Category: Cars

I realize I have yet to finish writing the story of our Father-Son Road Trip, but I have a major announcement to make. After a week of hot, difficult work; truly an epic mechanical struggle, I’m happy to share this quick video of the first test-firing of my replacement starter. Now you can all join me in a brief Happy Dance! 😀

Now that this major milestone has been passed, this hurdle has been cleared, I promise I’ll wrap up the story of our road trip as soon as possible.

Happy Dance! Happy Dance! Happy Happy Happy Dance!

Nick & I wander out of the Blackhawk collection a couple of hours later than we expected. We had hoped to make it almost to Oregon, but given that it was already afternoon this was unlikely to happen. I’d been offered a place to sleep by a friend in far northern California, but unless we took to the Interstates, there was just no way we could make it that far before very late tonight. Given the geography and scenic potential of the coast roads, we just cant fathom going inland. We decide to just drive, and see where we end up. Lunch is on our minds. We hop in the car and I lay out the route possibilities to Nick on the map… he wants to see San Francisco and drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, so that’s where we go.

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Continue reading “2009 Father-Son Road Trip Day 9, Part 2: The Northern California Coast.”

Of my two boys Nicholas has always been my “car guy”. Chris enjoys doing car events with me (he’s an excellent rally navigator for example) but he has never shown the interest in cars that Nick has. When I dreamed up this trip I made sure that one of the things Nick & I would do is visit some car museums/collections along the way. Originally we had planned on hitting the Blackhawk, the Petersen, and the Nethercutt. This assumed that Nick was riding with me southbound. With less than two weeks to go before the trip the schedule changed due to a request of our host in LA, Larry Wade. Our well-laid plans had to be altered at the last second, so the LA Museums were out. I was able to attend the Art Center’s annual car show, which made up a bit but that day was also the transit day for the boys so both missed it. I was determined therefore to take Nick to the remaining option, the Blackhawk Collection in Danville, CA.

Continue reading “2009 Father-Son Road Trip Day 9, Part 1: The Blackhawk Collection”

Nick suffered a bit from sleeping at altitude, but I slept like a baby. Unlike the others though, I awoke early, before sunrise, and went for a walk. Partly to seek a restroom, but also to explore the campground in something close to “daylight”. We were in camp site #9, and in daylight it seems this place has nearly 100 campsites, arrayed in two concentric circles. The restrooms were all clustered in the center, with no obvious way of getting to them from the outer ring where #9 lies. I gave up and wandered through the sites of slumbering campers to get there. Bad design. In my walk I also found plenty of open sites, several with nice sloping areas for roll-starting a starter-less vintage Jaguar. Oh well, too late to relocate now!

Continue reading “2009 Father-Son Road Trip, Day 8: The Sierras”

We’re in Rio Dell, California and Nick is sound asleep after three very eventful and amazing days on the road. I’ll have to get him up soon, but really want him to catch up on sleep before we start moving again.

Continue reading “2009 Father-Son Road trip: Quick Update.”

Out of the frying pan and into the E-type.

Nicholas has joined me now for the northbound leg and I handed him my little Nikon Coolpix compact camera to document the trip from his perspective. Most of the photos you’ll see from now on will be taken by Nick.

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(I’m fairly certain the above map approximates our route)

Also joining us for the first two days or so of the northbound journey are our host Larry Wade, and a family friend from Norway, named Øyvind Aamodt. Larry owns an early Series 1 E-type.

Continue reading “2009 Father-Son Road Trip: Day 7”