Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

MoPho · Post by **MoPho** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 9:47 pm

A drive is in order....
I'm just sayin'

Post by **Steve Simmons** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 11:04 am

Hmmm... might well be.

MiataMonster · Post by **MiataMonster** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 3:29 pm

I'm probably going to be in Orange County

Post by **Steve Simmons** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 4:07 pm

Well you'll be driving then!

MoPho · Post by **MoPho** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 1:37 pm

Beauller?.......

Beauller?......

Beauller?......

Post by **Steve Simmons** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 2:59 pm

Looks like I'm going to be in Orange County too.

Wayne Gratiot · Post by **Wayne Gratiot** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 3:58 pm

I just picked up my Mini this morning after putting about $1000 into the front suspension and it finally rides really nice in the front as opposed to bouncing along the road as it has ever since I got it. Many thanks to Gary Semerdjian and his Imported Auto Service crew in Santa Barbara for the work. Gary also went through my steering and a few other problems in the last two months. Very big improvement overall.

So, if you are still going for a little cruise Sunday morning Morgan, I'll join you and give my Mini a good test ride. As usual, I'll have my camcorder mounted to film the ride. Just don't lose me too badly!!!

I haven't been down in the Malibu area since all the fire and rain, (or seen James Taylor) and am curious to see it.

Let me know if you are still going or anyone else for that matter and I'll go from there. If not, I will be doing a run down the coast from here to Ventura and then toward Ojai on the Ojai Fwy until getting off right where the fwy ends and goes down to two lanes and then go under the fwy toward Foster Park and onto Santa Ana Rd all the way around Lake Casitas until you turn left onto Casitas Pass Rd. Then, you go the rest of the way around the lake and either go left at the split on Rincon Rd and end up on the coast and back down toward Ventura on Hwy 101 or, for me, head back toward Summerland by veering right at the split and continuing on Casitas Pass Rd which later turns into East Valley Rd as it continues until finally turning left and up the hill on Ortega Ridge Rd toward Summerland. There are some fun alternates onto other roads back there and you can spend hours playing around up there and are always just a few minutes from the ocean.

I can do that run any time so the choice is yours if you prefer Malibu. I've got cabin fever after waiting for my Mini to get done and can't get enough driving fun with just Gran Turismo 4 now so I'm ready for either area.

MoPho · Post by **MoPho** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 8:16 pm

Well, it turns out I have to work in the afternoon, so it looks like I will just be doing a quickie drive.
You're welcome to join Wayne, but I'd hate for you to come all the way down and not get your moneys worth

Wayne Gratiot · Post by **Wayne Gratiot** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 9:08 pm

Probably better to let you go alone then this time. It's not like we don't have other chances in the future when the other guys can go too.

I can run the route up here that I described earlier and then still have time to run up the San Marcos Pass to Solvang and then over to Santa Rosa Rd by Buellton and on to Jalama Beach Rd with it's great variety of turns and hills.

That would give me a chance to really feel out the "new" Mini with all the improvements before I try and run with you guys down in Malibu.

Have fun and we'll try again soon.

MoPho · Post by **MoPho** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 7:48 pm

Drive today was fantastic!! Great weather. Driving alone was quite Zen like

Lots of big rocks fell from the hills, almost all were pushed to the side already, but the roads were lined with them everywhere. There was quite a few BIG boulders that fell too. Some almost as big as my car

Fortunately they were off to the side and had some cones around them

Post by **Steve Simmons** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 8:26 pm

I actually prefer driving alone much of the time. No pressure, no plans and very peaceful.

Wayne Gratiot · Post by **Wayne Gratiot** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 12:00 am

Glad you had a good run Morgan. The weather was great and I enjoyed my Lone Ranger ride too.

I made the run around Lake Casitas as planned and it felt great to have a nice tight suspension and steering for a change. I pretty much had the road to myself once I got off the 101 and on the neat transition offramp to the Ojai Fwy which is a nice tight downhill decreasing radius turn under the 101 and then up onto the fwy.

The whole drive on Santa Ana Rd. and around the lake was perfect and I finally stopped at the top of the pass where you have one last look at the lake and took a few pics and cleaned the windshield before starting the very fun downhill section heading toward the coast.

There is one spot where you can see the Santa Barbara coastline and ocean and I was hoping there would be a good view of the huge aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan in the harbor. Sure enough as I rounded that corner, I could see it easily and I stopped for a few more pics and took the camcorder off the tripod to get a little film of it too. It looks really big from our sundeck in Summerland, but I was surprised at how big it still looked from as far away as I was up on Casitas Pass Rd.

The final stretch on 192 was okay except for a few groups of bicycles where I had to slow down before passing because of limited vision around the turns that I caught them on. I ended up just heading home from there and didn't head up toward Solvang due to the Sunday traffic since I hadn't left home on the start of the ride until 10AM. I have the whole week of sunny days to do that without the weekend traffic so that was an easy decision. After the early morning work traffic tomorrow, I will be off on that fun run and feel out the "new" car on a few more hours worth of familiar roads.

See you guys soon.

Post by **Steve Simmons** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 12:15 am

That sounds like a great run! You need to get some of that footage onto You Tube for the rest of us to enjoy. And pics man, by god pics!

Wayne Gratiot · Post by **Wayne Gratiot** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 12:32 am

I still am extremely uneducated about how to downsize my pics to fit on the site and they are all a little over 800kb. I'll e-mail you a few so you can see the lake and "big boat".

I still can't get DVDs that I make on the DVD/VCR recorder to work on the computer. It refuses to recognize them even though they all play on everything else in the house including the Playstation 2. I was going to make a DVD from the camcorder film early in the morning before heading for Solvang and could make you a copy and run it down there to you whenever you would be home during the day this week. I always wanted to see your MG garage anyway and I still have a copy of the 2007 Labor Day Run for you too. The run today was 1 hour 22 minutes on the camcorder.

Post by **Steve Simmons** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 9:43 pm

Sure, the garage is always open! Let me know if / when you had in mind. I'm, probably working Thursday and Friday.

Wayne Gratiot · Post by **Wayne Gratiot** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 12:55 am

Steve! I would love to come down Tuesday or Wednesday in the morning after the work traffic subsides a little. I could aim for 10AM either day and bring both DVDs mentioned above that I made for you and any of the other runs in the last few years that you might want to borrow to make your own copies.

I'm also open to meeting you at some place like the Ventura Fairgrounds as a starting point to show you the run I just went on and see if you think we could entice any other guys to head this far up the coast for some traffic-free fun roads. I love exploring and finding new roads to share with other enthusiasts and have a few favorites that I don't think many of the guys have been on.

We can discuss that stuff when I come down to your place.

Send me an e-mail with directions and I'll head down whenever you want.

Post by **Steve Simmons** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 12:57 am

PM Sent.