onto us.

Again on driving, I used the C.B. radio a lot to check on the status of the police and their cameras. One day while driving out in the middle of nowhere I did one of my checks and got an all clear from someone who said it was bear free all the way back to wherever. Yeah right! As I drove long, over the speed limit, a Xmas tree on wheels was coming towards me. One of the passengers was kind enough to take a picture out of the back window of the van while I got the sting, which I have kept a copy of. I would swear that the all clear came from the moving Xmas tree. I don’t remember the amount of the fine but what a prick.

[SIMON ARMS]

Vicar, I have lots of time in my daily work to re live old memories. I Left Mexico, Huston, Luxenburg arriving at Gatwick on Thursday December 20th, 1979 and headed into London. I came out of the Underground at the rear of Gloster Rd Station and proceeded towards Earls Court when a Coach came along and Vicar was driving, he saw me and picked me up. It was very fortunate for me because Sundowners were having their Christmas party on Friday night. Kit offered me work in the Workshop and that lasted all of January, February and March then I headed back to Trek America for my final season.
I had a Radar detector in the US and I used it in Deluxe as well. It always kept passengers interested and it did save me many times especially with my mates "Mork & Mindy" out west on the Nullabor.