Just the other side of 'Lake Panamint', Panamint Valley Road heads south, in the general direction of LA. The road was of a fairly poor standard. Not far along, we saw a truck with a flat tyre parked at the side of the road with a young guy standing beside it, waving us down. We stopped and he said he had already changed tyres earlier so he didn't have a spare. He and his girlfriend wanted a ride into the nearest town (where they were heading) so they could get a friend to bring them back with another spare. My initial thought was to say no, but it was still well above 100 degs F, we were on a side road where there might not be much traffic along and they could be in real trouble if just left there. Of course, they could also be real trouble to us. Right or wrong, we did the 'right thing' and gave them a lift. Yeah, I know it was stupid, really, but it turned out alright. They were a young couple - he was from New York (state) and she was his girlfriend from Atlanta, GA and they were working at a resort in Death Valley for a year. We chatted all the way to Trona, about 40 miles away, and they were well educated and turned out not to be serial killers or robbers. I know it was stupid for us to take the two of them into our car, but ....................................... Anyway, we got a lucky. We dropped them where they wanted in Trona and continued on past one of the Borax refineries, which use steam from a single steam generation plant in town. The pipes feeding the refinery ran for a couple of miles, with regular expansion loops I've done pipe system design before but never used vertical loops. This method would certainly result in dry steam (the object of any steam system) but that's not that hard to achieve anyway (it's not rocket surgery).
Thanks Ben. It really was a privilege for us to be able to see so much of the US. Sure, we had to find the time and the cash to be able to do it, but I have been so fortunate to have learned about so many of the places we visited right here on the HAMB, as well as from all the helpful suggestions of so many in this thread. I feel that I kinda set the bar a bit high on my 'do***entation', but we took thousands of photos along the way, and I tried to pick the eyes out of them to post on here and feel I have written the obligatory thousand words about each. I've also done it partly for myself, because as long as this thread exists here in cyberspace, I can look back through it myself top relive the trip. (The only problem with that is that I wish I could 'correct' some of my words - some of them have been 'raw', influenced by fresh memories which are influenced by which side of the bed you get out of). Anyway, I've sorted out the last week's pics and can now post them. Stayed tuned as the journey gets to the end. Thanks for coming along for the ride with us. Cheers, Graeme.
Not far past Trona, the road brings us to US-395 which we would follow south into LA. By the time we hit the 395, the sun was just setting, we drove through a 'forest' of Joshua Trees, and came to the busiest intersection in the middle of nowhere. At a place called Kramer Junction, after driving for 100 miles, just past an enormous solar power station in the middle of the desert, you come to a set of traffic lights, and out-of-nowhere materialises a couple of hundred big rigs. US-395 hadn't seemed that busy, even though I'd p***ed a few trucks along the way The intersection of US-395 and CA-58 is like one of the busiest anywhere in the world. The light sequence seemed to last for ages, with truck after truck p***ing through. When we finally got our chance, the traffic seemed to vanish and the last rays of daylight lit up the few clouds for the last time that day. Heading south, we approached Adelanto, just before is a turn-off to the west to El Mirage, just a couple of miles away. Adelanto is a relatively new town that has grown in recent years from just a small village to a sizeable city with an airport stacked with what seemed like fifty or more large commercial aircraft. The Southern California Logistics Airport is an old Air Force Base with two runways - one of which is nearly 3 miles long - that can handle the largest aircraft known. It's been converted to provide aircraft servicing as well as storage for commercial purposes. By this time, it was dark and then we still had to get to Huntington Beach along the I-15, CA-91 and other freeways. After driving along mostly 2-lane blacktop for the past few thousands of miles, the volume and speed of the traffic in LA took a little bit of adjustment, but we pretty much held our own. We finally got to our motel on Beach Blvd around 9.30pm, having driven over 420 miles, plus visiting some sights in Death Valley. A busy day. Luckily for us, it wasn't far to an In-N-Out burger joint, so we sampled some of their fare and crashed for the night.
We stopped at Kramer Junction a about 6 years ago and about 100 yards or so from the intersection is an old building with antiques painted on the roof. The woman who owned the store took us to a big locked shed and let us in to see a collection of muscle cars and vintage stuff not for sale. All covered with a layer of dust. I don't think it had been opened up for a long time.
Day 50 - Huntington Beach to San Diego The reason for being in Huntington Beach was to attend the Saturday morning Donut Derelicts meeting at Adams and Magnolia. I didn't know what to expect, but I got there around 5.30am - Mrs DB wasn't interested in coming along, preferring to get some more Zzzzz's. I gotta tell you though, the Cinnamon Scrolls were spectacular - warm and gooey. Yum. Worth a trip on their own. It was dark outside with barely a hint of sunrise to the east but there were probably 30 odd cars there when I got there and more cars rolled in all the time. Well, enough of the foreplay, here's some cars. This A highboy has had lots of skill, care, effort and money spent on it. Everything about it screamed $$$$$$$$$ Special car
Very well built and finished pale green 32 Highboy. Simple but just right. Wow, this Deuce Highboy just oozed cl***. Nothing fancy but it had 'the look'. I kept coming back to look at this one and take more photos a number of times.
A clean and simple 59 Chevy El Camino. Stock looking but sitting just right. Dunno what it was when it started (early 60’s Chevy pickup?) but it had had a few mods done to it. Was it tasteful? Nup. Was it likely to be fast? Nup. Did it draw a crowd? You bet! It had been hit hard by the styling-stick - it ***aulted the senses, but it looked like a shipload of fun whether it was your cup of tea or not.
I recall seeing the 'antique store'at Kramer Junction and noted one or two old cars, but it sounds like you had a lucky opportunity. Good on ya. Cheers aussie oldie
Nice cool 39 Coupe and this really neat 54(?) SBC powered Bel-Air This Deuce Highboy was very very clean and looked like a fresh build.
This 32 Highboy had an old patinaed primer finish. Still looked like a well-sorted car that had a ton of miles on it. Clearly enjoyed and well used. As the sun was coming up over the horizon, the carpark was filling rapidly. This clean 32 3-Window was parked in an un***uming position but stood out all the same.
From stockers to traditional hot rods to wilder street rods and customs. All just parked anywhere they can. Because it's held in the carpark of a neighbourhood shopping centre, it needs to be done early in the morning so it can finish in time for all the normal shoppers to have unimpeded access (and also to avoid them just opening doors onto our old cars, crashing into them, etc) Now this looked traditional - kinda run down........-ish, but in a good way And then there was this beater style Deuce Tudor
Clean looking 40 Coupe with a few accessory features. 1950 (?) Mercury Tudor with lakes pipes and other accessories and another 50 (?) Mercury Custom – looks pretty good. IMO it would look better with chrome bumpers, but maybe the owner is saving up for those. Of course, other people's opinions might be that I am wrong
Stock roof height 32 5-Window Coupe. Rego plate is BRNFIND and had a Swedish flag hanging out the trunk/boot. Looked like the real deal. Wicked sounding 37 Chevy Coupe style G***er. Crisp Another look at that *****in’ traditional Deuce highboy roadster – yum! After Donut Derelicts, I headed back to the motel and we packed up and headed off down to San Diego. We followed Highway 1 for quite a way, then jumped onto the I-5 which turned into a $^&(ing carpark. It took us nearly 4 hours to get from Huntington Beach to San Diego. It was the worst traffic (heaviest) we had encountered on our trip to that point. Along the way, at one point, we went past a temperature readout outside which indicated 112 degs F, or 44 degs C. The rental car's outside air temp indicator suggested it was a couple of degrees cooler, but still hot! Damn hot! We didn't take any more photos that day. When we got to San Diego, we headed to the motel and cooled down in the room for a couple of hours before heading out for dinner. Big day the day before and an early start meant after dinner, I was happy to head back to the room and leave exploring San Diego for the next day.
Wow! I'm glad you made it to that gathering, What a bunch of great cars. I'm putting that on the list the next time I'm down there. When we were teaching my wife and I spent Easter break in Death Valley several times. We stayed in the bungalows at Furnace Creek Ranch. It's much nicer in April. Sometimes we would leave here in the snow and get there with wildflowers blooming and the temp in the 80s. Yesterday we were cleaning up downstairs and I ran across our Death Valley book stash. One is "The Victims of Death Valley". It has some pretty gruesome stories mostly about people who made bad choices in that environment. You did the right thing with the young couple who had possibly made one of those decisions. It's not a place to mess with. Tough decision for you though. That is exactly where the Manson Family was hanging out. You drove right by the ranch where they lived. Glad your couple weren't rein-actors.
I'm happy you had a good time at Donut Derelicts. Everything you saw was a typical Saturday morning, 52 weeks a year. There are no rules or regulations; just bring your car and park anywhere you want and stay as long as you want, just be gone when the small shops open up. The Crown Hardware store opens early just to serve the needs of the car owners.
We never miss Donuts when we visit USA, plane lands friday and Donuts on Saturday is a must do, I recognise most of those cars as they are regular Donut visitors. Tea and coffee and two glazed donuts for under $5 is a bargain compared to Aussieland. Noel
Thanks Six Ball, Donut Derelicts is just an easy going gathering of people centered on a donut shop (kinda obvious when you spell it out). The donut shop does very well, with people lining up to buy their coffee and donuts or cakes. The rodders do very well, because the coffee and donuts or cakes are well worth the trip on their own. The fact that some killer cars turn out for an early weekend treat is the icing on the donut! (I can't believe I just wrote that last bit - geez, I'm absolutely full of **it! Ah well, I amuse myself). Mrs DB and I had been to Death Valley when we first visited the US back in 1987 and the conditions then were much the same, except no rain for months. It's pretty easy to imagine any folks back in the day, p***ing through there on foot, making wrong decisions. It's a pretty unforgiving place and humans are poorly equipped for such hot dry environments. At the time I was pretty sure that the decision to pick up the young couple was the right one - it didn't mean I wasn't keeping one eye on them in the mirror and engaging them in conversation. Obviously, I'm very glad everything turned out alright, and I don't have a worry about them on my conscience, but at the time I seriously considered saying No. I'm glad it all turned out good in the end. Cheers.
Thanks tom124 - it was your suggestion and help on where to go that got me to Donut Derelicts. It as much appreciated.
This trip was the first time I'd heard of DD. Any future trips to the US will be timed to ensure we can make time to drop in again. As for value, you are 100% right - I got a huge coffee and a Cinnamon Scroll for under $4, I think. Here in Perth, that would probably be more like $10 for the same, plus the Cinnamon Scroll. was AWESOME!
Day 51 - San Diego It was still pretty hot the next day, so the plan was to visit some of the San Diego Museums. They have a Car Museum and an Air and Space Museum, both in Balboa Park, where the San Diego Zoo as well as other museums are situated. We chose to go into the Air & Space Museum first. More because it is in the Art Deco Ford Building with a Convair Sea Dart on the left and an SR-71 on the right - that kinda made it stand out (compared to the Auto Museum which is more 'hidden' in another building to the right.
Just inside the front door is located the Command Module from Apollo IX - that was the mission that was only in Earth orbit to test release and docking with the Lunar Module which had not been sent to space before (as none were finished and available until Apollo IX) You can see the scorch marks still on the upper section of the body from re-entry. This is the sixth Apollo Command Module I have seen (just checked where they all are to make sure) - I guess I'm kinda a nut for space stuff - it was the biggest thing going when I was young, and was so................ so................ Space Age! Sitting above the Apollo Command Module is a full-size mock-up of the Bell X-1, the first aircraft to exceed the Speed of Sound (in level flight) with Chuck Yeager at the controls.
Nearby, and still in the entry foyer, is a replica of the Spirit of St Louis - a Ryan made plane, built in San Diego. as well as a genuine Moon rock. There was also an Apollo Oxygen Cryo-Tank. The same thing that failed catastrophically on Apollo XIII, crippling the spacecraft and very nearly killing the three crew on board. All very interesting.
Inside, you work your way through the exhibitions starting from the earliest time, including some information on the Wright Brothers fundamental effort developing wing shapes in a wind tunnel of their own original creation. Having previously visited (on an earlier trip) Kitty Hawk on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, then being 'inspired' to visit their home town of Dayton, OH, where the USAF National Museum is located at Wright Patterson AFB, we were privileged to see an enormous array (around 360) of aircraft, missiles and space related exhibits in the huge National Museum meaning that San Diego is very restricted in the number and size of planes they can accommodate in the Ford Building. The museum curators have worked hard to include some memorable planes as well as trying to showcase planes that have a local connection - there was a thriving aircraft manufacturing base in San Diego in the early years of aviation (e.g. Ryan Aeronautical). A**** the memorable planes are the replica WW1 Fokker Dr-1 of Red Baron fame, with Snoopy sitting on its lower right wing as well as numerous other WW1 Axis and Allies planes including these German examples and these US, French and British planes
Progressing through to the mid-war period, mail planes are joined by this replica of the Lockheed Vega 5B as flown by Amelia Airheart. and this stumpy little Gee Bee R-1. This plane is as close to a hot rod as a plane can be - all motor and a stripped down body, with everything not involved with speed being reduced or omitted.
