A Distinguished Gentleman (allegedly)

 So, Facebook is good for something. I read a thing about something called "The Distinguished Gentlemen's Drive" and was intrigued. This whole Disinguished Gentlemen thing is a group that fancies itself as what the name implies. Kinda hipster--flat caps, tweed, waxed mustaches, and into odd vehicles. The GOOD thing is that they do events to raise money for Men's Health Issues (we all know what that implies---but they go further) through a world wide group called "Movember." That's the bunch that wants men to grow facial hair in November, esp. mustaches. Well, I THINK I qualify for that part, at least. Movember is a world-wide organization that has raised millions for men's health. This Drive Day was a world wide event involving some 60 countries! 

And Ladies, PLEASE don't scoff. I know your potential plumbing problems are FAR more complicated and frequent than ours, but any health advances are good advances. Men's Cancer Matters. To coin a phrase. 

So, at short notice, I inveigled Marianne to dress up with me and join the fun. And fun it was. Cars had to be more than 40 years old and this drive met in Costa Mesa. Perfect, because later that day we were due at Mari's sister's house for a B-Day party! She lives in Orange. 

hmmm, should I sabotage or surrender? 

Yes, very natty indeed! 

The cars were mostly Porsches but there was a nice MG and a great looking '66 Mustang (THAT brought memories to Mari--her first car was a '66 Stang!). I added the Yellow Submarine and yes, a French car in and among Les Bosh! Quelle Terrible! 

And in the Small World Dept., the organizer was a veteran of the Iron Bottom and a couple of the Drives I organized! But wait, there's more...one of the women was a cousin to a family Mari grew up with in Sierra Madre! 

The drive was (sadly) made up of a bit too much city streets, but in the OC, it's hard to NOT do that or freeways. Anyway, we cruised PCH to Dana Point (which is always fun, except in Laguna Police were the cops are REALLY NASTY about speed and noise!) and then up into the hills and canyons in Eastern OC. 

I'd never been up any of them (!!!!???) and that part was very enjoyable. Traduco Canyon, Ortega Hwy, and Silverado Canyon made up the majority of the drive. Some great stuff, but understand, on the weekend, cyclists, motorcyclists, and others are all over the place. Just enjoy whatever scenery hasn't been recently burned. 

We all met up at the Silverado Cafe for a pee/food break and THIS lovely car showed up (no, not part of our drive). It's got a Triumph Vitesse/GT6 engine on a Rapier chassis. GREAT little car! 

We ended at the Lyon Air Museum at John Wayne Airport. Nice little museum, some great planes and good displays. 

Tail Gunner Joe Wants YOU! 

All in all, a delightful drive and through generous last minute donations, I was able to raise about $130 for a worthy cause. THANKS to those who donated. 

For more, see: https://www.gentlemansdrive.com/driver/StephenMcCarthy18259

A Banzai Trip North

 Not the trip we thought we'd be making. We got a call from my sister, Mom was in the hospital with pneumonia. NOT a good thing for a 97 year-old, to say the least. (She's doing OK now, just to let you know). This was just before Labor Day, and we made the snap decision to leave the Wednesday before. We also decided to do it in "only" 3 days/2 nights. Our last few trips have taken 4 days. In our prime, with the kids, we could do it in 2. Once, my daughter Meaghan and I stormed back non-stop. THAT was stupid. A two-stopper was gonna be pushing it for us. On top of that, the heat meant using the Honda. At least we could up our average speed...a LOT over the Citroen. 

I'll not say more about our time in Oly, it's personal. We'll just stick to the drive. 

We figured that if we were gonna stop twice, we may as well take the 101 as far as Silicon Valley. It's only an hour longer than the I-Effing-5, so why drive the Most Dangerous Highway in California? Good old Hotels.com found us a place for a decent price in Milpitas (one of those generic Silly-con Valley 'burbs) and our usual place in Grants Pass. The I-5 from Sacramento north is a decent road and enough places to stop to make it acceptible. 

The good part of this trip was (other than the usual excellent breakfast at Chads in Santa Barbara) was a side trip up CA25 (the Airline Hwy) from the old Iron Bottom days. Still a beautiful trip, but instead of the green hills dotted with wild flowers, the scenery was the rolling tan hills, reminiscnet of a SoCal Beach in summer. We had lunch in San Juan Bautista at a hole in the wall, Lolla's Sandwiches. We split a toasted prosciutto and mozzarella with chocolate chip cookies for dessert. REALLY good! We HIGHLY recommend this place for a lunch stop. We didn't tour the mission, we were too afraid of getting vertigo (see what I did there?). 

