tales to tell: the world's fastest indian

in late august 2004, following the bonneville nationals, i got a call from my brother, mark, telling me that “the redhead” streamliner was going to be used in a movie about the late burt munro staring anthony hopkins called "the world's fastest indian".

through the redhead’s owner, jim lattin – the lattin part of lattin & gillette racing team – mark and my dad, elmo, where going to be race car wranglers for the production, which was going to be filmed, where else: on the bonneville salt flats.

i knew i couldn’t let this opportunity slip through my fingers and asked to have my name put into the mix, despite having just started working for a new owner of kptl and losing all the vacation time that i had earned with the previous owners, the holder hospitality group.

so, i took a leave of absence and began planning my trip to be a part of the production.

i have had several small world connections with kiwi burt munro, besides racing on the bonneville salt flats.

in the 1970s, while working for a photo company in monrovia, california i used to see burt’s bike almost every day sitting in the front of a motorcycle shop in duarte; burt used to leave the bike up here in the u.s. and just take the engine and transmission back to new zealand with him.

also in the 70s, in a quest to seek relief for the headaches from which i have suffered since 1964, i was under the care of a chiropractor in covina, who was a new zealander. one day in august (1974?) i told chris (i’ll be damned if i can remember his last name and he always insisted that i call him chris) that i would not be coming in for a couple of weeks as i was going to go to the salt flats to go racing. he said he grew up around the corner from an old motorcycle racer in the little town in which he lived in new zealand. i told him, “you must mean burn munro!” “how did you know that?”, chris asked. i told him there was only one motorcycle racer from new zealand that i was aware of, so it had to be him. chris told me he used to hang out in burt’s shed, watching him work on his bike and listening to him tell stories about racing his highly modified 1920 indian scout motorcycle. if you’ve seen the movie “the world’s fastest indian” this scenario will sound familiar to you and i still think of chris every time i watch the movie and “tom” is on-screen.

within 5 or 6 weeks of first hearing about the movie i was headed from carson city to fallon to meet up with my dad and brother to begin our trek to wendover on the utah/nevada border.

in addition to the redhead, the producers also wanted to use my dad’s deuce street roadster.

now, before i go any further i want you to know that only a 1932 ford is a “deuce”. not a chevy, not a plymouth, not anything but a ford is a “deuce”! anyone who tries to tell you different is either trying to bullshit you, is foolishly mistaken or is in complete denial.

elmo's roadster: a proper deuce and a "real" hot rod

the “little deuce coupe” that the beach boys sang about (written by brian wilson and l.a. radio “bossjock” and racing aficionado roger “hot dog rog” christian) is a 1932 ford coupe. i’m not sure, since there is no reference to it in the lyrics, if it’s a 3- or 5-window coupe. but, one thing is for certain: it’s no damn chevrolet. back in the days of real hot rods no real hot rodder would want to have anything to do with a 1932 anything but a ford. don’t get me started on what people call “hot rods” these days.

too late!

(ron pointed to an mg the other day and said “there’s a nice hot rod.” i tried to tell him it wasn’t a hot rod and he told me i didn’t know what i’m talking about. this, from a man who cannot drive a car with a manual transmission without stalling the engine, jerking and/or smoking the clutch or grinding the gears when he can find the right gear in which to shift into. typical sports car-guy: no driving ability; just ego!)

btw: the line in the song: “and she purrs like a kitten till the lake pipes roar” refers to the exhaust pipes hot rodders used to build from 1936 ford torque tubes (drive shaft housings), which fit perfectly onto the headers and, not only improved the flow of exhaust, but made for a really nice mellow sound. these torque tube exhaust pipes were commonly referred to as “lake pipes” because pioneering hot rodders raced on the dry lakes in southern california.

so, after packing up the power stroke and loading the roadster on the trailer we were off to “the salt” with a few stops on the way to hunt for the occasional geocache.

our first stop, once we hit wendover, was at the former “state line inn” - now known as “the nugget” - to check in with the producers and secure our rooms. it was there that we befriended one of the production assistants: steve schrader. mark and i would spend much or our free time on the salt during filming with steve and i am still in contact with him to this day. it was also here that we met scott chester, the bonneville production supervisor; scott was the racers’ liaison during the production.

steve schrader and mickey thompson's challenger

after checking-in at the hotel and dropping off our luggage we headed out to the world famous bonneville salt flats.

