Northern California in November '08

I have waited nearly a month to write this trip report, luckily I'm sick as a dog and therefore in a perfect mood to describe my experiences which weren't so great. I scored a very cheap admission to yet another SRT Track Experience which unfortunately was due to expire prior to the expected February date for the famous Laguna Seca, luckily another Northern California location was available for late November and judging by the reviews it wasn't half bad.

I planned the entire trip about two months before leaving, which gave me plenty of time to search flights, book hotels and plan my road trip in general. My first logical option was flying from Philly to Sacramento on a super cheap United flight for under $190 round trip... but I wasn't about to start thinking logically... so of course I booked my trip on JetBlue via Los Angeles with the final destination being San Francisco where I'd try out Virgin America service for the first time.


My intention of visiting Los Angeles again was to visit a few friends. My buddy Richard, one of the biggest contributors to my SVT site... who was gracious enough to give me a private tour of his business and more importantly his antique car collection. And my buddy Chris who again was very helpful in my previous travel putting me up for the night at his house in California and letting me crash with his friends in Las Vegas. That trip however was way too short, even though the flight arrived 30 minutes early. I ended up flying into Burbank Airport since I've never been there. Rented a car at Enterprise Neighborhood Location in Glendale. Took Metrolink train to get there which was very convenient and most importantly saved me a great deal of money (total car rental bill was $19, as opposed to the base rate at the airport starting at $95+tax) In between the meeting with Rick and Chris I shot some videos for my new cousin Julia in France, and before I knew it I ran out of daylight, it was depressing to see the sun go down at 5pm while I was stuck in traffic on the freeway.

I spend the night at the Radisson near LAX which I booked the night before using priceline. I intended to stay at a Rodeway Inn in Hollywood but couldn't pass up on a three star hotel deal which was much closer to where I needed to be for my first Virgin America flight. Of course my last minute shinanigans nearly cost me the flight as I was trying to find a perfect post card to mail Julia in France... I realized there was no mail boxes at LAX after 9/11 so I had to bribe a United customer service rep to personally drop it in the mail box on her own time, which she did... so I'll give United another shot one day even after my bad experience to Detroit.


The flight to San Francisco was delayed anyway because of heavy fog. I didn't mind though as the toys on VX flight entertainment system RED were outstanding and far superior to that of JetBlue, although the channel selection is lacking. We were put in a holding pattern over Monterey which gave me an excellent view of Laguna Seca region below. Upon arrival into SFO I took the BART train to downtown where I was picking up another rental at Enterprise Neighborhood Location downtown. I should mention that both vehicles I rented on this trip were pick-up trucks... yes, pick-ups! I couldn't believe how cheap they were, they were literally half the price of the econobox, and I was more than willing to pay the difference in gas money because the ride comfort was superior. I do have to complain about the San Francisco Enterprise because their vehicles were far from what was advertised, pretty dirty and smelly not to mention beat up. After three separate attempts to get a better vehicle I ended up with a Dodge Ram Big Horn monster truck, which was even bigger than the Dodge Dakota Magnum I got in LA. The truck got an incredible 5.8 miles to the gallon as I was sitting in traffic trying to get on the Bay Bridge, but once on the highway it climbed to nearly 18 miles to the gallon.


The ride to Willows, CA was supposed to be 2 hours, but I made it in less time stopping for the night just outside of Sacramento at a Best Western where I was able to use a $50 gift card I received from one of my credit cards. The following morning I drove in heavy fog to the Thunderhill Raceway Park to do my third track experience.


Upon arrival I was warmly greeted by a lot of familiar faces. This time around I actually made some new friends and had a blast beating on the Vipers in a dense fog. Towards the early afternoon the fog burned off and I had an incredible time driving the full track with all its elevation changes and banking, this track was not like any other I have driven thus far and therefore a lot of fun. The highlight of my day was not driving the SRT-10 Vipers, even though I came very close to spinning one again, but instead taking the little SRT-4 Caliber on the full track. It was fun because the car is stick and I was terrified of stalling it any moment. Luckily that didn't happen, but reviewing the video on the DVD I have already received I suck at shifting the manual gear box tremendously. The car was always in the red, overreving and shifting at the wrong points, but I am getting better.


