The Return to the Junkyard

It's been a long while since I've made a junkyard run. The last time was when we'd just bought Kutcher. This time, I brought along surrogate son, it was his first time. He enjoyed it, there are a lot of cars to see, and in various states of disassembley.

The trip was prompted by our Catalina vacation. Last year, I'd borrowed my mom's car to be able to transport four, our luggage, and my wife's wheelchair. That plan was torpedoed by Gretchen's Automotive (where elder financial abuse is the name of the game, the epitome of shady mechanics) and we ended up having another friend give us a ride to the landing. This year, I'd checked with another friend who has a Honda Pilot to see if we could swap cars for the week, and that was the plan. Incidentally, it was the same friend who was going to take care of the cat while we were out. Around a week before, surrogate's mom offered to drive us, instead. She's got a mini van, so it shouldn't be a problem. The morning that we were leaving, her van was acting up, and unbeknownst to us, she contacted the friend with the Pilot to borrow it to take us, instead. Pulled up in the Pilot, and we were like, “huh, she's here to feed the cat kind of early”, then we got it figured out. Went out to load our stuff, and tried to open the hatch, and it wasn't opening. Pulled harder, and the handle came off!!! The junkyard had two on the lot that could have the correct handle, so that was the main objective.

First off, there were a couple of classics there, first up was a Olds Toronado!!! Always thought they were a cool car. A few days later I was driving with surrogate in the car, and he spotted one parked on the side of the road, and was able to identify it right off!!! It was a proud moment.

And a Ford Galaxie. Not much left, but that front bumper looks like it's in great shape, probably worth a good amount to the person who needs one!!! There was also a VW Squareback, and an old Ford truck that I didn't get a look at.

I've long had the idea to put a couple of white stripes on Scruffy, and call it the skunk mobile. My beard grows with black in the middle and white stripes on the outside, so I'm already Skunk Man!!! Anyway, someone beat me to it, and got the plates to go with it!!!

Found the first Pilot, and it was already missing the handle. I'd seen one on Ebay for something like $160, so I was thinking it was a hot item, and might be resellable for a decent amount. Found the second one, and it was still on it. Success!!!

The back glass and inside panel were already removed, so the hatch was up and wouldn't stay down without the extra weight. I was wondering how I was going to do it, but I was able to unscrew the two nuts, and stand up on the back through the window opening and pop the press in fasteners off. It was the wrong color, but the recipient is black, so I was able to color match it fairly well with a spray can.

Anyway, I was in the trucks, vans, and SUV area, and spotted a Pontiac front end. Core memory unlocked!!! I recalled that, when I was swapping gauges in 3, I'd read that the Pontiac Torrent, a rebadge of the Chevy Equinox, had another compatible instrument panel, with another different look!!!

Looking back, I realize that I didn't have any shots of the original Saturn gauges, so I took a day and night shot of it before it was removed this time.

The Torrent instrument panel has the chrome bezels like the white face Vue gauges had, but with black gauges with a gray perimeter. Goes nicely with the aesthetic of Scruffy, I think.

The night illumination is where it really shines, pun intended!!! Red glow. Bonus, no check engine light with this set up, only the ABS light is illuminated, since it doesn't have it. Unfortunately, didn't check the illumination before I had it all the way in, and the center sections weren't lighting up. After a bit of driving, though, one of the sides came on, so it's only got one un lit area now. I feel like there were never that many out there, so it's something of a rare instrument panel.

Another fairly high priority item, Scruffy had lost the driver's side plate that holds the bumper onto the pins. There wasn't the correct year there, but I got one off the second generation, hoping that it was a part that wasn't changed. It was.

Back when I had the instrument panel apart on Kutcher for the stupid check engine light, I had unknowingly somehow borked the second digit on the odometer. It had the segments for a backwards “7” that don't display. Also, a couple of the illumination LEDs weren't lighting up anymore. Got a replacement for it, too, and it's really nice having it back!!! Got rid of the bright white check engine light, too.

Something that's always bugged me on Kutcher, though, is the damned dent on the front of the hood. Compounded, the clear coat on the hood has started coming off, so it's looking pretty bad. I picked up a reasonably straight hood while we were there, too.