the first person we ran into was jim’s son, bill lattin, who was towing the redhead behind his ford power stroke. he had been a part of the scene when the redhead is first seen in the movie: towing the famous streamliner onto the salt behind a vintage gmc suburban.

anthony hopkins and the redhead streamliner

after a quick “hello, how ya doin’?”, we drove out to the set, which looked so much like the pits for the bonneville nationals we, out of habit, kept calling it: the pits.

except for placing the timing stand (which looked almost identical to the timing stand i remember from the 60s and 70s) at the starting line across from the pits the re-creation of the pits was impeccably accurate.

in fact: it was downright nostalgic!

everywhere you looked were s.c.t.a and bonneville nationals logos on various trailers, temporary structures and equipment. in 1962, for some strange reason, the bonneville nationals logo was red instead of the traditional blue and this did not escape the art department’s scrutiny.

registration stand

not only did the art department bring back the observation tower missing from the starting line area since the early 60s, they also set up a miniature version of the bell auto parts tent.

when i was a kid the bell auto parts tent was the place to get a really tasty cold drink of water, self-drawn, into one of those old cone-shaped envelope-style paper cups. according to bonneville legend, multy aldrich, it was just the water from the western motel in wendover, which is tasty water on its own, with a lemon sliced into the cooler. that may have been – and surely was – true, but i could never get it to taste that good.

bell auto parts tent, sans multy's water

they also faithfully recreated the porta-potties used back in those days (the real ones were hidden behind pits and other equipment made to look like they belonged there) and various other objects d'art that made – and still does make – bonneville a unique experience.

despite the faithful accuracy of the art department exhibited in the pits there were some errors that, regardless of them not being represented in the final product, were painfully way off. i assume the art guys looked at the pits as being more of a communal place than it is in reality: one pit was loaded with nothing but oil cans, while another had a bunch of thermoses. i guess they envisioned the pits as drive-thrus where you come in to get a quick lube in one pit and a cup of coffee in another pit.

it’s been 4-years since the film was shot, but i think it was the first afternoon that we had our race car wrangler meeting back at the nugget, where we learned important things like: don’t ask sir hopkins to say “good evening clarice”. btw: hannibal lecter never did say that line in the movie “silence of the lambs”. the actual line was: “hello clarice.” we also learned that, unlike most movie sets, we were encouraged to take and post on the internet as many pictures as we wanted. i assume this was to build as much excitement in the racing community over the movie as possible while filming continued in new zealand and during post production.

the next day was the latest start we got for the (almost) 2-weeks we were there. but, we still beat the sunrise. the rest of the shoot saw us on the salt every morning at 0400 hours so we could eat cold sausage patties, eggs and potatoes and be ready to wrangle cars into place; we had to stay each night until 2100 hours.

unloading the karl orr model-t track roadster
my father, elmo, in the red jacket standing next to scott chester

the first part of the day was spent unloading the cars used to represent the race cars in the movie, most of which were not real race cars or not real bonneville race cars. but, there were enough notable cars there to make this gathering an historic occasion unto itself: in addition to the redhead there were two mickey thompson streamliners (“the challenger” and “the pumpkin seed” – which is still being raced to this day) and the “flying caduceus” of dr. nathan ostich: the first land speed racing jet car, which now resides in the national automobile museum in reno. also on-hand were fred lobello’s original belly-tank lakester and the “black widow” rear-engine modified roadster. many of these car were never expected to ever return to the salt and there they were: all there at the same time!

l-r: the pumpkin seed, the redhead, the challenger and the flying caduceus

i love being a part of history!

we also were assigned to our various sections of the set (aka: pits). ours, where we kept the ’32 and hung out for most of the shoot, was in the southeast corner, right next to the art department’s department, which was disguised as another pit.

our pit
elmo in the red cap on the left and me in the pith helmet just behind him

it was also the day that many of the non-racing cars were given attention by the art department to make them look like real racers. dad’s roadster, for instance, was given some authentic-looking decals faithfully recreated by the art department and a realistic-looking roll bar made out of plastic tubing, which reminds me of a story jack lufkin once told me about hot rodding legend ak miller:

back, i think it was, in the 50s when scta first required roll bars, ak bought a long length of salami, painted it black, and affixed it, somehow, to the chassis. at the end of the week, ak hacked-off slices of the salami and offered it to everyone, including the officials.

