A Perfect Day on the Road

 Some kind of "Thing" was going on last Sunday. Naturally, not willing to join in on the 12 hour Ad Fest, we went for a little drive with a few friends in odd Froggy Cars. Yep, Stupid Bowel Sunday is the best time to Hit the Road. No one else is, once they are ensconced in front of the Big-Screen-Food-o-Rama. We don't get it. 

Our little drive was a fairly usual one, up to Ojai for lunch at Boccali's and a stop on the way at Bennet's Bee Farm to stock up on jars of Blackberry and Avacado Bee Juice near Fillmore. 

The weather was perfect, the roads were clear, and We set off with TWO other DS Wagons, a DS Sedan, a CX Diesel, and a Traction-Avant. A couple of people in "normal" cars joined as well, but we won't talk about those. 

As usual, the few others out and about waved and thumbs-up us, marveling at a convoy of such oddities. All the cars ran well, the climb up to Ojai from Santa Paula was gorgeous and thankfully, road crews had cleared the the road from the recent rain-induced mudslides. 

The upside of all the rain we had in SoCal in January has made the hills alive with greenery, splashed with oceans of yellow mustard. Lots of blue skies and fluffy (and occasinonally threatening) clouds, and temps in the 60s. Even the Dreaded 210 on a Sunday afternoon was a clear shot! What could be better? 

So, here's the usual photos, the in-car stuff was the doing of Marianne and her new iPhone. Nice stuff there, dear! 

An Army of Frogs gathers

CA 126 is lovely this time of year! 

Oh, BEEhave

Up CA 150

Looking down to Sangri-la (old movie fans will get this)

New Year's Cruisin' Colorado Blvd.

Yes, fans, time for another installment of the annual tradition: Cruise the Parade Route. Always fun, but this year was particularly auspicious, a hopeful harbinger of the year to come. 

Yes, the usual suspects showed up with some really nice machinery, and didn't seem at all worried that the still wet pavement would dirty their Prides and Joys. (I skipped the start of the Horseless Carriage Drive the morning before, it was, as the Irish say, pissing rain--I'm sure the hard core drivers were out, but I'm getting older and at least minimally wiser)

The photos below will give you an idea. Anyway, on to our propitious harbinger. 

At about Rosemead Blvd, some "Adam Henry" in a tricked out Bimmer (what else?) BLAST past our sedatly cruising Citroen, cut-out exhaust fully open and blasting away. Now, normally, dear constant reader, that would not bother me. I don't mind loud exhaust. THIS clown however, as is typical with so many of his ilk, not satisfied with his screaming exhaust note, revved it up at EVERY intersection, followed by a burn out. EVERY. DAMN. INTERSECTON. 

Now, at 9am or so, there's hardly anyone about, the parade goers have mostly not arrived and the parade route doesn't go this far east on Colorado. So, just who is he trying to impress? Certainly not us Cruisers. We all know that the fastest way to get something like this shut down is to behave like a dick. 

This continues all along Colorado, and gets especially loud past Lake Ave. where the tall buildings begin and the echo effect is most pronounced. The only thing he didn't do was try a donut mid-intersection. I'm sure he thought about it. 

Now, I have a quiz question for you. Do you have ANY idea of the most heavily policed area of SoCal on the day prior to the Rose Parade and Parade Day itself? Can you imagine something like 80% of all SoCal police agencies congregating along a singel 5 mile ribbon of city streets, just LOOKING for miscreants (and terrorists--and using all the tech that the NSA can bring to bear), but, as it's still early and there's no real crowd, they are all a bit bored, eating donuts and sipping bad coffeee. 

And along comes Adam Henry, Bimmer Driver Extrodinaire. At about Fair Oaks (Ground Zero for the Parade), JUSTICE PREVAILS! Yep, he gets his sorry ass pulled over by a raft of un-marked cops and he pulls over next to a trio of PPD Cycle Cops. 

Oh, Joy! Oh, Rapture! Oh, Rapture! Oh, Bliss!    HIS SORRY ASS IS BUSTED! BIG TIME! 

At best, he's given a Fix-it Ticket that say he must drive home or to a repair shop to have all those expensive modifications set back to stock, at worst..."Well, sir, you've modified the smog equipment and the car sits too low, etc. etc. and what you did was repeated Exhibition of Speed, so we're gonna impound your car AND SEND IT TO THE CRUSHER!" 

Yes, Dear Readers, it's gotta be a good year if it starts this way! 

Happy New Year to all! 

DAGMARS! 

Egad! Leave them alone and they multiply! 

Yikes! This poor woman was attacked by Tribbles! 

Of course we honked our horn and waved as he got SO busted!