Some days are like this....

Had one of those days that I just had to share.

The LA Roadster Show was at the Pomona Fairplex this weekend. I've been going for 20 years though not every year. It's especially fun if you have a 1936 or earlier open car. You get in for free, special parking and a bunch of freebies.

Well Sue had some "honey-dos" for me this morning so I had to get those out of the way first. Then gave the '26 a quick wipe down and told her we were ready to go. Now I love my wife and she's usually a pretty good sport about tagging along for car events but she can sometimes drag her feet when it comes to getting her out of the door. Took me almost 45 minutes. By this time, it was after noon.... off to a late start.

Now I haven't driven the '26 more than 10 or so miles in maybe a year and a half. It had some issues with the charging system that took me a while to get fixed and it still has some electrical issues. Pomona is a good 40 miles from my house.

Fire up the car. Since it sat so long, I had to use a jump box to start it. First stop was the gas station. Since I didn't want to jump the car again, I left the car running while I filled it. Now sometimes, the electric fan quits working due to afore mentioned electrical problems. Well sure enough, the fan quits working at the gas station and I didn't notice. By the time I get it filled, it's spitting out of the overflow pretty heavy. Now I know that this car cools fairly good at freeway speeds. So I hop onto the 5 and head north figuring it would cool down. Within a few miles the temp is below 210 so I figure were out of the woods.

Just after we hit the 57 fwy, I notice the temp is climbing again... ok I must have lost too much water. So we get off the freeway and pull into an office building parking lot and under a tree. After letting it cool for about 20 minutes, I feel it's ok to pull the radiator cap. Now we only have one bottle of drinking water in the car so I pour that into the radiator. Still don't see the level. Luckily the sprinklers are on so I manage to fill the bottle about 3/4 fulll and pour that into the radiator... now I do it a second time and I can see the level. Flip on the ignition and the temp gauge is reading 180.

So now the decision is to we continue or do we turn around and go home. Feeling brave, we decide to continue up the freeway figuring that if it starts climbing we can always loop back on the 91 and 55. Seems ok so we continue up the 57 Until...

We hit the 10. We're in bumper to bumper and the gauge is climbing again. Get off at Fairplex and I'm able to manage the temp by keeping the car moving and coasting whenever possible. Now in past years we've got in through the gate by the NHRA museum. I think it's #1. Stop there and they have another event there and the attendant tells me I need to go to Gate 15. Fine, so I flip a U turn and head to gate 15 which is on the backside of the complex from where we're at. Still working at managing the temp through movement and coasting. Get to gate 15 and this is the entrance for Swap Meet and other Specialty vehicles. The tell me I need to go to gate 17 which is on the complete other side of the complex and very near to where I made my first stop. Fine, flip around again and manage my temp back to gate 17.

Finally we made it to gate 17 get checked in and get the '26 parked. Spend the next 3 hours there and have a pretty good time.

Time to head home. As we're heading towards the freeway, Sue asks me "Do you want to go home or would you like to drive down Pacific Coast Highway?" Well who can turn down a ride down PCH with a beautiful blond? Not me! I tell here that we'll watch the temp and if it stays ok, we'll go down PCH.

Hit the freeway and the car seems to be running pretty good and the temp is staying pretty low. As we hit the 57 south from the 60, We come up on a beautiful '47 Cadillac Convertible. We exchange thumbs up and he follows me for the next few miles. All of a sudden, I hear squealing tires behind me. I look in the rearview to see the Caddy sliding sideways on the freeway then it goes off the side of the road. I pull over as fast as I can but at freeway speeds and trying to get over to the shoulder, it took a good 1/2 mile before I could get over and stopped.

