OT: Nostalgia-What Was Your First Car or Vehicle...?

SWEET. very very SWEET...!

Was the pic taken on your property Ron, sure looks like Georgia Pine to me....man I miss JoeJah....one of the prettiest stunning landscapes in the Country.

 

Very True.....the idiotic thing about driving here in So. Cal. is none of the ass-wipes give a shitttt about anyone. It's a daily common affair, to be tail gated at high speeds, have ass holes speed up when your trying to get in a lane they're in, yet 100 yards behind me, or have cars pull out in front of you constantly. No courtesy in the Nanny Welfare State, the majority thinks they all have a sense of entitlements, even when it comes to driving.

Here, at a 4 way stop, everyone violates the law, or doesn't know how to navigate a 4 way, and all want to go at the same time. Hell, plenty of people don't even bother to stop....!

In Georgia, people were Soooo polite; at 4 way stops, drivers in the right away, all wave to you, "No, you go first, I insist, no you go first". Very polite people there. Here everyone fights over who wants to go first, not who has the right of way.

One reason I rarely ride my motorcycle these days, I've had to many cars on a 2 lane highway pass another car, into my lane, and force me into a ditch. A common occurrence. I think I'll add a missile launcher or a 50 cal. Gatling Gun to my HD. Problem temporarily resolved....

 

Back in the dark ages when I was finishing up High School, Southern Cal was the place to be. When I saw "American Graffitti it was pretty much spot on about how things were. But even then there were "California Stop Signs" among other things. And the San Diego Police could be like the Gestapo at times but I still have good memories of the place and time. In '73 I was sent to reclassify for a 6 month period of time at Fort Mac Arthur San Pedro. Got down to San Diego quite a bit and found not much had really changed. Stopped there again in '81 and wondered what had hell happened would not like to think about what it's like now. Motorcycles, tried them out when I got to the Far East and after leaving a few the wrong way decided that for me they were the wrong way.

 

Now, we know the 1st cars we cherished, and drove, what's some of your most memorable driving moments, albeit speed, or scraping the ice off of your windows via hammers methodology....

Drove the "back route" from Lancaster to Tijuana, via Hwy., 138 to the 15, then merged onto the 5. Left Land-scatter at 3 am. Averaged 120 mph, in my buddies Porsche 911 turbo. No traffic to speak of, only saw a couple of Black and Whites. Slowed down but a couple of times. Arrived at 4:45 am. 1 hr and 45 mins. 179 mile trip via the back route. tho' it took us 3 hrs and 50 mins.; to get home the straight route, I-5 to the 14, in heavy freeway traffic.- (and that is making good time even on a Sunday in L.A. parking lot Freeways) ....

Pomona to Lancaster, heavy 210 and 14 Freeway Traffic, in my 95 Cobra-Mustang, (who said Mustang's can't corner?), that time with my brother riding shotgun, (who was a L.A. Co. Sherrif Deputy). I hadn't owned the car but a week, while he accompanied me down to the Inland Empire. On the way back, I said, "I'd love to air this thing out, see what its got", he pulled out his Badge, and said "go for it, no one will ticket us, I promise"....
Never got below 120mph, didn't even slow down til we got to the off ramp. Time 45 minutes, to cover 69 miles, but in heavy NASCAR traffic...! A normal 3 hour trip due to heavy traffic.
Funniest f'king thing about that flight/trip, was a YUGO POS... trying to keep up with me at 100mph, with its little spare balloon like tires, (the fool)...

Bishop to Landscatter, 186 miles, 14 to 395 full of speed radar traps and Highway Patrols. A normal 4-5 hour drive, if one stops for food or gas. No stops in my 95 Mustang Cobra, 2 hrs. 30 minutes.

Wichita KS. to Lancaster, CA. 1183 miles, 21 hours in a VW Van. 2 each 20 gallon gas tanks, a port a potty, a fridge, no need to stop not even for gas, (yes, If I had it my way, I'd of never used that port a potty-stunk like hell). I wasn't driving then. That trip was hell....the damn VW could barely go 50 mph up a hill, and the driver my Uncle, had it pegged out at 80 mph going down all hills. One of the more miserable road trips of my life...! That was it, I'd never ride in his shitbox VW van again.

 

Totus-Tom, could tell you better than I, since he lives down near Diego...my last trip to Diego was in 08, and I was stunned beyond my worst imagination. Orange County used to be pretty wide open, more-so than other Freeways. Prior to that trip I can't think of any a building that was more than 4 stories high. Now Orange Co. looks alot like downtown L.A., or Wilshire/Westwood/Melrose and Century City. Tall buildings everywhere. The freeway's have been revised, with additional freeways, creating a real beast of a monster in So. Cal. What used to be wide open from this desert an hour north of L.A. is now wall to wall housing, business buildings, from Santa Clarita/Valencia (15 mins. north of San Fernando), all the way to the Mexican Border, a real nightmare, I do my best to avoid at all costs.

Seems it wasn't that long ago, in the late 80s, even early to mid 90s, San Fernando had sporadic gaps of open farmland, then south of L.A. in between Orange and L.A. Counties, more open lands, rural, and it was easy to make up lost time from the heavy parking lot traffic.

Now forget it, the AV Freeway 14, (1 hour north of downtown L.A.) is often as populated as the Santa Ana Freeway. Basically a trip to Diego here now, takes a good 4-5 hours, depending on Sig-Alerts and Traffic. A real hell hole if I ever saw one.

We're trying like hell to move to Coos Bay, Oregon. Not sure if it will ever happen, but its a must necessary move. I can't handle this heat, the people, traffic, rudeness, screwed up politics, and the overcrowding of vagrants, and minorities (which are majorities in all honesty)....and their self entitlement mentalities....

I know you'd be blown away Michael by the Beast So. Cal has become. Not even a nice place to visit IMO.

 

I had a sleek two door silver Mazda 6 but I cant remember what year it was. It was standard and I loved that car.

 

Definitely not the Blue Suede Shoes, I was expecting....

 

I had a friend, who owned a 84 Mazda, (forget the model number), she had 300,000 miles on it, and only changed the oil, spark plugs, hoses, and belts in that period of time.

Winter of 96, she drove it from Tehachapi, CA. to Little Rock, Arkansas. We all warned her driving that far, with that many miles on her Mazda, in snow too, was not a wise option. She ignored us, and made it to Arkansas no probs.

On the way home, the car finally had enough and its engine seized up. On the freeway in downtown Albuquerque, she pulled off to the shoulder, called AAA, had it towed to the nearest Mazda dealer, and traded it in, on a brand new (same model) Mazda.

To this day, she has 200,000 on that new one, & its 18 yrs. old. Once again, she's not had an ounce of probs with it either....

 

My first tour in Germany was Berlin, no car needed but on 2nd tour I wound up in Hanau and there you needed a car. Germany, fast car for the 'bahn would have been cool but I decided to go for a Triumph TR-6 which sold for around 2800 then. Problem was the insurance for the car was going to be 3600 per year so the TR-6 went right out the window. So I bought a Fiat 128 sedan price 2K insurance 950 a year still ridiculous. Fiat turned out to be an acronym for Fix It Again Tony. The X-19 was a piece of garbage as well.

 

I guess technically, the door was bent way past normal opening point... but yeah... parallel parking was the only option that day...