it was a different world back then!

the rest of the time we were there was pretty much a blur as far as the days and order in which the various occasion took place; we only had one scheduled day off. but, because of a storm that marched across the salt, we ended up with a late start on one day, which the film makers used to film in town.

artist and cousin, jeff decker

one day after that day off, jeff decker, an extremely talented bronze sculptor who specializes in vintage motorcycles (one of jeff’s more recent pieces is a recreation of rollie free – played by william lucking in the movie – riding a 1948 vincent black lightning wearing only a helmet and swim trunks at over 150 mph in 1948) was talking about living his entire life in the state of utah – my favorite state in the nation – and had never visited the mormon temple grounds. mark and i told him about our experience at the temple the previous year, the day before our grandmother’s funeral in magna, utah. we told him how cool it was to learn a bit about our ancestor, henry grow, who designed the tabernacle. jeff said: “one of my ancestor’s also built the tabernacle!” the next day, jeff said he called his mother and she confirmed that the person of which he was speaking was henry grow, making jeff a distant cousin!

jeff's rendition of rollie free at speed

i think it was about the 3rd or 4th day that we had the opportunity to meet the star of the film: sir anthony hopkins, who introduced himself to us as “i’m tony and this is my wife, stella.”

he’s a regular guy and a very sweet man: as charming as dr. lecter with much more reasonable dietary habits.

when we told tony that we used to know burt munro he told us how much we were going to enjoy the movie once it did come out. he explained to us that it was very complimentary to burt and that it was not only, in his words, “a splendid script”, it was the most fun he has ever had working on a movie!

i was really happy for my father to be able to meet tony, one of his favorite actors, and tony treated “the ol’ man” like he was the star: “are they feeding you alright?” “are you getting enough water?” “are you staying out of the sun?”

it was a real treat to watch tony perform his craft and to be in a few of the scenes with him, albeit just a non-speaking background player!

i’d known for several years that tony likes to adlib. and, being an adlibber myself, i really enjoyed hearing him modify and adjust his lines from take to take. many of those adlibs (“it’s a cork – cork from a brandy bottle! what’s it look like?”) made it in the final cut.

another scene that showed tony’s formidable skill as an actor, one in which i was a background player, is where wendy (played by: jessica cauffiel) brings “burt” over to a crowd of people to give him a pouch of cash that was collected for him. the scene goes something like this: tony is perfectly playing the almost-comical and gregarious burt munro when wendy brings him over to the group and explains that they have decided to give him the “sportsmanship award” and felt he could use the money more than a trophy. so, they passed the hat around the pits and gave him the money collected. tony went from being the jovial burt to having eyes welled-up with tears and cracking-voice to have director/writer/producer and personal friend of burt munro, roger donaldson, say: “cut! back to one.” now, instead of trying to “stay in character” tony went over and began joking around with the crew, only to bring that emotion up again after “action” was, once more, called and bring that emotion back yet again. he did that, at least, a dozen times before roger called “cut!” for the last time.

now that, ladies and genitals, is acting!

btw: a brief ceremony was held following the preceding scene where burt’s son displayed the original pouch that burt was given containing the money gathered from the competitors and officials.

other standout memories while filming “the world’s fastest indian”:

• the entire salt flats erupting into an horrendous thunderstorm, the way they usually do on the salt, in a matter of seconds, which put filming out of the question for a day or two. as it turned out, an even more violent storm destroyed the entire set on the day we left to come home.

• climbing, for the first time in my life, “graffiti hill” on the east end of wendover to ring the bell with mark and bill lattin and watch the shoot go on below.
  

graffiti hill

• watching bill drive the redhead below me, while i stood atop the observation tower, when the crew filmed the ‘chute coming out. btw: you can see me for just a nanosecond from a camera positioned in the “timing stand”, which also shows my brother, mark, as bill drives off of the starting line seconds earlier.
  

my brother, mark, packing the redhead's 'chute

• being a background player in the scene where “burt’s” motorcycle is being inspected. i was “blocked” with karl orr’s beautiful model-t “track roadster”, which is now owned by jim lattin. besides “sharing the screen” with anthony hopkins, the inspector with the best lines is actor bruce greenwood, who has played united states presidents in, at least, two movies.
  