My original plan was to just primer it black and let it ride thus. I sanded it down, sprayed some gray high build primer, took some glazing putty to a couple of spots with bad rock dings and scrapes, primed some more, sanded it smooth (all the while doing similar with the Pilot handle). Finally got it to a pretty decent finish. At some point in there, I recalled that back when I had bought the second set of Ion rims for 3, I had bought a can of metallic charcoal paint to try and match the dark that the polished front rims have in the recessed area. It was gone before I ever got a chance to use it, so it was still around. Dug it out, and sprayed a test sample. The color isn't really close to the body panels, but it is very close to the faded bumpers!!! I surveyed the family, and they said I should go for it. Fortunately, there was enough in the can to cover it completely!!!

Another minor annoyance, one of the wheel center caps had gone missing not very long after we bought it. I was looking for the same style, but none of the Matrices (Matrii???) had the aluminum rims with them. I did find a cap that ended up fitting. Doesn't match the others, but it's decent!!!

Back to Avalon

Another vacation to Catalina!!! It was going to be a near repeat of last year's vacation. I rented the same house, and we were going to bring along surrogate son again. However, in the week leading up to the vacation, my wife had been having a lot of sciatica back pain. We always take along a wheel chair and roll her around, so I didn't think it would be a problem. The night before we were going to head out, she says she's decided that she isn't going to go. I wasn't crazy about it, because then we'd be leaving her home alone, but I relented. We'd already had a friend who was going to be coming over to feed the cat, so we told them they didn't have to do that, but please drop in and see how my wife is doing!!!

I'd made mention of Antonio's on the waterfront having had reduced it's menu and shortened it's hours previously on posts about our other travels there. Last year, they'd re opened it as Pier 24, with the menu and hours both improved to where they had been, albeit with different items on the menu. Surrogate son really liked the waitress there, and wanted to contact her again, but I digress. Anyway, they've added artwork with buffalo people on them on the outside walls. I took a picture of this one, and sent it to my wife with the message, “This could have been us!!!”

While we were heading back from swimming on the first day, I saw Pier 24 has a trivia night the next evening, so I asked for details. They said to show up at 6:30 and join in, first prize is a $50 gift certificate, and second is a $15 gift certificate. I told them they could just put my name on the $50 certificate now!!! We came back for it, and ended up taking 3rd place. Surrogate was a great help getting several answers I had a blind spot on.

Oh, and the waitress that surrogate liked from last time was nowhere to be seen.

The first day we were there, surrogate made me buy us cowboy hats!!! We wore them off and on in varying combinations throughout the week. We'd worn them out to Buffalo Nickel one night, and surrogate was wandering out towards the ocean while younger and I were using the restroom, and he heard another patron talking about how there are a bunch of people wearing cowboy hats!!!

The first evening surrogate went out to wander the streets while wearing his hat, and happened by a club that was playing country music, so he stopped in. They were doing line dancing, and he got in on it!!! Afterwards, an older lady offered to buy him a drink!!! He replied that he doesn't drink, and he's married!!!

Last year I'd gotten the message that our room was ready right as we arrived. When we got there this time, I hadn't gotten anything yet so I tried calling the agency. The check in time is 3 PM, so there was time still, but we had all our luggage and would have liked to have been able to deposit it. Anyway, they confirmed it wasn't ready yet, but they'd let me know as soon as it was. I had the idea that it may still be being cleaned, so I left the guys with the gear, and walked over to Green Palace Jr. to see if there was anyone there, and checked to see if it was locked. It was locked, and no one was there. The agency was on the way back, a couple blocks over, so I stopped in to see if we could leave our stuff there. They said no, but most restaurants would hold your luggage if you were dining there. We had already been planning on going to the Bluewater Grill, and dining on the waterfront, so I was heading back, when I got the message the house was ready. We took our luggage and dropped it off. Last time we were there, the table seemed shorter, and only had three chairs, one of them quite wobbly. There were four chairs this time, and the table was longer, with room for all four chairs. Upon looking at last year's pictures, it's the same table, only it was sideways before!!! Got a mirror selfie!!!

