San Bernardino to Death Valley

This morning, we actually made an early start for a change, hitting the road around 8am. However we didn't take long to get sidetracked, stopping at a local MacDonalds for breakfast. San Bernardino is the city in which Richard and Maurice MacDonald opened their first restaurant, however, this was not that particular MacDonalds. That said, this particular restaurant was certainly a throwback in decor to something I've not seen since the mid 1980's.



After breakfast, we hit the highway, planning to stop just up the road at Victorville to fill the Cadillac at the local Costco and grab some more water before getting into the journey proper. I also was keen to visit that little town on the edge of the desert where 'the drugs began to take hold', Barstow. Barstow is definitely what you would call an 'interesting' town, it's certainly got the appearance of a town that has suffered since the demise of Route 66, however there are also signs that not all the money is gone and some companies are still investing in the town and it's people. This is about where we departed from the former Route 66, as the 'Mother Road' heads south east to Nevada, while we would initially head back to the west before taking a north eastern route into the Silver State, passing through towns such as Boron and Pearsonville (home to the legendary Pearsonville Junkyard, which would be instantly recognisable to those familiar with the work of night photographer Troy Paiva).



On the trip through Death Valley, we would climb to over 5000 feet before descending to approximately 1200 feet, then climbing to around 4500 feet and dropping to 100 feet below sea level, around the Stovepipe Wells area. Stovepipe Wells is reportedly the hottest part of Death Valley, peaking at 106 degrees Fahrenheit today (Around 41 Celsius degrees for those playing along at home in Australia). Heading out of Stovepipe Wells we had a few more climbs and descents before we were finally out of the danger zone for the Cadillacs cooling system, which had been put under a little stress thanks to some slower drivers refusing to get out of the way on the long climbs.



Once out of the Death Valley National Park, we had only a short drive to the Motel 6 in Beatty, Nevada, just past the Rhyolite ghost town, which we detoured back to after checking in to our Motel rooms. We stopped in at Rhyolite just after dark and managed to get a few long exposure shots in and marvelled at just how many planes cross over that area at night, whether commercial, military or 'other'. We're now back at the Motel 6 and headed for bed, with another long day tomorrow, hoping to get an early start to check out Scotty's Castle in Death Valley, before pushing on to Las Vegas, where our rooms at the Bellagio await.

We're On The Road Again

Today we hit the road for Las Vegas, with a couple of overnight stops along the way. Los Angeles to Las Vegas is normally about a 6 hour drive, but we've decided to stretch it out a little with a drive up to Death Valley. We've stopped for the night at the Wigwam Motel in San Bernardino, on the outskirts of Los Angeles and will be spending tomorrow night in Beatty, Nevada, after visiting Death Valley.



During the drive today we made a couple of stops, the first at the MoonEyes Equipment shop in Santa Fey Springs, where we did a little shopping, both for souvenirs and also for a rocker cover breather for the Cadillac, which has been missing one for some time (but also has not clocked a lot of miles in that time).



We also dropped in to the John Force Race Station in Yorba Linda for a bit more shopping and checked out their art gallery. We then hit the road out to San Bernardino and the Wigwam Motel. Back when Route 66 was king, there was a chain of Wigwam Motels spread across the country. These days, only 3 of the original 7 Wigwam Motels remain, 2 of them on the Historic Route 66.



Tomorrow we're on the road again, hoping to hit the tarmac around 8am in order to make it to Scotty's Castle in Death Valley by 3pm for the last tour of the day. Then we're off to Beatty in Nevada and the nearby ghost town of Rhyolite.

Hollywood Hot Rods

We had a fairly slow day today, as I've just been hit with a cold that I probably caught on the flight over. Kate and I ended up sleeping in until almost midday and when we did get moving, we made plans to get to Burbank and visit a couple of shops, including Troy Ladd's Hollywood Hot Rods.

In the end, we got to Hollywood Hot Rods, got a tour of the workshop and a bit of a history lesson on the shop. We managed to meet Troy and to get a look at the Raybestos giveaway car that they're building.

After we left Hollywood Hot Rods, we took a little walk up to zpizza for lunch and decided to call it a day, as I was in no condition to be driving by that stage. Kate got to drive the big Caddy back to the hotel through about 20 miles of classic Los Angeles traffic.

(I'll put a couple of photos up when I'm feeling a little better)

Hollywood, Mulholland Drive and a Baseball Game

We're about half way through our time in Los Angeles, and today we headed to Hollywood. The day started with us walking Hollywood Boulevard, checking out some of the stars in the pavement and the famous buildings there. For lunch we visited the new Hollywood Hard Rock Cafe, which only opened 2 weeks ago.



After we left Hollywood it was time for some more car stuff and we headed up to Mulholland Drive to take a cruise out one of Los Angeles' most famous roads, starting from El Camino Real and making it out to Encino Hills Drive before turning back. On the return run, we stopped at a lookout near El Camino Real, where you can get a pretty good view of the Hollywood sign, albeit clouded through the haze.



Our last stop for the night was a baseball game at Dodger Stadium, where the Los Angeles Dodgers lost to the San Diego Padres 5-0. We had booked tickets to the All You Can Eat pavilion, and turned up just before the gates opened, which worked out really well for parking, with the Cadillac taking a spot in the very first row of the general parking area. The All You Can Eat pavilion is the right outfield pavilion and offers ticket holders unlimited Dodgers Dogs, Nachos, Peanuts, Popcorn and Soft Drinks, from the time the gates open, approximately 90 minutes before the first pitch, until the 7th Innings Stretch. While we were relatively restrained, many spectators really took advantage of the All You Can Eat offer.



As always, if you're looking for more photos from The Bonneville Run, you can click on any of the photos above to go to the album on LandBarge.com

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.)