Field Trip - March Field Air Museum

There are a lot of perks to working in the bicycle/outdoor industry - one big one are the "industry deals" on all the cool gear that I use. My old Yakima Rocket Box, purchased over ten years ago when I worked at Schwinn in Boulder was still in decent shape, but I really liked some of Yakima's new cargo boxes. After a few days on Craigslist, the old box was gone and I had just about enough cash to purchase one of the newer and better boxes. And instead of spending the $130 or so to have the box trucked down from their warehouse, I took a half a day off and drove up to Riverside to pick it up in person.

a typical view of beautiful Riverside, CA

Driving up Interstate 215 ("the two-fifteen" in the typical California vernacular), I noticed a large collection of vintage aircraft just off the highway at March Field Air Museum. After picking up and securing the box, my next stop was to check out the old birds. Unfortunately I didn't have a real camera with me, so iPhone shots will have to suffice.

SNJ-4 Texan, marked with NAS Glenview, where my dad was once stationed

F-4C Phantom II tail and F-15

one very cool B-29A

B-17G Flying Fortress

KC-97L Stratofreighter

artsy-fartsy version via Hipstamatic

A slew of Soviet MiGs...

MiG-17

MiG-21

MiG-23

...as well as a Polish PZL Mielec An-2:
Some of my favorites tend to be the mid-century jets:

F-102A Delta Dagger

A-7D Corsair II

F-86H Super Sabre

B-52D Stratofortress

inside the B-52's bomb bay

nice computer rack

Both cool as well as sort of eerie was listening to and watching the B-52's left elevator getting pushed by the wind.

B-47E

And some more randomness:

happy bird

polished C-45J

jumble of jets

KC-135 tanker boom

H-21 "flying banana"

And, my all-time favorite:

SR-71A Blackbird

With a top speed: 2,193 MPH, an SR-71 set a world record, traveling 5,645 miles between London and Los Angeles in all of 3 hours and 47 minutes.

Oh, and the new box is pretty cool too.
Looking forward to taking it on a road trip soon.

All Klaus Wants For Christmas

A nice, NOS (new old stock) VW Phaeton 6.0l W12 engine. Available for the low, low price of $10,445 (list price is nearly $34k - for just this engine!). Well, that and the highly-skilled labor necessary to install this silky 420 HP / 406 lb-ft powerplant into a vehicle never designed for it. Might as well give it a dollop of all-wheel-drive to handle the output while yer at it.

Five Perfect Things - Road Trip Edition

We're heading up California's Central Coast on a trek to the Bay Area starting tomorrow morning. Here goes with a few things that'll make a great trip even better...

Driving Albums

As I previously wrote, music is an essential part of any driving trip for me. I simply can't hit the road without great music as it motivates me, keeps me alert and forms the soundtrack to so many great memories that are gathered while racking up the miles.

Rocket Box
Our trusty nine year-old Yakima Rocket Box has been a godsend, especially when our "large" car consisted of an efficiently-sized Subaru Forester that generally had a large black lab riding in the cargo area.

These days we're fortunate enough to have Klaus the EuroVan, so the box isn't quite as necessary. However, it does allow us to stretch our legs in the passenger compartment without stuff getting in the way. We also don't have to shuffle the camping gear around as much when we configure the van for dining a the fold-up table or sleeping in the van's bed.

Polarized Sunglasses
I'm constantly amazed at the fantastic glare reduction afforded by my Oakley Five(squared) sunglasses. The key are the polarized lenses that drastically reduce strain on my (very) light sensitive eyes.

GPS
I wasn't fully sold on the benefits of GPS when I bought my low-end Garmin last summer prior to making the move out to California. However, I've grown to love using it on longer trips to unfamiliar areas. Especially useful is the ability to find gas stations, restaurants, loging and other points of interest. Still, I'd be foolish to leave home without the excellent Michelin road atlas and a California Gazzeteer complementing the technology.

Red Bull Sugar Free (12oz)
"Go juice" for someone that (sadly) never acquired a taste for coffee.

and one bonus Almost Perfect Thing...
VW EuroVan MV

(obviously an older photo - it's never that lush out here!)

