(We do LA and the Jag does us – again.)

Hang on this could get rough!!

 

 

We cross a bridge.

 

 

 

Is that smog? Thought C.A.R.B. had that all cleaned up with all those Prius’s (Priui ?  Prium?),  electric cars and what-not?? (Snicker)

 

 

 

Down we go…

 

 

 

 

One last clean breath!

 

 

 

Past Roy Rogers Dr.

 

I really wanted to visit the Roy Rogers Museum, but it was moved to Branson, Mo then closed. They even sold Trigger. Can you believe that???

 

 

 

 

San Dimas? Hey! I remember San Dimas !

 

 

 

Pasadena?  Pasadena? Why is that familiar?

 

 

 

 

Oh!

 

 

 

 

We go to the Rose Bowl

 

 

Sign said Rose Bowl this way.  How do they get those floats down such a narrow street?  On TV it seems so much bigger.

 

 

 

 

Then hit Colorado Blvd. 

There was this little old lady in a red car next to us at the stop light. Something about we couldn’t beat her Super Stock Dodge. Not sure what that was all about.

 

Sure sign you’re in Hollywood. The billboard says check your wiener – free STD checkup.

 

 

 

 

 

Yup, Hollywood alright. We tried to drive up to the sign but couldn’t get there from here.

 

 

 

 

Frederick’s of ?

 

 

 

 

 

Grauman’s Chinese Theater.

 

 

 

Better Picture of GCT

 

We stumble on to Beverly Hills

We couldn’t find Jed or Axel, but we did get lost.

 

 

Oh look!! Rodeo Dr. In Texas that would be Rodeo (ye haw) Dr. Go figure

 

 

 

 

More of Rodeo/Rodeo Dr

 

 

 

 

 

Rodeo and Wilshire Blvd.

 

 

 

Rodeo and Wilshire + Maserati – probably Lindsay Lohan

We reach the sea!! 

 

…and the end of Route 66, the Mother Road at Santa Monica Pier

 

 

 

 

 

so we drove out on to the pier

 

 

 

 

Tried not to run anybody over…

 

.

 

 

 

had our picture taken by Julie and Chris Harris from Camden NSW, Australia. We took their picture and they invited us to stay with them when we make it to Australia so we invited them to Clio

 

 

Mary’s friend Ila’s son’s friend owns this stand on the pier. The guy she is talking to is not Ila’s son’ s friend. Confused yet?

 

 

 

 

No bikini’s today!

 

 

 

We had lunch on the pier and drove back up to the main drag and the Jag went bonkers. It was wall to wall traffic, it is Los Angles after all and we were in “limp home mode” or whatever you call it. Same thing that happened in Orlando. Mary had the GPS look up Jaguar dealers in the area.

There was one in BEVERLY HILLS only 2 miles away. Ya right, like we were going to stay in Beverly Hills till the car was fixed. There was another dealership about 12 miles away in Van Nuys so I called them and they said they closed at 6 and could we make it? It was only 4 so I said sure no problem. I forgot we were in LA at rush hour. We made to the dealership about 10 minuets to 6. Wow 2 hours to go 12 miles. What a rush.

Our concierge, Val (see Orlando escapade for details of Jaguar concierges).

We found out they would need to keep the Jag over night so we had to find a place to stay. Luckily for us there was a Quality Inn on the same block so we booked a room for 2 nights.

The dealership is Galpin Auto Group, the worlds largest Ford dealer plus – Jaguar, Lincoln, Volvo, Subaru, Honda, Mazda, Lotus, Aston-Martin, Spyker (what ever that is) and Galpin Auto Sports (Pimp My Ride and the new Knight Rider Mustang). They occupy the whole city block. Anyway our concierge suggested that we not walk the streets at night and that if we got bored the next day we could visit the museum (Oh, they have a museum, too) next door. I had somehow forgotten we were in Southern California which was home to all sorts of car crazy people. The museum was cool! Did I mention that when they weren’t busy, Galpin also rented cars to the movie industry?

 

 

We started off with Liberace’s wheels.

 

 

 

 

 

Mary talks with Herbie, the Love Bug.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ramone??

 

 

 

Then a bunch of Big Daddy Ed Roth’s creations:

 

There were several old classic cars, Jaguars and cars being worked on for the Barrett-Jackson Auction.

Then we had lunch at the Galpin restaurant, the Horseless Carriage.

So, although the reason we were in Van Nuys wasn’t all that great, the stay was fun!

What was wrong with the Jag you ask?  It seems Jaguar used gold plated connectors on the engine throttle body, but tin connectors from the wiring harness and everybody knows tin and gold don’t mix, just look at the periodic table. So declining the offer by the used car manager to buy the car, we went our merry way. A little wiser …… a lot poorer…

…….a little slower

 

 Next stop: the coast highway and Hearst Castle