Which ways the Beach? Santa Maria to Austin Roadtrip Family Style

This makes me want kids! ..........and the time off to drive them to Austin, dammit! Thanks for sharing this!

 

Stay safe. We will see you in 50 days at the Crusin' Nationals in Santa Maria.

 

Cool story so far keep it up.

 

Or a different wife ;o)

 

Divorce? )

 

Enjoy your trip, like a good ride at Rincon, long and slow. If you get home sick for Los Angeles, arrive in Austin on I-35 around 4-6 PM.

 

More, more, more! I get it. I'm building my '58 Wagon and hoping to take nice road trips in it too.. with wifey. Enjoy your kids now.. for one day they'll be teenagers and nothing can prepare you for that. Wish I were joking. Spend time with that family of yours. More trips like this.. lots of pics.. as stated.. memories for a life time. Very nice wagon too buy the way!

 

What a cool trip and great pictures. Reminds me when our family had a 1960 Chevy Wagon when we were kids. At that time it was a 2 year old used car! Keep posting! Thanks.

 

Here is a day three summary from my wife's blog...and for all of you trying to convince your wives to do a road trip, have them follow her blog as she lays it all out from a womans perspective...http://misspartymom.blogspot.com/

Day 3 of our Cali-Texas Road Trip to the Lone Star Round Up Car Show.

We woke up in Van Horn, TX and took full advantage of the free breakfast in our hotel, including the amazing Texas shaped waffles (which I now see are in every hotel), before we hit the road for Austin.

And then it happened. I knew it was coming. I didn't know the time or the day of the trip, but I knew the breakdown was coming. I realize you could read this as either an emotional or vehicle breakdown... THIS time it was the latter.

Now if this is THE breakdown of the trip- man we got off easy and I am a happy woman. But even if this turned out to be a relatively small one, in the moments it was happening- let's just say I may have said a curse word...

So I'm sound asleep and we're something like 100 miles from our final destination of Austin. The wagon has been running beautifully and we have no reason for concern. Until out of nowhere Shawn wakes me to tell me, "something just went wrong with the motor." Similar to waking a woman at 3 a.m. to start on an 8-day journey across the lower half of the US, waking a woman during the REM stages of her 3rd nap of the day only to say "motor" and "wrong" in the same sentence is going to elicit a nasty response.

For some reason, and I'll blame it on being half asleep I screamed, "SH*&%T!!" quite loudly and without hesitation. The kids were asleep, my saving grace, or Birdie'd have been repeating that one the rest of her life, guaranteed.

The crazy part about the motor deciding to not run at full throttle when it did, is that we had just come through hours of nothingness, and I mean NO THING NESS. And then almost immediately after the motor issue we stumble upon not only a gas station, but a full blown mechanic. So we went from middle-of-nowhere to Mechanic-Joe-is-under-our hood within 5 minutes of hearing "the noise." Truly amazing and too good to be a coincidence? Oh I think so!

Side note: when we pulled up to Joe... he was digging a rather large hole. I wish I had the pics to prove it. Shawn wanted me to take some, but I couldn't bring myself to. I mean here we have this stranger, his shovel and a good sized hole, and we didn't have enough people around so I could sneak a picture to poke fun of this man with his shovel and his hole. Of course he was friendly as all Texans are and asked about our travels. When we told him we were driving from California to Texas in this '59 Chevy he just stayed quiet... so I said, "Joe- give it to me straight! Are we idiots?!" And all Joe said was, "Waaaaaillllll....." and I knew we were. But we're idiots with a dream, and when you're this far from home, there's no turning back now is there?

The entire fix cost us $36, took 25 minutes and the kids didn't even know it had happened because they slept the entire time. While I could have gone without the scare, it's given my husband a great story, and for those of you who don't know him- this man thrives on his stories, especially when they come to cars or lonely Texans digging holes.

So we got back in the car and made it to Austin less than 2 hours later. Our hotel is jam packed with every old hot rod and custom imaginable and because my husband's wagon was featured on the cover of an old cars book a couple of years ago, he was donning minor celebrity status when we rolled in.

We hit South Congress Street tonight and ate some crazy overpriced bratwursts from a food trailer just to say we did, duh. I almost got a gourmet grilled cheese but I couldn't bring myself to spend $12 on it. I don't care how long your cheese has aged.

Tomorrow and Saturday are the actual car show. I've made serious arrangements with The Family Thrift Store so let's hope I make it to said car show at some point, I mean- Austin kindasorta has Kenna written allll.over.it.

Car Show? Eh.


xo Road Trip or Die xo
kenna

 

Cool trip and those are good family memories you are creating right now.

