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2 years ago
Headed home
I rolled out of the SLO Vagabond Motel at 6:30, October 4, 2009. It would have been earlier, ideally, but I was late to bed last night after the awards banquet.
The organisers and volunteers have been really terrific. It is amazing what smart people with a passion can organise. They were all warmly thanked at the dinner.
The great and the good were recognised and awarded - all amazing custodians for these cars we all love so much.
On leaving the motel this morning, Susan, the disembodied voice in my GPS, suggested I turn south on US1. This is interesting because it is not the way she brought me here. I didn’t want an argument so I went along with her; when I go wrong, she first gets insistent with ‘Turn around when possible’ on to a more aggressive ‘Turn around now’ and ‘Execute a U-turn as soon as it is safe to do so”.
Am I glad she did. It was a much better route, along the coast north of LA and then on to meet I40 after Pasadena and San Bernadino.
Here are shots from an early gas stop. I wanted to show you the new LED lamps for my tail/brake lights. I bought them at the VTR from a Stag owner, Jim Thompson, who has designed and is making these as a side line. They are WAY brighter than standard bulbs. You couldn’t see if my tail lights were on in daylight, with incandescent bulbs, the glimmer was so dim. Well you can now. Below shows just the tail lights. The brake lights are much brighter again. The lamps were $25 each - money well spent. Jim and his business-partner Chris have the website http://www.litezupp.com/Litezupp.Com/Welcome.html where you can learn more about these terrific lamps.
They are even visible at an acute angle, a feature not associated with regular LED lamps.
The drive east starts with practice climbs to 2,000’, then in successive steps you rise to 4,000’ and then 5,500’ The scenery changes at each step. From the ocean…
…to the Rockies and beyond.
One hundred and fifty years ago, a man coming through this pass would have seen enormous herds of bison, roaming the plain.
On reaching Arizona and now at 7,000’, the trees return.
At the Arizona Great Divide, I saw it was 7,500’. A brief decline took me into Flagstaff and to a motel. 770 miles covered in about 13 hours.
Following
