Friday:
So, after spending a night scotch taping my bumper back onto my car, I headed back to Van Nuys to go on the Malibu Cruise. To be honest, I had no idea what to expect. Even though I've lived in Southern California all my life, I've never traveled through the local canyons. Just like the Thursday Track day, Friday started off at Woodley Park with a driver's meeting held by Justin, (MoparJ). Everyone huddled up to hear the instructions and expectations of the cruise. It was important that everyone stayed as close together as possible as this year they had their largest group of cars. 67 cars in total made it! That's incredible! As my friend Steve (68HemiB) said it, "That's not a cruise, that's a parade!"
Lucky for me, I was not Mopar-less for this leg of the weekend. Luckily, Dennis Harris (aka DennisH) got in touch with me a couple weeks before the cruise and asked me to be his navigator for the day. Now talk about a stand-up guy. And Dennis doesn't just drive any old Mopar, he drives a Sunfire Yellow '69 Dodge Coronet R/T. Personally, I have a soft spot for Sunfire Yellow as I used to have a slanty post-car '68 Dart in that color, but this thing was a Riot! Talk about having every bell and whistle needed for a road trip. We're talking about a 5-speed transmission, ice cold A/C, power windows, a suspension that absorbs all the bumps and cracks in the road, comfortable seats, and no squeaks or rattles. You can't forget opening exhaust tips in a tunnel while going Wide Open Throttle. That's a must! I completely understand why he'd rather drive this than his '09 Challenger. Did I forget to mention that Dennis was a cool dude too?
So, off we go onto Highway 101 heading North to the canyons. Daily commuters were looking left and right, honking their horns, taking pictures, and giving thumbs ups to the spectacle they saw on that freeway. Miles long of pure Moparness rumbling along the busy LA roads of Southern California. When we exited and stopped to regroup everyone, the line of Mopars was incredible. There were so many colors. It was like dying and going to heaven, if heaven were filled with Skittles... Lots and lots of skittles.
Running through the canyons was one of those times where you just needed to absorb the moment. Unfortunately I didn't get many photos but there's nothing like taking a car through windy roads and having beautiful scenery on all four corners.
About halfway through our cruise, the whole gang stopped at the Rock Store. The Rock Store is like a little biker cafe that has awesome oatmeal cookies and a nice divey feel to it. It was very cool seeing all of the cars parked on this small, but busy stretch of road and it was a nice break from driving for a little bit. Even Kenny Wayne Shepherd showed up with his kids in his pro-touring General Lee. Unfortunately, not caught on camera, but a Hellcat ended up driving into a small ditch. While everyone was shocked at the sight of seeing a Hellcat nose down with one back wheel three feet in the air, we were all just as shocked to see it use all of its 707 horsepower to rocket the vehicle backwards and onto all 4's again. Luckily, it seems like no damage was done to the Hellcat and yet another memory will be locked into the internal memory album.
So, not too far up the road was "The Charm of the Snake." This stretch of road is actually a pretty well known road for motorcycle and car enthusiasts alike for its winding corners. From an aerial view, yes, it does look a little snaky. Again, it was fun to drive up, but seeing all of the cars in one local was another spectacle to see. At the top of the Vista point we took another break and it was another good time to catch up with everyone, meet new people, and make fun of some of the motorcyclist who were compelled to speed and do multiple wheelies next to all of the awesome Mopars. What were they trying to prove? I don't know, but no one was really interested in seeing a motorcyclist fall and potentially damage someone else's vehicle. The line of the day was, "Why don't you just take a handful of pills to end it all?!" And don't get me wrong, I'm not a motorcyclist hater, just be responsible on the road and courteous to other people's property.
