My winter vaca... biblical storm in California and Arizona

[Carmine]

Some of you might have read my vaguely worded post about having an empty minivan in Phoenix and thought; “But this guy lives in near Detroit”… hmm… Well, this was my usual short winter vacation for me and my wife. She finds cheap flights; we get on airplane, goodbye winter. Or at least that’s how it’s supposed to work.

The future is windy

This year I said, “See if you can find something with Feb 19th, that’s the AZ Mopar club HEMI show.” Keep in mind, I’m not going for the show, but if we’re going to pick a random week to escape the cold, might as well look at some cool cars. I also use this as a chance to assess my own automotive landscape and buy something that hasn’t been ravaged by decades of salt and terrible roads.

I will now confess my secret love of Chrysler minivans. Unfortunately the one we have is showing some cancer. Not structurally-failing after 8-10 years Japanese-car rust, but “this thing is looking ugly”-type rust. So I found the pinnacle of minivans (until 2011+, which still costs more than I want to spend), a 2003 T&C Limited AWD w/sunroof. The drivetrains will go 300k (and often do as Uber vehicles). So if I’m going to keep it around a while, I want a nice clean western-example to spray with oil before each MI winter. The van was located in Hemet, California which is a pleasant ride from Phoenix with ample opportunity to stop at Carl’s Jr(s). I ask my wife if she can think of anything fun to do in CA and she answers “studio tour”. (She wants to see the Gilmore Girls set, which I will admit is a cleverly-written show…even if it doesn’t have an orange Charger that out-runs the Sheriff each episode.)

Possibly the last time these sites where photographed before destruction by the hurricane.

So I watch this particular example on CL falling from $3500 to $3300 and finally $3100. Call the guy right before we leave from our AirBnB house in Phoenix and he explains he’s only owned it 2 months and “one owner” apparently means no one else on the title, for he bought it from a used car lot. Also… $3100 is a “misprint”. Answer for that one Craigslist! In other words, I’m losing the warm-fuzzies, but I will still make the drive if only for the studio tour. On the ride out, I discover an identical T&C for $2500 in San Diego Chula Vista and decide to skip Hemet and just run a loop of LA-San Diego-Phoenix.

I bring her to the tour (no kids under 8, so Daddy must watch our 15-m/o daughter and find a way to kill 3 hrs. in LA). But Daddy is cheap and things like the Peterson museum aren’t going to work that well with a kid either. I also didn’t think I’d need a stroller, so I limit myself to places with shopping carts. And now it’s raining. How about the IKEA store a couple miles from Warner Brothers? I need to shop for a mattress anyway and they have the best 4-wheel caster shopping carts to amuse children (like me).



And other cheap thrills.



A good time was had by all and we grab moderately-soaked Mommy from the studio tour and get on I-5. I imagine this is normally a very beautiful drive when there aren’t mudslides, 80 mph winds and trees falling onto the expressway. In fact, a limb did come down at one point and I managed to only run over the edge of it with my rental car. Funny, because minutes before I thought, “You never see these kind of large trees next to the expressway in MI”. Now I understand why. By the time you hit Laguna Beach you are right next to the ocean. My wife says “OMG, you should see the size of those waves!” To which I reply “I. Can. Not. Take. Eyes. Off. Road.” Literally one of the worst and most stressful drives I’ve made in my life, and I used to test cars for a living. Pulling Trailers. On mountains. Once during an ice storm.

 

[Carmine]

So I finally arrive to see the new-old minivan. It’s like standing outside under a faucet. And cold. Being a Gringo-tourist, I’m wearing shorts and a T-shirt. (Being Italian, if it were 5 degrees warmer I would have skipped the shirt.) I make a quick run up the road and make sure the trans gets into 4th gear with converter lock-up. Oil looks dirty, but not hiding anything. A/C and electric sliding doors work. Interior smells like barf and looks only slightly better, but who cares; I plan to swap it with my mint (and rare) navy blue interior back in MI. Paint looks like it was washed by cougars, but not the sexy ones.. The ones with huge claws. Oh well, I’ll paint the whole thing white for the Bill Blass look. Finding a non-rusty AWD Limited w/sunroof is like finding a TNT C-body. Maybe even less common.

So I exchange cash and realize that I’m about to collapse with hunger. Onto the Chula Vista Black Angus ™ steakhouse to treat myself for not plunging all of us over a cliff into the Pacific. I also decide that even though I have a paid-for room a mere 300+ miles away, I’m not going to follow the damn storm through the mountains (or make my wife do the same in a shitty Hyundai rental car). We check into the Chula Vista Holiday-Knights-Red-Roof-6-whatever-the-Hell-it-was for $89 and we all sleep in till almost check out time, then devour a very “continental” breakfast of Fruit Loops, toast and pretty good orange juice.

View attachment 116682

Back on the road and about 30 miles into the trip I feel a vibration coming from the rear end… Bad radial? Don’t think so, tires looked good; so I pull off on the first exit. It looks like one of those towns on C.H.i.Ps. where the biker gangs would hide out. I check the trans fluid (since there isn’t much else I can do) and it’s slightly low. Perhaps it’s just the trans clutches not fully engaged (I lie to myself, because I know it’s coming from the rear). So we go back an exit to the Wal-Mart and I ponder how CA people just take their dogs wherever they damn well please. Not Chihuahua’s, but Chows and Akitas. Whatever…

Of course the trans top-off does nothing but make me feel I’ve done something. So we find a shop that’s open and convince the owner to put the thing up on a lift. We have an hour to kill so we drive up into the hills and look at kazillion-dollar houses that will probably be piles of ash if they have more wildfires, although it seems they are now back to worrying about floods. What I really don’t get is the iron fences all around the property. Serious gates, with wheels and electric motors. Who the hell would come up here to break & enter? Everything is on such crazy angles I’d think you’d break an ankle just getting out of the car; so we don’t.

Luckily I arrive right as it goes up and it appears this place is loose with the “no customers in shop” policy. The only guy who speaks English is up in the van and this gives me the chance to look at the driveline. BTW, the second-language isn’t what you’re thinking; racist. It’s more like something from one of the 7-countries Obama labeled as terrorist (then did nothing about.) I get a chance to “feel the bang” and determine it’s a clutch issue (I hope). The guy offers me $50 for the van which I bargain up to $100 for laughs. Then I tell him “no thanks”. He tells me I won’t make it to the next exit. I said, “You’re probably right, but I’ll have a helluva story. Then I’ll push it down a canyon and ride back in my rental car.”

Meanwhile gears were turning in my head, if not the axle. I know this thing uses a viscous clutch and I figure those are just going to fail. They’re probably bad already, so no loss. So I ease out of the parking lot and as I accelerate, it sounds something like this: whir-BANG-whirrr-BANG-whirrrr-BANG-whirr-BAng-whirr-Bang-whirbangwhirbangwhirbang. Now just imagine that all the way to Yuma, AZ and you’ll know what my ride was like. At points it banged so hard the “door ajar” warning would sound, lol. The radio fixes a lot. My wife said the Hyundai was such a tin-can she could hear it inside the rental; when she wasn’t hearing its own tire noise. But by the time I get to Yuma, the van is essentially FWD and drives smooth like any other minivan. Nothing else eventful after that. At least related to the Van.

Somewhere west of Laramie

Sunday morning was the Car Show and the faithful did turn out. Thankfully we had the coats we wore to the airport. Obviously turnout was low. A friend set me a text and said it was high-60s and sunny in Michigan. Thanks a****e. Of humorous C-body note; the swap probably had 8 vendors. Two of them had ’69 Polara grilles… You could probably go to the Mopar Nationals and not find that many.

I think the idea was to fill this space

After that I spent a few hours driving past Phoenix junkyards in the rain. Didn’t even bother to go in most of them, it was cold and depressing, just like home should have been! My wife went to a mall then came back to our rented place and made spaghetti sauce. That’s good warm-up food. She also fried up some beef for Anglo-ized tacos. We ate the spaghetti for lunch, and then connected with a friend from the Moparts world at Dan Majerle’s sports bar/grille. I ate a Margarita pizza and drank a gallon of iced tea. I guess diets were not observed on this vacation.

On Monday, I planned to take a look at a LHS with 57,000 miles (why not replace both at once?) but it has already left the building. So we moved on to this place called “Floor & Décor” that’s like a Home Depot for just tile. Found the perfect tile for my new bathroom, so I added that to the minivan shipping container. We both like Frank Lloyd Wright architecture, so we took a spin to see First Christian Church in Phoenix.

I swear I didn't photoshop these.

