CA (GT cruise)

Ralphie and I drove the much shorter drive from Mammoth Lakes to Castaic, CA, where we met a whole bunch of other GT owners.  I was bummed my buddy Chris wasn't there, but it was great to see some faces I haven't seen in a long, long time!

The dancing moose. :)

After socializing for about an hour and catching up with everyone, we took off on 60 miles of curvy mountain roads.  I was invited to drive Rick's 1000 hp Heffner twin turbo GTX1.  Hello???  How could I say no?  I ditched Ralphie (sorry buddy!) and hopped in the driver seat with my new best friend (Rick). :-)

I love seeing lots of GTs on the road.  In front, behind, on the sides...  And!  The beautiful thing about driving is that I could see Ralphie's GT on the road for once!  The only GT there with the Gurney bubble!!!

Here are links to 3 videos from the driver's seat of the drive.  There was video also of all of our cars driving along.  As soon as they get posted I will add those links as well...

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxE1z3tmDPQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9-NPHT3HG8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj8PBD2h_RA

There were a few places to pull off and take pictures.

GT owners taking pictures of their babies. :-)

Ralphie got a really awesome present from his ski (and GT) friend Eric.  It's a LeMans shirt with the race track on the left and different country's flags on the right.

This is "my" GTX1.  LOL  Under the clamshell you can see the Heffner twin turbo.

At the end of the drive, we stopped by Macaroni Grill for lunch.

The last place we went was Kendall's home/shop.  He had one of the best tool rooms I've seen in a long time!!! :-)

And look!  I found my Hawaii license plate!!!  Yippee!  All 50 states are accounted for! :-)

The cruise was rather short, but getting to drive Rick's GT was incredible!!!  His is actually only one of a few that were turned into a convertible, but the top was on today.  I still have a "GT grin" plastered to my face. :-)

After the drive, lunch, and Kendall's, we said good-bye to everyone and headed to Ralphie's daughter's place.  Holy cow!  HUGE house in San Bernardino, CA, which is about 1 1/2 hrs from where we were.  Nice area as well, east of LA and the ocean.  We had a BBQ and I can proudly admit that I cut the watermelon without cutting myself or others, and without creating a scene (which usually happens when I'm attempting to use the kitchen for anything related to cooking).

They have a pool and there were a lot of kids over, including a really adorable 2 year old boy who had to be watched at all times.  They also have 2 dogs - Pickles is a little dog that looks like "Spot" and Ashley is the black lab.  There is a small backyard area on both sides of the pool and then it opens up to a hill overlooking a mountain, where they have a pond surrounded by colorful flowers and rocks with orange carp, minnows, and large cream colored fish.  There are lilypads with flowers, and hummingbirds.  Above the pond is a series of small waterfalls from the gazebo at the top of the hill to the pond at the bottom.  It's really quite beautiful and looks natural!

Most of the people at the BBQ were very successful.  The women drove Maseratis and new Jaguars and were Plastic Surgeons and such.  The men were successful real estate guys, Pediatricians, etc, and drove Z06 Corvettes and Escalades.  I felt like an idiot.  "Where do you live?"  "Nowhere at the moment."  "What do you do?"  "Uhm.  Errr.  Taking a little break from work?"  Oh well.  They didn't get to drive a 1000 hp GT today!!! :-)

I coughed most of the night, apparently keeping Ralphie awake 2 rooms over.  He wants to take me to the doctor because he thinks I have pneumonia.  I doubt it, but if I'm bad over the next few days I will go...  Time to drive back to Mammoth Lakes.