1000 mile roadtrip in the 65 Impala.

rebeldryver

One thing people who own old cars are often scared to do is take them on a road trip. I guess it comes from fear that it will break down. Others just don't believe the Chevelle they spent $80,000 restoring is in good enough shape for a long haul. Or, my personal favorite; it doesn't have AC. OK. : Smile

When I bought my 65 Impala, the first thing I knew I had to do was make it reliable enough to drive anywhere, anytime. I had no choice because for 6 years it was my only transportation.

There are a few things you need, of course. A decent motor, good carb, ignition, charging, battery, and cooling system. The suspension and brakes needs to be in good enough working order to be safe at freeway speeds. I carry my tool box and a few fluids (oil, anti-freeze, brake fluid, and power steering fluid). Since the wiring harness under the dash has been spliced and repaired, I carry some electrical supplies ( wire, solderless connectors, tape, crimping tool). If the car has an issue, I can pretty much handle anything that happens on the road and have.

Still people often look at me as if I'm nuts when I tell them I'm driving that 45 year old car on a trip covering close to 1000 miles in a weekend. That's what I did this past weekend. I drove my 65 Impala SS to see my Mom for her 70th birthday. She lives about 425 miles north of me in Rio Vista. I packed up my my car and headed out the door early Friday morning.

Heres the car all packed up. Since I was going solo, I loaded up the front passenger seat for less reaching of supplies. The black back pack acts as a my brief case at work. It's got some junk food in one of the pockets. Yes the seat is falling apart, but it's still comfy.

First stop was the local gas station for tank fill and check of fluids. All looked good, although my oil looks as if I will need to change it when I get back home.

A short time after hitting the road, I came across another classic road tripping, or commuting. Nice Stang. I'm on I-5 here about to go over the Newhall Pass.

The first big challenge for an old car like mine is the Grapevine. It's the section of I-5 north of LA that goes over the Angeles Forest Mountains towards the San Joaquin Valley. You basically climb from about 100 ft elevation to 4144 at the top of the Tejon Pass. There is often a lot of wind up here.

Evidence of speed. My Impala really likes this speed. She hunkers down and just goes.

Near on the top of the Tejon Pass is the old cavalry post of Ft Tejon. I've driven past this place dozens of times and always thought about stopping. Today, I did. Very cool. There was a post here from 1854 to 1864. It was abandoned after that. It's amazing anything still stands here.

The last standing of the two barracks buildings. It's in amazing shape since was built with mud bricks and wood.

Behind the barracks was the barn, though it looked more like a shop inside. It had a woodshop, a tack room, and blacksmith. There was a cannon looking back at me from this window.

Across the parade area was the Commanding Officers quarters. He got his own house. Fancy schmancy. It's four rooms not including the kitchen shed attached to the back of the house. That building behind it that looks like a brig is actually the Lt's quarters. Inside the house, it was really nice and cool.

The Lt's quarters.

Really nice place. Nice views too.

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rebeldryver · Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 3:06 am Post subject:

The Grapevine is actually the nickname truckers gave for the grade coming down from the Tejon Pass. I think it's a an 8% grade. It's pretty damn steep. You gotta watch your speed here. The Chippy's like to set up speed traps along it.

At the bottom of the grade you get a great view of the San Joaquin Valley. That's the run away truck lane on the left. If that doesn't stop the truck it looks like it would launched like a missile and 80 tons of semi would be crashing in downtown Bakersfield.

At got a bit of scare as I was doing about 90 when I caught this in my mirror.

Very cool old CHP Dodge Polara. I think he did that to give me a heart attack.

People say that the this valley is the bread basket of the US. I don't those people have been to the Ohio Valley or the plains states. Those of you that are wine drinkers must be increasing in number because every year there are more and more grape vines growing here.

At the half way point to Sacramento and San Francisco is the famous Harris Ranch. People used to fly up here from SoCal in their private planes and land right behind the restaurant to get a steak here. Now, it's just a tourist trap with so-so food.

Phew!! I found the supply of cattle for Harris Ranch. Damn, that's a lot of cattle.