When Tuesday rolled around, the sun was finally out in full force. We had to check out of our AirBnB casita, but still had leftover spaghetti sauce and I can’t stand wasting food. I mean it really bothers me. So I poured what was left into two big plastic cups and drank it the rest of the day while we drove around looking at real estate. (It would have been hilarious to get pulled over because a cop thought it was beer.) I’m seriously considering just buying a vacant acre and sitting on it until I can build something. Who wouldn’t want a neighbor who likes to work on junky old cars and drinks spaghetti sauce like a Dago vampire?

$70k and they throw in the Rattlesnakes for free.

With all that fun complete, we dropped the van at our friend’s place and look forward to being reunited with it eventually. Then to the airport. Back home at 1 AM and at work by 6. Plan on crashing this evening!

 

[Carmine]

More car ****...

Believe it or not, if you erased the hood and bumble-bee stripes, I thought this graphic was pretty cool! Would be awesomer on yellow...

 

[Mr C]

Great trip report. I hope the van works out for you.

 

[1978 NYB]

Nice cars!

 

[cantflip]

Thanks for sharing, Carmine... It is nice to know I'm not the only one who falls into wishful thinking when crap acts up on the road. You brought a few smiles and a few painful memories out with this.

 

[detmatt]

Nice and as you already know, the weather was nicer here at home.

 

[Ripinator]

So I finally arrive to see the new-old minivan. It’s like standing outside under a faucet. And cold. Being a Gringo-tourist, I’m wearing shorts and a T-shirt. (Being Italian, if it were 5 degrees warmer I would have skipped the shirt.) I make a quick run up the road and make sure the trans gets into 4th gear with converter lock-up. Oil looks dirty, but not hiding anything. A/C and electric sliding doors work. Interior smells like barf and looks only slightly better, but who cares; I plan to swap it with my mint (and rare) navy blue interior back in MI. Paint looks like it was washed by cougars, but not the sexy ones.. The ones with huge claws. Oh well, I’ll paint the whole thing white for the Bill Blass look. Finding a non-rusty AWD Limited w/sunroof is like finding a TNT C-body. Maybe even less common.

So I exchange cash and realize that I’m about to collapse with hunger. Onto the Chula Vista Black Angus ™ steakhouse to treat myself for not plunging all of us over a cliff into the Pacific. I also decide that even though I have a paid-for room a mere 300+ miles away, I’m not going to follow the damn storm through the mountains (or make my wife do the same in a shitty Hyundai rental car). We check into the Chula Vista Holiday-Knights-Red-Roof-6-whatever-the-Hell-it-was for $89 and we all sleep in till almost check out time, then devour a very “continental” breakfast of Fruit Loops, toast and pretty good orange juice.

View attachment 116682

Back on the road and about 30 miles into the trip I feel a vibration coming from the rear end… Bad radial? Don’t think so, tires looked good; so I pull off on the first exit. It looks like one of those towns on C.H.i.Ps. where the biker gangs would hide out. I check the trans fluid (since there isn’t much else I can do) and it’s slightly low. Perhaps it’s just the trans clutches not fully engaged (I lie to myself, because I know it’s coming from the rear). So we go back an exit to the Wal-Mart and I ponder how CA people just take their dogs wherever they damn well please. Not Chihuahua’s, but Chows and Akitas. Whatever…

Of course the trans top-off does nothing but make me feel I’ve done something. So we find a shop that’s open and convince the owner to put the thing up on a lift. We have an hour to kill so we drive up into the hills and look at kazillion-dollar houses that will probably be piles of ash if they have more wildfires, although it seems they are now back to worrying about floods. What I really don’t get is the iron fences all around the property. Serious gates, with wheels and electric motors. Who the hell would come up here to break & enter? Everything is on such crazy angles I’d think you’d break an ankle just getting out of the car; so we don’t.

Luckily I arrive right as it goes up and it appears this place is loose with the “no customers in shop” policy. The only guy who speaks English is up in the van and this gives me the chance to look at the driveline. BTW, the second-language isn’t what you’re thinking; racist. It’s more like something from one of the 7-countries Obama labeled as terrorist (then did nothing about.) I get a chance to “feel the bang” and determine it’s a clutch issue (I hope). The guy offers me $50 for the van which I bargain up to $100 for laughs. Then I tell him “no thanks”. He tells me I won’t make it to the next exit. I said, “You’re probably right, but I’ll have a helluva story. Then I’ll push it down a canyon and ride back in my rental car.”

Meanwhile gears were turning in my head, if not the axle. I know this thing uses a viscous clutch and I figure those are just going to fail. They’re probably bad already, so no loss. So I ease out of the parking lot and as I accelerate, it sounds something like this: whir-BANG-whirrr-BANG-whirrrr-BANG-whirr-BAng-whirr-Bang-whirbangwhirbangwhirbang. Now just imagine that all the way to Yuma, AZ and you’ll know what my ride was like. At points it banged so hard the “door ajar” warning would sound, lol. The radio fixes a lot. My wife said the Hyundai was such a tin-can she could hear it inside the rental; when she wasn’t hearing its own tire noise. But by the time I get to Yuma, the van is essentially FWD and drives smooth like any other minivan. Nothing else eventful after that. At least related to the Van.

Somewhere west of Laramie

Sunday morning was the Car Show and the faithful did turn out. Thankfully we had the coats we wore to the airport. Obviously turnout was low. A friend set me a text and said it was high-60s and sunny in Michigan. Thanks a****e. Of humorous C-body note; the swap probably had 8 vendors. Two of them had ’69 Polara grilles… You could probably go to the Mopar Nationals and not find that many.

I think the idea was to fill this space

After that I spent a few hours driving past Phoenix junkyards in the rain. Didn’t even bother to go in most of them, it was cold and depressing, just like home should have been! My wife went to a mall then came back to our rented place and made spaghetti sauce. That’s good warm-up food. She also fried up some beef for Anglo-ized tacos. We ate the spaghetti for lunch, and then connected with a friend from the Moparts world at Dan Majerle’s sports bar/grille. I ate a Margarita pizza and drank a gallon of iced tea. I guess diets were not observed on this vacation.

On Monday, I planned to take a look at a LHS with 57,000 miles (why not replace both at once?) but it has already left the building. So we moved on to this place called “Floor & Décor” that’s like a Home Depot for just tile. Found the perfect tile for my new bathroom, so I added that to the minivan shipping container. We both like Frank Lloyd Wright architecture, so we took a spin to see First Christian Church in Phoenix.

I swear I didn't photoshop these.

When Tuesday rolled around, the sun was finally out in full force. We had to check out of our AirBnB casita, but still had leftover spaghetti sauce and I can’t stand wasting food. I mean it really bothers me. So I poured what was left into two big plastic cups and drank it the rest of the day while we drove around looking at real estate. (It would have been hilarious to get pulled over because a cop thought it was beer.) I’m seriously considering just buying a vacant acre and sitting on it until I can build something. Who wouldn’t want a neighbor who likes to work on junky old cars and drinks spaghetti sauce like a Dago vampire?

$70k and they throw in the Rattlesnakes for free.

With all that fun complete, we dropped the van at our friend’s place and look forward to being reunited with it eventually. Then to the airport. Back home at 1 AM and at work by 6. Plan on crashing this evening!

Really enjoyed your vaca. . . road trip report. But I coulda told ya beforehand that it always rains (a lot) in Cali in February. . .

 

[BIGBARNEYCARS]

Rain in February? That's why they only have three seasons on the left coast Rip. MARCH, APRIL, and BROWN, lol

 

[Darter6]

Road trips are the best ! Thank you fellow Itailiano ! You can thank EL Nino for the weather. Ruff one this year.

 

[live4theking]

Well even though you nearly got washed off the left coast it sounds like you had a good time.

 

[Carmine]

Well even though you nearly got washed off the left coast it sounds like you had a good time.

I find (as I age) that I have comparatively little to complain about, at least on a personal level. True it was an awful drive and I wish I'd chosen a different weekend, but we all came out of it as well as we went in and still had fun along the way. I'm glad my wife got to see her favorite TV show, and I'm glad she doesn't freak out at my antics. I'm happy to have a baby who is amused by spinning in a shopping cart. I'll undoubtably have to rebuild something in that AWD system, but I suppose I'll be that much smarter when I'm done. And I did get a little sun.

Not much of anything to complain about!

 

[saforwardlook]

Really enjoyed your vaca. . . road trip report. But I coulda told ya beforehand that it always rains (a lot) in Cali in February. . .

Where did you get that idea? It never rains in California, except this year, which has made up for all the past years!

 

[Carmine]

Where did you get that idea? It never rains in California...

But girl don't they warn ya, it pours, man it pours.