Event Coverage 6,000+ trip around the USA in a Flathead '32 Roadster to LA Roadster Show- Pt 3 of 3!

Part 3 of 3
See Part 1 here:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=377711&highlight=chevygirlrox

See Part 2 here:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=377935&highlight=chevygirlrox

We left off Part 2 on Sunday night with us camping out on a cliff in Malibu…

The next morning dawned bright, being next to the ocean is so awesome, I wanna live there!


We had to cart all of our stuff in and out, no driving to the sites


My build site—ha ha ha


The crazy scary cactus and lizard covered hillside


Being Malibu a celebrity or two sometimes resides here




We hit the road again heading north on 1. I love driving this road!


This guy’s license plate pretty much sums up what it must be to live there


So we jumped on and off 1 and 101 heading north near Oxnard and Ventura. It gets kind of deserty away from the coast


Another gas stop, topping off the Flatty with water again


Looking south down the coast


The motel Denise, Larry and I stayed at a few years back while attending Paso Robles. It is located in Cambria.


Nice Pontiac for sale there too

 

As we headed up the coast we were nearing the Hearst Castle. I’ve always wanted to go there and since we had the time we pulled over to camp at San Simeon State Park for the night. I made the reservations on my Blackberry and we were all set up for an 8:20am tour.

It was time for some maintenance on the ’32 so we changed the rear end fluid. We had already changed the oil once on the trip when we got to Pomona.


After that we took a walk down to the ocean.


Matt’s first touch of the Pacific Ocean


Some creepy giant seaweed

 

The next morning it wasn’t sunny and the shower wasn’t very warm. That is one thing I don’t like about camping, the shower situation. I got a warmer shower than Matt though who didn’t take quarters with him

We headed over to the Hearst Castle visitors center which is actually at the base of the mountain that the castle is on top of.


We checked in and got in line to take the bus up to the castle. It was foggy at the base to say the least!


A bit about the Hearst Castle from their website:

In 1865, George Hearst, a wealthy miner, purchased 40,000-acres of ranchland that included the Mexican Ranchos of Piedras Blancas, San Simeon and Santa Rosa. In 1919, his only son, William Randolph Hearst, inherited the land from his mother, Phoebe Apperson Hearst. By then the ranch had grown to encompass 250,000 acres.

Originally known as "Camp Hill," its wilderness offered a place for family members and friends to "rough it" on camping trips. Despite elaborate arrangements with separate sleeping and dining tents, Hearst envisioned more comfortable accommodations. His simple instructions to famed San Francisco architect Julia Morgan in 1919: "Miss Morgan, we are tired of camping out in the open at the ranch in San Simeon and I would like to build a little something"
Hearst and Morgan's collaboration was destined to become one of the world's greatest showplaces. As they were planning and constructing his dream home, Hearst renamed the rocky perch from which it rose "La Cuesta Encantada" - The Enchanted Hill. By 1947, Hearst and Morgan had created an estate of 165 rooms and 127 acres of gardens, terraces, pools and walkways.
The estate's magnificent main house, "Casa Grande," and three guest houses are of Mediterranean Revival style, while the imposing towers of Casa Grande were inspired by a Spanish cathedral. The blending of the architectural style with the surrounding land, and Hearst's superb European and Mediterranean art collection, was so seamless that world-renowned architectural historian, Lord John Julius Norwich, was moved to say that "Hearst Castle is a palace in every sense of the word."

http://www.hearstcastle.org/history/the_castle.asp


Needless to say, this place is huge!

The road to the castle was crazy! Lots of switchbacks and drop offs, I really would have rather had control of the vehicle I was riding in and preferably not a 55 passenger bus! There were a lot of animals—cattle, zebra and even a fox! The animals on the farm are decedents of the ‘original’ animals purchased by William Randolph Hearst back in the early 1900s. They sell the beef off the farm in the gift shop, it is a regular working farm.



The view from the house


When you get off the bus you are met by this!




The Main House, Casa Grande, is 60,645 square feet! It has 41 baths and 38 bedrooms, remember this was built in the early 1900s, on a mountain in the middle of nowhere!

The first stop is the pool. Looks like a Roman temple, right? It was! He bought it from Italy and had it shipped over to decorate his pool area! This is actually the third version of the pool, he didn’t care for the first two that were constructed!




