WHEW! WHAT A ROAD TRIP!

 WELL, we made it home. Missed the "Hurriquake," but had plenty of adventures. All good ones. I'm starting with an over view, then, as the dust settles (and before my memory fades--which could be soon these days) I'll add more specifics on each leg of the trip in future posts. 

Overall, 2600 miles in the Yellow Submarine, our DS21 Citroen wagon. Up US101 as far as Crescent City, CA, over the 199 to Grants Pass, then up the I-5 to Olympia, WA to see my Mom. At 95, she's doing well, thanks for asking. 

The return trip was back to Grants Pass, OR, then staying on the I-5 to Williams, CA (I'll explain why later) and lunch with good buddy Bill and his lady, Danielle. From there to Gilroy for Garlic, then Watsonville for three days of Monterey Car Week. 

Finally, HOME! Three weeks on the road, and yes, we're still speaking to one another. 

Overall, the trip was spectacular! The scenery of California in particular never ceases to amaze us both. The sheer variety is mind boggling. 

Coastal rolling hills, the vast Pacific Ocean, farm land as far as the eye can see, rugged mountains, and towering redwoods. What's not to like. 

And friendly people (mostly) at each stop. Naturally, driving a bright yellow Citroen Wagon attracts a lot of attention, and every stop requires the answering of a LOT of questions. Hey, if you're gonna Road Trip in a Weird Beast, you gotta expect and embrace it. Marianne and I have gotten the spiel down while always keeping it friendly. Sure, we've answered the same questions a gazillion times, but it pays to be friendly. 

The big highlights were mostly the expected ones. We spent a lot of time dawdling up 101 in NoCal, stopping at as many weird and wonderful Roadside Attractions as we could in the Redwoods, eating at the odd diners, and just cruisin' at 57 MPH, windows down, music on, and trying not to DIE OF THE HEAT!

That was the big issue for us. Thankfully, the aluminium radiator from the guys at Wizard Cooling kept the car at a decent temp (except on a few nasty hills). We left most mornings between 4 and 5AM (yes, Tina, those hours DO exist!) to beat the worst of it. Mostly. 

Ukiah, Grants Pass, and Williams were the worst. Those places seem to get their peak highs much later in the day, so when we'd arrive at the motel, it was around noon, and hitting in the 90s. Taking a nap in the A/C room and heading for dinner meant going out into 100+ oppressive heat. We were well equipped to deal with wonderful Columbia shirts that have UV protection, lots of water to drink, and those cooling towels that you get wet, then reactivate by speading them out and snapping to corners. On the neck, they work well. A few times the climbs in the roads heated up the Auld Crate to the point where we had to turn on the heater to dissapate that last 5-6degrees of engine temp.  

As a bonus, we got to stop in Portland for lunch with a former student, Vanessa. It warms my heart that some 20 years later, former students want to hang with their goofy history teacher. I guess I DID do some good. 

The visit with Mom and my sister went great, good to relax there (and fix the new gas tank sender that decided to LEAK if the tank was full, meaning I only put 5 gallons in at each stop. sigh.) We even hit a small car show in Onalaska, where our old friend Pam lives. We actually got to hang out with her and hubby Joel for a whole day. Usually, all we can do is a lunch or breakfast with them. Great to properly catch up. 

The drive back was mostly heat and hills, but leaving at 4AM beat the worst of it. Gilroy got us Garlic Goodies (nice alliteration, eh?) and a quick jaunt to Watsonville for 3 nights. This worked well for Monterey Car Week stuff as it's only 30 miles or so from the Action. 

Our top priority was, of course, the infamous Concours d'Lemons car show. We were entered and decked out the Sub with all of our wacky Beatles Stuff. I have to say right off, that this is the BEST CAR SHOW WE'VE EVER BEEN TO! We've attended everything from morning Cars 'n' Coffees to small local shows to large shows that take up blocks, to elegant proper Concours d'Elegance. This topped them all. 

First, the people, both showing and attending were wonderful. Friendly, often knowlegeable, and just plain happy to be there. It kinda freaked Marianne out a bit, people wanted selfies with her! (She, of course is FAR more worthy of photos than I) Oh, and one more thing: WE 'WON' THE 'TOP' PRIZE! YES, WORST OF SHOW!!! And the Silly String Bath that goes with the 'honor.'

For more on our triumphant victory, see: '23 Lemons

Finally, the drive home was uneventful, we managed to miss the nasty storms (our kids were REALLY worried that we'd have to drive through a hurricane, but our timing was perfect) and was highlighted by a nice brunch at Bob's Well Bread in Los Alamos (where else?). 

We even missed the nasty Santa Barbara Crawl and even the 210 (aka The Broken Freeway) wasn't a horror. 

So, when I get that elusive Round Tuit, I'll regale you with more details of each leg of the journey, and more photos, and even some youtubery to brighten your day. 

Road Trip Planning...

 Or...Overplanning? 

Hmmm, our mantra has always been to Believe in St. Serendipity...to let the road lead us to new adventures. Over the past few decades, she's done us proud. 

So, why plan a Road Trip and at what point are you OVER planning? 

I caught myself in this quandary setting up our latest foray North to see my Mom in Olympia, WA. 

Our original plan was to head up there in December for her 95th birthday (!!!), hitting some major sites along the way, all in "Help Me Honda." Alas, after managing to dodge the Plague for several years, Covid caught us. Just before Thanksgiving (ironic, no?) and that killed that plan. 

So now, rested, well, and ready to roll, a New Plan was hatched. Let's plan the trip around something I've always wanted to do, hit Monterey for some of the Pebble Beach hoopla. And, as a bonus, enter the infamous Concours de LeMons. Yes, that Anti-Snooty, Anti-Megabucks Carshow. 

It's all about the weird and wonderful and horrible icons of the Automotive world. A perfect venue for a big, bright yellow Citroen Wagon...like ours. 

So, first, find out when LeMons is, enter it, and see if MAYBE, just maybe, we can find a place to stay up there where they don't put ground glass in the vaseline when they up-charge you for a room for three nights. To give you an idea, the Second Crappiest Motel 6 in the World, the one in Salinas, charges some $400 bucks A NIGHT!! 

Lucky me, using Hotels.com, I found a decent place in Watsonville for far less. BTW, I did this in March! Having locked that in and making sure I could cancel it in an emergency, the rest was easy. 

Working backwards, and applying our new standard of trying to not drive more than 400 miles a day and, of course, heading up 101 through the Redwoods, I could then plan stops backwards, knowing we'd have to hit Watsonville on Friday, 8/18. That would give me a date to set out from Mom's in Oly. I could next figure a week at her place, and Hey, Presto, Bob's yer Uncle, and Fanny's yer Aunt, the plan fell into place. 

Going up, we'd spend the night in some of our regular digs...Keefer's Inn in King City, The Sherwood Forest in Garberville, and the Knights Inn in Grants Pass. 

We like the Keefer for it's history and funkiness, independence, and it's where we'd all stay on the Iron Bottom Drive. We'd stayed in the Sherwood Forest a few times before and liked it (we can't always afford the Benbow Inn!) but OH HORROR! No listing on Hotels...I checked Google, and sadly, the place didn't survive the pandemic! Enter the Motel Garberville. About the same price and good reviews. The Knights Inn in Grants Pass is great because it's again, local, and within staggering distance of the Laughing Clam Pub! Good Guinness, good food! 

So, having locked those in (as well as the Knights Inn for the return leg) I decided to go back not via the Redwoods, but head south on the I-5. Yeah, I know, but the drive through Shasta and Dunsmuir is gorgeous and well get to see the almost full Lake Shasta (maybe for the last time?). A stop in Williams, CA meant we could intice Old Buddy Bill and his lady Danielle to jog over from Clearlake to meet us for dinner. 

From there, we'd shoot down to Watsonville, do Car Stuff there, and then head home on Monday. WHEW. 

Then the Evil Overplanning began to hit. I may have planned this too early, tempting me to micro-manage the trip. 

First, a quirk of the Citroen...the fuel gauge has never worked. That means using the GPS to prompt me to gas up somewhere under 200 miles at a go. Which is fine, because it means a nice stop to pee and stretch. 

Then came the eternal question, where to eat along the way and not do many extra stops unless we had to. All of a sudden, Breakfast and Weather became issues. 

We're traveling in August. In a car with NO A/C. Through some areas that can get REALLY HOT. So, 5AM starts will be required. Did you know that there are few places along 101 that open early for breakfast? Now, I'm not usually a big breakfast eater, but on a Road Trip, starting the day with pancakes and bacon is SO satisfying, as is heading out at O'Dark-Thirty and seeing the sunrise as you drive along. 

This meant a couple of places, the Worker Bee in Carpinteria, and (ironically) the Busy Bee in Ventura were out. They don't open until 8:00! sheesh! So, the other favorite, Chads (nee Sambos) in Santa Barbara. And, we could gas up there. 

Then the Over-Planning Bug really hit. Thanks to Google Maps, you can not only plan your route, but find ALL the gas stations along the way! This led me down the rabbit hole where I was picking specific gas stops along the way, as well as places for lunch, and...pop goes the spontinaity. sigh. 

I've since ditched that idea, having a good idea of what city will give us gas and leaving a bit more planning. 

One of my recent ventures, is youtube videos on Road Trippin'. I've already gotten several posted (links are in the top right column for your easy enjoyment) and I plan to do several more on this trip, especially on all those wonderful, weird Roadside Attractions in the Redwoods. You know, the Drive Thru Trees, Confusion Hill, gas station built out of one redwood tree trunk. All the neat, funky stuff. 

So, Dear and Constant Reader, WATCH THIS SPACE! 

And here's a few photos from our last trip up there in '19: 

Citroens Invade the Musée du Chemin de Fer in Paris...uh...Perris!

 That's Railroad Museum to most of you. Specifically, the Southern California Railroad Museum (used to be the Orange Empire RR Museum). 

Some of us met at Claro's Italian Deli in Arcadia (ok, ok, Italian, I know, I know) to grab stuff for lunch and set off on the hour's trek to Perris. Not satisfied with the normal route, I led our trio:

East 210

South 57

South 71

East 91

South 15

East on Cajalco Road

Then to the museum. 

My buddy Bill and I "discovered" Cajalco Road back in the '70s when we'd use it to get back from Riverside Int'l Raceway after big events like the Can-Am races. Beat the crawl through Riverside as was a hell of a lot more fun. It's STILL a fun bit of road. Bill hates to admit it, but I was faster across Cajalco Road in my TR3 then he was in his Spitfire.

Others in the club were coming from a diverse bunch of locales that made it impractical to meet in Arcadia (Cabazon? Palm Springs? Newport?) so the met up with us there. 

After lunch, I gave a tour of the place and some background on the museum, the Big Red Cars. No, GM, Firestone, and Standard Oil did NOT conspire to kill the Pacific Electric. Roger Rabbit was a funny movie, but BAD history. 

I highly recommed the museum, but bring your walking shoes. The place is HUGE!!! The collecton began with several old, retired PE and LARailway cars, but has grown over the past 70 or so years to include mainline railroad equiptment and the narrow guage steam collection of Ward Kimble. 

Kimble was one of Disney's original animators and (like Walt) loved trains. He put together a collection of narrow gauge steam engines and cars on his property in San Gabriel, CA and used to run his trains up and down his own tracks, much to the delight of local kids (including me!). 

As he and his wife aged and the city/neighbors got grumpy (come on WHO wouldn't love to see and hear old steam choo-choos chuffing and whistling from their own backyards? Damn NYMBYs!!) he decided to donate the entire collection to the museum and included a block of Disney stock to pay to build an engine house for the equipment, restore the stuff, and eventually run some of it again. Back in the '80s, I was a member of the museum and we got to go to the ground breaking and met Ward (again). 

I have more "history" with the place as well. Back when I was teaching US History, I'd take the entire junior class there for a day-long field trip. One of the neatest parts was meeting Louise Taylor. She, at the time, was in charge of group tours. She put on a great show, arranging rides on a variety of equipment from little street cars to Big Red Cars, to some mainline steam. Imagine the girls' amazment (and some consternation) as I would climb up into the cab of a giant Union Pacific E9 locomotive to be the fireman! (OHHH, MY GOD, MR. MCCARTHY IS GONNA DRIVE THE TRAIN???). 

The best part of all was the Louise was a former Harvey Girl. Yes, one of the women who worked in Fred Harvey's chain of restaurants along the Santa Fe Railroad's lines. One of the "Women Who Civilized the West." Go to the museum as they have a whole building dedicated to the Harvey Girls. It's a part of women's history often overlooked in the history books (as most of women's history is...sigh.) It made a huge impression on the girls. 

And on the members of the Citroen Club. Here's a bunch of photos Marianne took during the day. Enjoy! 

At Claro's

Cajalco Rd. 

Yes, of course we got there safely! 

So did Chuck and Tina

And a few others.

Then, Marianne got Artsy with her pix! 

Inside the little "Birney" Street car. 

Marianne's Dad used to ride one into Pasadena from Sierra Madre when he was a kid. He and his buddies would get in the back and jump up and down, tying to knock it off the rails! 

Boarding the PE Interurban Car

Mike, Candace, and Bob enjoy the ride. 

Ward Kimble's Narrow Guage stuff. 

Seems Chuck Forward's Dad used to play in a Dixieland band with Ward! 

The little Model A track truck was built on site by Ian Rousell, of the show "Full Custom Garage." He does SUCH neat stuff! 

I check out the progress on boiler repair.

Tina and others learn about the Harvey Girls.

Candace get's photos of some of the weird old stuff

Marianne and Steve relax on the Blimp. A good time was had by all.