Our EuroVan MV (Multi Van) is a great road trip machine. It's especially roomy, fitting seven adults comfortably (try cramming seven "regular" Americans into a three-seater bench in any typical minivan) and having the added benefits of a fold-out table, snap-in curtains, accessory slide-in window screens and the pièce de résistance - the previously mentioned rear bench seat that folds into an almost queen-size bed that's far more comfortable than you'd ever imagine a "sofa sleeper" could be. Powered by a peppy and wonderful sounding 24v 2.8l VR6 engine and giving the driver and passengers commanding views of the scenery through panoramic windows while perched upon seats that are designed for all-day stints behind the wheel.

So how does it fall short of perfection? Mainly due to fuel consumption. US-spec EuroVans only received the 201 HP gas engine while other world markets were able to choose from three diesels, netting mileage figures over 30 MPG. If we're lucky we'll likely get about 17-19 MPG (on premium fuel to boot) during this trip. But still, we plan on holding on to this rig for the long haul.

Shocking!

Nothing like a fresh set of premium Bilstein HDs to drastically improve the ride quality and performance of a VW Eurovan. After 8 years of suspending the heavy half of 4500 lbs of German schteel, Klaus' front dampers were getting soft. The van's front end would dive when braking and various clunking noises emanated from the front suspension when going over even the smallest sections of broken pavement.

Picked this slightly used pair up on VWVortex for a whopping $60 (vs. $250 or so new) and had them installed today. Much better-controlled movements. Should have been done months ago.

Field Trip - Salton Sea

Our first camping field trip since moving out to California was this past weekend. As is to be expected at this point, Klaus took us on another adventure, this one a little bit more unusual.

A friend gave us Weird California for xmas, a fun book that has chapters on some of the Golden State's more peculiar points of interest. When reading it over the holiday break one chapter was especially intriguing - that of the Salton Sea.

We traveled west on CA Hwy 78 through San Marcos, Escondido, Ramona and the old mountain mining (now touristy) town of Julian.

On the way we stopped in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park to eat and stretch our legs. We ventured a half mile or so up Lizard Wash (an unimproved gravel road) and found a good wide spot on the trail to stop.
Surrounded by jumping cholla and ocotillo and barrel cacti, Celeste went out to explore while Allie and I snapped plenty of pix.

more artsy B&W stuff, dead ocotillo

Located in Imperial and Riverside Counties, the Salton Sea is the largest lake in California, covering about 370 square miles. Created in 1905 due to a breach in an Imperial Valley dike that flooded the Salton Sink the Salton Sea has no outlet aside from evaporation. Due to this, the salinity level has increased over the years and now stands at 4.5% (the Pacific is about 3% off the coast of California).

We camped at the Salton Sea State Recreation area. While there were beautiful boating conditions - temps in the 80s, low wind, etc, the only thing moving about the lake were the pelicans and California gulls. A few fisherman were on the shore, but that's about it. Thankfully the campground was clean and quiet.

and so castles made of salt
fall in the sea
eventually

everything on the shoreline was covered in a thick coating of briny minerals

In the 1940s and 50s the area was a popular tourist destination with boaters descending on the lake in large numbers. The high salinity and low altitude (227 feet below sea level) allowed for speed records since there is a higher oxygen level (more HP) and the better flotation. At one point, there was a 15-lane boat launch at the state park. RV parks and resorts catering to the masses were built, but by the 1960s, agricultural runoff reached biblical proportions and the water level began to fluctuate wildly. Whole towns and sections of towns were suddenly swamped by ever more saline flooding. We'd see some of the results the next day.

I hadn't yet slept in Klaus, so we decided that all three of us would share the bed. It's slightly wider than a full-size mattress. Thankfully we're all relatively thin.

Celeste loooves the Peanuts pillowcase cover from my youth.

under a full moon

day use picnic shelters after dark

moon lover

After a somewhat-decent night's rest, we packed up our gear and hit the road to follow the eastern shore of the lake.

Old Southern Pacific RR bridge

Bombay, California is one of the cities that was swamped in the 1970s by a combo of a storm and a fluctuating lake. It's a one square mile town filled with several hundred mostly decrepit trailer homes. With a median income of $17,700, it's one of California's most affordable cities in which to live.

anyone up for a cocktail?
"ran when parked"

On the other side of the seawall lays the remains of the waterfront property that was flooded in the 1970s. Not much left other than some old trailers and structures slowly returning to the Earth.
With our memory cards bulging at the seams, we said goodbye to this surreal place and headed around the south side of the sea prior to heading back into the mountains.

One last stop up Lizard Wash for some more fresh air and exploring.
Found a nice barrel cactus too.
Oh, and these Salton Sea documentary DVDs are now in our Netflix queue.