Thinking about trading up from your plastic ladders? How about marble?


The fountain that drops into the pool


Looking down at the pool from the first level of guest houses

 

There are 3 guest houses there, the smallest one checking in at 2,291 square feet and the largest at 5,875 square feet! We went in the middle size one, Casa del Sol which was 2,604 square feet.

Everything was extremely ornate. A lot of ceilings, walls and architectural pieces were purchased from all around the world and fit into the castle and guesthouses. Some pictures are kind of dark since they didn’t allow any flash photography.




The view of the pool


The guest houses had bedrooms, bathrooms and sitting rooms but no kitchens. All guests were expected to eat in the main house dining room, no such thing as room service there!








The outside of the guest house was also really neat


Stepping up towards the castle the view got better and better. Notice how sunny and nice it is as opposed to the fog and gray of visitor center below?

 

And finally the castle!




See these towers? They were the second attempt. He didn’t like the first so he tossed them over the mountain where they still are today!


I can’t say enough about the view


Let’s go in!


I have no idea how he bought this stuff all over the world without email or faxes or even telephones- lots and lots of telegraphs! The money he was spending was unreal!

Our tour included the Assembly Room (the largest sitting room in the castle), the Refectory (the main dining room of the castle), the Morning Room (a small sitting room), and the Billiard Room.


The Assembly Room, or as his sons said ‘the best place for a game of football on a rainy day’












The ceiling in there

 

The Refectory






The ceiling in there


The Morning Room where you went to order breakfast






And last but not least, the Billiards Room


See that tapestry wall hanging? He paid $100,000 for it back in 1920! It was the most expensive wall hanging bought for the house, in the billiards room?!?!?



We also got to see the theater (and people think in home theaters are a new thing!)




The tennis courts (he owned further than he could see, I think 150,000 acres)

 

And the Roman Bath/inside pool (mostly used by his employees)




Check out the neat diving platform


All of the yellow you see in there is gold!

That was the end of our house tour. I plan to go back there though; there are 3 or 4 other tours of the house and grounds.

We took the bus back to the visitor’s center and watched a movie about building the house. We also checked out the display they had down there with artifacts from building the house, additional antiques of the Hearst family along with explanations of building and restoration techniques in use on the property.









The beginning of Cosmo!


This was a neat timeline about the Hearst family’s involvement in print and radio over the years. I had no idea they were so involved in the movie business.


A picture of a room we didn’t go in this time


They had a room you could touch everything in since touching in the castle was strictly forbidden and enforced. So here is Matt being a violator


They have good reason to be that way though. The marble piece on the left no touch, the piece on the right yes touch. Dirt and oil from people’s hands really do a number on things

 

After looking around there it was time to hit the road. We were in for some beautiful driving up 1 towards San Francisco. Even though it was cold and foggy we decided to put the top down to get good pics.




The first stop was just up the road from the castle to see the seals and squirrels. The seals come there to have their babies and shed their fur. Males and females come at different times of the year on migration to and from Alaska! During our visit the males were there resting and shedding.




And fighting!


Because of the tourists that feed animals there are a ton of fat crazy squirrels there too!


I promise we didn’t kill him, he’s just playing dead


They are very tame


Onward up the coast. The scenery is awesome and driving it in a roadster can’t be beat!

 

The Bixby Bridge was built in 1932, what better place to take a picture of a ’32 roadster on the coast? Well that was until someone STOLE the sign! Ok, who has it? Fess up! So here is the picture of the ’32 by the bridge with no sign


The bridge is pretty awesome


As is the scenery there, looking north


And south


After taking a bunch of pictures there we headed up to Carmel by the Sea to window shop and get a bite to eat. Saw some pretty nice rides there


But I like this one the best


It was getting late so we decided to jump over to 101 to avoid the fog and darkness of 1 while we continued up to San Francisco and on to Petaluma for the night.

We passed this hanger along the way. It looks like the blimp hanger in Akron, maybe this is where the California Goodyear blimp lives?


Matt took this picture making fun of me. I was constantly reading maps when I wasn’t driving. I was always trying to figure out where to go next, where we could tent camp or what we were going to see along the way. My side was full of maps and directories!


We then went thru San Francisco. I saw this cat in the window of a Chinese place. I think it is my Happy Cat at homes mother!


