1. It Ain't Easy Bein' Green 2. Hot Wheels 3. Details, Details 4. Sound Blaster 5. Road Test 7. 2010 Snowball Rally 8. Engine Woe/Getting Even Chapter 7, 2010 Snowball Rally, continued
April 2010
Cal Neva is an old-timey casino/hotel that was once owned by Frank Sinatra. Its glory days are behind it, so it fit in with the budget motel requirement. It's interesting because they have a great big banquet hall in all wood - something straight out of the hotel in The Shining. The middle of the room has a pair of stripes - one black, and one gold. This is the California/Nevada state line running through the center. The line continues out to the pool, which in better days was sparkling and clean with the same line running across the bottom. In keeping with low budget, the pool was dark green and partially covered with a rotting plastic tarp, but with temperatures low and melting snow 40 feet away from the road on either side, I didn't miss the chance to swim across state lines all that much.
The next morning we woke up early, and walked down to a deserted, briskly cool beach on the north side of Lake Tahoe. This is the general region where the TV show Bonanza was filmed, and there are tall pines, granite boulders, and sparkling clear water. Lake Tahoe is famous enough for its clarity that they do an annual clarity check using a large white dinner plate on a rope. The disc is lowered into the water, and the rope played out. The plate is lowered until it disappears, and the depth is measured. A look online will probably give the actual records back into the 1800's, but it's a surprisingly deep figure. That lake is BLUE!
Clambering up onto the giant granite boulder pile, we looked down into water that was crystal clear. There were tiny sand dunes from the wave action, and the bottom looked like a giant finger, with ridges and whorls all over. The sun was out, the lake was the prettiest blue possible, and it was framed by thick and imposing snow-white mountains all around the large basin. Air was still and the sky was a brilliant early morning blue. Could not have asked for a better experience.
Back up to the parking lot where I'd swapped out the damaged gasket the night before, and went to the drivers meeting where we were warned of the CHP office in Quincy, where we were to stop for lunch (check Quincy, CA on google earth, and take a look at the main road as it leaves both ways! Gorgeous!).
Today, Sunday would be less technical than the day before, and would be a lot of smooth, undulating highway with high speed sweepers and picturesque mountain valleys.
The run into Quincy was a real blast. The only other fast car there (no, the Ferraris are not fast, they are mortified at the thought of a stone chip, so stay slow) was a 1976 Bandit-style trans am. He had good tires and a willing throttle, so we caravanned at high speed through some of the prettiest scenery I've ever seen. The road was delightfully empty, and a real pleasure to drive.
The Imperial has had a full acoustical deadening treatment, so the cabin is quiet and absent the racket from the engine or exhaust. Until you roll the windows down! Doing so does several things simultaneously: With the glass gone, the pillarless design whips air around your head like you are in a convertible, bringing with it the smells and sounds of the highway and your car. The mountain air was amazing. Crisp and not too cold, the feel of the open highway was incredible. I have a serious sound system in there, and the Ipod means that only music in good taste was played without commercials or skips. This morning was the realization of the work I've been engaged in with this car since I started rebuilding it from the ground up in 2006.
A stop in Quincy at the local pizza joint, followed by a walk three blocks away from the main drag had us in small-town USA on a quiet Sunday morning.
Nobody around.
Silence.
Wonderful.
Back to the car and on to a dazzling stretch of highway that runs along the Feather River as it runs to the central valley and the sea beyond.
The Feather River gorge is deep and the road is right next to the water, with multiple railroad trestles criss-crossing the path. The road here is simply fabulous. Gorgeous scenery everywhere one looks, and a beckoning yellow line threading down the middle as you gradually descend. Farther down the tunnels start - short bursts of darkness where your car's exhaust note echoes and the bright light of the other end rushes to you, thrusting the yellow signs with black chevron arrows announcing an immediate right or left curve just outside of the ragged mouth of the solid rock that the tunnel was bored through.
This emptied out into the relative tedium of the flat central valley of California, with the smell of agriculture and the drone of the larger highways an unwelcome change in scenery. This for 45 minutes and then a surprise! My friend the River Road again, only this time headed into Sacramento from the opposite direction, North. Again: deserted and a quick goose of the pedal drops the tatty looking MGB and 356 (that we'd recently picked up in passing) without thinking twice.
All too soon, the River Road trees break and I can see the towers of downtown Sacramento in the near horizon, and then the route flips us off the RR and onto the outlying suburban streets filled with other cars, pedestrians, light rail vehicles, and those most dreadful things: stoplights.
The 2010 Snowball ended at a restaurant downtown where we gathered for drinks, a meal, and conversation. Everyone alight with the noise of the experience still ringing in their heads.
Would you like to go on the Snowball 2011?
Here are some photos (from others).
This is a good time to do some Imperial spotting (mid-way thru the video!).
The group doesn't really know what to mentally do with my car, but it does sneak into photos here and there (when it's not running away from everybody else)....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/splatworldwide/4554319425/in/set-72157623926268798/
http://www.fulviacam.phanfare.com/4652538_5141530#imageID=98465568
http://www.flickr.com/photos/splatworldwide/4555161986/in/set-72157623926268798/
