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In honor of Triumphfest, which I am presently missing, we've had the TR8 in the shop for the past week in another attempt to get it roadworthy. When we last seriously looked at the TR8 it had taken every opportunity to leak out every sort of fluid it contained. We'd corralled the coolant issues and the oil drippings were no different from any other LBC I'd ever owned as it marked it's territory.


Brake fluid and Power steering fluid, on the other hand, appeared to be coming from everywhere. I picked up the necessary brake bits from Delta Motorsports here in Phoenix and ordered all the parts necessary for a complete R&R (Remove and Replace) on the power steering. The past two weeks has seen me removing and cleaning up the power steering components. Today's task is reinstallation. At this stage of the morning the power steering pump has been installed and the rach has been placed while reinstalling the front cross member. Once we finish the reinstallation of the power steering we'll be replaing all the leaky buits of the brakes, and we should be able to get this old car back on the road!

Jody

http://www.theymightberacing.com

So I took a break from my writing about our road trip to spend a morning out in the garage. There was a whirlwind of activity out there before going on the trip and the resulting mess means no new work until everything is cleaned.



This photo portrays the common leftovers from any given project: used parts, oil and coolant. I've shared this photo to remind us all to be responsible about our leftovers. Now, oil is easy. In the United States every store that sells oil needs to have some means of accepting used oil. I use these great water bottles (which last forever) to store my used oil. This will be taken to Autozone later today and deposited in their oil recycling bin.

Coolant is a different matter. In Tempe, where I live, the city has drop off services for chemicals and such. After checking their list, coolant is one of the things they accept. You'll note that smaller bottle (which originally had juice) is clearly labelled as to what it presently contains.

Now recycling parts can actually add some cash back into your parts budget, providing you don't have to return them for a core fee. Here in Phoenix there are a number of metal recyclers. Scrap metal prices have skyrocketed in the past few years. What I like to do is to keep a collection of scrap until it's big enough to fill my truck and then haul it down. If you're really keen on getting pennies for your scrap then it is very beneficial to sort it by type. Certain metals (copper and aluminum for example) have much higher per pound values than steel.

Remember, we're all responsible for cleaning up after ourselves. Make sure you recycle properly!

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As you drive up the 101 things are very pretty, but mostly mundane until the 101 and US 1 merge. At this point the roadside attractions start to get really fun.

This first stop in the land of the Redwoods is the Chandelier tree in Leggett, CA. Here you can see Andy the Explorer driving through his first Redwood tree! It was a very tight fit and we had to bring in the mirrors but he made it through with flying colors. While we were here a Corvette club cruised through and we got to watch 6 modern Corvettes come rolling up and through the tree. It was a lot of fun. This stop also has a great pond behind their giftshop. I showed the kids how to spot and sneak up on bullfrogs.

Confusion hill is easily one of the most bizarre roadside attractions I've ever stopped at. They have the gravity house and all sorts of kooky stuff. It's well worth having a few bucks weasled out of you. The signs for it remind me of the ones for "The Thing!" out in southern Arizona. The above photo is of the longest single piece totem pole ever carved.

The redwood themed attractions are all over the place up here. There's just too many to stop at all of them. This is one of my favorites, the one log house.

Our travels for the day finished up in Eureka, CA. We met a Triumph friend of mine Doug (saw his TR6 and MGB GT) who took us out to the Samoa Cookhouse, which is a must eat place, and then for an impromptu tour of the old part of Eureka. There are some absolutely beautiful victorian houses there and an old "main drag" that's been mostly restored. I could easily spend a few days just wandering around this part of town. We finished the night by staying out in the garage until it was very late swapping car stories.

After having driven through this upper segment of the state I really start to see why California is considered to be so beautiful.

http://www.theymightberacing.com

The day started simply enough. Pack everything up, get dressed, go down for breakfast and then check out of the hotel. When we went to go retrieve the car the valet came running back up from the garage telling me that there was "a problem." It turns out that somewhere along the end of our drive I'd picked up a very large staple in one of the tires. It was flat as a pancake and had to be changed. No big deal. Got the car jacked up, tire changed, and we were ready to go. Below you can see our saviour, the full sized spare.



Since we had a full size spare there was no reason to immediately find a tire shop. Luckily we'd made sure all the tires (including the spare) were properly inflated before leaving Phoenix. We opted to drive until lunchtime and hope we found a tire shop and good eats in proximity.



Here we are on the far side of the Golden Gate Bridge looking back at San Francisco. This spot was pretty windy and cold, but excellent for a photo. The morning fog was really heavy.



Here you can see "The Menacing Goblins." It's a strange piece of yard art that we discovered via RoadsideAmerica.com. This was out in someone's yard down a dirt road in Santa Rosa.

Here is the Cyclovisk, a giant obelisk made from old bicycle parts. Again Santa Rosa shared with us it's wierd Americana. There were more bits here in this town, but we rapidly realized that stopping for all of them would mean a ground cover rate of 5 miles per hour!

So, discretion being the better part of valour we soldiered on passing up some of the other roadside gems. We did stop and gaze at this view in Hopland, CA. There was a farm stand selling the most amazing cherries. We happily nommed them until we reached Willits where we found a tire shop that fixed the tire and mounted it on the car in 15 minutes! A quick lunch at the oldest restauraunt in town and we were back in business!

(Continued in Part 2)

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After having arrived in San Francisco and checked in to the hotel we opted to try and wander Fisherman's Warf in search of food. Keep in mind that we hadn't slept much from the drive, and were rather shell shocked by the vast numbers of people in the area. It was a total mob scene.

We failed at the first few attempts to find food. Then we managed to find a family place with proper seating. After chomping down the requisite bread bowl of chowder and being completely overwhelmed by the volumes of people we retreated back to the hotel for a nap. Well, Jensen and my nap turned into an 18 hour snooze fest that didn't end until the next morning. The women fared better than we did and snuck off for a little adventure while we were out cold. They say they just went to Wallgreen's, but with those two who knows. :)

The following morning, having stuffed ourselves on the continental breakfast we walked back down to Pier 33 and boarded the boat to Alcatraz. The Warf was much quieter in the morning. This was Jensen's first boat ride and he excitedly exclaimed "Water!" for the whole ride out there (it's his latest new word, and he's obsessed with it).

We were all suprised at Alcatraz. I've always had pictures in my head of the prison part, but the actual prison building is only a small part of the island. It has been all sorts of different things over the years. Today it's a giant bird sanctuary and filled with chicks running around. The other big suprise was the gardens! We never expected to see such beautiful gardens. We explored every inch of the island. It took us until 4 in the afternoon. If you visit, the return boat trip is your best bet for taking full island photos.

My cell phone was dead, so I don't have any photos to share today, but we'll have a pile once we're home from our trip.

That evening we made full use of the expensive, but totally worth it, babysitting services. If you indend to do this, keep in mind that it's certainly not cheap at ~75.00 for a night out, but the romantic seaside dinner with SWMBO was well worth it.

We watched the sun go down over the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz from Neptune's Palace. If you want the good tables here you *must* make your reservations in advance (even if only a few hours). The food was really good, the desserts even better and the service was excellent. SWMBO had a "Cable Car" and I proceeded to watch her giggle her way through supper, so they must be pretty potent. :)

We finished the night with a nice walk along the Embarcadero. Definitely take the time to walk it in the evening, but make sure you're dressed warm!

http://www.theymightberacing.com

They Might Be Racing!, along with the Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance, recognizes the need to heighten awareness of automobile asbestos exposure, which may lead to the development of mesothelioma cancer. Learn more by visiting the Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance.