In 1977 Derek was on holiday and staying with me in Los Angeles, when I had a call from Rick Davies of Supertramp asking me to fly to New York and then drive his car, loaded with all his valuable possessions, to Los Angeles - as his wife didn’t want to entrust the moving company with them. He had also roped-in a friend of mine, Brian Kelly, who also worked for Supertramp at the time. I explained that Derek was visiting, and it wasn’t really convenient, but they said that they would pay for a flight for Derek, and he was up for an adventure!
To cut a long story short, we drove a fully laden station wagon, with only the front bench seat free for the three of us, from New York to LA in just under 3 days, having endured a leaky petrol tank, a failing front wheel bearing, dodgy motels, and assorted other problems …… but we arrived safe and sound, with our sense of humour intact!
My enduring memory of that trip is that Derek and myself were the same height (6’ 4”) but Brian was 5’ 4”, so as long as Derek or myself were driving, everybody was fairly comfortable ……..but as soon as it was Brian’s turn to drive, Derek and I were in agony!
Ian
22nd December 2016