Petersen Auto Museum and Wally Parks NHRA Museum

Today was our first full day in Los Angeles and we spent the day visiting the Petersen Automotive Museum and the Wally Parks NHRA Museum. After having breakfast at the diner in our hotel, we headed out to the Petersen Automotive Museum on Wilshire Boulevard. The Petersen is a multi level museum with over 300,000 square feet of display space. The museum even includes a couple of cool displays in the carpark to get you started. We spent a couple of hours here checking out all the cars on display and then headed on to the next stop of the day.



The next stop was the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum, all the way over the other side of town at the Pomona Fairplex. The Wally Parks houses displays from a number of motorsports disciplines, including drag racing, land speed racing and road racing. If that doesn't sound good enough already, the first Wednesday of the month, the Wally Parks hosts a cruise in for local hot rodders and customisers, with around 500 cars dropping in to the front carpark over the afternoon and evening.



We also caught up with some of the Cranksters, who were in Los Angeles until this evening, heading straight from the Wally Parks to the airport to fly out to Louisville. We'll catch up with them again before the trip is over. When we pulled out of the Wally Parks carpark, we headed over to nearby San Dimas to check out the Circle K that featured in Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure.



We then decided to head back to the hotel for the night, with the intention of stopping somewhere along the way for dinner. After pulling off the interstate and taking some of the suburban roads for a bit of variety on the way home, we managed to make it all the way back to the hotel without passing anything that really grabbed our attention, so we parked the Cadillac in the carpark, put all our gear back in the room and walked across the road to get some Mexican food for dinner. While waiting for our dinner I wandered a little way down the road to grab a few photos of some neon signs, then we headed back to our rooms to eat dinner and discuss our plans for tomorrow, while I made a start on sorting the days photos.

The Road to LA

Today we hit the road on The Bonneville Run, we were planning on leaving San Jose around 7am and getting to LA around 2pm, however we hit a few snags along the way. Firstly, the Cadillac was still at the workshop until about 9am, and then when we finally did pick it up, we ran out of fuel about a block from the mechanics. After we got that sorted, we went and filled up at Costco, headed back to San Jose to get the car washed and packed and got on the road. Unfortunately, by then it was after 2pm, so our plans of being at the MoonEyes shop in LA by 2pm were out the window. Undeterred, we headed off towards LA via a network of highways and interstates, guided by the trusty Garmin Nuvi GPS, pulling in at the Taco Bell in Firebaugh, on the West Panoche Road exit, for lunch, fairly late in the afternoon.



Almost another hundred miles down the road, we pulled in for the first fuel stop on the road, at the Lost Hills Shell, near the corner of the I-5 and Paso Robles Highway. We were then back on the road and headed for LA, although things did not go quite according to plan. The coolant overheating alarm went off twice while climbing some pretty steep hills at speed (the Cadillac doesn't have a temperature gauge, just a warning buzzer and light), and when we finally stopped to fix that, we found the level was slightly low (not enough to be a problem on the flat, only on the climbs). The main reason we'd pulled over was actually because the rippling in the surface of the interstate happened to be making just the same sound as a flat tyre would, and I was more than a little concerned about that.

Anyway, with that little issue sorted out, and knowing that we weren't the worst off on the roads today, after spotting one car on fire half way up the side of the steeper of the two hills, which peaked at around 4200 feet above sea leavel, and seeing one laying on it's side just outside Lost Hills, with local fire and police departments in attendance, we pushed on to Los Angeles, where we were due to meet up with members of the West Australian and Victorian branches of the Cranksters Hot Rod Club for dinner at the Bob's Big Boy in Downey. After a feed and a few laughs we headed off and checked in to our hotel for the next couple of days, in Culver City.

Lets go shopping

Today was our first full day in California, and was spent doing a little shopping and running around. We dropped the Cadillac off to the Electric Battery Station this morning to have the tailshaft yoke repaired, as it was losing a little trans fluid via the extension housing seal, which was determined to be the result of wear on the yoke by the mechanics at the EBS.