I think this may have been the night we went to the Buffalo Nickel, when we got back I had the idea to get a picture of myself on the balcony!!! Yee haw!!!

The first morning that we were there, we went out to the pier to rent stand up paddle boards, something we didn't do last time. At this point, I should mention that the trip over was rougher than usual. Part way over, I used the restroom, and with the rolling in an enclosed area, I got a little queasy, so once I exited I did several minutes of the classic “focus on the horizon” remedy, and felt better.

I wasn't even thinking about that, but when we got out to our paddle boards and into the harbor, I was reminded. I tried to get standing up, and fell off. Surrogate was the last of us to get launched, and he fell off, too. He was working on getting back on, with not much success. After a couple of minutes, a lifeguard swam over, and took him back to the float and put him in a kayak instead. We all paddled to the other side of the pier, and he fell out of the kayak. After a couple of minutes of trying to recover, the same lifeguard swam over, and he gave up for the day, and was just swimming in the swim area.

I managed to get standing, and was doing a bit of paddling around, but it was something of a challenge with the heightened surge. Not long after, younger said he was feeling nauseous from the motion, and we called it. Also happened that, for some reason, the four sided clock at the end of the pier was out of commission, so we would have had difficulty determining when our hour rental was up. To compound matters, they were working on the chime tower that day too, and it wasn't sounding at the proper time, so we couldn't even use that.

The lifeguard was a petite fit little thing, and surrogate liked her, too. I'd thanked her after each rescue, and after the second one I told her she should be cast in the reboot of Baywatch!!! The night before we were leaving, he made up a note to leave for her, and the next day took it over to the lifeguard station, and she was there, so he was able to give it directly to her. She has not been in contact, but he took the shot.

Tried to get a picture of the moon over the mountains. Didn't come out as good as it looked in person.

A couple of the things that I've done previously and wanted to do again were the Casino tour and the inland tour. As previously mentioned, they're not really doing the inland tour anymore. We went on the Casino tour, and it was as cool as I'd remembered.

Finally got my own picture of the ramps in the side wings that were mentioned in the Chime Tower story!!!

I consider this to be the prize winner of my pictures this time, taken from one of the windows overlooking the harbor from near the top of the Casino!!! I might make a second post with more just about the tour.

After we went on the tour, since we were already on that side of Avalon, we hiked up to the chime tower. I'd noticed they'd added a board to the top with the “100” on it, it's the 100th anniversary of the chime tower!!! We went the same way we've always gone, up the stairs, and came back down on streets. They had a crew out there working on it, and the workings on the inside are freshly painted, and the wood parts have been re finished and varnished, so it's looking good!!!

Surrogate was not a fan of the hike. It's a good amount of altitude gained!!!

And our picture while were were at Buffalo Nickel, right by the buffalo!!! Yee haw!!!

Surrogate made a great breakfast one day, fish and eggs. We brought the Binding of Isaac: 4 Souls card game, but as far as I recall it only was played twice. We all played one night, then the boys were playing against each other the next morning, and younger was close to winning, and surrogate managed to take the game in a fashion that the younger did not like!!! Last time we'd played the weird Cityville version of Monopoly, but I noticed a battered box at the bottom of the stack that turned out to be regular Monopoly, and we played once, which I won, mostly by monopolizing the slum properties. Surrogate had nearly run out of cash, younger had some good properties and was doing OK, but I had the most cash when we'd had enough. Vindication!!!

Since they're no longer doing the inland tour, there were a couple of others that we could have taken. One was a buffalo watch tour, and the other was to the near end of the island and up along the ridge, both in modified Hummers. The latter had mention of the possibility of sighting buffalo, and I figured if there's a chance, most tour guides will try to make it happen, so that's the one we went on. It was pretty cool, and I got a lot of great pictures, so I may make a post for it, too!!!

Our tour guide and driver was an Apache native named Bear, and he was great, and very entertaining.

I've not mentioned, but we have another native friend, who was in attendance of both of the youngers' most recent birthdays, who is named Wolf, so interesting that we now know two natives with classic native animal names. He's the guy on the end of the couch in the Death Row Records black beanie in the Bold and Brash clip.

It's good to be alive!!!