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My fantastic voyage from Oregon to Ohio after buying Rotary510's four-door


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I'm not sure if anyone remembers me, I made an intro back in February.  Anyways, I bought Rotary510's four-door, and drove it home.  Here's the saga as it unfolded.

 

I knew I wanted to take my first paid vacation of the year out west.  I absolutely love the bay area, and February in Ohio might be the closest thing outside of Somalia to hell on earth.  I originally planned to use some money that I had saved up to buy a car or two out there to re-sell in Ohio for a hefty profit.  A lot of cars are worth four to five times more here than out west, simply because demand is exponentially greater than supply.  

 

Then I realized that I might have enough cash to buy something I'd always wanted: a 1968-1973 510.  I've owned and loved many Datsuns, but a PL510 or a roadster have always been what I'd lusted after but never could get.  I checked out some craigslist ads, and had a few conversations with sellers, but then I stumbled across Rotary510's response to someone else's WTB ad.  I PM'd him, and we got to talking on the phone, and I was extremely impressed by his knowledge and honesty.  After exchanging some pics, I decided I wanted his four-door, and a deal was made.

 

Now getting to Oregon?  That turned out to be a royal clusterfuck.  Flying from Cleveland to Portland is obscenely expensive.  It was roughly $475 per person, and I planned on bringing my brother with me, since he's a thousand times better at fixing shit than I am.  I can't even change my own oil without fucking something up.  Flying into San Francisco was $123 per person, so that was determined to be the best way to go.  It turned out to be a savings in cost, but a huge headache.

 

Our flight boarded at 5:40am in Cleveland, and departed at 6:00am.  We arrived at the airport at 5:00am, with just a carry-on and a personal item each.  We arrived at our gate at 5:45...to watch the plane pull away.  Fuck.  

 

Our original flight was scheduled to go to O'Hare, and then head out to SFO.  Instead, the American Airlines people told us that if we got on a flight to Dallas-Fort Worth, they could guarantee we'd have seats there and on another flight to SFO.  So naturally, we boarded the flight to Dallas and upon our arrival...we were on standby to get to SFO.  And we didn't make the cut.  Then, they told us that if we'd just fly to Phoenix, we'd be guaranteed a flight to San Francisco.  

 

We arrived in Phoenix, and upon arriving, we were told that the reservation was never made for the flight to SFO, and we were in about 20th place on the standby list, but that there was a flight to Oakland we could catch.  Upon arriving at the gate for the Oakland flight, we also found out that the previous gate agent never put us on the flight, but there was another flight to SFO leaving...in 15 minutes.  The gate agent's exact words "it leaves in 15 minutes and it's two terminals away: RUN!"  Well, after running so fast that I had my first asthma attack in a decade, we were finally on our way to San Francisco.  We stopped at the Hertz counter, rented a brand new base-model Civic, and were on our way.

 

One important thing to keep in mind throughout all this is that my brother had never been to the West Coast before.  I'd been a few times, and I'm planning on moving to the bay area, but my brother was simply awestruck.  We arrived at SFO at around 7PM, and the plan had been to go to bed early at my father's best friend's house in Oakland, get up around sunrise, and head up to Oregon so we'd have time to put some final things together with Edi (Rotary510) before taking the car home.  That being said, Sam was not having that.  He was struck by the urge to go explore the city, so off we went.  And I couldn't blame him.  Those of you on the west coast have no idea how lucky you are.  Cities as dismal as Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Youngstown, Dayton, or Buffalo simply don't exist on the West Coast.  It was a revelation for me the first time I'd experienced San Francisco, and I'd imagine it was for Sam.

 

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Needless to say, we explored San Francisco all night, and then hit the road north towards Oregon.  I slept for the first half of the journey, then took over for Sam.  Copious amounts of energy drinks were had by all.

 

We arrived in Forest Grove around 1PM or so.  Edi took us out to a taco joint in town that had the most amazing tacos ever.  I ate beef tongue for the first time.  It was a religious experience.  Then we set out to change the oil, fix the brakes, install the trim pieces and interior, and get it roadworthy.

 

Here's Sam and the 510.

 

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The original license plates.  I mailed them back to Edi after the trip so that the original owner could have them back, as he had never really wanted to part with the car in the first place. Look at that stack of registration stickers...

 

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Here's Sam mounting the front plate.  

 

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Here's Edi.

 

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And the happy work crew. 

 

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Priceless, hard-to-find trim pieces not willing to stay on?  No problem.

 

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We didn't have lenses in the license plate light housings...so we made some.

