AMERICA - in fact Trek America

Posted by SIMON ARMS on Jan 10, 2012; 6:12am
URL: http://sundownersadventures.385.s1.nabble.com/AMERICA-in-fact-Trek-America-tp5133444.html

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 !