Why We Go Road Trippin'

 For SO many reasons, but chiefly because it helps bring sanity and calm to our lives. 

We need it about now. This is REALLY hard to write, but Marianne, my Navigatrix For Life, Love of My Life was just diagnosed with cancer in her lady parts. We have a good team at USC/Keck/Norris and prospects are good. It means a long few months of treatments and such, and we're trying to keep a positive perspective, but...sigh. 

We're pretty lucky that our daughters, their hubbies, and some extremely good friends are helping us out. A LOT. 

Our deepest thanks to them!!!!

So, where, you may ask, does Road Trippin' come into play? Well, I'll tell ya. We took what Marianne has now dubbed the "Big Yellow Anti-Anxiety Pill" up to one of our favorite spots, Bob's Well Bread in Los Alamos last Thursday. 

I got the idea, as I often do, when I got up, feeling restless. Marianne was ALL on board with it. We NEEDED to see what we find is not only THE most beautiful part of the world (especially at this time of year) but a drive that is for us, the most calming. 

The scenery, the hills covered in green and yellow velvet, the ocean, the open spaces, the utter familiarity of it all. 

As usual, we took the I-5 up to CA126 (nobody in their right mind takes the 101 through The Valley!) and as usual, needed a pee break near Fillmore.

What better place to stop than Bennet's Honey Farm?  It's on Honey Lane just off CA126. I've written about it beefore. (see what I did there?) The honey is excellent and mostly local. Always worth a stop. 

Happily relieved, good old St. Serendipity gave us something to chuckle about. Who knew there's a business up there that regularly hosts a caravan of pedal-driven railroad carts? They're called https://www.sunbursttrain.com and are based in Santa Paula at the old train depot. They had traffic stopped and the gates down while 6 or 8 of 'em came trundling by on the tracks, happily waving at us all! It looks like a real workout, but check 'em anyway!

The Fillmore/Santa Paula Valley is spectacular in April. Constant reader will note that we were just through there for Marianne's B-Day just a few weeks ago, but this time, the yellow mustard was out in full force, giving a soft, fuzzy look to the surrounding hills. 

This theme carried on all the way up the coast, past Gaviota, and up to Los Alamos. 

Lunch at Bob's was, as always excellent. Prosciutto and Brie with greens and fig jam for me, ham and cheese for Marianne--all on a mini baguette. Add a couple of 805s and...perfect. 

The drive back was just as nice, and we didn't want to get home too soon (might miss rush hour on the 210) so we took a detour on Santa Rosa Road. Again, we'd just done it a few weeks ago, but I wanted to find a good spot to take some pix of the Yellow Submarine amid the yellow mustard. 

We found a couple of places and St. Serendipity rewarded us again. This time with newly growing vines adding their young green shoots to the mix. Perfect. 

A quick pee at the Gaviota Rest Stop (yes, it was ACTUALLY OPEN!) and the usual PM slog through Santa Barbara then home. 

All-in-all, the relaxing, rejuvenating, restful day we needed. 

So, dear readers, send us some good vibes, prayers, thoughts and if you can, find a cancer group to donate to. We do "Hockey Fights Cancer" https://donate.v.org/give/527045/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=vfn_brand_conversion_national&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAApFuIjOJ38ZsPF1expC01y_A8HCQp&gclid=Cj0KCQjwiLLABhCEARIsAJYS6ukUcdt-uyr3ENZn3oR0e5w98vSrG015j-VtjZqZF91AF8oeLQE1dJgaAt9rEALw_wcB#!/donation/checkout but find whatever group you can. 

THANKS! 

Hippo Birdie Marianne!

So, April First! Marianne, my Navigatrix For Life's Birthday. No foolin'! So, we took a little overnighter to Morro Bay, one of our favorite places on the Central Coast. We also used it to scout out the route for the Citroen Rendezvous Drive in October. Aw, you mean we HAD to drive some backroads? Awwwww. 

We took the Honda, just 'cause, but the drive was great anyway. Breakfast in Ventura at the Busy Bee. I've mentioned the place before but I'll reiterate. It's a REAL '50s diner from back-in-the-day and do wonderful breakfast. We of course came across CA126 and it's beautiful green right now, so make the trip while it's California at its best!

From there, a stop in Buellton for gas and a pee, then some backroads.