The California Aquaduct runs pretty right next to I-5 nearly all the way to Stockton. It's a subject of huge conterversary til this day. Farmers aren't happy all this water is going to LA. The big stink happened before the bill was even passed as a reporter happened to be flying down the valley and saw it already being built. I suppose they didn't think anyone would notice a big ditch being dug through here.

My second and last gas stop. Car running great. Staying right at 190* even though it's above 90 outside. About here I'm rethinking the idea of painting the car black.

Here's the data up to this point. First, leg was 131 miles and I got 15.24 mpg. The second leg I drove 161 miles and got 16.81 mpg. Not bad considering the speed I was going.
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rebeldryver · Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 3:07 am Post subject:

The last leg is only 118 miles. After a long hot day on the freeway; I wanted to decompress a little bit by taking a bit more scenic route. I turn off of I-5 at Hwy 12 heading east (NAS Backyard's neighborhood). Off of Hwy 12 is a scenic 10 mile Delta Loop. The Sacramento River spreads out into the delta with hundreds of tributaries and sloughs creating about 1100 miles of water ways. Lots of boating around here.

Hwy 12 has three draw bridges between I-5 and Rio Vista.

Lots of nice scenery around this area. That's Mt Diablo in the background. It can be seen all across the valley and all the way to the west side of San Francisco Bay.

On the Delta Loop there are quite a few marinas and resort areas. This is Perry's Marina. It was for sale forever. Looks like it's new owner cleaned up the place.

Jackson Slough.

Look closely. The water on the left is way higher the ground level on the right. I'm driving on the levy that was probably built in the early part of the 20th century.

The view at Korth's Pirate Cove. By far one of the nicest resorts on the Loop.

On up the road at a tiny little dumpy marina. It looks like someone lost their barge.

The owner of that red, white and blue boat started restoring it in earnest a couple years ago. Looks like he's in the middle of scraping off twenty coats of paint.

This is a common site. That's a crane dredger on a barge to used to keep the silt build up from closing a channel. This one has been sitting here for quite some time. There are about four broken up boats behind the crane on the deck.

When I first saw this, I thought it was a boat in a field of flowers. Nope. It's a boat in the water full of water blooming water plants. Behind me was a big black Angus bull. He suddenly thought my black car was an intruder. There was no fence between me and him, so I got in the car and took off, quickly.

Looking at the Rio Vista Bridge. The Sacramento is pretty darn wide and deep here. Two Gray whales came up the river from the bay and hung out here for about a week a few years ago. There was 24 hr Coast Guard to keep people away for fear of hitting the whales with boat props.

Around the corner from downtown is Craig Breedlove's shop. This is where he built the cars to try to break the sound barrier. I've never seen it open.

Just west of town, these giant wind mills are everywhere and seems like more every week. Green power.

Made it to Mom's place. Scared all the old folks around here. I like being able to bring down the property values just by driving through the neighborhood.

More to come......
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rebeldryver · Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 3:09 am Post subject:

Day two, Saturday: I spent the day with my Mom and her twin sister in celebration of their birthdays. We went shopping. : Smile

Their favorite past time. Thank goodness they are slowing down because they used to leave me behind.

Day three, Sunday: My plan was to spend it with Malkeet, my good friend, in Sacramento. He's working graveyards at the Union Pacific yard, so he sleeps during the day. I had time to kill. I decided to fix some of the heat coming in the car problems that I dealt with on the way north. There was hot in coming in through the firewall cooking the front of my right shin; and there was hot air baking the back of my right calf as well. The other problem is that the footwell vent kept opening and my feet were getting periodic blasts of hot air because it's no longer connected to the cable. Today was even hotter than Friday. The expected high was above 110*. Yeesh.

I evicted Mom's Honda from her garage so I work on level ground, out of the sun.

Mothers and their endless quest for pictures of their kids.

The hot air coming in from the firewall was from this hole. The vacuum line is for the gauge in the dash and the copper line goes to the Auto Meter oil pressure gauge. The factory grommet was brittle from age and broke in two and fell out when II replaced the copper line to oil gauge. I kept the pieces.

I put the pieces of the grommet back in, but a big piece of was missing. I filled in the rest with RTV red plugging the hole. I also happened to find my RTV black not two minutes after I finished this. Typical.

