The Ridge Run

Here we go again with the Catalina vacation!!!

This is the post for the ridge tour. It was the last full day we were there. It departs from the plaza. They put surrogate in the passenger seat, or as they called it, the co pilot seat, and the younger and I were directly behind him.

We depart from the plaza, and of course we have to go around the back of town, since Crescent is pedestrian traffic only, something I didn't really even consider, since we normally are the pedestrians!!! Came out Clarissa Ave. right past Green Palace Jr., and I got a picture as we drove by. Onto Crescent to Pebbly Beach Road, past the landing.

You know what else is out a ways on Pebbly Beach Road??? Buffalo Nickel!!! We had just been there the night before.

There's a lot of the infrastructure that you don't see staying in Avalon. They've got the cargo docks, the only gas station, and the garage where they house and maintain the Catalina Island Company vehicles. Had one of those sweet Flxable buses there!!!

A little further on, there's the power plant.

Not much further on from there, we left the paved road for the dirt road up the side of the hills. Spotted a red tailed hawk perched on a tree!!!

From above, our driver and guide, Bear, pointed out the quarry near the end of the island.

While we were ascending, you could see Avalon from above!!! We were high up!!!

And there's some of the dirt road!!! Not really, with the exception of the first part of the dirt road, it was fairly flat with only gradual climb. Bear said, “one of these day, I'm going to try climbing that!!!” We encouraged him to make it that day, but as expected it didn't happen.

And there's the first we saw of the other side of the island!!! As well as the ridge road off in the distance.

And there's a couple of ravens!!!

Great view!!!

As we reached the other side, you could see clouds streaming in off the ocean and up the mountains, very cool!!!

Towards the end of the canyon that Avalon is situated in is the Wrigley Botanical Gardens, that I had been thinking I'd like to visit at some point. They moved the original pavilion that had been where the Casino now is up there, and converted it into an aviary. I didn't know, but they had also made a mausoleum that William Wrigley Jr. is buried in, that is visible at the end of the canyon in this shot.

The dark spots on the ocean are the shadows of the clouds!!!

After we passed some radio towers and the reservoir, we began our descent down the other side of the canyon towards Avalon, down Stage Coach Road.

Another shot, from above, of the Descanso Beach area... which, incidentally, we never made it out to this year!!!

Good times!!!

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!!!

Clearing Up

Another in the continuing saga of getting stuff done on my cars!!! I had the fiasco of the engine mount replacement, and not long after, Scruffy got a flat in spectacular fashion!!!

I was letting surrogate son drive her, and he took some kind of steel bar to the back tire!!! As you can see, they were really needing to be replaced soon anyway. I'd just bought a set for Kutcher, and would have preferred to have a bit more of an interval between buying the next set.

He called AAA and they changed to the space saver spare. I had one of the old old ones that was mostly slick that's a little better than the space saver, so we put it on until we were able to get to the tire shop.

And that's how it looked from the inside!!! The guy at the tire shop tried to pull out the bar. It didn't come out.

Very shortly after the tires were replaced, the battery went out, so I bought a new one. Back when I had three S Series Saturns, I'd replaced all the batteries with Die Hards. Most car batteries, it seems like you're lucky to get three years out of them, I remember them going for 5 to 7 years or more back when I started driving. Not long after I had met my now wife, her grandmother bought two new batteries for her Oldsmobile diesel, and had the presence of mind to save the old ones for her granddaughter's new guy, and those were some of the best batteries I ever had!!! Of course, they have a very high amperage, well above what my Maverick required, so that probably helped. Anyway, all that to say, back around 7 or 8 years back I had it in my head that the Die Hard batteries that you used to be able to get from Sears had always been more reliable than the ones from the parts stores these days. When I yanked the engine out of 3, I saved the battery, and when we sent Jade away, I saved the battery. I picked up a trickle charger, and kept them maintained, and when the first one gave up, swapped to one of the others, and it went for another several months, then with the next one as well. It seems like my impression of the Die Hard brand was correct. Unfortunately, it seems nearly impossible to locate any of them anymore, so I've got a parts store 3 year battery in there now. Anyway, none of that was particularly difficult, just expensive, around $600. Oh yea, there was one issue getting the battery, the system wasn't working, so I had to go back the next day, and they returned it and re sold it to me with the warranty activated, and for the inconvenience, they discounted it by 10%, so that was nice.

Sometime in there, a friend of mine pointed out his headlights, which had been hazy, and he'd cleared up. He tells me that he just used Mother's mag polish on them, two passes, and they came out real nice!!!

The headlights on Kutcher were very hazy. I'd actually purchased a 3M kit a while back, and have been intending to pull the headlights out to polish them, but they're not easy to get out!!! I was thinking I'd do as some direct, and mask off the surrounding body and use it, but this sounded considerably easier, so I went ahead and bought a jar. It didn't take much doing at all, and they look way better!!!

Since I've done before and after GIFs of cleared up headlights before a couple of times, I went ahead and did it again!!! Not perfect, but gets the idea across!!! Both of the previous ones, I actually replaced the lights. I've polished plastic headlights before, notably on Baby, and possibly also on Jade, but apparently didn't get pictures. I was going to do an instant post with just the headlights, but decided to add the tires and battery as well.

While I'm at it, I'll make mention of the Studebaker stuff. I've picked up the stuff to update the fuel system on the Hawk, but haven't gotten it installed yet. Since I'm putting an electric fuel pump, I decided that adding a fuel pressure regulator would probably be wise, as well. Since I'm not sure what kind of pressure I'm running, I decided to add a pressure gauge as well, and I picked up a couple of pipe nipples and a tee to plumb them together, probably with the clear fuel filter right before them both. To establish a baseline, I put the tee and gauge in the line to the carb, and went to start it to see where the pressure would be. It cranked a couple of times, then just clicked.

I was a little irked that the deep cycle AGM battery I'd put in had already died, and put the charger on it the next day. It still just clicked after I'd charged it a while. Huh. Pulled out the starter, and it seems to have given up. I figured my dad had bought it from either Auto Zone or Reilly's with a lifetime warranty (I wouldn't buy one without a lifetime warranty) but it appears to not be the case. Of course, back when he was putting it together, Pep Boys was another store that sold lifetime parts. Seems they've become just a tire store now, but I got in touch with them about it. I'm also thinking of buying a mini high torque starter instead, but I don't know if I can get one with a lifetime warranty.

Oh, and just last week, we fired up the Maverick for the first time in a while!!! Did like I'd done with the Studebaker, primed the carb, and a little quick start, and it started and ran until the carb ran dry!!! I'd added an electric fuel pump years ago, and I disconnected both ends to see if it was pumping, and it wasn't. Next, we'll prime the mechanical fuel pump and put a short hose into a gas can, and see if it'll suction off that, and if so, we can probably just add several gallons to the tank, and it'll be running!!! Of course, it'll need tires, too!!!

Beach Boys

I've previously mentioned that one of my favorite things to do is to go to the beach. Ordinarily, I only end up making it once or twice a year, sometimes on or around my birthday, and sometimes when I'm on vacation.

It so happens that surrogate son also happens to love going to the beach, and since I've had some latitude in my schedule these days, I've been able to go several times this summer!!!

I think this may have been on the trip I'd previously posted about. Surrogate son was forming perfect spheres of the sand!!!

There's a pile of them in the foreground, in the shadow.

This was another trip we made to Horny Corner, with surrogate son's sister and another friend. I think his mom may have been there that time as well.

I know one time, maybe two times, my younger and surrogate son had gone when I had something else I was doing. We have a large duffel bag that has our beach towels, swimsuits, and sunscreen in it, and he'd taken a smaller bag with just his towel, suit, and sunscreen. One of the times, he didn't get the sunscreen swapped from the smaller bag, and got a sunburn. This time, he looked like he'd been slapped on the shoulder by someone with a lot of sunscreen on their hand, and that area didn't burn or tan!!!

This is the sand structure that we made on that day. I started out by drawing the moat, then removed the sand and piled it up in the middle. The moat wanted to cave in. The setting sun made for a cool effect on it!!!

Something else I'd not mentioned, Grill 'Em All has relocated down to Horny Corner!!! They used to be next to a theater in Alhambra, and I'd been there at least once. I was familiar with Grill 'Em All because they would help out at the Oinkster during Burger Week, and I think Oinkster may have featured some of their burgers during it.

They've still got the metal theme going, but now with a beachy locale and vibe!!! I may have been craving a premium gourmet burger... Anyway, on the same day, we ate there, and it was awesome!!!

I like the picture of surrogate giving his sister the side-eye!!!

Surrogate son got the Behemoth, which is served on two Texas Toast grilled cheese sandwiches!!! It was too much for him!!! I got the Witte, which has cream cheese, deep fried bacon, sriracha, malt vinegar aioli, and grilled onions. It was glorious!!! Also got an order of Primate Fries, basically In-N-Out's animal style fries, but the fries are better.

Got this picture of the seagulls in the run off channel from the showers on another trip to Horny Corner. In the background, you can see the inflatable play floats they've got set up out there. They only let a limited amount of people on at a time, of course, and depending on the day, there can be a line to go on it. We went one time, and on our most recent time down there they'd taken them down for the season.

We've also gone a few times to Santa Monica beach. I like it a little better, it's got some surf. The first time we went there, surrogate son had wanted to walk out on the pier, so after the sun had gone down and we'd changed, we did. It drops down on the end for a fishing platform, and when we were heading down, one guy had his pole bent down, so we had to stay and see what he caught. Turned out to be a spiny lobster!!! I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to catch them with a pole...

Got a nice sunset picture...

And the fabled pier...

Last time we were there, a Coast Guard chopper doing maneuvers. It was kicking up a good amount of vapor with the rotor wash!!! Stayed around for a while.

Another beach selfie with another friend!!! This was on the time before the last time we went to the beach.

Oh, I had a cooler that I would usually take that came with our house. It was old, and as it got used more, the plastic on the edges and the lid started cracking. I bought a similar size replacement, and then a couple of weeks later, I was taking a walk, and one of our neighbors had a give away pile that had another similar sized cooler, but with a split lid, so now I've got two. They also had a nice boogie board that I grabbed, but we only made it to Santa Monica one time since I got it, and the surf wasn't great for boarding, the waves would crash as soon as they formed.

We stopped by a Taco Bell on the way back. Next door was a donut place, and on the side wall, they had the donut angel background!!! It has a little curb that you have to hop up onto, and it's not easy to balance. Took pictures of surrogate son and myself in front of it, but we were both off center. I moved the donut on his picture!!!