Mrs Dad-bud and I are heading to the US to spend 8 weeks driving around the north and central states. We've visited 37 united states so far in our previous visits and plan on working our way through the rest this trip. We'll be landing in LA next Saturday morning (Aug 22) and will be looking for an event to come and visit that afternoon or night and hoping to meet up with some of you guys. Unfortunately we've only got an OT renter booked, so I won't be posting lots of cool pics of our journey - after all, this is a traditional hot rod site, not a travel site, I get it. We're staying our first night in Pasadena - hoping to see some little old lady in her 4 speed stick 426 ripping it up on Colorado Blvd. (Go granny go granny go granny go!) Anyway, hoping you guys can give us some options. As we progress, I'll follow up with more requests for things to see and events to come along to as we head along the open road.
if you have never been near mount rushmore there is a ton of incredible stuff. minuteman missle silo's, the badlands, many scenic highways, sturgis, deadwood, the black hills .
Shoot me a PM if you hit the Central State of Missouri, specifically Springfield area... (let me know if you get this direction and when and I will see what is going on in the area for you).
Upon your arrival at LAX airport proceed directly to the Automobile Driving Museum in the city of El Segundo, about 1-mile South of the airport. Do not be put off by the plain red brick facade of the building. This is a fantastic museum that is a non-profit facility and entry is based on your donation at the front door. The museum is on a street named Lairport (correct spelling). Look it up. This museum is worth the time.
If you have your route around the country already set why not post it here like the guy with the '59 Chevy wagon did when he cruised around with his family for 7 weeks earlier this summer? If you're going to be in the Louisville, Kentucky area send me a PM. Good luck and have fun.... PS..............Did anyone over there watch any golf on TV today?
Hey Lebowski. SurfCaliforniaSurf was drivin' an old Chevvy Wagon with his young family, which is a shipload cooler than me and the missus drivin' an OT Japanese or Korean renter (or whatever POS they throw me the keys to). I guess I didn't want to get flamed by the mods and the self-appointed supervisors for just posting a travelogue. Maybe I should put on the asbestos underpants, ignore the heat and see how we go........... what's the worst that can happen - hey? The furthest east we are planning is around Chicago, but thanks anyway. Young Aussie guy won the PGA - good for him. Good for golf to share the spoils around.... mind you, Tiger certainly put some life back into the game.... and something into the girls. Poor Tiger can now only count his hundreds of millions......... poor Tiger.
Thanks 59 brook, we are definitely planning to visit Mt Rushmore, the Black Hills, Yellowstone and plenty more along our way - a few weeks after we get to LA. Still interested if there's a HAMB-style event in LA on day 1 before we jump on the Coast Road to SF
We love Travelogs here on the HAMB...Surfcalifornissurf is a prime example...Denise,hotrodladycruiser,and Megan,Chevgirlrocs did several Travel threads in years past...all recieved with open arms... Check out the Louisana version of the "roundup" Steve.(El Jefe) is doing this one in addition the the Lonestar Roundup
Are you looking for direction or do you have a loose plan on which way you are going? If you have not driven all the way up the left coast, you are missing something. Since you will be landing about as far west as possible, why not? Have some tacos at Tito's (not too far from museum) and a burger at the original Tommy's before you leave town, then hit the coast highway.
If your heading north from LA, the Goodguys Pleasanton event is this week-end east of San Francisco. A few thousand cars plus a swap and car corral. Pm me if you go and we'll hook up.
Well you could post pics of your adventure, you no doubt will do some car things while you are here. if you were coming this way I would suggest that you visit the porknbean ranch at least for a plate of beans and conversation. But looks like you are out west? My big sis may feed you a meal if you get up to NorCal she's a little more refined than I am but that is not necessarily a bad thing.
Don't forget, while in Southern California, eat at In N Out Hamburger. You can't go wrong. Very tasty!
If your travels take you through Las Vegas there is a car museum at the LINQ Hotel on the strip. You can go on line and print a FREE ADMISSION coupons for all in your group, otherwise it's a bit expensive ($12.00). If you go park next door at Harrah's and do the very short walk from the garage to the museum next door at the LINQ, which is on the 5th floor of their garage. On your way back to Southern California, if you have a Saturday morning to spare, please go to the Donut Derelicts Car Show in Huntington Beach, every Saturday morning from 5:30am to 8:30am. This is the best FREE car show on the West coast. About 250 vintage cars and trucks every Saturday morning. Your fellow countrymen have been going to this car show in large groups for many years. This is another "can't miss" event. The street intersection is Adams and Magnolia in Huntington Beach.
X 2 on Good Guys Pleasanton it's 6 hours north from LAX and starts on Friday thru Sunday it could be your best shot at a huge event on your trip, 3000 cars, vendors, swap meet it does run late on Friday and Saturday nights, Sundays are a little smaller but the awards show is well worth the effort....