This was the cause of my calf being cooked like a leg of lamb. This was originally a big slice in the floorboard when I bought the car. It's also the reason for replacing the driver's side floor pan.

This is the reason for the insane hot air coming through the floor. It's right above the exhaust pipe. I don't think goops of RTV will fix this, so I made a trip to the local Napa and got some two part epoxy.

After getting the epoxy for the floorboard and Water Wetter to help keep the cooling system a little cooler, I felt it was time to get some lunch. Gemma's is right on Hwy 12 in Rio Vista and serves great burgers and onion rings.

Because I still had a couple hours to kill before meeting up with Mal, I decided to take the more scenic route to Sacramento driving up the river road. It's Hwy 160 that literally runs run along the levy for the Sacramento River. Along the route are a number of small towns that look like they've been stuck in time for the last 50 years.

Just north of Hwy 12 on 160 is Veiera's Resort and Marina. It's a rather large place with a marina, bar/grill/ bait shop and an office for getting fishing license's and such. There are also many little cabins and privately owned little homes. They also have their own boat ramp.

There was one little home for sale, but alas the owner was out of town so I couldn't make an inquiry about it.

A little farther north is this cluster of homes along the river. Betcha they ain't cheap.

Just four miles north of hwy 12 is Isleton. It's the largest of the towns (population 954, according to the sign) along the river between Rio Vista and Sacramento. There's even a little hotel and casino here. Isleton Joe's serves great food and has live music nearly nightly during the summer. Isleton's Crawdad Festival was last weekend.

In town is the Isleton Speed Shop that makes it's home in this really cool art deco building that was originally a car dealership way back when.

A look from the north side of town. This part was once population by a large portion by Chinese immigrants. They came here after finishing the trans continental railroad and the gold ran out in the hills.

This building was a Chinese Social club. It was rebuilt after a fire in 1926. It's now owned by a preservation society who intend on restoring it.

Just outside of town shows how the river area had a resurgence of popularity for living and, then, the downfall of the housing market. These homes are essentially finished, but sit unsold and empty. They didn't bother paving the road and driveways.

About four miles farther north is this drawbridge. There are several more along this section of the river. Hwy 160 crosses over to the other side of the river here and continues north. 160 criss crosses back and forth to go through the towns along the river.

This grain elevator and storage is one of the few still operating on the river near here. Most were converted to other use or just torn down. It stores and ships grain and produce grown along the river by the local farmers.

The next town north is Ryde. It was once a ferry stop along the river and with a population of 60 it barely qualifies as a wide spot in the road.

The Ryde Hotel was built here to service those using the ferry. It was built during the height of prohibition and has quite the reputation. Some say that it was also a brothel during that time, but no one can prove it. It's still operating and has weddings all summer and offers a great Sunday Brunch in it's dining room.

Because of prohibition, the hotel has a speak easy in it's basement. It's still a popular place. To get there you go through a door marked closet on the first floor, go down these stairs to this window and door. Imagine the monster in a monkey suit looking you over before allowing you in.

Once inside, you see this big ball room. Looks like they're preparing for a wedding reception later today. Check out the large bar.

To the right of the bar is the bandstand and dance floor. They say there is a hidden door behind the bandstand to escape in case the G-Men raid the joint. Those little booths are on both sides of the dance floor.

Continuing up river is this fantastic little mobile home park right on the water. They have their own beach and boat launch. Does this look white trash?

There is this little art deco car dealership in the next town north. It's empty, again.

A little farther is Jack's Boat house. This was one of those former grain storage, but was converted to a marina and boat storage. They have boats stored three high on racks inside. To launch a boat out of the large door on the left. They use a overhead crane that lifts the boat off the trailer and puts it in the water.

The next thing you come to is Grand Island Slough. The slough meets up with the river under the draw bridge. It's a popular and shady spot cool off. See the memorial in the lower right of the photo? There used to be a WWII PT boat just to the left moored along the shore, but it's either been moved or sunk.

I decided to take a detour along Grand Island Rd. There are tons of old farm houses along the river banks. This victorian era one was built in the late 19th century. There are some that were built as far back as 1820.