The following two days were awful. After I returned to San Francisco, which was freaking freezing compared to Los Angeles, I found myself with nothing to do. So I decided to buy a day pass for the Cable Cars and found that it was the only thing I really enjoyed in this gloomy city. I also took the boat ride to Alcatraz but was not immencely impressed with it. After riding the cable cars some more I explored more of San Fran downtown and Chinatown, where I was the only white person among like five chinese locals, at 5pm on a Friday afternoon trying to grab something to eat, everything was closed!!! It was a ghost town and I was dissappoitned.

Luckily on my last day in San Fran, upon checking out from the Holiday Inn Golden Gateway, another decent hotel I scored on priceline and much better than the Rodeway Inn Civic Center I was preparing myself to endure, my buddy Amir picked me up and gave me a little tour of SF suburbia. We quickly left the city and went to grab some chicago style pizza at Berkley, it was the most expensive pizza I've ever had at $36 a pie (with tip). From there we went to the Golden Gate Bridge, walked to about half way point, and then he was kind enough to drop me off at Oakland Airport about 3 hours early for my return flight on JetBlue.


All in all I do not see myself doing anything like this anytime soon. Although if Chrysler does not go out of business I would like to come back to the Bay Area for antoher go at Laguna Seca, that cork screw turn is calling my name!

Las Vegas, NV in November 2007

Ahhhhh.... Vegas Baby, Vegas!!! It wasn't too long ago that I was driving down The Strip thinking to myself "I gotta do this tour on foot" and sure enough opportunity came on knocking for this year's SEMA show. I quickly requested my last vacation from work, booked an award flight with Jet Blue and reached out to my California buddies for room to crash when I'm in town.

All this flying with Jet Blue paid off thanks to some award flights I accumulated. What better way to redeem it than on a Vegas flight. I've been checking various routes and the availability is great on Florida and Carribean routes but they are generally cheap when booked in advance, with Las Vegas and other West Coast destination availability is limited and typically the flights are expensive so I really lucked out to reserve the flights that I wanted. Got a chance to do a lay over in Southern California but was not let on a Salt Lake City flight I wanted to check out by going on stand-by. I got to buy my two year old cousin a little California stuffed bear at the airport to add to her collection, so far I've gotten them at every airport I've been to this year.

I got to give a lot of props to a lot of Internet folks that made my trip possible and more importantly less expensive. First and foremost I'd like to thank my buddy Ron from New Mexico for hooking me up with the SEMA passes. Ron unfortunately couldn't make the show himself and had his buddy Albert from Southern California give me the Exhibitor Pass which was really neat. Thanks to both of them! The lodging was generously provided by Chris from California the owner of www.ADTR.net. I've crashed at Chris's before and got a chance to hang out with his buddies but this was taken to another level. We stayed at the Wyndham Resort two blocks from the strip, close to the Las Vegas Convention Center for the SEMA show and close to everything else we wanted to do on the Strip. Hanging out with these guys was off the hook, we hit up a bunch of restaurants, casinos, strip joints, you name it. It was a blast.


Four days walking around the SEMA floor at the Las Vegas Convention Center really took its toll on my feet, they were killing me. I haven't exercised like this in a long long time. I got a chance to see a lot of different stuff I haven't come across before including some people I didn't think I'd ever meet in person. Steve Saleen walked past me by the cafeteria, Hulk Hogan and his son were signing autographs at the Nissan drift car booth, and there were a lot of hot looking models signing autographs on posters. I got a bunch of them signed for the contributors to my web sites, it was a good feeling to give something back.


I was supposed to pick up a rental car for the last three days in Vegas to do some sightseeing, but after my buddy Chris who was driving us around everywhere we went for the first few days got rear-ended by break checking some drunk in a casino parking lot I decided to not take any chances and cancel my reservation. I did end up getting the car for the very last day in order to get back to the airport and hit up the Las Vegas Motor Speedway one more time.


Although I wanted to walk the length of the Strip, after SEMA I just couldn't take another step that didn't lead towards something I could rest on, my feet were done! But we still ended up going to some great casinos. The most notable were MGM Grand where Chris's buddy Freddie got us into "TABU" lounge on Halloween night. We were dressed pretty casually, I didn't even bring any shoes with me other than the sneakers I was wearing but they let us in nonetheless and Freddie bought a few shots all around to get us going. On another night me and Freddie hit up the Venetian while everyone was gambling at Treasure Island. The eye candy walking around was outstanding, especially on a warm desert night. Afterwards Freddie again got us into "Seamless" strip club without any cover charge, that was a very entertaining night, especially for our buddy Chris. The last day in Vegas we hit Luxor to check out the Inclanaitor inside the pyramid and took the tram to Mandalay Bay for lunch at Raffles Cafe, the tres quesadilla's was outstanding as I rushed out the door to get to the speedway before catching a flight. I should also thank Big D, Nick's father and owner of Double D performance shop in California. He took us out on several occasions paying for dinners at Buca di Beppo's where Chris met his monster truck idol, and also at Margaritaville where Nick pulled a nice prank by dumping a double shot into Big D's margarita, it was great watching him get real drunk, real fast. All this mooching made me feel pretty bad about myself so I had to buy a round of fresh beer at Gordon Biersch one night. I'm not a big drinker but that stuff was outstanding, smooth and tasty.


Thanks to another buddy from New Jersey, JT or "Mango" as he's known on the Chrysler boards I got a free pass for the Richard Petty Driving Experience and a chance to go full speed in a stock car, NASCAR style. Of course after we had our last lunch at Mandalay Bay I was running super late and was afraid I'd miss my flight. I got to the speedway at 3pm... the flight was at 5pm and the line to the race cars was about 20 deep. I lucked out once again sweet talking some local ladies and they let me skip about five spots closer to the front of the line. The ride along was about 5 minutes total, but we hit 165mph average on the Oval doing three laps in all. Thanks again Mango for making this happen for me. I hit 100mph in my Mazda 3 rental from Enterprise, driving back on I15 South to MacCarran Airport.


I made the flight Okay, and before you know it was on the way to Long Beach, California. There I was planning to catch another flight on stand-by to Salt Lake City before heading to JFK but that didn't happen. Even though I had originally booked that route, Jet Blue bumped me off of it because they split the two flights and were now charging extra for passengers wanting to go on that route... since this was an award flight I didn't want to waste a penny on it. I ended up having dinner at the airport and doing a little shopping before boarding another plane and heading home. I arrived early in the morning, got on the NYC Subway and switched to a Jersey bound bus at Port Authority. It was a perfect trip!

Links:

Jet Blue: www.jetblue.com
ADTR: www.adtr.net
SEMA Show: www.sema.org
Seamless Club: www.seamlessclub.com
TABU Ultra Lounge: www.mgmgrand.com/nightlife/
MGM Grand: www.mgmgrand.com
The Venetian: www.venetian.com
Mandalay Bay: www.mandalaybay.com
Luxor: www.luxor.com
Gordon Biersch: www.gordonbiersch.com
Buca di Beppo: www.bucadibeppo.com
Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville: www.margaritaville.com

Southern California in March 2007

Wow! What a trip... To be perfectly honest this was about as much a spur of the moment trip as it gets. I joked with my boss that if I could find a sub-hundred dollar ticket cross-country I would book it in a heartbeat and thats exactly what happened. Since I was going to use up one of my saved vacations for this trip I really wanted to go all out and cram as much into one trip as possible. That I did, and so much more!

I got the most amazing deal flying Jet Blue again. For an airline that went through a lot of criticism for something that was caused by mother nature, I give them a lot of credit for doing what they do and how well they do it. I love the leather seats with the TV entertainment system, but best of all they even beat their own advertised price of $149 JFK - PHX by about sixty bux, I only paid $89 each way. Unfortunately as I was making plans my preferred flights booked up and the rates went up but I decided to go on standby and since the night before only 1 seat was left available, I didn't want to sacrifice a full day of activities and sprung to pay $25 fee to confirm my name for that seat. It was well worth it.

I took NYC public transport again, even though it was incredibly ironic for a manager at a limousine company to take the subway, but I enjoy it. Luckily I checked in online because as I got off Air Train in JFK at 7:15am and went through security rather quickly despite the line, the plane started boarding at 7:30am and took off ontime at 8am. The flight was very smooth and relaxing, I brought my own ear-phones so I completely isoltated myself from the noise of the airplane and the sound really was clearer watching the TV on the headrest in front of me. Arrived in Phoenix about 20 minutes early and took the shuttle bus to the consolidated car rental facility where I picked up my vehicle.

I really loved Enterprise in ROC so I booked online in PHX as well. This time opting for the intermediate vehicle. As I was getting price quotes before the trip I really bid up my own price and reserved the Pontiac G6 for $250 with taxes, but a week before the trip I checked again and was able to save $50 bux just by rebooking the same car at a new cheaper rate. When I showed up at the counter there was a huge line of people waiting for their rental cars, so when it came time for me to pick a vehicle I was offered an SUV or a Nissan Maxima... with the gas being so expensive on the west coast, I thought the Maxima was a perfect choise! But the 2007 model V6 SE with CVT transmission was rather thirsty anyway... I put 2,250 miles on that car in 6 days and spend $277 altogether on gas. The car though was very spacious, powerful and had the potential to get me in trouble as I caught myself a few times getting carried away with the speed, it took some time getting used to the way the transmission works in it. It felt like an Energizer Bunny that just kept on going and going as long as you keep your foot on the gas pedal.

As I left Phoenix Sky Harbor International airport I headed down to Mesa for my first of many meetings. Spend some time there, went to the Paradise Cafe for a quick bite to eat and headed out up I17 towards Flagstaff and ultimately the Grand Canyon. The drive was uneventful, and I arrived at the Grand Canyon in just a few short hours. The $25 admission was pricey for a 5 minute visit, but its designed for those that go there for a few days as the admission ticket is good for 7 days. Lots and lots of RV's and campers were there, but I found this to be the common sight throughout Arizona, Nevada and Southern California. As soon as I finished with taking some self portraits at the Grand Canyon, I headed out towards Las Vegas on I40. My goal was to go via the Hoover Dam, but as it started to get dark I didn't really think I would spend time there.

This all changed once I got closer to the Hoover Dam on US93. Just the approach was gorgeous even in the middle of the night. I loved the mountain twisties and then the lit up area at the very top of the dam, so based on that and the fact that I was literally falling asleep I decided to stop at the first hotel to crash. Lucky for me, the Hacienda Resort and Casino was a mere mile away from the Hoover Dam and featured fantastic $29.99 nightly rates. I couldn't go wrong there and immediately went to catch some Zzz's. I got a room on the 17th floor which was about even with the mountains that surround Lake Meade, it was incredible. First thing in the morning I headed out back to the Hoover Dam to take some day shots of the area, especially the place where Nevada time and Arizona time are displayed on the pillars representing different time zones. It was cool!