me in the karl orr model-t track roadster

• standing behind the camera and watching the video split of the redhead being filmed static and making it look like it’s traveling at speed.
  

prepping the redhead for its final shots

• hiding a geocache just west of west wendover, nevada in honor of the movie as we headed back home to western nevada.
  

elmo's deuce. note the re-creation of the 1962 inspection sticker and the various geocaching "travel bugs'

hanging from the windshield post and door hinge.

it was a very long and miserable shoot of 17-hour days, but i will always cherish that experience!

for more pics from the set of the world's fastest indian click here.

rick comes to town

(l-r) me, unnamed mazdaspeed girl and rick
photo courtesy of mazda

my friend, rick, was here a couple of weeks ago (yeah, i know: it’s about damn time!).

how great it was to hang with him for a few days!

rick (rrinnv to you geocachers) was my primary inspiration and driving-force (or driver) in building the final two rallies that i put together in nevada. rick and i spent untold hours in the deserts and mountains of northwestern nevada plotting, designing and refining the courses that we used in 2006 and 2007; the two best rallies that i have ever put together. not that the 2004 and 2005 were not good rallies. but, by the time he and i started working on the last two rallies i had refined them to the point that the concept was just about perfect. of course, there is always room for improvement. and i now know how to make the rally even better and more effective.

if it were not for rick there, most likely, would not have been rallies in 2006 and 2007! not only did rick invests hundreds of hours in crafting the courses, he also spent well over $1000 of his own money to make those rallies realities, only to have the gbes board of directors stick their collective middle finger at him!

gbes is now just (barely) a social group and, by the look of its website, out of the rally business. i’d be out of the rally business too if i put together a rally with fewer than a dozen entries, as witnessed by last june’s disastrous attempt at feminizing and taking all the competition out of what i spent years perfecting.

you get what you deserve!

but, enough of that crap!

lmp1 audi

rick came for the american le mans series finale races at mazda raceway laguna seca and there we did, indeed, spend most of the weekend courtesy of the good folks at mazdaspeed. thanks dean!

that's me kneeling down in front of a group of playboy bunnies and
spca mascots on pit row below the mazda vip suite
photo courtesy or rick

during the races, and a few days before rick arrived during a western automotive journalists event in san francisco, i was able to conduct interviews and gather sound effects for a story for ron’s radio show: wheel talk coast to coast.

hear it here.

as per usual, the racing was exciting at “mazda raceway laguna seca” (as a responsible journalist i am supposed to tell you that it is “mazda raceway laguna seca” and not just “laguna seca”) despite all the yellow (caution) flags due to crashes. but, if you’ve ever been to laguna, as most of the racers call it, you know that it is almost always exciting racing at the famous track. as far as road courses go, it is a fairly short track at just under 2 ¼ miles in length. but, with the track’s trademark corkscrew turn and hilly-terrain, it is quite a track on which to drive and compete!

in addition to the racing we got in some obligatory sightseeing around the cypress coast’s formidable scenery, rang the bell a few times and even got in a brief exploration, albeit a paved adventure, up robinson canyon that heads south, toward big sur, out of carmel valley’s mid-valley region. what a great road this is! the first half of the road winds through dense redwoods and up into rolling hills where, i am told, one can see wild boars.

View Larger Map

it was not as adventuresome as some or our previous journeys. but, it was fun nonetheless!

we were even able to find a quick geocache on one or our trips over “the grade” (laureles grade) between the valley and the track, which is just north of california scenic highway 68, between monterey and salinas. rick also logged my cache here at the pad: “when you’re a jet you’re a jet all the way!”

all too soon, rick headed back to his home in carson city and the wonderful state of nevada.

with “the silver state” being my second favorite state in the country, behind the beehive state (utah), you never know. i may end up back there some day and rick and i, and/or mark/ivan, and/or willy, and/or kathryn can continue our adventures.

my new, soon to be, short lived ultra-short hairstyle
photo courtesy of rick

willy comes to town

i had another visitor over the weekend.

willy (that would be willy of “the adventures of monty and willy”) drove over last thursday from the gardnerville ranchos.

it had been almost 3-years since our last adventure but that didn’t stop us from having a few of them while he was here.

now, i don’t want to give too much away as i believe that we may have stumbled upon a possible rally course and i sure don’t want to give anything away. more on this later.