The infamous Old Hernandez Rd. from the Iron Bottom

pee stop in Pacines

San Juan Bautista

The place we stayed was an average. The Executive Inn Hotel. A bed in a box. Dinner was a problem. Unless you like Indian food. Not our recommendation for food on the road. We ended up at some place that allegedly had fish and chips...it was fish jerky and chips. puh. 

From there it was get up early to miss the San Jose traffic, then to Sacto, then up to Grants Pass. Along the way, we stopped in Dunsmuir to another favorite, the Brown Trout. It's right next to the rail yard and Amtrak station. The food and people are excellent. Green Lipped Mussels in White Wine and GARLIC. EXCELLENT! 

Our stop in Grants Pass was as always at the Knights Inn and dinner was at the Laughing Clam. REAL fish and chips and Guinness. Who could ask for more? 

The worst bit of the drive was the effing Portland traffic. Oregon drivers, especially the jerks in massive pickup trucks are horrible. So is most of Portland. If Oregon dropped into the Pacific, I'd not be unhappy. 

The time at Mom's was what you'd expect. I'll not dwell on it. Suffice it to say by the time we left, she was doing a lot better than when we arrived. sigh. It was good to relieve my sister from some of the burden. It's what families do. 

The trip back was a mix of good and wretched. We decieded that braveing Portland was not gonna happen, so we jumped off the I-5 in Chehalis towards Pe Ell (yeah, I know!) and Raymond, then down the 101. 

In many ways, this was a wise choice. Seemed some dickweed was setting fires all along the 5! The caught him, but...

We were quite proud of ourselves until the TWO HOUR TRAFFIC JAM through Seaside, Or. NASTY wreck and no way around it. Need both a pee and lunch, we dove into the Ecola (no, NOT e. coli) Park. A wonderful discovery! Right on the coast, spectacular scenery (it's the ONE thing Oregon has going for it), and picnic tables and potty. 

DELISH! 

For once, we didn't stop 

Moe's 

GOOD CHEESE! 

Ecola Park. No, not e. coli or ebola! 

The problem with the 101 in Oregon is that there are DOZENS of little towns along the way. Normally not a problem to us, we kind of like that kind of travel. It DID make for a longass day, esp. with the 2 hours lost in that jam-up. Long enough to stop for dinner before we hit the motel. 

We figured Moe's Crab and Chowder had enough billboards along the way to give it a try. It was good. Fish and Chips (the Laughing Clam was better but these were tasty) and clam chowder (Brads in Pismo is better, but again, this was good stuff. 

From there, it was to Coos Bay and the Motel 6 there. Now, I know, we'd sworn off the 6 after the disaster in San Jose, but we'd stayed here in our last trip in the Citroen and it was acceptable. Not so much now. It's become a bit of a dump and when we checked in, the ground floor room we'd requested was unavailable. grrrrrr. I pushed it, saying Marianne doesn't do stairs. The lady at the desk did some searching and my, my, she found one. We opened the door and the dammed room HADN'T BEEN CLEANED! Back to the desk. "Oh, I'm sure it's clean!" NO! THERE'S STILL TRASH IN THE WASTEBASKETS, TOWELS AND SHEETS ON THE FLOOR! By this time it was 9PM. FINALLY the lady "found" a room w/2 beds and put us there. Ugh. At least there weren't cockroaches. 

Up early, we headed through the Redwoods. ALWAYS a great drive. Well relaxed, we used Hotels.com to find a place in Santa Rosa. Now, dear reader, BE CAREFUL! This place had the lofty name "The Inn by Radisson." Now, Radisson is a well known and good chain. This place? The second worst place we've ever stayed in. I suspect a bait and switch. This is no more a Radisson than a broken down RV in a homeless encampment. In fact, its a worn down, EX-MOTEL 6! The sign was painted over and the key cards still said Motel 6. One unit had had a fire and the other tenats were less than savory. Some of the women looked to be aging "working girls"--if you know what I mean. The cheapskates wouldn't even let us have extra pillows. We couldn't leave as the place was non-refundable. 

From there, we were up early and avoided the worst of the Oakland rush hour and a fast zap back down the 101, only stopping for gas and pee breaks. I was channeling old Doc Watson of my Embree days. NOBODY kept up with Sam on the way back to the yard. Lunch was on the fly as we drove. 

We hit home about 5 pm and mostly slept for 2 days. 

So, a successful trip to see Mom and that's what it was about. And a few re-learned lessons on checking motels reviews more closely.