In the centre of the building is a large area used for conferences with fixed seating and a stage area under the old corrugated skin Ford Tri-motor On the other side of the space is an ex-Navy Phantom sitting above 32 and 34 Fords – I didn’t establish their relevance to the museum, but enjoyed the fact they were there The cars are older restorations – not perfect due to their use and age, but hell, I’d have either (or both) of them in a heart beat
Dadbud, Since your on the subject of Air/Space and this is a car forum.. Most people don't realize how much of a hand Ford had in putting people on the moon and/or into space. Starting in 1956, Ford and it's subsidy Philco-Ford (etc) have had a hand in everything right from the design of The Johnson Space Center ((Houston's Mission Control Center) used for the two way (voice)) communications, control and tracking of space flights beginning with the Gemini and Apollo Moon Missions thru to Space Shuttle telemetry, guidance, communications and control systems. One of the First large scale projects that Ford (and it's Aerospace subsidies) helped to develop was the Space Object Tracking System that accurately tracked the worlds first few man made satellites starting with the 1957 Russian/Sputnik launches. Soon afterward, an early -less than successful- space flight resulted in catastrophic sub orbital space failure, in which thousands of pieces of exploded debris were ****tered and subsequently/successfully tracked. This was before the advent of computers. Although heavily upgraded (as time has required), The basis of the system is still in use today tracking everything, including every single Manned Space Launch, Every Communication/Spy satellite and/as well as the millions of dime sized debris brought about by the many less successful attempts at putting 'things' into space. Later developments would include the earliest of US based satellites which brought forth the age of today's cheap long distance phone calls and satellite bounced television signals. ============================================ As the Apollo missions wound down, (working into the 70's), Projects like Mariner and Voyager would take on telemetry/control, guidance and communications systems that would place Ford designed parts/systems onto other planets and even into deep space as is the case with Voyagers 1 and 2 (a**** others). Voyager 1 is currently said to be the farthest man made object outside of our solar system as it ascends into interstellar space. Right now, Voyager 1 is about 1,995,000,000,000 kilometers (1,246,875,000,000 miles) away from our sun and still transmitting data back to earth. It is estimated that Voyager 1 will p*** within 1.6 light years of it's 2nd 'Star' encounter in about 40,000 years. That 2nd star encounter will be with Gliese 445 in the constellation Camelopardalis. -The first Star encounter Voyager made was with our own sun as it was swung around back of, and used as a slingshot to increase Voyagers speed in 1978. NASA says that "The Voyagers twins are destined—perhaps eternally—to wander the Milky Way Galaxy." -"Eternally" Houston Mission Operations Control Room/Ford Aerospace. Voyager takes a last look at earth in 1990 (it's camera not being of a very high resolution) That tiny dot at right is the Earth from 4 billion miles away taken when Voyager was 25 years closer to home. ...Ford sold all of it's Aerospace interests in 1990 and in time Ford/Aerospace would be morphed unto Lockeed-Martin ===================================== Many here will be old enough to remember that in the original Star Trek Series, Captain James T Kirk gave the order to beam aboard an 'unknown' satellite/probe which referred to itself as Nomad ("I Am Nomad"). (Star Trek, 'The Changeling', 1967) In Error, Nomad mistakes James T. Kirk as "The Creator", referring to the fact that Nomad, lost in space for hundreds of years and badly damaged by a collision with another unknown probe, had partially originated from Earth/Human engineering designs, -Designs from "A brilliant Engineer" named Jackson Roykirk, or "The Creator" as Nomad states it. The premise of the show is that Spock researches the ships computer and finds that parts of the probe originated from Earth in the late 20th century as 'Voyager 6' -Nomad, hundreds of years prior. But the configuration is somewhat modified from it's original intended purpose... What it was doing out in that sector of space destroying Planets with billions of people on them was as yet an unknown story.... "The Changeling" was one of my favorite episodes. The actual/original Voyager body/probe (minus antenna and etc) And "Nomad' KIRK: What's the problem? SPOCK: An almost human stubbornness, Captain. I have been unable to convince Nomad to lower its screens for ****ysis. Without its co-operation, I can do nothing. KIRK: Nomad, you will allow Mister Spock to probe your memory banks and structure. NOMAD: Mister Spock is also one of your biological units, Creator? KIRK: Yes. NOMAD: This unit is different. It is well-ordered. KIRK: Follow your instructions, Nomad. NOMAD: My screens are down. SPOCK: Thank you. NOMAD: You may proceed. .
Back inside again is this tiny Pitt Special - barely as big as an A highboy (with stubby wings) Moving around to the WW2 and beyond area, the planes are jammed in and the place is poorly lit making photos hard to take and difficult to consider posting. There were some excellent exhibits, including genuine clothing of key leaders from 'both sides' in WW2. Mrs DB doesn't spend as long reading the detailed descriptions on all the exhibits as I do, so she found somewhere cool to sit and I lost track of time. Rather than rush and then visit the auto museum, I ended up spending all afternoon working my way slowly through the museum before being 'thrown out' with everyone else at the end of the day. From there, we headed down to Downtown After a quick look around there, we went down to the docks area. There was a concert on, carparks were full and roads were blocked off, so we kept driving around.
The Jalopy Journal