Have fun at the Round-Up

 

Mailing postcards to the grandparents

I am now a truck stop premiere member

85 through west texas

I heard a rocker arm start ticking and thank you Jesus I was near an exit


Me and Joe 25 minutes and $36 later

Pulled into austin around 5

After 600 miles an overpriced sausage from a food truck on South Congress never tasted so good!

 

Great looking family. Did a rocker arm back off?

 

Livin' the dream ....

 

You are living the dream and lucky at the same time! Safe travels to your family........

 

We have done roads trips but not with kids- God Bless you both-

 

Have a great time!

 

hell yeah

 

Catch Feista Week in San Antonio mid April. See San Antonio, it's very Beutiful

 

Ya the rear most one on the drivers side backed off

 

Hahaa, kids say the damndest things!

Looks like a great trip! Welcome to Texas, pardner I'll keep an eye out for the wagon this weekend.

PS, your ride made the cover of the book, and mine is on the table of contents. It won't be in Austin this weekend though.

 

Great trip! Looks like a good time with the fam!

 

now that's AMERICAN!

 

Dude that's Rad!



Tim

 

He should of re-crimped them? There's 3 dings on each nut, you could do it with the back of a hammer. Stud could slip out, too. Studs could be worn too. How old are the heads?

No big worry, It Happens.

Quick fix: Take off 1 valve cover at a time. Start car. w/ a 5/8 socket loosen until tapping, then tighten until just stop tapping then a 1/4 turn more. Do all 8 then the other head. Takes 10 min.

 

Pure inspiration!

 

Tell your wife if she is hitting the thrift stores to get off the beaten path. Get locals to tell you where to go. I was there at Lonestar a couple of years ago and wife found a neighborhood that was loaded with retromodern furniture stores. I hit the swap meet hard and she hit the thrift stores. I swear it looked like we were moving coming home. I drove home with a trans adapter under my legs/feet.

 

DAY 4

Friday we slept in, had breakfast at the hotel, and then Kenna told me she would rather hang out on S. Congress and shop all day. So Cormac and I dropped the girls off, and we headed out to the show around 11. We walked around, talked to Ryan from the Hamb, John from Acme, and a couple other nice hambers who saw our thread.

After a couple hours at the show walking around the Featured Car Lot mostly Cormac told me he wanted to go swimming, so we decided to head back to town and meet up with the girls and eat. On the drive back i saw some white smoke when I got on the freeway, but the car ran great otherwise. We ate lunch at IRONWORKS BBQ! That place challenges SANTA MARIA style BBQ. I think it is the use of sauce.

We goofed off in and around the pool during the afternoon, then went and toured the Texas state capital, at dinner at a TEX MEX place called El Mercado by the University of Texas, and then decided to get ice cream on South Congress.

Unless you have been here you cannot understand the chaos that is S. Congress on Friday and Sat. night! Some of the best people watching ever! We go ice cream at the shop next to the Continental Club, walked around and looked at the cars lining the streets (we also saw a few texans who set up a portable tent with a portable out house in it behind their flatbed trailer).


Inside the Capitol



Day 5
Before heading to the show today we headed over to south congress to get some coffee at JO's. We headed out to the show, and I decided I drove all the way from California, and my car did make the cover of a book, I am going to try and park in the Featured Parking Lot. No problem, and it was really mellow and spread out in that area, rather than packed like the rest of the show. And to be honest, all the best cars in the whole place were on that patch of grass! It was really an honor to be parked in there around those cars.

Kenna hit the vendors while I looked at cars. I have included the cars that stood out to me. Lets just say, walking around the Lonestar Roundup is like walking around the entire Pomona Sway meet!



John from Acme

BOMONSTER hooked us up with free stickers! Thanks dude!





So Bitchin!







(Photobucket is slow tonight, so you will have to wait for the cars from the Featured Lot!)

We headed back to the hotel around 4:25, we dropped Kenna off at the thrift stores, napped, and were reenergized to head out.

After eating TEX MEX, we decided to look for something no one else who came to the show would do. We found it in the form of a good old fashion southern Fair! Not sure what it was for, but Cormac rode a bunch of rides, then learned the hard lesson on the ROCKING PIRATE SHIP about carnival rides on a full stomach.

I checked the oil again today after about 50 miles of driving and its not losing oil, so tomorrow we will meet up with some friends for lunch, load up on oil and a few spark plugs just in case, and head north for Amarillo and the Big Texan on a couple smaller highways! If you have not been to the Roundup, get in your car and go! If only the surf was better in Austin!

Kenna has some good stories from her perspective http://www.misspartymom.blogspot.com/

 

This is such a great thread! Thanks for sharing.

Sent from my DROID device using the TJJ mobile app

 

Thanks for posting the stories. I had hoped to meet you guys Friday but somehow missed you (amongst the thousands).

 

Great reading! Thanks for posting.