The Gatsby era Grand Island Mansion was built in 1917. Nice what you could build before the feds discovered income taxes. During prohibition many of the wealthy would come down here and frolic and drink away from the law. It has a ballroom, movie theater, bowling alley, tennis courts in grass and clay, pool, gym, 3 bars, billiard room, and sauna.It's now used as a hotel and a place for parties. Another wedding was being prepared when I was there. I still snuck in to take some pics.

Doesn't my car look right at home here? Not.

The library gets used as a buffet room. Damn, no food yet.

The front parlor.

How many of you have a ball room in your basement? The doors lead out to the tennis court and pool.

Behind the billiard room was this little bar. It now serves espresso. The rather large and hung over groomsmen were in the bar room and billiard room They started growling when I got out my camera, so I didn't get any pics in there. :-[

The pool was built in 1923. It was a disaster when I first saw this place. They spent a small fortune restoring to it's original glory.

This was once the back patio. The bedroom windows upstairs lead to the 14 bedrooms this house has. It's now enclosed and used for receptions.

Along the Grand Island Slough were these two sporty boats. The homemade house boat doesn't look sea worthy. The ski boat looks like it got stuck on the log when the water level dropped.

On the other side of the Grand Island draw bridge is the smallest abandoned gas station I've ever seen. There used to be a pump there, but I suspect it was stolen.

Locke looks like some kind of mining camp stuck in time with the exception of this building. It really sticks out. Pretty fancy bank for this neighborhood.

Hood is another one of those wide spots in the road. The only building in this picture that is not abandoned is the post office.

Once I got to Mal's. We just cruised around town in his Harley Edition F-150 enjoying the AC. Mal's working on the 65 Stang he's had since high school, building a 347 for it. I wanted to get a picture of it, but all you'd see a ton of boxes and tools piled on it.

Mal is the king in Sacto for finding gear head deals. These were his latest. That's either a 800 or 850 dp in fantastic shape. There's a 700 dp in the shoe box. That one is a mess, but has a lot of good parts. Anyone need a 50cc pump set up? These came home with me. haha.

Day four and the trip home is coming later.........
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rebeldryver · Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 3:10 am Post subject:

Day 4: Sunday, the trip home. I decided to hit the road early to get the hell out of the valley and up the grapevine before the heat got really bad. Got a late start. Over slept, it's what I get using a phone for the alarm clock. My other delay was a detour I wanted to take and heard about for years and misinformed about how much time it would add. I hate that.

After gassing up, I headed east on hwy 12 to just before the Rio Vista bridge, then turned left and headed north on Hwy 84 towards Ryer Island and the ferry to it. I was told that Ryer Island's ferry was operated by the state free of charge. I was skeptical and decided to go see. Cali is dead broke, you think a free ferry would be right at the top of the list for the chopping block. I was wrong. Nope. Ryer Island has only three ways of getting on it, without a boat. One draw bridge and two ferrys.

Yep, there's the ferry.

Here I am about the test the maximum weight of this thing. Fingers are crossed it stays afloat.

Hey, I made it to the other side and I wasn't held up for cash when I got off. Ryer Island is one of the most fertile land in California. The farm land is worth a fortune compared to other areas. The river had been dumping it's nutrient rich silt here for centuries. We humans came along and put up all these nice levies and cut off the silt flow.

Hwy 84 runs around the island to the eastern side and the other ferry. It takes about 15 minutes to get to it if you drive the speed limit. I didn't. I stopped long enough to take a pic of someone's lost and now sunken boat.

The other ferry is considerbly older and smaller than the other one. I was worried the guy driving it would way me away. Nope. Right about now I start hearing the song "Don't Pay the Ferryman" by Chris de Burgh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMwni9RwO4g&feature=fvst

This ferry is a cable pull type. I kept wondering how a boat can get by without snagging it's prop on that cable.

We had a noisy little stow away singing his head off. I guess there was girlie bird nearby by the racket it was making.

That little detour took over 45 minutes not the 15 minutes I was told. Some people have no idea how a watch works.