My Happy Cat


Just as the sun was setting we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge






We continued on to Petaluma where we stayed at another KOA. I’m a big fan of KOAs after this trip. They have the cleanest facilities and are usually fully equipped (laundry, pool, store).

 

The next morning we packed up everything and gave the car a good once over. The plan was to stop by and see Vern Tardel and the guys then hit the road for home We had trouble with one snap staying snapped, they are such delicate things.


It seemed like I was camping in my own yard with the farm that surrounded the KOA. Smelled like it too!




I told Vern we would be by early that day but by the time we got all packed up it was approaching noon. When we got there everyone came out to check out the car. He called it a ‘commuter engine’- that made me laugh


Of course they had tons of flathead projects going on as usual. I really love Vern’s place, it has to be one of my favorite places. So much cool stuff in one spot, hot rod heaven on earth!






This dash looks sweet in there


I took a picture of this peaked shell because so many people had petted the one on the ’32 the paint is beginning to wear off!


By that time it was lunchtime so we headed down to Norm’s Kitchen where we were VIPs!


Mike Bishop (AV8 here on the HAMB) joined us for lunch. He had this old bike with him that he had recently picked up. He has Bonneville pit bike plans for it, I can’t wait to see the outcome!

 

After lunch we went back to the shop to look around some more. The roadster needed an exhaust gasket, good thing we were in Flathead heaven! While Matt changed that I snapped some more photos.

Rolo working (sorry I was too clean to help )


The Bonneville projects there are unbelievable. It makes me so excited to get back to the salt!




Keith is working on this one




More roadsters






I’m in love with this ’32…I’ve gotta figure out a way to buy it




Vern’s roadster patiently waiting for it’s turn


This tub was really cool. Perfect for a roadster family!




A little pick up for good measure


Fun license plate topper

 

I had never noticed the Flathead ‘equipment’ before, too cool!




This is how to make a shed door and a mailbox




Thanks Vern, Keith, Rolo and company for showing us around and taking time out of your day to hang out. I really mean it when I say I love stopping there. Getting to hang out with Ed from Bing’s Speed Shop was definitely an added bonus!

If you’re looking to learn be sure to check out Vern’s recently published little books on Ford Transmissions, Steering and Brakes. Hit up the website and fax or mail in your order- http://www.verntardel.com/ I’ve read through them, lots of great tips and tricks!

 

We hit the road towards the dreaded route 80 east but not without heading thru wine country first. The area is really beautiful!


We then jumped on route 80 through Sacramento and up Donner Pass headed for Reno. Unfortunately we hit it right at rush hour and it was about 95 degrees outside, not a fun combo. It was the hottest we were the entire trip, Flathead included. Luckily we needed gas so it gave the Flatty a break to cool down. It didn’t boil over but it was awfully close!

It really is a beautiful area


Apparently they’ve had a forest fire recently


Some of the ski areas still had snow on them!


Made it to the summit of Donner Pass, finally! The roads were soooo terrible between the construction and the parts of the road that needed construction. I was happy to see the summit sign


What goes up must come down though


They had the road down to 9 feet in some areas (so glad I wasn’t driving!)


We saw lots of trains out west but they were awful far away for my tradition


Made into Nevada and on to Reno. Grabbed a Motel 6 for the night and planned to get up early to beat the heat!

 

The next morning we got up REALLY early (like 5) and hit the road to try to beat the heat through Nevada. There really wasn’t much to see or talk about through Nevada…just when to make sure to buy gas!
Lots of desert


More desert


Hills/mountains with tunnels


More trains


More water for us and the Flathead


More construction (that truck is driving over highway signs, pretty funny)


And LOTS of wind! I couldn’t even hold my head up!


I see white on the horizon, we must be almost to Wendover!




Pretty soon I saw Wendover Will on the horizon!


Of course we had to stop for the photo op

 

After that we headed over to check out the Wendover Air Force Base. I’ve driven past it during Speed week before but never had the chance to really look around. I took a ton of photos but here are the highlights…

The ’32 in front of the hanger that housed the Enola Gay


You can see the extra door near the roof for the wing of the plane


There are historic sign markers like this one all over the base explaining the different areas


It is really sad to see the state of disrepair this important base has slipped into. The bunk houses have been demolished and/or sold off as private housing




They would like to restore the base to its former glory. Here is a bunk house they are restoring as an exhibit


They also have a little museum about the base


Neat artifacts inside, including Enola Gay models and accounts of loading the Atomic bomb

 

Lots of cool old pictures








The Bombardier’s Oath


A real Norden Bombsight


A model of the base


They had photos of a lot of WWII nose art. Here are a couple of my favorites




The ’32 by an old plane (newer than WWII) they had outside near the still in operation air strip


I took tons more photos (I fear demolition ). You can check them out in my photobucket here:
http://s36.photobucket.com/albums/e...eno to SLC/Wendover Air Force Base/?start=all

Of course when we went to leave the starter on the Flathead was stuck. It had done that last summer but I had it rebuilt right before we left to correct the problem. Well, it decided to do it again right then to the point we had to remove the starter (not that hard) and re-install it.

Once we got the starter issue resolved we drove thru town (BTW Denise, the Motel 6 had a sign out touting free WiFi now) and on to the Flats.

 

Matt had never been there before so he was pretty excited to see what I always talk on and on about. Heading out the road


Seemed so empty without hot rods and racers




Still just as pretty though!


Got to the end of the road and were met by water-- and lots of it!






Still took some cool pictures though

 

I hated to leave but I don’t think I could have camped out waiting over a month there






We jumped back on 80 and headed toward SLC to find a place for the night. With the hot weather and driving we decided it would just be easier to get a cheap motel than try to camp.


We hit up another Motel 6 (the only motel/hotel we stayed at on the trip!) once we got to SLC and went to a pretty good Mexican place next door called Lorena’s. They had some sweet air brushed pictures on the walls






Then hit the hay. We had another long day ahead of us on the journey home!

 

We got up early again to beat the traffic out of SLC. It was pretty cloudy but we were in the mountains so I figured it would burn off. As we were leaving Utah it seemed to be getting wetter, not raining but it had rained. I hoped we weren’t going to catch up to it.



Into Wyoming we go!


Since I’m paranoid about running out of gas we stopped right inside to get some since it didn’t look like there would be any for awhile. The gas station/truck stop was pretty rustic…and full of puddles


Got mud on the new top


So we hit the road again pounding out the miles towards Nebraska. I don’t know how anyone lives in this part of the country, it is so desolate.




It is pretty but there isn’t much to look at. At least it is green though!


It was getting wetter and wetter and kind of starting to rain


It was time for gas again and my little AAA map said there was gas in Wamsutter, boy did we pick the wrong place to get off the highway! I thought that last gas station was muddy? That was NOTHING!

This was the ‘Exit Ramp’—that’s right no pavement, just dirt or in this case MUD!




The reason for all of the mud, these stupid trucks! (Notice this one trashed a tire on the trailer)


More mud!


It’s not that we were worried about getting the car muddy, that happens (Jalopy Showdown ) but this mud was everywhere! In the parking lot, in the gas station, I don’t know how the people deal with tracking it everywhere!

Once we cleaned the windshield and our feet we got back on the freeway. The ‘Entrance Ramp’ wasn’t any better


We made it to Laramie and decided it was time for a break. We were both hungry and wet so we hit up the Pizza Hut near the exit for a delicious stuffed crust pizza.

Even though we had been driving a couple hours in the rain the car was still a mess!

 

We headed back towards the highway to fuel up. Once we got gas we got in the car to leave and it wouldn’t start, no power. The ignition switch finally gave up the ghost. We knew it was going to happen but wasn’t sure when. Luckily the gas station was a truck stop so we ran in and got a toggle switch to get us back on the road.

Bad ignition switch!


Easy little replacement


Matt putting in the new one after I disassembled the old one


A couple minutes later we were back on the road headed towards Nebraska. We weren’t sure how far we were going to go today but I new it needed to be into Nebraska in order to make it home in time to see our friends at the weekly cruise on Sunday night.

My camera definitely isn’t good as Denise’s at taking state welcome signs


We had been following this storm all day. In Nebraska it got pretty serious- tornados, thunder, lightening and lots of wind. Glad we were behind it!


It was clearing behind us though


We ended up making it to Gothenburg, NE that night and setting up camp at a KOA.