 

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So, we were on our way around 9PM, and the plan was to drive all night down to Oakland.  Riiiiiight.  We were both way too tired.  We slept all night in the Civic at a rest area on I-5 in Oregon.

 

But in the morning, we rolled out.  Once again, you West Coast folks have no idea how lucky you are.  We don't have views like this in the Midwest.

 

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Oh, and I found some hoe to pose on my car.

 

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Next up will be part 2: California

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This all took place back in February.   :)  Not to spoil anything, but we made it back just fine with zero problems.

 

 

 

So in my opinion part 2 wasn`t what i had hoped it would be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

:lol:

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So our next stop was the bay area.  Our base of operations was the Park Boulevard area of Oakland.  I love it so much I'm planning to move there.

 

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We then took it up the twin peaks in SF.  An amazing drive to an amazing view.

 

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From there, we went onward to Haight-Ashbury.  Love it here, the Haight Street Market has amazing food, and there are lots of cool little shops.

 

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We spotted a VW bus on Haight.  My dad used to have one of these when we were kids.  I loved it, but I do remember him having to pull the whole engine out every year. D:

 

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From there, we went through Golden Gate Park, and saw the bison.

 

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From there, we went to Ocean Beach.

 

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From there, we went to the Golden Gate Bridge.  It really is as amazing as people say, you've gotta experience it if you've never been.

 

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Then we went back into the city.  We stopped at Nissan of San Francisco on Van Ness Street.  A really cool salesman gave us some cool stuff, including a set of plate frames.  

 

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He was kind enough to take us upstairs, where we made a new friend.

 

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We crossed the Bay Bridge, and gassed up, where I took a couple artsy-fartsy interior pics.

 

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Next for part 3: SoCal

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As much as I love the Bay, it was time to start heading back.  The route we chose was to take the San Mateo bridge across to Skyline Boulevard, then cut down through the forests to Santa Cruz, and then take the PCH down to Los Angeles.  

 

Our last morning in Oakland.

 

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A brief video of our blast down CA Route 9.

 

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Now, the PCH itself isn't all that great of a driver's road.  Too much traffic, and too many tourists.  We spent half of our time on it behind some dude in a rented RV driving 25 mph.  Then we spent the other half behind some old bastard in a newer Mustang GT driving 25 mph and hitting his brakes for no reason.

 

The PCH and Pacific Ocean near Big Sur.  Breathtaking.

 

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Some shots I took at one of the little pulloffs on the PCH.

 

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It's not a couch, Sam...

 

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We rolled into LA around 11PM, and got a thumbs-up from a couple GTR owners on the 5.  Then Sam wanted to roll around Beverly Hills and ogle exotics through the dealership windows.

 

Lost in the supermarket.

 

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Next up: part 4 - Hollywood, Venice, and Las Vegas.

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Awesome trip man, I remember my last trip to san fran, and more recently to Vancouver Canada. good luck on the way back.

 

on my way back from san fran , i went through san diego los angeles and the whole coast, then on the way back big bear and UFO highway, and then Vegas, then home.

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you pickes some awsome ways to go

The PCH sucks for traffic but the views far outweigh the idiots doing 25

Eddie is a great guy nice to see you made it home safe

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Great story so far! Following this one for sure.

 

And yes, some of us do realize just how lucky we are here on the west coast. A couple years ago, I flew to colorado then out to georgia then drove back to washington. That was a drive...But the entire time I was just thinking wow, it sucks over here lol

 

 

PNW for Life!!!  

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...

Sorry for the two-year delay, but here's some of the rest.

 

Much to my dismay, Sam insisted on getting up at the asscrack of dawn and walking through all the touristy shit in Hollywood.

 

Here's some awesome murals from Hollywood

 

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A friend! I wonder if they're on Ratsun.

 

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Obligatory shot of the Capitol Records building.

 

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One thing I love about LA is the abundance of history...until some asshole tears it down to build condos or something.

 

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This was interesting.  I didn't go in, but I think it's awesome that places like this can exist.  In the midwest the Bible-thumpers have driven them all outta business, hell, in some places you can't even buy condoms during certain hours.  I love California's live-and-let-live mentality.

 

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So the air filter went bouncing down the highway.  Luckily, the good folks at Top-End Performance in North Hollywood hooked us up with one, despite specializing in our sworn enemy, the BMW 2002.

 

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Then we went to Venice Beach, where we found some good views, good food, and interesting graffiti.

 

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Isn't she lovely?

 

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More to come.  And I won't make y'all wait until 2017 this time.

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