Any I hit the freeway and full tilt trying to make up some time. Unfortunately, the CHP dudes were out in force. I had to watch my speed. I noticed this burnt hill. This is why it's illegal to chuck your cigarette butts out the window of your car in Cali. This is a tiny burn too. I-5 is closed up near Lake Castaic right as I type this because of a big fire.

OK, here's where I will completely blow what ever you thought you knew about me. See the hills in this photo. Twice, driving this road late at night I saw something that I can only describe as a possible UFO. (You're thinking I'm one of those guys right now and I don't blame you) The first time, it was about 3 am and I was going in the other direction. Most of the truckers were off the road napping. I saw what I thought was a crop duster flying back and forth across the road. Yes, it was a strange time of night to be dusting crops, especially since there are high tension power lines on the other side of the freeway. It flew right over my car, less 100 ft above me and I couldn't hear even with the windows down. It looked like a chromed arrowhead with lights on each point. I was weirded out as you are of me right this second. The second time was around midnight on Christmas Eve. This time, it just raised vertically out of one of the valleys and flew down the highway right over me. It looked the same as the last one. I'm currently taking recommendations on medication.

Back to reality now. Just north of Buttonwillow Raceway were all these trucks and equipment parked next to the freeway. There are no buildings here and no one was around. I can only guess they were going to be auctioned off.

AT the second gas stop, I needed a break to cool off. I parked the car and went in and took a nap in the cooler with the ice bags. Actually, I just went into the TV lounge at the truck stop and watched part of a really bad movie. I took this picture right before I had the great idea to park the car in the shade next to a busted gas pump.

Traffic was somewhat heavy today and my car's temp would quickly raise from 190 to 200* whenever I was cruising behind someone. It took more than 5 minutes of open air running to cool back down to 190. This pic shows the climb back up the grapevine. The car quickly climbed to 200* again, but went no further. Considering it was 110* outside, I think the cooling system was working pretty good.

Thank goodness for altitude. At 2000 ft the temp had dropped more 15*. By 4000 ft, it was nice and comfy out again. The car was running at 180* again.

The last the scenic view on the way into LA is Pyramid Lake, one of LA's many reservoirs. This is one of the few that allows boaters.

I travelled 934 miles on this trip without any real car issues, besides being baked like a potato. The mpg dropped an average 1.5 mpg on the way home which I believe was caused by the excessive heat and my car being tuned to run in the cool, dense air of West LA.
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gamble71 · Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 3:14 am Post subject:

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driver_tag · Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 7:50 am Post subject:

Nice travelogue Reb , I have been over Grapevine many times the name comes from the town at the bottom of the North bound side. I always wanted to go to the Tejon ranch at the top , and have slept at the Fltin' J at the peak many times. Next road trip go over Tehachapi pass and check out the "loop" it's a series of switchbacks and loops tp get trains over the pass , local indians say the tehachapi mountains are haunted.
Don't feel bad about the UFO sighting , the only time I have ever seen anything that I would describe as a UFO was on I 40 between Barstow and Needles east of Ludlow and looked a lot like what you described ! I figured it came from Pahrump Nv. and Art Bell had sent it Laughing

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speedyc · Professional Badass Joined: 01 Jul 2007 Posts: 2201

Way to photo-document a road trip!

OldUsedParts · Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 9:35 am Post subject:

as usual, always entertaining

you might have missed your calling, Reb Wink

thanks for the journey Cool

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TransAmLvr · I'm sPesHul Joined: 25 Jun 2007 Posts: 8877 Location: VA

Damn cool, reb. Thanks for the pics and commentary- it's as great as always. Cool

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bowtie6872 · Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 2:26 pm Post subject:

YEAR ONE HAS YOUR NEW SEAT COVERS..

fordguy · Mad Scientist Joined: 24 Apr 2007 Posts: 7139

great pics man. im glad you made it through your road trips with no issues. Cool

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RustyRodder · Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 11:11 pm Post subject:

Nice, reb! looks like a great time
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Novacaine · Kamakasi Joined: 02 May 2007 Posts: 7987 Location: texas

cool pics.

never took the nova further than lake livingston.
how are you pulling 85 @ 2500rpm.

or have you recently went OD?
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rebeldryver · Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2009 3:36 am Post subject: