BUELLTON TOUR – Day 6

4/27/2012,  the last day.  Easy, mostly flatland touring, on these great back roads.  Our first stop was at a miniature horse ranch.

Ray, you can take one home in the back of your touring for two grand.  That baby is eight days old. The mom is less than 30 inches tall. Pat really wanted one of these cuties, even offered to hold it on her lap all the way home.

Then some full size horses on the backroads.

Stopped at the oldest operating schoolhouse in California, non-stop since 1882.

Classes were in session, Ray found out when he stuck his head in.

We took Refugio Road into the mountains just to see the 6 creek crossings over the road. Some folks thought it would be too death defying and didn’t go, but the water turned out to be about an inch deep.  Seven cars took the challenge.  Got to string a video together on that one.

There is water in this picture, it is just hard  to see.  

Got the wobbles on the creek road and finally stopped and did something about it.   It does not take much looseness on a steering arm to make the front end get the shimmy shakes.

Finished off the official tour activities tonight with a prime rib buffet.  Look at this slab of beef. It was enough for three people.

Alberta J. was the oldest passenger on the tour while Mark E. was the youngest driver, Ed A. drove the longest distance in a Model T and Allan G. got have his registration fee back, congrats. Orange County Model T Ford Club put on a fantastic tour.  Santa Clara had the most members in attendance, 18. So that’s it folks, end of tour, and end of current blog. See you at home.

BUELLTON TOUR – Day 5

Adventure just finds you when you drive a Model T.  The weather forecast for today was a few morning clouds followed by clearing skies.  We departed this morning at 9 and within 5 miles we were in a drizzle that lasted all the way to Jalama Beach, 38 miles. So there we were, bumping along at 25 mph on a rough old excuse of a country road, could hardly see out the wiperless windshield, water dripping on our shoes,,,,,,,,,, it was great.  What the heck, anyone can cruise at 70 down a freeway, in heated and air conditioned comfort, coddled in lumbar supporting seats, satellite radio on your favorite station, but that’s no fun. 

Boring through the rain, that is what is fun. Amazing how many T’s made this soggy trek to Jalama Beach.

Weather cleared at the Beach, and whales were spotted.

Quite a few blobs of this on the beach, looked like tar and smelled just like raw petroleum.

Hamburgers at the beach and then off to Lompoc for some antiquing and mural spotting.  The city of Lompoc has murals painted on buildings all over the place.

Here are a couple samples.

 

Tonight, maintenance issues are catching up with us.  Bill Bratt lost a fan blade on the way back from the beach, luckily missed the radiator.  Joe Kirley has a leaking soft plug, Allan’s alternator keeps shedding the drive gear, so he took it off and plugged the mounting hole. Ed Archer changed a leaking water pipe. Everybody will be back on the road tomorrow.  When the maintenance was all done, a little impromptu social hour materialized in our room, and with a little wine and cheese and crackers, like bees to honey, they filled up the room.

Only one day left, hoping for sunshine tomorrow.

BUELLTON TOUR – Day 4

Today was a free day, the Model T’s scattered to the winds.  Some went to Los Olivos, some to Solvang, some to Santa Ynez, some to Lompoc and some to all of the above.  We started with Solvang. (click on any picture for a larger version.)

I found an aebleskiver.

Pat found Model T fabric.

Did a little maintenance, low band was getting a little low.

When it started to rain, we folded, creased, sticky tabbed, stamped, labeled and mailed the Backfire.

This afternoon, the group went to the Mendenhall Museum, a private collection here in Buellton.  This is an amazing collection, check it out at:

http://www.mendenhallmuseum.com/

What is behind this door in a Buellton alley will blow the old car drivers mind.

Want to see more?  http://www.mendenhallmuseum.com/ 

Finished the day with a pretty good rain, looking for sun tomorrow.

BUELLTON TOUR – Day 3

OLD ROADS, OLD BUILDINGS, OLD CARS and OLD PEOPLE

All Model T back roads today, that means twisty, turny, up and down, and bumpy.  The T guys loved it.  Click any picture for a bigger version.

