I had to make a quick work trip down to San Luis Obispo this week. On the way back, I decided to take the scenic route-- Pacific Coast Highway. It was quite eventful.
I took Highway 101 down. It's semi-scenic, mixed in with farm land. When I got to my hotel, there were three '32 Roadsters parked in front of the lobby.
For dinner, I decided to check out nearby Avila Beach. You may recall that in the 1990s, Unocal destroyed the small coastal town with a massive oil spill. I went to
Mersea, which was near the end of a pier. The meal was excellent. The old man sitting next to me at the bar hitting on the young bartender was not so excellent.
There is still a little bit of seafood processing done on the pier.
The next morning, while I was checking out, I bumped into the owners of the three roadsters. I asked them what they thought of Plymouth Prowlers. They said that people are free to like whatever car they like, but a Prowler would not be invited to a '32 Roadster show.
This red example does not have a single part from the original 1932 model car. It has 700+ horsepower. 75 fellow Roadster are expected at the hotel that day for a meetup.
Instead of driving back up 101, I took Pacific Coast Highway. I stopped to see these sea elephants near Hearst Castle. The California sea elephants were hunted to extinction. A few animals from Mexico showed up here in the 1990s and the population fortunately exploded. It was cool to watch them with a bunch of amazed European tourists.
Near Big Sur, I grabbed lunch. The seafood platter was all frozen and out of a bag, and expensive. The gas wasn't cheap either. I saw a Bentayga and couldn't imagine how much a fill up would cost. At least the view was nice.
There were a few construction zones where everyone had to stop for long periods of time, and this is what the roadside looked like.
It's looking likely that I'll be getting the Alfa this summer. So this may be my last road trip with the Acura. At 90,000 miles, it drives like new.
Once I got back to civilization in Carmel, I came upon a broken down 240Z Scarab. The clutch had gone kaput. I offered the driver a ride but a tow truck was already on its way. I had never heard of a Scarab before. They have V8s. It looked like this:
Oh. Myyyy. That's a real one. Very cool cars, Scarabs. I first read about them in the late 70s while in the 9th grade. Just imagine them with a modern engine. Those old Zcars were so versatile.
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