we did, however, spend several hours exploring point lobos.

i look at point lobos every morning during my meeting with ron at our new beach in carmel, but this is the first time that i have actually been on that peninsula on the southern end of the monterey peninsula.

wow! what an amazing place: cypress trees; rocky cliffs; blue water; black tail deer; pelicans; moss; lichens and miles of trails on which to hike.

black tail doe and buck on point lobos

quite spectacular!

speaking of pelicans: willy had one swoop down right next to him while we were out on old fisherman’s wharf. we both dig pelicans (the white variety that frequents nevada the best), so it was a groovy encounter.

l-r willy and brown pelican at monterey's old fisherman's wharf

we also took a jaunt down to big sur for general sightseeing and waterfall viewing.

with a little more time to spare than kathryn and i had two weeks previous, we drove farther south to check out the waterfall at limekiln state park.

that is the waterfall to see if you are on the central california coast. it’s a short hike but it does require rock-hopping across a couple of streams to see the fall. but, if waterfalls are you thing, this is the one to visit if you’re coming to or from big sur!

limekiln waterfall

we even risked getting shot by gang members in salinas for a great mexican dinner before willy left early the next day to head back home to the silver state.

# # # # #

yes, you heard right: i’m thinking about a rally here on the central coast!

since i have a regular following of geocachers who follow my every word in this blog to see what i have to say about gbes, i’m not going to write too much about it at this time.

i have actually been discussing conducting a rally in the area with betsy, of the buggy bunch (my newly crowned assistant rally director) for the past couple of months. but, it wasn’t until willy and i reached around the mid-point of the (possible) rally course that i decided i have to come up with a format for this series of roads.

the primary difference between this rally and the old gbes rally that i founded and developed is: there will be fewer than 20 off-road miles. that means that almost any vehicle can participate. i say almost because the one dirt road that i have in mind is a little more than i would be comfortable on which to take my taurus. but, it would be easy to setup an alternate route for those who don’t want to go the rugged-route.

i expect the views, scenery and wildflowers to be no less staggering than the rallies i produced in nevada. it will be a much different rally than the nevada rallies, but i think it’s going to be just as much, if not more, fun!

my next visitor, rick (rrinnv), who is coming next month for the american le mans series finale at laguna seca, has already said he wants to pass on a day of racing to take a circuit around the track. rick, of course, helped me design the 2006 and 2007 rally courses, the two most spectacular rally courses the state of nevada has ever hosted! and kathryn (the mad katter) says she wants to come and work the rally as a volunteer. she might even bring our friend, helen, with her.

now i just need to come up with a fun and competitive format.

the first female president?

with all of the political blogs out there, i generally try to keep my political comments to a minimum (except for the “favorite quotes” in my sidebar, which seems to ruffle a few feathers of my friends and online buddies).

i have to make an exception tonight as i believe i may have just witnessed a speech by the first female president of the united states!

sarah palin has got more balls than barack o(my-god-you’ve-got-to-be-kidding)bama and more charisma than hillary clinton.

sarah compared herself as a pit bull with lipstick. unlike hillary, who is a yappy shi tzu in a pantsuit, i think sarah has what it takes to run this country instead of running this country into the ground.

i am not a republican. but, i am an anti-democrat. in my opinion: john mccain is too liberal for me. but, he is far from the socialistic offerings of the empty suit running against him who has only his race and eloquence as a speaker going for him.

here is my prediction for 2012 (or, 2016): sarah palin and newt gingrich.

until the libertarian party gets their shit together, this is the best we can hope for.

hum me a few bars

the hummingbird feeder that kathryn sent me the other day is getting a thorough working-over.

i half-filled the feeder friday evening just after sunset. by monday morning i needed to refill the darn thing.

i never realized how aggressive those little guys are. one of them has already staked it out for himself and fights the others tooth-and-nail (or is that bill-and-claw) to defend “his” nectar.

the “overseer” perches in the top of the tree near the feeder and when one of the other birds comes up he chases them away. but, right after he does that another comes up to partake in the nectar until the nectar-boss returns.

before i moved to this area i had never seen a hummingbird perch. we used to have one that frequented the bottlebrush bush at the castle and he used to perch all the time. the same with these hummers.

they are letting me get really close to them as they feed. i’ve been as close as 30-inches from the feeder. they also fly close enough that i can feel the ever-so-slight breeze coming off of their wings as they pass.

i guess i’m going to have to look into getting a seed-feeder for the songbirds.

and maybe a carrion-feeder for the buzzards and turkey vultures that endlessly circle the skies above carmel valley.

kathryn comes to town

my friend, kathryn of reno, came to visit me for a few days last weekend.

very nice to see her again after so long.

actually, i did see her briefly back in march or april on a quick trip up to nevada. prior to that trip, the last time i saw kathryn was a couple of days before i moved to the coast. she, rick and helen and i sat above virginia city watching the 4th of july fireworks. that’s right: above virginia city! about 1000 feet above virginia city. interesting to see fireworks coming up at you instead of over your head.

i picked up kathryn at the san jose airport friday at a couple of minutes after 2. from there we headed over to giorgio’s on foxworthy for a great pizza before driving over to los gatos and then saratoga for a cup of coffee (tea for kathryn) at the big basin cafe then up hwy. 9 into the redwoods and big basin state park.

before long we were in santa cruz and heading south on rt. 1 on our way to the peninsula. by the time we reached monterey it was dark, giving kathryn an opportunity to see cannery row at night. we also grabbed the doc rickett’s crossing cache before heading east to carmel valley.

the next morning, after kathryn had the courage to try one of my cups of coffee (i started her off with 1-shot of espresso and 1-shot of water to about 10 ounces of 2%) and hanging out on the bench with the hummingbirds, we were off to big sur for waterfalls, more redwoods and a few more caches for kathryn.

on the way back we stopped off in carmel for a drink at the hog’s breath and a cruise through town to grab a cup of coffee at ron’s favorite coffee house before hitting the grocery store for dinner. i made some kind of stir fried beef dish with noodles and cookies for desert.

on sunday we were off to the monterey bay aquarium. but, not before coffee and hummingbirds, this time with a blacktail deer for good measure.
although we had passes for the aquarium (thanks phil and linda!), we walked in like we owned the place. hey, if you look like you know what you’re doing nobody questions you. i wish i would have remembered to grab the tripod from the car before we got there as it was just too dark and i had to use a really slow shutter speed, which made the shots a little blurry. i had a ray swim directly up to where i was standing. that should have been a great shot but. . .

on the way back to the car we stopped to grab a cache across from the american tin cannery then drove over to seaside for mexican food. after taqueria-style tacos we headed over to del rey oaks for a geocache hidden in an industrial park near one of the secluded break areas. after finding the cache and enjoying a dessert of cookies we were back on the caching/sightseeing tour.

back to monterey and asilomar.

kathryn is actually enjoying lattes.

we left the coastal road and came up lighthouse to frank’s coffee house, pacific grove juice and java. this time kathryn had them step up the coffee content to two shots; i had a triple.

then we headed over to pebble beach for a cache or two and gawking at houses then back home. i don’t remember what, if anything, we had for dinner on sunday.

after coffee (another double for kathryn) and communing with the hummingbirds we were all too soon off to san jose with a quick stop at mazda raceway laguna seca and a quite drive to the airport.

friday afternoon a package came for me from kathryn. it was a hummingbird feeder. it’s only been up for two days and i already have a war going on with several hummers who want to take control of the feeder. i never realized how territorial they are. that must be why they need all the energy: to fend-of the other hummers.

it seems i have more visitors coming soon: willy just told me he’ll be in town this coming weekend and rick is coming in october for the alms race at mazda raceway laguna seca.

time for a change

ok, ok, ok!

i know i’ve been remiss in my blog postings.

it’s been a strange few months, to say the least.

i’ll try to get caught up in the coming weeks as my schedule allows.

but, in the meantime. . .

i have moved out to carmel valley.

the new pad

ron and i moved out of the castle and susie and the kids moved out of the dollhouse back in may; ron and susie and the kids moved into, what we now call, “the embassy”, and i have been staying in my friend, richard’s, hotel: the lone oak lodge.

until saturday, that is.

a few weeks ago, my friend, frank, who owns the coffee house ron likes to call “coffee girl”, told me his tenant in his guesthouse was moving out and asked if i’d like to move in.

so, i’m here.

and i love it already!

