Category Archives: 7. Miscellany

Farewell Discovery

On Vacation: California

Greetings from California…

Headed out to LAX last Saturday for a much needed week of R&R. The missus and I arrived at LAX, secured a rental and headed out of town. Sorry but big cities are not my speed. Instead we are headed to wine country.

Thanks to the good folks at Delta, we were quite hungry upon arrival (the stuff they call “food” is for crap – but that is another story). At any rate, once on Highway 1 outside of LA we happened to find a really good place to eat. The photo at the left is out view from out nice table.

Once we got a chance to have a warm lunch we hopped back in the rental and headed to our next destination: Ojai, CA.

Along the way on Hwy1, we had a chance to see a crapload of Ferrari’s, Aston Martins and Bentleys. Lucky f%$#r’s!! Also along the bike lanes many dudes in TRI bikes – looks like Cervelo is very popular in this neck of the woods.

Later in the afternoon we arrive in Ojai, CA. What a great little town. Had some great food and on Sunday we headed out to pay our respects to The Great Communicator. If you ever have a chance to visit the Ronald Regan Presidential Library, don’t miss it. In a time when we desperately need a true leader, this place was very special to me.

After dinner on Sunday night, the missus and I took a leisurely walk down the main drag in Ojai. We found a small coffee shop, inside were the owners, three customers and this trio. We bought our coffees and sat down to listen. So we sit down and they start playing Ramblin Man. Only in California. I almost asked for the iconic “Freebird”, but decided to just enjoy my coffee and let the boys play. We ended up staying there about an hour!

This morning on the way to a little pastry shop, I happened to catch the following bad ride. Wow! It was a VW “pickup”. It belonged to a local dude, doing some repair work. I guess if you are going to do your “thang”, might as well do it in style. This is what the vee-dub looked like from the front. The paint was layed down flat black with a very tastefully done gloss to highlight the reveals on the bodywork. The “VW” emblem was done in a very nice light blue. Porsche hubcaps were on the wheels – which made it look really cool. This bad boy was slammed on the ground too!

After a very tasty pastry we headed out towards Carpinteria, CA. That was a very nice drive – only wish I had been driving bowtie6! There was a very nice road with plenty of twisties and some awesome views. Once past Carpinteria we headed towards HWY 101 and proceeded towards Santa Barbara and eventually to Los Olivos. In Los Olivos we found a quite a nice variety of wine tastings and of course we had to partake! While there we found a little local restaurant that just decided to open its doors to the public on this Monday, April 16. Food was great!!!

And while we are having lunch, this bad boy pulls up and parks in front of the little restaurant. Only in California. Folks here just seem to have a different appreciation for old cars. As I have been driving I can’t tell you the amount of vintage classic Detroit’s finest I’ve seen along the way.

Today we arrived at Arroyo Grande. The missus secured an awesome B&B and we pretty much have it to ourselves. It has an astonishingly fantastic view and could not be any better. For dinner tonight we went downtown Arroyo Grande and found a great outdoor cafe where we just admired the cars going past. And of all things, we saw a very nice Pimento Red TR6 go by several times. Good times.

More to come…

The 1940 Census

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For the last 72 years, the 1940 Census records have been locked away by law. Yesterday, April 2 2012, they finally became available to the public on the internet.

At first the servers holding all this data crashed due to the high demand. Indeed, I was one of those folks that caused such demand. However, overnight the powers that be proceeded to stand up a bunch of servers in “the big cloud in the sky” and suddenly things started working.

And things got very interesting…

Today was special… Not only was it my deceased Dad’s birthday, but I was able to finally access the details of what was on record about my family circa 1940. My paternal grandfather and grandmother are 59 and 51 years old respectively and my Dad is listed as being 18 years old. Just a few years later he would be serving in Europe as part of the 13th Armored Division.

I saved the JPG’s of the census listings on my laptop. This afternoon, after work I visited with my aunt – my Dad’s eldest sister. She is my cousin Jim’s Mom and she is 96 years old. When I showed her the records I had found and start reading the names of the people next to my grandfather and grandmother’s entry, she starts telling me who these folks were and where they lived. She started telling me all this as if it were yesterday. This, from a lady that is 96 years old!! Remarkable stuff indeed.

If you have a little bit of time and some curiosity, go find out about your family. You might be surprised at what you find. The search engine provided is not exactly perfect: there is no search by name and/or address. However there are some great instructions online showing how to access the database. If you are interested, CLICK HERE. This will take you to the National Archives 1940 Census website.

Custom Ford Pickup

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After work today, I stopped by a local bookstore to pick up a couple of magazines. When I stepped out, I saw this custom Ford pickup. If I am not mistaken this is a mid 60’s vintage Ford. My Dad had a ’65. His was red with white with the exclusive “Twin I Beam” suspension. Dad really loved that truck and this truck reminded me of how much he enjoyed driving it with me riding shotgun. At any rate I figured I’d take a few pics and post them here for you all to enjoy.

Here are the photos. I took them with my iPhone (amazing thing the iPhone) this afternoon around 18:30 – the light was a little dim but you get the idea.

I think this is an extremely nice truck. The stance is spot on – not too low and not too raked. It does not have huge tires or huge wheels – these are also “just right”. Paint is tastefully done and the interior is nostalgic but well made. The dash was also nicely done. The back of the cab had a really cool chrome trim (Dad’s truck did not have that). I say this fellow really pulled it off well and has an awesome truck. Unfortunately, I did not get to meet the owner.

I am not a Ford truck expert, however I’m sure somebody will probably give me the 411 on the exact year and model. I would imagine the chrome trim on the cab had to come from a “De Luxe” version or such. If you know what this is, please let me know.

Update

Thanks to Dennis Baumgartner’s comment (See the comments on this post), I did a little research. Indeed, this is a 1961-63 F-100 “Unibody” truck. My Dad’s ’65 had a separate cab from the bed; this one is one solid piece. In my opinion, this makes it really nice. I did find a very interesting writeup – CLICK HERE – that describes these trucks.

The part that is even more interesting is the difference between the pictures of the “original” truck and the ones above. I realize there is a time for “originality” but the one pictured here is such an awesome looking truck! 🙂

the bowtie6 blog

For this Triumph TR6, the road goes on forever and the party never ends…