First stop at this old stage coach stop turned out to be a photo op.

And guess what replaced the stagecoaches.

Look, no turns, no steep stuff, just really pretty drive.

The clerk didn’t think they had any Model T stuff, but this group found some.

Burgers at Charlies in Los Alamos.

We paid a visit to the Union Hotel, 1880 and booked every weekend.

No guns allowed in the bar.

We checked out the Presidential Suite, complete with secret door.  Rooms are $165 a night.  You can rent the whole hotel, 14 rooms for $2000 a night.

Just had to stop and admire this big field of mustard on the way back.

Some folks questioned whether this was a pit stop or not.  Pat decided the mustard wasn’t deep enough since all 10 cars stopped to watch.

Stuffed us with Santa Maria Tri-tip tonight plus ice cream with a triple chocolate brownie so everyone will sleep tight.

BUELLTON TOUR – Day 2

We covered the ground today, backroads all the way up to Pismo Beach and back, about 160 miles.  Little misty here and there, lots and lots of yellow mustard covering

the green hills, hard to get a picture of it while moving.

  At the coffee break, we asked what is the significance of the bunny on the Jorgensen speedster?  Well, no one was talking. Gas stop in Guadalupe, are we suddenly in Mexico?

At Pismo, we followed Peder out onto the sand, at least I think that is Peder ahead of us.  Then Peder disappeared, and we didn’t see him again for a couple hours.  Turns out he drove about as far as you could go down the beach.  Methinks you have to keep an eye on the tide.

 

Part of the rest of the crew behind us.

  I think we should frame this one.

The tour bus on the beach.  Notice the rear wheel sunk in the sand.  Took 6 people pushing mightily to get her back on the solid stuff.

Allan also needed a little help, those skinny tires really like to sink in.

Lunch at the Rock and Roll Cafe, in a bonafide dining car.

Bob and his new friend, Betty Boop.

Dollar sundaes at McDonalds which now cost $1.39.  You knew we would find ice cream, didn’t you?

Oops, we had a little parking lot seminar on changing a head gasket tonight.

All in all, a packed day, lots of fun, supposed to rain tomorrow but what does the weatherman know.

BUELLTON TOUR – Day 1

The Orange County Model T Club is putting on a week-long hub tour in Buellton, CA, home of Andersens split pea soup.  Our local club has brought 18 members with 10 Model T’s.  We have 6 trailers containing 8 cars and 2 hardy souls drove down. (about 250 miles)  We left San Jose at 8:30, at 10:30 Mark Edwards (driving his speedster) puffed black smoke from one of his brakes and had to make a roadside adjustment.  After lunch in Paso Robles, our caravan stopped at Pete and Marilyn Pedroni’s house in San Luis Obispo for cookies and a tour of Pete’s garage.  The neighbors sure wondered what was going on when all these trucks and trailers filled up the cul de sac.  Pete is a talented guy with a welder and makes all kind of sculptures out of cast-off hunks of iron.  Group picture at Pedroni’s.

Just one of several inside metal sculptures, can you tell what it is made out of?

This is Pete’s outside cactus made of horseshoes complete with old horseshoe nails for spines.

Anyway, onward to Buellton, where we arrived just in time for the ice cream social in the local RV park.

A few model T’s showed up, I think there are more than 50 on the tour.

Homemade cake and ice cream turned out to be appetizers for us, because then we went to Andersens and had split pea soup.

Did you know you can order unlimited split pea soup at Andersens?

  Returned to the motel and were happy to see that the Archer’s Model T bus had arrived. Took all day on back roads from Hayward. It was a long day but we are ready for the 130 mile tour tomorrow in our Model T’s.  

THE BAKERSFIELD SWAMP MEET

First outing of the year takes us to Bakersfield and their annual swap meet.  And the pictures tell it best.  It rained and it rained and it rained and it rained.  If it wasn’t for the fact that our Bronco has 4WD, we would still be there.


Hanging out in the trailer, notice only the ladies.


Oh man, the mud……