the view from my kitchen window

this is much more of a monty-type-place than pebble beach. sure, pebble beach is beautiful, but i like living where the sun shines during the summer and the temperature reflects that season. for example: the day i moved in – last saturday – it was almost 70˚ in pebble; out here in carmel valley, about a dozen linear-miles east-southeast from the embassy, it was in the mid-nineties.

i may not have whales and dolphins swimming practically out my backdoor and i may not be serenaded by crashing waves and barking seals as i sleep, but the wildlife here – mountain lions, bobcats, lizards (the other day, ron called as i was about to jump in the shower. “well. how do you like it?” he asked. “i’m in heaven!” i replied. “i’m sitting naked on the edge of my bed and i’m watching a lizard crawl across one of the rocks in my backyard.” i don’t think ron got it!) and king snakes (which means there is little likelihood of rattlesnakes) – is more montyish. it is also as quiet as it was when i used to live in fallon.

the view from my back porch

frank is a pretty cool guy, too!

we share a love of progressive rock (he’s a big “yes” fan as i would also consider myself) and we are going to give a crack at songwriting. frank is a really good guitar player and i’ve been known to sing and write lyrics from time to time. we’ll have to see what we can come up with. he has a recording studio in the main house.

frank is also learning how to use adobe final cut, a video editing program and i’ll soon start working on the same program. as soon as ron buys the right apple computer on which to use the program.

yes. i said apple computer.

that’s going to be the tough part as i’ve never used a mac before.

i’ve been sitting in front of a pc since 1993 and the two computer types are as dissimilar as they are similar.

well, i was 40-years-old when i first sat in front of a pc; i guess i can do the same with a mac at 55, which i am only a month away from.

that’s right! i turn double-nickels in a month from tomorrow!

it seems like it was just a couple of years ago i was anticipating my 21st birthday.

where did the time go?

tonight's sunset from my backyard

road trip: b&n modified roadster --- part 1

i’m delivering this story in 3 parts - acts, if you will.

when i was a kid, in the 1960s. . . back when i first started going out to the bonneville salt flats, the baddest of modified roadsters (usually, a 1927 model-t body that has been streamlined ahead of the windshield. you can do anything you want as long as you don’t cover the tires and wheels. the cockpit can also have a tonneau cover and roll cage faring.) was the b&n automotive #120 modified.

a brief bio:

after several years in and around the world of drag racing, in its pioneering years, northern californians bert peterson and noel black came together to form b&n automotive and started racing on the salt flats.

after success with a blown gas hiboy, they wanted higher speeds and therefore built, what would become, the world’s fastest roadster.

a few weeks ago, while talking on the phone with my dad, i learned that our partner, jim lattin, had rick peterson (no relation to bert peterson), a veritable magician when it comes to fabrication, restore the historic modified and would be inducting it into his antique race car museum in encinitas, california with a reception at the museum.

after receiving further details from jim and b&n automotive archivist, john sprenger (later a partner with bert following noel’s death in 1970), i decided i needed to be there for the ceremony.

john sprenger

the year noel was killed was my first year to become a part of what would be known as “the b&n bad guys.” i was just a kid shagging parts and receiving melvins from bert’s son, steve, and steve’s friend, frank “jive-ass” silva as we ran the motion 1 streamliner, which was hoped to break the wheel-driven land speed record of 354 mph.

frank "jive ass" silva

it was the greatest time of my youth!

mee sook and i left pebble beach on friday, march 14 at around 1030 hours under a cloud of clouds and intermittent showers on the day prior to the roadster’s induction. we were going to take rt. 1 down to santa maria, then cut over to i-5, but with such a late start we headed east to salinas and jumped on hwy. 101 going south. by the time we reached soledad, the sun was shining and the wildflowers were beginning to open.

i drove east on 46 from paso robles for the most scenic stretch of the day’s drive. the mostly ag-country was bright and green after a fairly moist spring and speckled with fields of mustard blooms and california poppies that were so brilliant the fields looked like they were ablaze.

a quick stop at a fruit and nut stand, alleged to be james dean’s last stop before being killed just west of there, we were on i-5 and heading over the grapevine.

after jumping off of i-5 and onto i-210, it wasn’t long (now approaching 1600 hours) before we were knee deep in traffic as we headed east out of pasadena.

i cannot believe ron wants to move us down to this mess!

before heading down to our hotel in san marcos, we were on our way to my old neighborhood in west covina to visit some very dear friends; popsie and leo, whom i have not seen since june, 1981. before going to their house, however, we stopped by the old thriftimart, now some other small chain grocery store, to grab a bouquet of flowers for popsie (we picked up some chili and lime pistachio nuts at james dean’s last stop for leo). as the automatic door opened to allow us entry, i passed an old mexican man on his way out who was looking at me like he knew me. i’m sure i looked like i was looking at him like i knew him, too.

“is that you, greg?” the old mexican asked.

it was leo!

what are the odds of that?

he had run down the road to grab some avocados for guacamole and was on his way out as we were on our way in.

amazing!

after hugs in the doorway, leo split to get the avocados to popsie while mee sook and i, the only non-spanish speaking people in the market, grabbed a bunch of flowers and headed over to the old neighborhood.

i first met popsie and leo around 1972, not long after they moved into the neighborhood. they quickly became the big brother and sister i never had! i did a lot of growing up at their house. i learned about jazz, how to cook real mexican food and more things than i can mention in this blog. i have missed them dearly and i am so happy to be back in-touch with them after all these years!

it was like i had been over there only a week ago! except that we were all older (gj, their son, who was born after i first became a part of the family, is now the age popsie and leo were when i first started hanging out with them) and leo had remodeled the house, nothing has changed; popsie is still as beautiful as she was when we were young and leo is still the short mexican with big arms and a heart to match.

just like in the old days, we listened to music, ate enchiladas (with popsie’s special sauce) and talked, talked, talked!

i have never loved two people so much, who are not a part of my family, as i do them.

they are the family i have chosen to compliment my family.

their oldest daughter, yvette, whom i used to baby-sit along with her sister nicky, now lives in, of all places, reno and has been there for the past 5-years, or so. i cannot believe it! there’s a good chance yvette used to listen to me on the radio and never knew it was me, since i don’t use my real name on the air.

small world!

far too soon, we had to leave to drive the rest of the way down to san marcos.

the ride down was bittersweet, having seen my good friends and missing them already! i love them dearly!

not-so-bright and not-so-early the next morning mee sook (a little hungover from the wine at popsie and leo’s and the jack daniels and mota in the hotel room) and i headed down to carlsbad to have breakfast with “the gunslinger”, a friend whom, up to that morning, i had not yet met.

i have known of bill for several years and have been carrying on a phone relationship with him since july, but this was the first time we were to meet face-to-face.

again, it was a great time with a great friend! the food, pretty good and satisfying, was not nearly as close to my heart as popsie’s enchiladas. still, i would be willing to return for another meal. it’s just a tough one to top popsie’s cooking! sorry, al!

after breakfast we drove down the coast another couple of miles and up the hill to find jim’s museum. after making sure of its locat, which was not as easy as googlemaps lead me to believe, we went to the hotel for a brief nap before coming back for the festivities.

upon our return, jim’s museum was all i expected and more! what a great collection of historic race cars and antique motorcycles. i had seen several of the cars and bikes at jim’s old museum in pomona, but it was not as extensive as the new locat here in encinitas; indy cars, including ralph de palma’s 2-man miller roadster (besides building winning cars, harry miller designed the engine that would later be known as the offenhausser, which ruled indy in the 40s and 50s), sprinters, midgets (in all variations) and several cars i have been fortunate enough to have driven over the years, including, of course, the redhead streamliner!

mee sook, who knew absolutely nothing about any of the cars, or the places where they raced, for that matter, was completely captivated by all the vehicles, especially the more exotic cars, like the redhead.

but, it was the b&n modified we were all there to see!

and what a great job rick did recreating the look of the car from its heydays back in the mid-60s! the paint (ice blue and midnight blue accents with black cobwebbing in the lighter color) matched the 1967 paint job with the lettering it had in 1965.

i was also able to visit with more friends i have not seen in years! too many to name, but they all asked if my dad was there. when i said “no” they all wanted me to tell him hi, which i would do in two days time.

i was able, of course, to spend time with jim and his son, bill, and john sprenger and frank “jive ass” silva from the b&n bad guys.

damn, we’re all getting old!

when the time seemed right, mee sook and i slipped quietly out and took a short drive down to san diego before returning to the hotel room in san marcos.

it was a wonderful day, but we had more driving to do the next day!