I was getting hungry after this sightseeing adventure and since I knew Las Vegas was only 30 miles away I decided to have breakfast there. But not downtown, I wanted to do a tour of the Shelby Autos facility at the Las Vegas Speedway and headed out there, stopping to eat at the truck stop, I was always wondering on my previous trips how gas stations can sell these $9.99 steak diners but when I arrived at the Iron Skillet I realized it wasn't the gas station but the restaurant that was attached to it that does this, and it was tasty on an empty stomach. I did the tour of the Shelby plant, met with some Shelby employees and got to see a brand new Shelby GT up close and personal. From there I headed out back to the city and to do a tour down the Las Vegas Strip. I didn't really stop to do anything in Vegas itself because everything seemed so grand and I knew I wouldn't be able to do half the things I wanted to, so I just left it for next time when I will have more than one day to spend in the Sin City.

Before long I was back on the highway taking I15 into California. As soon as I crossed the border and went up into the mountains it started flurrying. I thought it was pretty amazing to see snow in California, but even the locals doing talk shows on the radio couldn't believe it. The ride was very much boring and I only stopped to get gas in Barstow before heading to Simi Valley to meet up with my buddy Chris from ADTR.net I actually spend a few nights at his house while driving around LA and OC counties during the day, having meetings with work related people and sightseeing at the same time. I must have put anywhere from 200 to 300 miles a day on that Maxima, and it took it like a champ even in the LA traffic. (which btw, wasn't so much different from NYC traffic in any way, shape or form)

The amazing thing about California had to be all the hills and the mountains. It really took me by surprise because I wasn't expecting it. I know both Beverly Hills and say Laguna Hills have it right in their name, but somehow everything seemed more flat in the movies. I got to tour the PCH - Pacific Coast Highway or route 1 with Chris checking out Santa Monica, Malibu, Bel Air, Beverly Hills, Hollywood, and many other towns along the way. We stopped at the beach to take some pix, went to a real IRL race team in Oxnard, CA for a tour of the facility and even stopped by Galpin Ford to check out their latest selection of Ford sports cars ranging from Roush, to Saleen to the factory Shelby's. Chris also took me to this awesome BBQ place in Mission Hills which had the most awesome sandwitch.

Of all the things I saw in California I was most impressed with Orange County. The OC made a great impression on me because its an area where I could see myself fitting in. It reminded me a lot of Florida with its valleys, beaches and just the general suburban atmosphere. I got off I5 when I hit a little bit of traffic just to follow the coastal route on PCH checking out towns like Hungtington Beach, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach and Dana Point. It was most amazing, and I must say I probably liked it even better than San Diego where I arrived eventually for yet another meeting. Everyone rants and raves how great San Diego is, but whatever little of it that I saw wasn't as impressive to me. I must admit I didn't spend much time there, I had a quick lunch on a marina in Mission Bay and headed down south quickly for the Mexican border to get a glimpse of Tijuana.

My very first, and possibly last, Mexican adventure took me to Baja California. I didn't want to take the rental car in and deal with all the international insurance or whatever, so I crossed the border on foot. I wanted to check with one of the border folks about my credentials to make sure I could get back in, but before I knew it I was on the Mexican side. Tijuana was dirty. That is pretty much the most vivid image I have of it in my head. I mean I come from Ukraine and there were tourist spots that had similar atmosphere with all the places to eat, shops and poor people begging for your change, but this was definitely on a different level. I spend a good half an hour walking around TJ, taking pix with the local scenery and before I could get tired started heading back but then I hit a wall.... the line of people waiting to get back into the US was incredible. Two hours later, and a freshly sun burned scalp I was back in San Ysidro. The border patrol kept on asking me what I bought in TJ and was really surprised I went there on the busiest day to possibly do this: Friday afternoon!

