Speaking of Oxnard...

I drove down their last weekend to hang with some friends and check out the Grapevine.

It was so clear and the mountains so green, which you could see better if my windshield wasn't so dirty! Course by now it's probably all brown and hazy, like normal.

This is heading south just at the base of the Grapevine.
This was northbound, just about to come down the Grapevine the next day.

ANOTHER thing I want

As my dad used to tell us when we were kids, "People in hell want ice water."

His way of saying you can want all day long, but you ain't gettin' it.

Of course, you know I want a Prius. But for road trips, I'd LOVE to have a Westfalia.

This was parked on a side road in Oxnard and there was a dude sleeping in it. What a life!

I peeked inside and it had a pretty tricked out kitchen. Guess he couldn't afford curtains.

My uncle Karl's fave car

And some info:

The company (don't know who at the moment) is planning a production run of about 100 vehicles. Sits on a Corvette C6 chassis, front styled like a 57 Chevy, side like a 58, rear like a 59. Hence the designation "789".

Uncle Karl and Aunt Bev had like 8 kids. That's a LOT of pairs of new shoes twice a year. And now they have innumerable grand kids. Seriously, I don't know how they keep track. So my guess is that Karl will have to continue admiring this set of wheels from afar!

It IS kinda wicked lookin'!

Har har!

Nuff said.

At the car wash

Wow, my truck is GREEN!

If you have to get your car washed, go to the 34th Street place.
And while you're waiting, you can have THE best burger and fries. EVER!

Seriously, this is the BEST burger and fries on the planet. But bring your cardiologist cause you'll need a jump start after this meal.

Funny slogan

It's some kind of repair company, like RotoRooter. I love the slogan: "Don't cuss call us."
But if I need something repaired and have to call someone...dude, I'm already cussing before I pick up the phone!

Stuff on people's back windows

Usually these naked "angel" "devil" girls are standing. These ones must be tuckered out from all their good/evil doing.

Yup...I can relate.

We've all seen these goofy decals showing the family and NAMING them, even the kids (oh and with bumper stickers touting the kids' schools) so it'll be easier for pedophiles to target them.

But this one caught my eye. My god! How many kids are in this family? And at first I thought the two in the left window were step kids or something. No, it's the daughter- and son-in-law.

I love these two cars

Mostly I love the colors. But I also used to have a VW bug, a 1969, which I drove for 10 years. It did NOT look like this lovingly treated bug!
And this one is just a great color!

Some cool cars around

I saw this coolio Chevy Impala (I think) while I was waiting for the light to change on my twice-weekly trip to the StopNRob across the street from my building where I purchase my "retirement tickets." (Lotto).

Cool car, huh?Look, here it is in ACTION, turning left! I was on my way to work and while waiting for a light at Oak, looked over and saw some cool old cars at Beach Park. I would have swung into the park for a closer shot, but I was late for work, AS USUAL!

Same day, just down the street from the office is this nifty, Ford Futura (I think). I wish I'd have gotten a better shot, but I nearly drifted into the damn thing as it was!

And the COOLEST of all. Larry and I went to Paso Robles for my evil birthday, 43, Friday April the 13th!!!

We saw this beauty, a 1949 Hudson. I know the year because as I was admiring it, the owner, who was sitting nearby scarfing (and I mean SHOVELING it in) fish and chips, told me the year.

I love the visor!

Larry always looks inside the cool old cars. I don't know what for. Maybe he's looking for one withe the keys in the ignition?

Speaking of Larry...

We took a nice walk on Saturday and then saw this cool car in the parking lot at River Walk park, or Park at River Walk, or whatever! Larry immediately said it was a '58.

I wondered how he could know the year at a glance. He said something about the tail lights. But when I went to get a closer look, he started hedging, "Well, it might be a '59..."

It was a '58. But not because the taillights said so. It was on the license plate holder on the front. Now that's handy.

Biker's haven

Larry was ridin' the Harley Saturday, April 7. A nice day for it. I caught up with him at Chuy's where I made him buy some chicken dinners so I wouldn't have to cook. Note his Harvick shirt and the Shell hat (Harvick drives a car sponsored by Shell).

Gopher on the go

I was driving home the other night and it was still light. I turned onto my street and saw this little guy bookin' down the middle of the road.

It's a gopher. He was moving fast and was pretty annoyed with me for getting in his way. I guess he musta been late for a party or something.

Start your engines!

I've been meaning to do this for a week.

Larry went to Martinsville, Virginia two weeks ago.
Where? you ask. Why? you ask.

Martinsville is home to the Martinsville race track, of course!

He and a bunch of Taft boys (and one displaced Bako-Yankee) had a fine old time watching the little cars go round and round.

And they all took pictures. Looooooootttttttsssssss of pictures.

This is just a small fraction of the photos!

Here's the track.You can't make it out real good, but this captures the moment that the race ended for Bakersfield's hometown hero, Kevin Harvick. His car messed up and caught fire. They're getting ready to haul it off the track in this photo.

Here's the winner, Jimmie Johnson, doing his burnout at the finish line.

This was in the parking area before the race.
It show's Michael Waltrip and he's saying, "I am so honored to represent those nice people that gave us Pearl Harbor Day!"
If you don't know the background it makes no sense. Waltrip is now racing Toyota cars, which, apparently is the first time a foreign-made vehicle has been raced in NASCAR. And I think, also, Waltrip's "schtick" is that he's supposed to be kinda dumb.

Here's "the crew."

The next day, the boys got a behind-the-scenes tour of the Richard Childress Racing museum. RCR owns several racing teams, including Harvick's.

Here's Larry at RCR showing off his Guthries shirt at the museum. It's world famous, you know. The Guthries shirt, not RCR...oh, and not Larry either.

There are lots of cars. Lots and lots and lots. And car parts, like this engine.
And these used tires.


Apparently, RCR is big into "wildlife conservation." They give a perfect definition of the word ironic by demonstrating said wildlife support by displaying animals that have been killed RCR members. Interesting.

Bad HOTEL carma

Several months ago, I made reservations at one of the Monterey Days Inn hotels for April 27 & 28 for the Big Sur Marathon, which packs the town yearly so there is no shortage of people in need of rooms.

I made my reservations online.

My team could not make the marathon this year so I tried to cancel my reservations this weekend - a MONTH ahead of time.

I was told I had to go online to do so and was given an 800 number.

The Days Inn rep on the phone told me I could NOT cancel my reservations as it was booked under an online premier pricing strata.

She stated repeatedly that I had "clicked the boxes" that clearly state the company's cancellation policy. I do recall clicking a box about terms and conditions, but I thought the box of single-spaced gobbldeygook was the standard, 48 hour deal.

(I double checked today and first, the policy is totally random and SECOND and more importantly, there are two cancellation policies listed on the page. Very sneaky!)

Apparently, if you book online and get a good price (which you can only get online and are DIRECTED to do by the hotel folks themselves) you're screwed if you can't make the trip.

I asked if the room would for SURE be empty or would it be resold. The rep said that was up to the hotelier (franchisee). I said, so if they can resell the room, then I am, in fact, cancelling my reservations and you can't charge me for a room that's sold to someone else.

Nope. "You clicked the boxes." She said.

Just because you have a policy, doesn't make it right, or legal, I said.

"Have a good day," she said.

I'm still astounded!

Reserving stuff online is helpful to consumers, yes, but it's also a huge benefit to companies since they don't have to PAY people to staff reservation phones. And they will only give deals online as a way to ENCOURAGE us to use that service.

It's amazing this company is so money grubbing it would then screw the customer like this!

By the way, Days Inn is owned by Wyndham Worldwide, which also owns Travelodge, Super8, Knights Stay, Howard Johnson, Ramada, and Winngate inns.

I couldn't find emails for customer service people at Days Inn or the Wyndham parent company. But I did find these for Wyndham investor relations:
margo.happer@wynhamworldwide.com
and
james.ryan@wyndhamworldwide.com

I sent them a note and I'll see if I get anything back. Otherwise, I guess I'll put a complaint on http://www.thesqueakywheel.com

I'll let you know.

Some spelling is better than others

The fixed this the other day. But I got a snap of the original. Aside from the spelling error (should be ADVICE if you don't know) this guy has some of the goofiest real estate billboards on Rosedale Highway.
And he has a LOT of them. It's actually gained a kind of cult hate group. If you go to http://www.rosedalehwysucks.com some of the older comments are totally against this Ponder dude and his billboard mania.