Adventures with Los Salt Lake City

In early July 1972 President Barnes re-constituted Los Salt Lake City to continue its goodwill mission of introducing the Church to people in Spain. The group included Larry Peterson, George O’Brien, Brian Smith, John Alba, Charlie ?, and John Muir. For the next three months Los Salt Lake City was on the road almost continuously doing concerts, radio shows and sacrament meeting talks in the branches we visited. We also recorded two albums that were sold in Spain. Our transportation was a secondhand van that I purchased in Barcelona and that created a lot of drama in our travels. What follows is taken from my journal:
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We also got the van’s brakes relined in Valencia, a shadow of things to come. After an early morning start from Valencia, we headed south into territory that was not yet open to missionaries – the province of Alicante. Since there were no Elders in Alicante, we could not perform a concert, but instead arranged a live interview on Radio Alicante. The manager was happy to have some different programming and gave us lots of time to talk about the Church between songs. We were all in a good mood as we were leaving the city but suddenly there was a horrible grinding noise followed by an impact. Pulling over, we looked underneath the van and discovered that one of the pulleys for the fanbelt had torn loose and had been hurled into the pavement. Fortunately, we were able to find a garage to fix it that same day, and so were able to avoid changing our schedule for a concert in Granada.

Unfortunately, we again had another mechanical problem with the van mid-way to Granada. This time the water pump gave out as we were passing through the tiny town of Baza, which we affectionately dubbed Bozo. It seemed that half the population showed up to offer various theories as to what was wrong with the van driven and to find out who we were. After completing the public opinion poll, the mechanics concluded that, yes, the water pump would have to be replaced if, by the grace of Mary, a replacement part could be found. At this momentous news the mechanics and onlookers group reconvened at the local bar to celebrate the event, meaning that we were stuck overnight in Baza. the next morning we were relieved that the replacement part was finally delivered to the mechanic carried from the next town in a basket on the side of a mule!

Because we had arrived a day late in Granada, there was little time to find the additional lights and microphones needed. Worse still, it was a Saturday in late August and few electrical stores were open. By a minor miracle I was able to obtain outdoor lights and extra amplifiers at the last minute from a very kind man who threw everything in a truck and drove me to the performance where a crowd was already milling around. The site was the Carmen de los Martires, a garden in the famous Alhambra, overlooking the city of Granada. This was one of our largest concerts with perhaps 1500 people in attendance. A picture of that concert became the cover of our second album.

While driving into Cordoba we got on a one-way street that became progressively narrower until there was scarcely any clearance between the van and walls of the buildings. At this moment the accelerator pedal of the van broke, making it impossible for us to go forward. The street was so narrow we could not open the van doors to get out and fix the problem, despite the angry honking from the cars stuck behind us who could not imagine why we were not moving. In desperation we literally passed the equipment from the back over our heads into the front seat until one of the Elders could squeeze out the back door and get under the van to reconnect the pedal to the engine.

Later, shortly after passing the picturesque castle near Guadalajara we started up a steep grade where the engine labored mightily and belched forth heavy black smoke. A policeman flagged us over to lecture us on the smoke. Elder Peterson forgot that when the parking brake was applied the accelerator would stick as it had in Cordoba. So, when the patrolman told us to rev the engine so he could demonstrate the smoke problem we had to tell him that we couldn’t because the accelerator was not working. He became very angry and told us that he would return in fifteen minutes and we had better be gone. Fortunately, we were able to patch things together in a hurry, and belch and wheeze our way over the hill.

After about three months of nearly continuous travel, we were on the final journeyed back toward Madrid to deliver Elder Peterson to his homeward flight when we had some kind of trouble with the gears that required an overnight stop. It was then critical to get Elder Peterson to Madrid the next day in time for his flight. The next day morning we resumed the trip, but the mechanical problem recurred, causing us to lose the use of first gear. As we continued, second gear stopped working as well. That didn’t matter much on the open road, but we feared what would happen as we got into Madrid traffic. We managed to struggle into Madrid, and even stopped and started a few times using only third gear in the heavy afternoon traffic. But the van was clearly getting worse with each kilometer, and as we came to the Plaza del Peru, about 3 blocks from the Mission Office, the tired vehicle gave a final death shudder and came to a halt. We were too close to quit, so we got out and pushed our decrepit vehicle the final few hundred yards. In retrospect the Lord’s economy was evident- the van went exactly as far as it had to and then quit.