 

The next morning we packed up camp quickly, the mosquitoes were awful since we were close to a river/swamp!


Since we were in Gothenburg we ran over to check out the Pony Express Station


They have a neat little museum inside of the old station with lots of maps and artifacts inside.






A buffalo skin coat


A mail pouch they used over top of the saddles


A picture of the original station near the Platte River. Turns out the station the museum is in is actually the top floor of the original building in the picture.


After that we checked out the Sod House and Buffalo statue. The Buffalo and Horse/Indian behind it are entirely made of barbed wire, pretty crazy!






Up close detail shot of the barbed wire work

 

The Sod House constructed to represent the homes on the prairie in the time of the buffalo and Indians.




I can’t resist cheesy photo boards—can you say American Gothic?


On the road again. Last granola bar, it must be time to head home!


Pretty soon we were in Kearney, NE going under the Bridge Transportation Museum. One of these days I’m going to stop there


All of the sudden out of nowhere something slammed into the windshield, I thought it was a bird!


Matt started screaming, whatever it was had came in the car! So we pulled over quick to see what it was. Turns out it was a pretty huge moth, hope it lived


Pretty soon we were in Iowa, one step closer to home!


Stopped to get gas and watched the owner of this trailer and ATV almost own a gas pump. Always remember to remove the nozzle before pulling away from the pump!

 

megan,,,i really enjoyed your post. it's without a doubt one of my favorites. you really captured the whole vibe with your excellent pictures and captions,,,thanks.

 

There was a group of Model As touring a tractor museum on our way to the gas station. They were at a restaurant on our way back to the highway.
Can you spot the hot rod?


Some were stockers, some were hopped up. Neat to see them out and about none the less


My nephew is in love with tractors so we stopped at the museum to see if they had anything I could squeeze in the roadster to take home to him. They didn’t have anything I can’t find in Ohio. Matt got talking to the curator about tractors and next thing I knew they were off between the rows. Matt was telling him about Farmall a local farmer had while he was growing up, V8s with Twin Turbos. They had two of them there in the museum! They are worth 6 digits each now!






If you’re into Farmall tractors this museum should definitely be on your must see list!


Back on the road again heading through Iowa. More windmills!


Denise’s favorite truck stop, the World’s Largest Truck Stop!


Glad we weren’t heading west instead of east. This jack knifed truck had traffic backed up for miles!


We crossed the Mississippi into Illinois


And I began calculating just how far it was to Indiana. Matt’s GPS on his phone was a lifesaver on this trip!


Crazy orange sunset that evening!


We pulled into Merrillville, IN late that evening to a Motel 6. Needless to say I was not impressed with the place but we were too tired to go anywhere else. Plus our adrenalin was pumping, we were almost home!

 

The next morning we slept in a little since we didn’t have far to go. I’m still not exactly sure about the whole time zone situation there but I think we left around 11am, if not 10am; the time I thought it was

We had jumped on route 30 the night before just south of Chicago. 30 is a nice road to travel—a lot of it 4 lane, not many trucks, nice road. So we continued east, almost home. There really isn’t much to see mostly farm land and a small town here and there. The Ohio sign was welcomed sight though!


My happy almost home face!


We made it back to Canton just in time for our Sunday night weekly cruise. I think a lot of people were surprised we actually made the 6,000 mile plus trip. We had told people for a long time we were going to and people heard about it while we were gone; but seeing them at that cruise made them believers!

The last stretch of road home after the cruise (taken by a friend)



Yes, it could be called THE trip of a lifetime but I don’t want to call it that. I hope to make this trip many more times in the future. The great American hot rod adventure!

Thanks Matt for being my partner in crime. Hopefully the '32 will see many more miles of adventures; just as George and Frank would have wanted

 

There is sooo much to see at Hearst Castle. I need to go back soon. Thanks for the pics and good seeing you at LimeWorks. Looks like you had a blast!

 

Awesome....

 

Megan, thanks for the road trip trilogy.....I for one enjoyed doing trip with you and Matt

 

This is absolutely my favorite post in my HAMB lifetime...I am sad to see that your journey has come to an end! I really enjoyed following this, thanks for documenting it so well...the pictures were great. Awesome times...and with a flathead!!! So cool...

 

awesome thread Megan
thanks a lot
Hope some day to get out that way