After that, we walked down to the local Starbucks for a morning coffee hit, and then took a drive to the Great Mall of the Bay Area, in Milpitas. The Great Mall is housed in a former Ford Assembly Plant, and contains many discount outlets, including an Oakley Vault and Converse and Nike factory outlets. They also have a small display near the food court as a tribute to the history of the Milpitas area in general, and the sites history as a Ford Assembly Plant in particular.

After doing some shopping at the Great Mall, which in my case consisted of buying a new pair of Nike sneakers to replace the ones I managed to puncture with steel belts at the Motorplex last season and a 12 pack of Longboard Island Lager from Bevmo, we headed back to David and Nicole's place to pick up David and headed over to Costco to do some more shopping, picking up some supplies for the road trip. We mostly concentrated on getting some nibbles for the road and a couple of cartons of cheap Corona's, which are at the more expensive end of the 'cheap Mexican beer' scale here, but certainly not in the premium beer category. We finished up by having In'n'Out for dinner and heading back to the house to work out what we're doing tomorrow.



Personally, I hope tomorrow starts nice and early with us picking up the Cadillac, as it's stranded at the moment waiting for a new front universal joint to arrive so that the mechanics at the Electric Battery Station can complete the repairs to the front yoke assembly, and then we'll be able to load it up and hit the road for Los Angeles.

(As with other recent posts, I'll add some photos to this one once I get the laptop back online, or replaced with one that functions properly... The turbulence on our flight really wasn't kind to it at all.)

AKL > SFO

Last night we flew from Auckland to San Francisco, the flight started promisingly, with several empty seats around us at take off, including the one next to Kate, however that was the calm before the storm, as our 12.5 hour flight took in some of the roughest turbulence I've experienced yet, which may or may not have led to the early demise of my laptop, and certainly contributed to Kate having a rather unpleasant flight.

After we got off the plane, we had to head to immigration, which entailed over 2 hours standing in line, slowly making our way towards passport control. This wait certainly reminded us just how good the current ESTA procedure is for Australian's entering the United States, as Kate and I took maybe 2 minutes between us getting cleared, and Darrell took about a minute on his own, while the people in front of us, mostly from countries without the same agreements in place as the US and Australia, would take 5 minutes or longer for the same interview. By the time we got through the checkpoints, our bags had been removed from the carousel and placed on the floor, as there was another plane about to unload onto the same carousel. On the upside, the customs check points after baggage pickup were a lot less crowded and we breezed through without any stress at all.

Nicole picked us up from the airport and took us back to David's place, where we'll spend tonight and tomorrow night, before heading down to Los Angeles. I also picked up the Cadillac this evening, after it had some more work done to it today, and we took it down to the local WalMart for a shakedown (and we had some shopping to do).

Tomorrow we're planning on doing a little more shopping to make sure we have everything we need for the trip, washing the Cadillac and packing for the next 3 weeks on the road.

We're in Auckland

Just checking in from Auckland Airport, after a day in the City of Sails. On the way into Auckland Airport, we used the new(ish) SmartGate system, which works for Australian and New Zealand passport holders, and is a set of automated kiosks that process your arrival, meaning that we didn't actually have to queue up at any point, except for the actual bag x-raying.



We picked up a hire car from Budget at Auckland Airport, we were expecting a late model Falcon, but when we went to pick it up, the clerk informed me that the Falcon she had available was "a few years old" and so she was swapping it for a newer Commodore. The one we ended up getting was a pre-SIDI VE SV6, so not that new, but still a nice surprise for a rental car.

The first thing we did after leaving the airport was to work out how to get to Mount Eden, a volcanic mountain in the heart of Auckland, and we managed to get up the top just on sunrise. While it was a little chilly that early, we got a great view of the city of Auckland and I managed to get quite a few photos. Mount Eden is about the same height as the Auckland Skytower, possibly a little higher, has all the same views as the Skytower, is a lot less crowded and it's free. For my money, Mount Eden in the early morning is definitely a must-do activity if you get the oportunity, just watch out for joggers and bike riders on the twisty one way access roads.



