2009 Father-Son Road Trip Day 9, Part 1: The Blackhawk Collection

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.

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2009 Father-Son Road Trip, Day 8: The Sierras

Note what the lady is choosing to photograph!

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!

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2009 Father-Son Road Trip: Day 7

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.

Nicholas has now joined me for the northbound journey.


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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.

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2009 Father-Son Road Trip Day 5: Arrival in LA

Morning came after a great night’s sleep. Christopher & I packed the car and ate a quick bite of our leftover “camp food” and then fed the Jaguar its second favorite breakfast:

Feeding the Cat.


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Today’s route, complete with navigational errors!

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2009 Father-Son Road Trip: Day 6, Art Center Car Show

Today was the “Kid Travel Day” of the trip. Christopher’s leg of the event is over and he flies back to Seattle. Nicholas’ leg begins today as he is flying to LA to join me for the drive home. To keep things simple for Sue I arranged the flights so that she only has to make one trip to the Seattle-Tacoma airport. Chris’ flight left Burbank this morning and I’ll pick up Nick in a few hours. Between those two events Larry Wade & I went to the Art Center School of Design’s annual Car Show.
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2009 Father-Son Road Trip: Day 4 (Central California Coast)

After sleeping better than your average hibernating grizzly bear, we awoke to an amazing home cooked southern breakfast at Chez Mouton. Eggs, bacon, and home-made biscuits by Jerry & Kate. It was mmm, mmmm good! Tres Bon!

Jerry then hopped in his 1964 E-type coupe and took us for a wild ride through the mountains to Ray Livingston’s house above Santa Cruz. I know Jerry and Ray via participation on Jag-Lovers.org, via their E-type forum/mailing-list. It is a great group of enthusiasts who really help and support each other. My E-type would have literally killed me long ago if it were not for guys found there online. They provide not only support but years and years of collective, practical experience of maintaining E-types.

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