C5 4me

Yes, please come back! We really enjoy meeting you and your wife And I now know that I have a friend in Switzerland to help me if I am ever across the pond It's really the nice thing about owning a corvette, making friends all over, even if you don't see them face to face! And Again thanks to Tony & His wife for putting this run together & them treating us to dinner, even though we offered to pay, that's a high bar to jump, that he set!

Thanks to Martin & His wife for coming and sharing this Adventure with us, Thanks for Tony & his wife for setting this up & being gracious !

Much Respect C5 4me

Steve W

929nitro

This is one great post. Thanks for taking the time to share your adventure.

Yankeededandy

Steve, you said it perfectly

Before we post the next pictures, do I get a minute to talk about California and its inhabitants? We have spent quiet a bit of time in this beautiful state but some things never cease to amaze me. You have to remember that we're Europeans and might see some things from a slightly different angle, so cut me some slack here.
Let's start with gas stations. I'm sorry to say this, but I truly hate them. I drive up to a pump, full of anticipation for the experience. The pump greets me enthusiastically and invites me to insert my credit card. It asks, if it is a debit, I reply with "no". It then asks me for my ZIP code and I dutifully enter it. "invalid" is the unfriendly reply. Try again. Same result. Add a 0 (ours is only 4 digits), no good. In the end, I always have to prepay at the counter. Always.
Then, when I'm finally allowed to fill up, there's the fight with the nozzle. Whoever invented this stupid vapor recovery system here, please slap him/her from me. Hard. Several times, please.


The opening of a C3 is far too big and threatens to swallow the nozzle with its recovery system whole. I have to hold it back with one hand, while trying not to spill any. How come in other states they have normal nozzles AND are able to suck vapors back? Man.

Once this ordeal is over, the suffering really starts. I was told by some of you that California has something called "summer blend". What sounds like a Starbucks concoction is actually the worst muck I had to put into the Corvette yet. It feels as if the carb is trying to throw it back up . And I'm putting in "Supreme", nothing else. Where are the good old days, when you could drive up to a Sunoco station and put 102 octane in your tank?

On the other hand, Kate and I can't help but love the laid back people here. When we drove up to our apartment in Mill Valley, one of the neighbors came out with his wife, an elderly couple. We know that the customary greeting is not "How are you?", like we learned in our English lessons in Switzerland, but "What year?" Same here. The guy greets us and I reply "69". He grins, turns to his wife and says "the year I first got laid and it wasn't you"

Only in California. Love it.

But now for more pictures:


We left Big Sur after a killer breakfast on the veranda over the river in Big Sur, watching birds. When we reached the coast, there was slight fog which made for a beautiful background. The pictures just don't do it justice

...

Yankeededandy

The 21st of June is our anniversary and this year our 30th. We could't think of a more beautiful place to spend it than on this coast. It is just breathtaking.


We heard the seals before we saw them on a rock, far below


Kate asked if we could take a picture of the Corvette under a single tree. We found this place, parked the car and shot away




What we didn't know was, that the boss of this tree was living right above our car. And the boss wasn't pleased.


So he probably sees us, positions himself perfectly over the center of the car and drops a bomb. Fat boy has nothing on this one. Only a gust of wind prevents it from hitting the interior. But the damage was still considerable.


After that and because of the heat, we put the top back up and continued


It was nice and cool right at the coast, but only a few miles inland, it was almost unbearable. When we neared Santa Barbara, we encountered several areas where fires had been burning just recently. We had been warned that Highway 101 might be affected but luckily for us, we got through without any problems. We had our anniversary dinner in Santa Barbara and generally had another great day.

More to come

Martin and Kate

C5 4me

Kate asked if we could take a picture of the Corvette under a single tree. We found this place, parked the car and shot away



You both have a good eye for taking beautiful photos

Yellow1980

Dirty Dalton

I'm feeling spoiled.

929nitro

Happy Anniversary.

Luv2Giddyup

A few photos from the Mill Valley group.

Luv2Giddyup

One more. ��

Yellow1980

Thanks for cruising with us and sharing your pics.

doorgunner

Great pics from Everyone........and Congrats on your Anniversary!

C5 4me

OMG!!! This picture is BadAzz!

Yellow1980

stocki26

you guys live in the best country to cruise around with an old corvette

AND you for sure made Kate and Martin a day never to forget ...

Damn, what would I have given also to be able to be a part of it - but it has been also nice to see it from here

in the meantime I found a place that nearly makes me think I am in USA



yes, we have some buffaloes here in Austria

Dirty Dalton

And we have some alphorns in the US!

Yankeededandy

We all live in the same small world, don't we?

Time to post the last chapter:

We had two more things on our bucket list. The first was a picture of our Corvette in some kind of surfing theme. So we left Santa Barbara and drove one more time down the coast towards Malibu and Venice Beach. First try, no one on duty here


Somehow we ended up on Muscle Beach and of course we found our surfers here. There was a VW micro bus with a cardboard sign saying Surfing Instructors parked at the beach. So we asked the guys if we could borrow a board to take a picture. The reply was "Dude, if you let us take a picture of us in the car with the surf board, we're going to get at least 5 more likes on Facebook. Let's do it".
You might be able to tell that I'm not a surfer. Dude rolled his eyes and face palmed a couple of times watching me trying to get the board properly put in.


But we got the shot eventually. Surf's Up.

...

blue67ragtop

That is one cool shot. Thanks for bringing us along on what looks to have been a great journey. Safe travels Martin and Kate.

Yankeededandy

Our second and last item on the list was a visit to the Stahl House. I don't know how many of you are familiar with the name. I wasn't until Kate pointed it out and asked if we could visit it. When I saw it, I remembered and I guess almost everybody here will too: It has been a famous background for many movies, TV series and countless photo shoots over the past 50 years.
For us, it really captured that "spirit of the City Of Angels" of the 60s.
We drove up (private gated road in the hills overlooking Sunset Boulevard, by appointment only) and parked in the car port. The view was simply stunning.


Beats a visit to Universal Studio anytime for us.


That iconic view through the window. But usually, there's a long legged model sitting in that chair instead of me . Or at least some Hollywood movie star.


We were enchanted by the Stahl House. That was a "wow" moment and a fitting finale to our tour.

...

Yankeededandy

We couldn't postpone it any longer. We needed to drop the Corvette off to get ready for our return. One last trip through Beverly Hills and Hollywood.


After almost 4500 miles, the Corvette decided it was time for one more unplanned stop only 50 miles from our final destination. What's missing in this picture?


Yep, one last nasty bump on the Freeway and the bracket holding the right muffler finally gave up. There was a bang and a huge racket. We were in the car pool lane, waved frantically, and crossed 5 lanes to catch an exit. At the bottom I investigated the damage.


The tube was badly banged up and bent out of shape. I tried for an hour to get it back on but it was useless. I finally gave up and we drove the last miles making a little more noise than usual.


Garry laughed when we parked in front of his garage. But we made it. Lucky for us, there seems to be a lot less to repair on the car than we feared. The shifter linkage really seems just to be an adjustment thing. The muffler will be put back on, the parking brake handle needs to be replaced and the the engine needs a tune up, that's about it. Even with the clutch problem we had, the Corvette held up pretty good. We never needed AAA and we were able to drive every single mile we had planned on this trip.
Would we do it again? In a heartbeat, without blinking an eye. Kate and I had the time of our life. We picked up our rental pick up, drove back to Santa Monica to spend the night, shopped till we dropped and flew back to Switzerland.

This, dear friends of the Corvette Community, was the story of a Swiss couple doing a little road trip through the West of the United States in a convertible 69 (of course red) Corvette. Thank you all for following, giving us tipps, meeting some of you in person and making new friends.

Remember: Keep those old Corvettes on the road.

Martin and Kate