The Cal-look Lounge

Ah, the lure of the open road!  Back in the '70's and '80's, the wife and I spent our vacations touring California and Oregon in our '69 bug.  That car took us to some remote and interesting places.  This first pic was taken at Red Rock Canyon (Hwy 14 out near Ridgecrest), a place my folks had taken us kids camping years before.  Talk about a STRANGE place!  Let's see some shots of your VW vacations from the past...

i'm too young to have had vacation in vw  ::) ::)
 ;)

You and Sharon should plan a vacation to drive to the Florida Bug Jam in November one year. (Sharon and Mafe can go antiquing while we hit the shows.  ;)  )  Just ship the '67 home and fly back.

--louis

To young, eh...OK, let's see some ID or I'm afraid you'll have to leave this thread, son. ::)

Meanwhile, back on the road...  This next pic was taken near Jacksonville, Oregon (sorry, Louis...West Coast Jacksonville ::) ).  I bet Bates has some stories he might share  :o

Any body for icy roads?? 


On the dirt road to Bodie..., elevation 8,000ft.

Jacksonville is cool, a little to close to Berkeley, Cal's twin city Ashland, Oregon. I hate that place and all the tree hugging second generation hippies, bull dike lesbos and all their damn Subaru's (no offense Jim). The place reminds me of Berkeley every time I go there except everybody is white.

Awesome pics Sarge. ;D

Here's a shot of my 67 coming out of the beer store. It's the most vacation I've had in 7 years. :'(

Awesome pics Sarge!  The '69 looks like it was real cool I dig the turtle backs and the icicles hanging from the front apron. I also noticed the blacked out headlight rings and trim and the mirror.  Great thread lets see more...

Hmmmm....I remember visiting a beer store once, too ::) ;D  Thanks for the kind words, guys.

This next shot was taken heading south on Hwy 1 just north of San Francisco.  This is where the soft lead plug fell out of the bottom of the float chamber on one of the 44 IDF's draining raw gasoline all over a hot engine....YIIIKES!!

THe second shot was taken near Crater Lake, Oregon...thankfully, I kept a heater in that car!

The Samba (if you can get a reply) - Fly - Buy - Drive.

 :)

Ever drive your bug on a log? :o ::) ;D

Just did the go south trip past november - Bay Area to Cabo and back - cant get pictures on - too large format ? - having problems there - will try to get some on soon - 2500 miles in a vw - very cool trip

Try this site for picture editing:   http://www.picnik.com   It's free and pretty painless  ;)

Here's a shot taken at the Onyx store out on Hwy 138 near Lake Isabella and another on the way into Sequoia National Park.

cool report bro , love the scenery ,and the car was so cool   :o and a lovely girl on the picture ;)


rgd
fabs

I think that it might work - picts from vacation - just needed to read some more  ;D now i know how to do this

  lots of little places along the highway  - 10 ft from the beach

Not my photos nor 70's or 80's, but Erwin from Undutchables club does pretty long trips in Europe with his '58 and is a very good photographer. Some really nice shots in his site..

http://www.volksfahrer.nl/HTMLgallerys/2007slovenia.html (http://www.volksfahrer.nl/HTMLgallerys/2007slovenia.html)

http://www.volksfahrer.nl/HTMLgallerys/2006austria.html (http://www.volksfahrer.nl/HTMLgallerys/2006austria.html)

(http://www.volksfahrer.nl/copper18/albums/pictures/trips/2007_0806%20zomer%202007/zom07081.JPG)

In 1987 my wife Lee and I participated in the California Caravan to Sacramento.  It was our vacation and on our way home we drove through Yosemite.  These pictures are from that trip.  You will notice the snow.  We ran into a storm going through Tioga pass on the way out of the park.  I had no heat in the car at that time.  You may also notice the Ford Escort side mirrors that I had on the car at that time.  They sure worked well, but are gone now.  I even had '39 Ford taillights on it at the time.  I went full circle to where I am today at near stock body work.

Here's one from one our trips to Bandimere, a 2300 mile round trip...at least the way we went, taking the scenic route and all.  This is one from 2004. No, we didn't actually drive the Blue Car there as it's a little outside of its range.
Here's a link to the whole story of our 2004 and 2006 trips.

http://home.comcast.net/~mlawless29/denver.htm
(http://home.comcast.net/~mlawless29/denver2.jpg)

Thanks, bro! ;)


VERY NICE, Tero...thanks for the contribution! 8) 8) 8)



Those trips to Yosemite were always the best...nowdays, it's tough to drive anywhere in the park because of all the traffic :(.



Nice report and pictures, Mike!


RaceHead, your photo reminded me of the time a load of us went to Mexico in the early '70's to ride motorcycles and, more importantly, test out a "team built" sand buggy.  I was working for a VW repair shop in La Habra at the time and the owner (John Havens) had an engineless buggy out behind the shop.  We teamed with Fleming, Aronson and Thurber (FAT Performance)...they built a 1700cc engine with a zenith and we went down south to Estero Beach (near Ensenada) for the weekend.  Lucky we took our motorcycles as the front end quickly separated itself from the rest of the buggy.  I remember changing the oil out in  the street as it had rained on the way down and the engine filled with water.  The Rancho Grande had $4.00 a night rooms and it was OK to bring your motorcycle in at night :o :o!  After a hard day of riding on the beach, we were all pretty tired but still went to the cantina in the motel parking lot for a few drinks that night. The guy behind the bar took REAL GOOD care of us and before long we were all dancing to Mexican Ranchero music on the tiny dance floor ;D.  Left-right:  Ron Fleming and his girlfriend Chris, Mark Thurber and his first wife Cindy, my wife Sharon, Greg & Jessica Aronson and John & Grace Havens.