Santa Rosa Road is a great one! Winds through the back country, wineries (of course) and ranches and narrow and twisty and vacant...mostly. Our kinda road. BTW, Marianne took the pix,

It connects with CA1 so you go right to Lompoc, then drop into La Purissima Mission. Interesting place! It's a State Park, so there's a fee but worth it.

Beyond there, it's over Casmalia Hill and to Santa Maria and the Santa Maria Inn. That's where the Rendezvous will be staying, but we had our sights set on Morro Bay.

We beelined it to another favorite there: Giovanni's Fish Market and THE BEST BBQ/Garlic Butter Oysters!!! Marianne of course, had her Clam Chowder.

Next it was play "Find the Little Hotel." On the Boardwalk of Morro Bay are a BUNCH of happy-crappy giftie stores and eateries. Many now sport Boutique Hotels (a term coined to mean fancy tiny places) in what were once attic space. Now, don't give me that look. They are REALLY nice. Some are also REALLY expensive. The place we booked through www.hotels.com our usual source was FANTASTIC!

A wonderfully quirky place with well thought out decor that was whimsical while not being cheesy or kitschy. We had the Octopus Room, and while not one with a view of the harbor (those cost a lot more) it was filled with nice octopus related decorations, including paintings by a local artist. Nice touch that. The gal who runs the gift shop checked us in. She's Ms. T (no, no plethora of gold chains) and was extremely helpful, pleasant, and great to talk to. She showed us up to our room and all its amenities.

After our nap, we went walkabout, cruising the shops and buying a few things for Marianne's B-Day.

Then it was off to dinner at Tognazzini's Dockside. It was highly recommended, but, sadly a bit disappointing. The food was under seasoned and only lukewarm. The good part was that THEY were celebrating THEIR B-Day and drinks were free! And when Marianne asked them about it, she coyly mentioned it was also HER birthday and the server promptly comped our dessert! So the staff was great.

Next morning we slept in a bit and had breakfast at Frankie and Lolas. Marianne had a HUGE scramble in a puff pastry and I had the much-touted cinnamon roll. Not as good as the place in Pismo, but good. 

From there we drove out to Morro Rock and its fantastic views, then Hit The Road...to Solvang and lunch.

Now Solvang is where the Rendezvous will meet up for lunch so NATURALLY we had to scout out the drive I was planning.

That meant two things...1) Foxen Canyon Road (my absolute favorite road in the world!) and Zaca Mesa Winery (one of our favorite wineries. REALLY good wines and REALLY friendly people who LOVE cars!). You can check out our YouTube video of Foxen Canyon Road using the link in the righthand column! 

We wound around from there to Solvang and lunch at the Solvang Restaurant, home of Arnies Aebelskiver!!! What? You don't know what Aebelskiver is? Think a kind of pancake batter in a ball and cooked in a dimpled cast iron pan (oh, so THAT'S what those are for!) until golden brown and crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside then covered in raspberry jam and powdered sugar! We shared the Smorbrod Plate (4 open face Danish sandwiches--Tilset Cheese, Roast Beef, Ham, and Liverwurst) and the Aebelskiver. So, we ate, for Batter or Wurst (waited all day to drop THAT one). 

From there it was a straight shot home, managed to avoid the Santa Barbara Crawl, but of course got jammed on the 210 through Pasadena.

It was a lovely couple of days. Restful, good food, great roads, beautiful scenery and my best friend at my side. What could be better? 

You Can Go Home Again---Sorta

 Another Car Show, another Epic Road Trip. We got our kicks on Route 66--to Beautiful Downtown Amboy--what there is of it. For the few of you who don't know, Amboy is a wide spot in the road, about halfway between Barstow and Needles. It's pretty famous amongst Road Trippers, home of Roy's Cafe and Motel and an (dare I say it?) ICONIC bit of Rte. 66. 

Yeah, you've all seen the famous sign. Well, they don't serve food, and the motel doesn't take guests, but the guy who bought the town--yep, the WHOLE town has been upgrading and repairing stuff and has plans to make it fully functional. We hope. 

For more on Amboy, here's a link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amboy,_California

And here's a link to the YouTube video:

https://youtu.be/DB_B2V0qdFo

Oh, and just to toot my own trumpet, one of my shoot 'em up spy thrillers has the denouement in Amboy, ca 1976. And yes, here's where you can get a copy:Bicentennial Spy Club

But first, a bit of backstory: 

Once upon a time, there was a Citroen dealer who, when Citroen bailed on the US market (long, sordid story) moved his entire shop, parts, tools, car inventory out to his desert property. You guessed it, Amboy. Well, actually PAST Amboy on old 66. About 10 miles beyond Amboy. Then, as customers' cars began to break or become unwanted, he'd buy them and stash them out on his property. Citroenistas dubbed the hoard "Area 52." If you needed obscure parts, this was THE place to go. 

Fast forward to about 15 years ago, and the poor guy died. Enter the Late, Great Wally. A dyed-in-the-wool Citroen Dude. Even more so than Chuck! Wally worked for him and knew the family well, and the widow had Wally dispose of all that stuff. 

He'd been trying to tease me into a Citroen for years, and so, since we were doing Art Fairs and the trusty old PT Cruiser that we'd haul stuff around in was becoming less then trusty, I jokingly asked him if there was a decent DS Wagon out there. Sure enough, there was and for two grand, we DROVE it up, onto the trailer, then DROVE it off at home! And there it sat. 

The old girl was in better shape than you'd expect, after sitting out there for some 30 years. Eventually, Wally, Garret, Junior, and I got her running. The hydraulics had to be revamped, the wiring was trash, about 50 pounds of rat turds had to be cleaned out, water pump replaced and seat covers obtained. Once on the road, I've had a few other repairs to do, but now...

Anyway, back to the main story:

Like our banzai trip to Paso Robles before Xmas, we were up a some ungodly hour to Hit the Road. BTW, did you know Amboy is closer to Monrovia than Paso Robles? Somehow, it just SEEMS further! 

Cajon Pass was a bit nasty, as the cloud cover was REALLY low, so fog and drizzle made life interesting around the summit.

We dove off the I-15 at D Street in Victorville for gas and a pee and, why not, took Old 66 to Barstow. We even videoed it, and I'll insert a link to my YouTube page when I make the video. 

In Barstow, we jumped on the I-40 to Ludlow. Why? Well, except for Dagget and Newberry Springs (home of the Bagdad Cafe of Movie Fame) Old 66 runs exactly parallel to the interstate. Honestly, there's no point unless you just want to say you've done it. Personally, been there, done that. 

Off at Ludlow (and DO NOT BUY GAS THERE! $6.80/gallon? SHEEEIT!) we hit 66 again. This is where the Santa Fe Railroad took a longer route to Needles, keeping to the easiest gradient. Naturally, when 66 was built, they followed the railroad. IF you're a bit of a railfan (like me) you get to do a lot of trainspotting. It's a veritable parade of LONG BNSF trains going both ways. Great stuff. Until about a mile from Amboy, we had to cross and sure enough, not one, but TWO mile-long choochoos chugged by. Took long enough that the kid driving the Dodge in front of us got out and took a pee (later at the show, I spotted him and told him "Hey buddy, did you know your car was leaking fluid?)

Finally we got to Roy's for their Inaugural Car Show (and yes, they properly called it the Inaugural, NOT the First Annual). Parking was the usual chaos. It seems that Car Guys, getting parked at a car show lose 50 IQ points. Anyway, we got a pretty cool spot, RIGHT UNDER the Roy's Sign! 

The day went well, the usual hoard of people had all the usual questions, and for once, most knew exactly where the Yellow Submarine came from! Interestingly, we had a number of people from France ask us about the car and, one guy who'd seen us at other events. Ah, Fame! There were over 200 cars there and loads of spectators as well. I think the organizers were a bit stunned, and, of course happy. Overall, things went smoothly. 

After the Awards (ahem, look here!),

we could have stayed for the Extra Activities (an After Party, Lighting the Roy's Sign, and, after dark, showing Hot Rod Movies!) but we were, as you'd expect, "just a bit tired" and headed home. To accomplish that, we politely moved a few unoccupied chairs and squeezed our way out and headed for the barn. 

We hit an In-n-Out (of course) for dinner and got home just after 7PM. Not a bad day, not a bad drive, and LOTS of pretty interesting cars. As Chuck in wont to say, "All car shows are local." True to this dictum, almost everyone was from 29 Palms, Joshua Tree, and many from Arizona. So, lots of stuff we hadn't seen before, which is what makes taking a trek to a far off car show is a lot of fun. 

So, here's the pix of the coolest we spotted:

Yes, he FLEW it in! Cessna 180 Tail Dragger! Guess where it landed...

This was THE sweetest ride there. Done by icons of Kustom, Gene Winfield and George Barris! It started as a Studebaker pickup. The rear decklid was from a '59 Chevy and the head and tail lights were Kustom made!