My Road Trip to the 2010 NW4IBBQ (lots of pics, DUW!)

[AT6svo]

Thought I'd share my road trips pics I took en route to the 2010 Northwest Foureye BBQ.

Here is a link to the thread about the uber-awesome NW4IBBQ event put on by one of the best guys you could ever meet, Neil Knutson (WHTLTHR79RS).

http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthread.php?t=101093

The event was held in Arlington Washington and I live in San Diego, CA so the whole trip was easily +2600 miles round trip. On the way up it took me 2.5 days and the way home was 1.5 days, covering +1100 miles in a 16 hour shot heading home. The ride up was super sweet taking Highways, 101, 1, & 199 while in CA. Highway 1 is absolutely epic. If you've driven it you know, if you haven't then put it on your bucket list (in a fun car).

This was the route up to the show:



The car I drove was my 86 GT. I bought this car about 1.5 years ago. Paid 1K for it, being sold because it did not pass smog. Has about 155K miles and it needed quite a bit of TLC. Car has a salvage title and low compression on the #6 cylinder (about 60psi less than the other 7 cyls)

Here is the car in more or less the condition I bought it in:



After I gave it some love, it passed smog (even w bad cyl) and it started to look and handle a whole lot better. (after springs/shocks/CC plates/FL SFCS/STB/+87 brakes)




I drove it to Laughlin, NV earlier this year taking the back roads of Route 66.




Knowing the car was road worthy I gave it some cosmetic love, painting the trim (SEM charcoal grey).




Newer carpet, door panels, floor mats, and seat parts, all from my junkyarding exploits and some elbow grease.




Replaced the hatch & hood w junkyard units and detailed it even though the paint is shot:

[AT6svo]

Now for the road trip pictures:

These are from Santa Barbara, CA to Eureka, CA.

After spending the night in the back of the car in Santa Barbara, here I am headed up the 101 in the early AM. You can see the marine layer creeping in the valley ahead.




Further up the 101, about 20 minutes after this shot I got popped for doing 75 in a 65. I was going faster but started to slow and it was my fault for not having my radar detector up & operating. Oh well!




Lost in San Francisco after I missed my turn looking for the Golden Gate bridge... Doh!




Yea! Found the GG bridge. A little overcast though.




Here is a shot crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. Never done this before. Was pretty dang cool. Definitely a feat of engineering.




Here is the beginning of CA Highway 1 just north of San Francisco. Imagine roads like this for the next +100 miles. Pure driving Nirvana!!




One of the many lagoons along the way...




Rolling down the highway...




Words cannot describe how fun driving this road is. It was hard for me to stop, but here is one such occasion.




The road itself is simply amazing. Then there are the views along the entire way...




A quick stop to catch the sunset...




Mr sun going bye bye over the Pacific...




The 86 in love with Highway 1...



Another cove.




Looking up the coast northward as the sun slips behind the ocean.




And that concludes Day 1.5...

[AT6svo]

These are shots from Eureka, CA to Arlington, WA and at the NW4IBBQ Event.

Hit the road early and pulled over to check out some wildlife along side of the road...




Wildlife as noted above. A heard of +40 Elk waking up in a meadow. They were literally 3o feet from the road.




Made it up to the show!! Slept in the back of the car because I was too lazy to set up my tent after the long drive and attempt to help out with the show. My 86 next to Schoolboy's Capri RS.




Another shot of the cars. There were so many unique foureyes that I had never seen with my own eyes before. It was awesome to see members cars in person that I had only seen online and it was even better to meet them face to face. 53 foureyes in one place!!!




An infiltrator at the show, but a very nice one at that.




Here we are all lined up & ready for the cruise. Sweet!!!




On the cruise in front of me:




On the cruise in back of me:




How cool is it to see all the cars in front of you are four-eyed foxbodies. I'll tell you, really freaking cool!!




After the show following a couple of SVO's (Chalky & 4Bangin) to the next location..




My rest stop for the day. The Mustang Pony Shoppe. Many many thanks to Scott & Lois for putting me up that night and showing me their incredible collection and operation.




One of the many rare and beautiful cars in Scott & Lois collection. A genuine Saleen notch.



That concludes days 2 & 3.

[AT6svo]

This is day 4 heading home from Everett, WA to Lenbec, CA. This was a long day. 16 hours behind the wheel and over 1100 miles covered. Only stopped for gas & grub.

Blew through Washington & Oregon and back in CA. Mountains, meadows, and clouds.




Beautiful Mt Shasta. Someday I'll comeback and hike/climb this 14K peak.




Crossing Shasta Lake. Its HUGE. Note my shadow taking the pic out the t-tops. Heh.



That concluded day 4. I was beat.