Too many cool picts - and stories - that little place along the coast were at every cove - We drove from Alpine to San Felipe the first day - Hit Marias taco stand and the Miramar Bar for Margas - Nothing like freash shrimp tacos and a good Marga. Here aare a few more from our trip - leaving Alipne - a stop at COCO's Corner - Early morning in Bay of LA - Our resort in Los Barillos

And some more -  Here at our rooms - and the catch of the day - from our fishing trip - 52lbs of tuna and dorado - and a 180lb Striped Marlin - still waiting for that picture - these picts are from the East Cape of Baja between La Paz and Cabo

Great picture.  :)

Seems like someone on here might have a view; Las Vegas - Yosemite (Via Death Valley), 1 Day Drive? It looks to be about 9 hours which is easy (ish) driving but does it actually work out that way? Thinking about making the drive early - mid October but are we better off stopping in Lone Pine / Bishop / Mammoth Lakes on the way?

No VWs but we were on the road because of VWs, a couple of shots from last years trip.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v232/SanchoPancho/2904076526d7afa295a0dc7ced0dccd75c5.jpg)

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v232/SanchoPancho/26402536957e1245a9a7f93c1c089b9bb36.jpg)

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v232/SanchoPancho/955159723e667d28923704aeebd642bef50.jpg)

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v232/SanchoPancho/7191635475bba3fa84c61bf9dcd2b739c51.jpg)

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v232/SanchoPancho/7287498648b3b648185b8da5306e9e4a384.jpg)

Nice picts Mat, not sure on the best travel route from Death Valley, maybe SR 395. Hey Ratto you know this route dont you ?

Nice shots, Mat!  That trip your planning sounds like fun.  Vegas / Yosemite would be a stretch IMO...you wouldn't have much time to check out any points of interest along the way.  Might still be hell-like in Death Valley in early October, too.

Here's a shot taken at Mineral King which is at the end of a long, twisty, potholed, piece of shit road in the Sequoia National Forest.  What possessed us to drive all the way out there, I'll never know...and of course having to turn around at the end of the road and drive all the way back out...UGLY!  The elevation was around 8,000 feet and plenty cold...Marmots love warm engines and also to dine on tasty spark plug wires :o >:(

That sign is the best! Did you catch any having dinner in your car?

no vacation but some campaign roadtrip  ;D ;D

SWEEEET shots, Fabs! 8) 8)

thx bro
The material is always ready in the car, the seat of camping, stand for camera and the camera EOS400d

Fabs - some outstanding photos - way cool of the old castles an such - would love to cruise around your neck of the woods and see it for myself. And Sarge allways nice shots  8)

thx racehead  ;)

Thanks Sarge. We want to make progress but we don't want to pile on through the sites either, I guess we'll have to see how it goes in Vegas. We could end up having to sleep in the pick-up anyway.
 :o

I think we're travelling just about the time everything changes. If Death Valley's that hot it'll limit the time spent out of the car for sure. In Havasu last year it was tough, 135 day time, 114 at 3am, didn't do a lot of walking... If we were going the other way it probably wouldn't be such an issue but if we're going to have an 'interesting' drive accross the Tioga Pass I don't relly want to be doing it at the back end of a long haul. Having a lot of fun planning this trip, it beats working!

If Sal sees that Marmot shot we'll be heading up to Mineral King for sure, three days then?
 ::)  ;D

So, Marmot hunting, eh? ::) ;D  Tell Sal not to forget the bow & arrows and loin cloth :o ;)  Gotta love Death Valley...the general store is at Furnace Creek.  Sharon and I spent a week at Cottonwood cove one year...we didn't even have a boat.  Just being away from it all was the best 8) 8) 8)

Furnace Creek? That speaks volumes! What a view, though! That lake is gorgeous.

We fixed our Yosemite stay yesterday so we have a day in the Death Valley area, the Marmot hunting sounds good and Furnace Creek is on our route but looking at the map I'd be worried if we passed Cottonwood Cove!

 ;D

Those places even look hot in the photos.  8)

You didn't pass it already...your not there yet!  When we did our trip, we left Lone Pine on hwy 136 to hwy 190 which goes through Death Valley.  We stopped at Stove Pipe Wells, Furnace Creek, and Zabriske Point (the most lunar looking landscape on the planet) before leaving the park and heading towards Vegas on hwy 160.  We toured Hoover Dam...that shot in the tunnel is inside the bottom of the dam (a very claustraphobic trip :P) before heading south to Searchlite on hwy 95, then east to Lake Mojave and Cottonwood Cove.

That would explain it, we're heading North rather than South. :D

We have some time in Vegas but I think most of that time is accounted for. We were looking at doing the Hoover Dam but some of it's going to have to be for another time. I stuck Zabriske Point on the list though.

 :)