Have a great trip around our great country and I would like to welcome you to hit Nebraska on your way East. If you do drop me a PM and I will let you know what is going on for events in the mid west
Thanks guys, likin' the suggestions. Very quickly, our plan is to drive up the coast to Seattle, head east to Green Bay, checking out Glacier NP along the way, then back to Bonneville (fingers crossed that the World of Speed will be running 12-15 Sept) via Mt Rushmore, Yellowstone, then through Salt Lake City to Denver and on east again through Omaha, Des Moines and back through St Louis, then through canyonlands, Las Vegas and back to LA. Lotta miles but we have a bit of time and a hankering to see as much as we can. We looked at the Goodguys Pleasanton, but after flying for 20 hours from the other side of the world and not sure how much sleep we might get, I'm not sure whether we'll be toasted and I didn't want to commit to driving for another 6 hours if we might be a danger to ourselves or others. I'm hoping you guys can help let us know of small regular catch-ups along the way and it'd be great to meet up with some of you and say "G'day"
Thanks beaner, we are going to be heading through KC so maybe we can arrange a meet - it'll probably be late next month. We can sort things out as time gets nearer.
We have visited the LV car museum - about 10 years ago but it was great, so we'll probably venture in there again. I'd love to come along to a breakfast show at Huntington Beach but we arrive a bit late to get there day 1 and I doubt we will have a week in LA at the end before we fly out on a Friday night. If we can, I'll certainly try though.
OK, update so far. The Journey to the US and Day 1 Full day of work followed by a midnight flight across Australia to Sydney - sleep? Not much. Landed at Sydney at 6 am Saturday morning then a 4 hour stopover waiting for the flight to LA - sleep? Nup. .A bit shagged already, but hey, sleep on the plane to LA - right? 13 - 14 hours flight - sleep? Not much Land at LAX at 6 am Saturday morning (yep, same time that we landed at Sydney). Feelin' alright but expecting to hit a cliff sometime. Pass through border control, customs, baggage claim and the car rental shuttle and car pick-up. Negotiate how not to get ripped off at the rental desk, then hit the road by just after 8am. Mrs DB couldn't find our US GPS from previous trips, so we had to find our way around. tom124 in post 19 suggested a weekly Saturday morning show in Huntington Beach, and the 1:1bazillion free rental car map at least showed that the 405 goes right there. By dead reckoning, we ended up there without incident Unfortunately, we got there around 8.45, but couldn't find the streets noted. We saw a couple of nice cars driving away - a red 32 Ford Tudor street rod and a beautiful dark blue 54 Mercury hardtop. So we decided to just drive up the coast and hope to find a Walmart to get some supplies and a new GPS We got to Santa Monica and decided to head inland along Sunset Blvd, through Beverley Hills, Rodeo Drive, Hollywood, past La Brea Tarpits, through Downtown and then to Pasadena where we had a motel booked but couldn't check in until early afternoon. Our motel was right on Colorado Blvd, so finding that was easy, the helpful people at reception gave us directions to a Walmart and we were set. By around 3pm, we hit the wall, headed back to the motel to get some Z's. Woke up around 8, went for a walk along Colorado to find something to eat then back to the motel to try to get more sleep. OK, end of Day 1 - saw lots of LA. Catching up on some sleep - right?
Day 2 Woke up around 6 am, feelin' good. Showers and breakfast and then hit the road Head up through the San Gabriel Mountains behind Pasadena to Palmdale, then on to El Mirage. Took a couple of photos - mostly dirt bikes and ATVs making a bit of dust, so not interesting, but have at least been there. After there, it was to head north up through Bakersfield and end up in King City on Hwy 101 - around 400 miles for the day. Plenty of driving, plenty of looking at how dry California is. It reminded me of summer at home. The countryside was dry and open, the roads were reasonably busy but flowed well so not a bad day. Found a motel around 4.30 - crashed and burned again. Woke up around 9pm, went and found some dinner, back to bed. Catching up on sleep again - must be just about on West Coast Summer time by now - right?
Day 3 From King City, we headed for Carmel-by-the-Sea via the mountain road. What a beautiful drive. A road less travelled for sure - there was hardly any cars on the road - I can understand why. Narrow, winding through the hills, tight blind corners abounding, but few cars coming the other way and none heading our way. The countryside was very nice - reasonably steep hills, reasonable vegetation. OK, it's not stunning, but much nicer than just sitting on Interstates or dual carraigeway highways. We got to Carmel and headed back down the coast road to Big Sur, stopping along the way to look at the coastal scenery. Lovely. Very much like the Great Ocean Road in Victoria. Back to Carmel and head around 17 Mile Drive and Pebble Beach. More stops for photos and back to Carmel. Nearby is Laguna Seca Raceway, so we head there to find around 15 cars running around the track on a Track-Day. Wandered up to the Corkscrew, took a few photos and wandered back to the car. An Audi A5 screwed up, skidded off the track and planted itself into the tyre wall. Scuffed up the side of the car pretty bad, broken mirror and very dented ego. I clapped. He didn't appreciate it. More money than talent, I guess. Late lunch in Salinas, then on to Oakland for a motel. The last half hour was a nightmare. So tired. We checked in around 5pm and fell asleep. Woke up around 11pm. Too late to go eat, so decided to update our trip so far. I was going to post some pics but Mrs DB and son-of-DB like playing with the camera and now it takes pics in some format that can;t be opened and the file sizes are >21MB. Adjustment needed and then we'll be able to show you some of the places we have been. .......................until then
The Jalopy Journal