Sue hops out of the car and runs back to the crash site to see if anyone needs medical attention (she's a Nurse) while I'm frantically calling 911 (Emergency Services) from her cell phone. She started to call 911 from her phone before we stopped so she just passed it to me. After several minutes, I finally get though to 911 and report the accident. I hop out of the car and start walking back to the crash site. I arrive at the crash site and the Caddy is sitting in the dirt with some damage and missing the left rear wheel. The seatbelt is hanging out of the door and my wife and the driver are no where in sight. Seeing the belt caught in the door my first though was that the driver was ejected and further up the road and Sue was looking for him.

I continue walking up the freeway for another 1/2 mile or so and see 2 figures walking towards me. About this time, 2 fire engines, an ambulance and a CHP Bike show up. The 2 figures are my wife and the Caddy driver. Thankfully he's ok.. just shaken up. Apparently, the Caddy lost the left rear wheel and did a complete 360 before running off the road. The driver went up the freeway to find the wheel. We found out from the CHP that the wheel had jumped the center divider and had hit a motorcyclist, but apparently he was not seriously injured. Talk to the CHP for a few minutes and he says there's no need for us to stay so we walk back to my hot rod. Caddy has some damage but nothing that can't be fixed without too much trouble.

We get back to the car and notice my cellphone is missing from my holster. Now this holster is a piece of junk and I've lost the phone out of it before. I know that I had the phone when I left the car... so this could be anywhere in the last mile we just walked. CRAP! We walk back up about 150 yards and found it. Glad I didn't have to go all the way back. This holster is hitting the trash can tonight!

Back in the hot rod and heading south on the 57. I ask Sue is she still wants to go to PCH or if she wants to go home. She says "Lets go to PCH." So we continue down towards the beach. Now we're on the 73 Freeway and getting off at Jamboree. Sue had been wearing a baseball cap all day which is generally not a good idea in my hot rod but she had her ponytail wrapped through it and it seemed pretty stable. We had been up to 70mph without a problem... well now it decides to fly off. I pull over as soon as I can and Sue walks down the off ramp to retrieve the hat. I left the car idling figuring that when the temp starts climbing, i'll shut it off. It's holding steady at 180. I stand up to look over the motor and sure enough, the fan is now working.

We head down Jamboree to PCH and make a left. Now when Sue had originally mentioned PCH, I had cooked up a scheme. You see, there's a place called "The Shake Shack." It's in between Newport Beach and Laguna Beach and it's one of those places that's been there forever. Used to be out in the middle of nowhere with a great view of the Pacific ocean. Now the steady development of the coast line has caught up to it and it's not as remote as it used to be but it still has a great view of the ocean and even though it's been bought by a chain of restaurants, they still makes a good milkshake. Sue and I stopped there on one of our first dates and we hadn't been back there since. Scored major points in the romance dept. when I pulled in there. We order a couple of shakes and sat on a bench overlooking the ocean to enjoy them.

We hop back in the hot rod and continue south towards Laguna Beach. We turn up Laguna Canyon Road to head back towards our house. As we're heading up Laguna Canyon, we hit bumper to bumper traffic. A quick look at the gauges and my temp is climbing... damn fan must have shut off again. Now Laguna Canyon is the only way to from Laguna Beach inland. Our only other options are to head south to Monarch Beach and take Crown Valley Parkway or north to Newport Coast Rd just before Newport Beach. Both are miles out of our way. We elect to head north. Nursing the car along back through Laguna Beach, we turn back up PCH. After a few open stretches, the temp gets back to a reasonable level and we're able to follow Newport Coast and hit the 405 Fwy back home.

You'd think that would be enough... Nope!

We get off the 405 at Bake Parkway... a scant 2 miles from our house. We cross Rockfield Blvd. at about 50 mph. There's a dip there but nothing serious. We hit the dip and the right front wheel cover goes sailing off the side of the road, bounces over the curb and into the bushes... once again, we pull over to the side of the road and look for the wheel cover. After a few minutes we find it. I put it on the car and slowly proceed home.

We hit the driveway at 6:45pm... Hot, Thirsty, Sunburned and Exhausted! A lot of action packed into that 6 1/2 hours.