I was so happy to be back in the US, I just started hauling ass as far away from Mexico as I could. They really pissed me off because I purposely parked at the Duty Free shops parking lot so I could buy my father some cheap cigarettes to bring home, but when I attempted to pay for them they refused to sell to me because those were only for export and I was already back in our country, go figure! Anyway, I decided to take a different route back to Arizona and I'm glad I did. I followed the desert route along the Mexican border going on I8 through the mountains, the sand dunes and miles and miles of desert. The sand dunes on the California and Arizona border were incredible with dozens and dozens of quads and bikers having fun in the sand. I planned to crash at a hotel in the indian reservation in Arizona but when I arrived there it was a real crap hole. I mean I was greated by a lady that told me upfront that the hotel was undergoing renovation. It was not, there was absolutely no construction visible in sight, but the place was genuinely run down. She gave me a key so I could check out the room before I pay for it, and before I even got to it there was a dog barking somewhere near my roon, and some people having sex rather loud. So I turned around and basically ran out of there. Other hotels in the area were prohibitively expensive for some reason. I can justify paying $100 bux a night in NYC, LA or Miami, but middle of nowhere Arizona? Come on! Needless to say I drove until my eyes started closing on me, and ended up spending a night in the car at the rest stop. It was rough, but close to some cool scenery. The following morning I went to an ostrich farm, took some pix with a ginormous cactus, went to the Firebird Race Track for some pix, bought some souvenirs and went towards Phoenix.

The last day of my trip I spend doing something I planned to do since before I had my route finalized. A visit to the Heart Attack Grill in Tempe, AZ for their Tripple Bypass Surgery burger and some fries cooked in pure lard. Oh my god, I was really looking forward to go there but when I finally arrived in downtown Tempe I couldn't find the damn thing. My GPS was showing it on the wrong side of the cross street so I was cruising around like an idiot checking every building out for a sign of the monster burger. Luckily the place where I was looking housed the Cardinals Cheerleader try out so I started gawking at the three or four dozen hot chicks prancing around on the field before my stomach started yelling at me to feed it. When I found the restaurant I quickly placed my order and took some pix with the HOT chicks working there. What a great bunch of sweethearts. The girls had some attitude going but were very friendly and were happy to chat with me and take pictures. I was most impressed.

The final item on the agenda was the highly recommended Pavilions Car Show in Scottsdale, AZ. I didn't have much trouble finding the place and actually made another business appointment along the way. Once I arrived at the Pavilion I was quickly greated with hundreds of cars, all makes and models, hours before the official show start time. I cruised up and down the eisles checking out numerous Corvettes, Classics, Exotics and even took some pictures with an original Shelby GT350 Hertz rental car and a recently retired new Shelby GT-H rental. It was fantastic. I took some pix of a hot chick posing with a Mercedes-Benz McLaren SLR supercar, and ran into two guys with brand new yellow Lambo Gallardos that had NJ plates. Naturally we chatted for a while before I made my way back to the airport for the shut-eye flight home.

The weather in Arizona was fantastic. I was told NY wasn't too shabby either, but for some reason my Jet Blue flight was significantly delayed. I didn't really mind but had concerns as I had to be at work first thing Sunday morning a few hours after arriving there. Unfortunately the uncertainty of when the flight will actually take off really made me pissed so I arrived NYC very much exhausted. I called out of work, got home at about 11am and passed out until 8am the following day. My folks started to question what kind of drugs was I on on the west coast. But hey, 2,250 miles in a few days will do it to ya, its like driving to Miami and back from NYC, stopping in Philly for a cheesesteak along the way, it was a ton of miles but I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Can't wait to do this again!!!

Links:

Jet Blue: www.jetblue.com
Enterprise: www.enterprise.com
Hacienda Hotel & Casino: www.haciendaonline.com
Heart Attack Grill: www.heartattackgrill.com
Grand Canyon: www.nps.gov
Hoover Dam: www.usbr.gov
Las Vegas: www.visitlasvegas.com
Shelby Autos: www.shelbyautos.com
Pacific Coast Motorsports: www.pcmracing.com
Tijuana: www.tijuana.gob.mx
Angry Duck tofu Racing: www.adtr.net