[AT6svo]

Day 5, end of the journey back in So-Cal.

Here is where I spent the night in the back of the car. The lawn maintenance people woke me up bright and early with a orchestra of 2 stoke powered equipment.




Here is interstate 5 south about ready to head up the Grapevine.




Bleah. Back to reality. Orange county just south of LA. +7 lanes of freeway anyone?




Since I got home early and the weather was perfect I decided to cruise to my favorite lunch spot.




Then I decided to cruise down by the beach since everyone else was still at work and I had the day off.




Another shot by the sand & surf.




Got palm trees?




Safe & sound back home. The 86 with my daily driver 84 LTD Wagon.

[AT6svo]

Besides one speeding ticket and a brake light fuse, there were no mechanical failures. However I had lots of tools and lots of spare parts on board if necessary.

Not bad for a salvage titled car with 160K miles and bad #6 cylinder that cost $1000.

I averaged about 23 mpg, burned about 115 gallons of gas, and spent about $360 in gas.

Here is the shocker - I also went through 9 quarts of oil on the whole trip, all due to the bad #6 cylinder.

Guess its time for an Explorer swap eh?

[PaceFever79]

Great pictures and narrative! Thanks for sharing the trip!

[BM62391]

thats so cool ive never been out west and its cool to see pictures. howd you get pulled over did the cop see you trying to snap photos instead of your eye on the road? haha

[JTurbo]

Awesome Mike!!!

[eeprete]

Wow, your narratives and photo essays are great. You should get a photo book done.

You are more than welcome to come the the LI BBQ next year, and we can make sure you don't have to fold down the back hatch area.

Awesome stuff as always. Now I want to go cruise Highway 1.

[Capriman86]

I hate you Malone, in a good way....just jealous. Love your stories, your cruises, your photo's. Wish I could do this someday...so neat.

[86capriASC]

Very very cool. So jealous!

[Shelby1]

Nice pics! It looks like you had a great time and by the way I love In n Out as well!

[NAVYCAT]

well you could have waited for me for the drive back home... lol. but i had a great time with my drive up and back as well. and i only used 2qts of oil as my oil pan gasket was leaking bad so when i got home i replaced it (the orginal) and installed a shift kit and a new vacuume hose on the tranny, and wow! it shifts now. and now im thinking the hot rod magizine power tour.....?

[2112COBRA]

Thats Awesome! Thanks for sharing your trip. My drive to the picnic was only an hour. Sorry i don't think i meet you there? Looks like a fun trip though. Maybe we will see you there next year?

[02Z06]

Very cool story! I love these threads!

[Selcouth]

Great pics and story to go along with it. I have to admit I'm jealous of those roads you took. We don't really have much here in Texas as far as scenery goes it's just kinda blah.

[EVIL8286]

I enjoyed this thread soooooo much I want to take a road trip now. Love all the pics. Care to take the trip to the Long Island BBQ next year?

[roush235]

Great pictures and narrative to go with it. I have fond memories of similar trips I have taken--- just me and a fun car, windows down, radio up, scenery in view. Thanks for posting.

[AT6svo]

Cobra2112 - I saw you and probably chatted with you but never formally inotr'd myself. I was in overload with all the great cars and meeting all the owners & hearing their stories. You have a beautiful pair of cars and thanks for bringing them down.

Thanks everyone for the feedback. This is the 2nd big road trip I've taken this year and I really enjoy them. I am fortunate to be able to embark on these kinds of trips. I feel the least I can do is share so that others who may not have the opportunity can attempt to live vicariously through my experince. I hope that everyone gets a chance to do something similiar at some point.

The other cool thing to note was I had the t-tops out the entire duration of the drive.

The LIBBQ is a -very- long haul, I'd love to and I won't count it out but that's a long way from home...

[NAVYCAT]

Originally Posted by EVIL8286

I enjoyed this thread soooooo much I want to take a road trip now. Love all the pics. Care to take the trip to the Long Island BBQ next year?

When is the LIBBQ?

[escogt]

Awesome pics. Looks like a very fun road trip. Glad you enjoyed yourself & had little to no issues with your '86. I'm sure that was a memorable time for you. I'm a bit envious of you.

Originally Posted by 84NAVYCAT

When is the LIBBQ?

Most likely in July, 2011.

[dburdyshaw]

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome.

Seriously.

Originally Posted by AT6svo

Note my shadow taking the pic out the t-tops. Heh.

Luv this pic. Seriously. I do this a LOT when I'm out in the X-90.

I can only imagine what some oncoming driver thinks when he suddenly sees a hand and a camera coming up through the roof.

[K PONY]

Great road trip and awesome pics... thanks for sharing

[redlordamazon]

Gread Thread. My favorite picture is the In-Out-Burger meal.