After leaving Mount Eden, we decided to try to find something for breakfast, and stumbled upon a nice little bakery in Auckland. We then did a bit more driving around checking out the scenery before making our way to the Auckland War Memorial and Museum. We spent almost 3 hours wandering around inside there before we headed off in search of something for lunch. We eventually found a Nando's and decided to have that for lunch as we wouldn't get the opportunity again for another 5 weeks.



We then headed back to the airport, cleared security with only minor hassles, my second 'random screening' of the trip, I'm two from two so far, not that I mind if it keeps us all safe. I also had a small issue with my roller bag weighing in about 9kg's overweight (there's a 7kg limit on Air New Zealand flights) however with laptop and camera gear out of the bag (which you are allowed to do) the bag came in under weight and we could continue on our way, bringing us to where we are now, with me uploading photos and writing a blog post on the laptop while waiting to board.

Boarding call

Just had the word that our flight is going to be boarding in 5 minutes. We managed to get through check in fairly easily, even with mountains of camera gear, thanks in part to the ThinkTankPhoto bags Kate and I are using for our carry on luggage.



Location : Horrie Miller Dr, Perth Airport WA 6105,

Nine Sleeps To Go

We're now into the single digits of the countdown to The Bonneville Run, with only 9 more sleeps to go. We have booked all the accommodation from when we leave San Jose on the 3rd of August until we depart Bakersfield after the Famoso Raceway Summer Nationals.

Along the way we'll be spending a few days in Los Angeles, checking out the Petersen Automotive Museum, the Wally Parks NHRA Museum, visiting the Moon Eyes shop and the Bobs Big Boy in Downey. We're also planning on getting to a Dodgers game while we're in town and have a few other things on the list as well.

After we leave Los Angeles, we're off towards Las Vegas, taking time out to stop in at Bakersfield and Death Valley along the way. We have hotel rooms booked in Beatty, Nevada, just a little way outside Death Valley and only a couple of miles from the Rhyolite Ghost Town, which I intend to visit around sunset and hang around to take a few night photos.

In Las Vegas, we've booked a couple of nights at the Bellagio hotel and casino, home to the famous dancing fountains. We haven't made many plans for our time in Las Vegas yet, but will sort that out a little more while we're on the road. Once we leave Las Vegas, we are spending a night in a cabin on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and then heading north to Bonneville.

The Bonneville Salt Flats are located just outside the town of West Wendover, on the border of Utah and Nevada. They are home to the fastest land based motorsport on the planet, with many world land speed records being set here. We arrive in town on the Friday of the Southern California Timing Associations SpeedWeek event.

We have hotel rooms booked in West Wendover though till Tuesday morning, which is when we say goodbye to the salt and head onwards with the road trip. We have rooms booked on the southern shores of Lake Tahoe and at historic Wawowa hotel in California's Yosemite National Park. After we leave Yosemite, we're headed onwards to Bakersfield and the Famoso Auto Club's Famoso Raceway, home to the ANRA's Summer Nationals, a huge 2 day Nostalgia drag race meeting.

After we leave Bakersfield, we're probably going to make a few things up as we go along, thats where the booked accommodation runs out for now, unless we decide to add a few nights somewhere else as well. We are planning on getting to John's Charburger in Livermore for a Friday night cruise in the weekend after Bakersfield, and there's also a GoodGuys show in Pleasanton that weekend, so we might hit that up as well. I'd also like to head back down to Santa Cruz and Monterey, and perhaps spend some more time around that area, maybe as an overnight trip during the week, instead of going back and forth each day.

While we're back in North California's Bay Area, I'd love to get to the San Francisco 49ers' preseason game against the San Diego Chargers on the 2nd of September, and there are a number of things around the San Francisco area that I'd like to see, both things we didn't know about last time and things that we went and saw last time, but I'd like to see again. We'll nut out some of those ideas over a few drinks while we're on the road and come up with some sort of game plan at a later date.

At either end of the trip, we also have a lengthy stop over in Auckland, New Zealand, between flights, and on the way across, we've booked a hire car for the day and will spend some time exploring Auckland before returning to the airport to wait for our flights to San Francisco.