A few B&W shots of my quick Blackstar/Silverado Canyon roadtrip today.
Finally got a chance to drive out to Blackstar Canyon Road to take some pics. I actually ran into @gstiehl cycling over there while shooting but I didn’t have the foresight to snap a pic of him.
The drive on Silverado Canyon was nice and scenic, but definitely not fast. I also finally used the GoPro I got for Christmas, but the videos are all quite boring.
Pics and Videos from #oakleycanyonrun with @chriscasper and @dicksonfong
There were supposed to be more people and cars doing this, but it turned out that only 3 of us could go. Me in my M3, Dickson had his GLI and Casper drove his Shelby Mustang. Had to take the requisite pics of the cars in front of HQ since that’s where we started. Too bad we didn’t have a bigger crew, but it was a little easier to organize I suppose.
Here’s a map of the whole trip. We didn’t actually make it down to Lake Henshaw since we decided to do a couple runs up and down Palomar Mountain Road instead. (Google Map Link).
First leg, Live Oak Canyon Road. It’s just in our backyard, so we had to do it.
Second leg, Ortega Highway towards Lake Elsinore. You can hear music during the first few seconds of the clip, but I turned it off so the engine could be heard better. I stopped recording after we got stuck behind some slow cars.
We ended up pulling off the road shortly after turning off the 76 to Palomar Mountain Road since there was a large RV driving pretty slow in front of us. We wanted to get a good drive up the mountain so we decided to wait it out. First few pics below are from where we waited.
Of course, after we took off again, we got stuck behind more slow cars. Guess that’s inevitable. I turned off my video after we got stuck again, but couldn't turn it back on when the slower cars pulled over and let us pass. The first run up was great...if only I had some video of it.
The next stop was Mother’s Kitchen at the top of the run. We stopped for some food and just hung out for a bit.
Casper knew of a lookout point where he had visited before so we drove there after brunch and took a few pics of the cars. Not the best backdrop, but at least there was a lot of open area.
Like an idiot, I forgot to turn on the mic during a couple portions of the drive...and they both happened to be when I was following Casper. Here’s two videos of his Shelby Mustang GT500...driving in silence :(
And here's the final run down the mountain. This time I followed Dickson in his GLI. That thing is pretty fast. It felt like he was going faster than the other runs we did, but I realized after the fact that I forgot to hi the M button on this run. Because of how many twists and turns there are, I didn't get much opportunity to get past 2nd gear, and the regular mode (without M) has harder engine braking so it definitely slowed me down a little.
There was a photographer who had set up on one of the hairpins, taking pics of all the cars and motorcyclists going by. We saw him in the first 3 passes and decided to stop on the final run down the mountain so we could get his contact info. Caper saw him tracking with my M3 on the first run, and I saw him shooting Casper on the second run so he must have had some pics. Unfortunately, he had already packed up and left on our last run down. Dickson saw his name on some sign so I was able to look up the website and found the gallery. Thanks, Rick Clemson, for shooting that day! I'll be putting my order in soon. Hopefully he shot in RAW. We have pics on page 3 and page 6.
Here’s a funny picture from his gallery. We saw these two Mitsubishi's at Mother’s Kitchen, but apparently they were clocked along the way. Just glad it was them and not us.
All in all, a fun day of driving. Must do it again.
Just watched the worlds’ best driving roads on Top Gear. Getting ideas for another Euro Delivery route.
Who knows when I’ll be doing another Euro delivery, but when I do, there are two major stretch of roads I want to make sure I hit. For awhile, I had planned to hit Stelvio Pass on my next trip, but watching Top Gear has also made me really want to drive from Stelvio, through Bornio to Davos. The footage was amazing. Great scenery with miles of open twisty roads. On the map below, it's the area from B to D.
Zurich is another drop-off point for BMW, so I figure since I may be in Switzerland, might as well drop off there. I think there are some unique driving rules in Switzerland, so I’m sure I’ll need to do some research beforehand.
Here’s the route in Google Maps. I’m sure I will be adding to it over time.
Taking a new route to get Ramen today. #BMW #M3 #joy
Usually, driving to get Ramen is about a 10-minute trip. Here’s my normal route:
(enlarge for better view)
Today, however, the boy and I are planning to take a slightly different route. Sure, it’s going to take longer, but getting there is half the fun.
Live Oak Canyon Road is a favorite of mine to take every so often when I have extra time to get to and from work – again, much longer than necessary, but the scenery and twisties make the drive much more enjoyable. I haven’t really had a chance to drive Santiago Canyon Road yet so this will be a first in the M3.
Ramen and road trip. It’s going to be a good day.
Ojai Drive and BBQ with Andy
The boy and I drove up the coast to visit Andy in Ventura. He BBQ'd some ribs and put out an awesome spread. I felt kind of bad he went through all that effort, but it was well worth it. After lunch we took the M3 out for some driving through Ojai. The best part of the drive was some twisties on the way to Boccali's, where we stopped for some apple pie and ice cream.
Not sure I like the Flickr set integration using flash on Posterous, but I might as well give it a shot. Scroll through the photos above if you don't want to wait for the whole slideshow.
Here's a map of the entire trip (starting from the coast drive):
And this was the best part:
Here's an image to get an idea of the elevation change. The twisties mostly went downhill (right to left). The purple camera on the right indicates where the images of the car (halfway through the photo set above) was taken, and the purple pin on the left is where Boccali’s is located.
We had fun. Must do it again.
Finally got a chance to take the new whip out for a short roadtrip. Met up with some friends along the way.
We met up and had lunch at Kanpai Sushi before heading out through Ortega Highway. Mark had to work so unfortunately didn't make the drive with us. Maybe next time. Here's a few shots of Mark's AMG SLK, David's A3s, and of course, my M3. The boy enjoyed watching the hard top convertible going up.
Unfortunately it started raining once we got to the interesting twisties so I didn't bother stopping for photos along the way since I preferred to keep my camera dry and mud outside the vehicle.
And here are a couple of shots at the lake. You can't tell, but the boy is hiding in the front passenger seat since he thought it was too cold and as usual, didn't want his picture taken. The drive was fun and it probably was a good thing we were behind a few cars through a good portion of the drive. Once they pulled off to the side it was really hard to not just gun it, but I really don't want to get any speeding tickets in this due to my tints and lack of front plate. Don't want to have to pay more than necessary if I can avoid it. Plus, there are a few areas of double fine zones on the drive. Better safe than sorry...plus, it was beginning to get wet too. I'm sure David was itching for me to floor it, but he patiently kept a reasonable distance behind, hehe. I'm sure both cars could have handled far more than what we allowed.
Some people think kids like Ramune for the marble. I'm thinking the suction is a big part of it too.
The boy at Kapai Sushi messin' with his second bottle of Ramune.
This was the first stop of our short roadtrip with @robots4change and his brother-in-law.
Thanks, Mark for an awesome meal!
{ Sent from my iPhone }
If I can get myself and the boy healthy enough, here’s where we want to drive this weekend.
Ortega Highway heading North East toward Lake Elsinore:
And heading South West back home:
I love Google Earth.
If we can't get healthy enough to do it this weekend, we have to go next weekend. I'm dying to get out of the house. Feels like this has been the most unproductive week of my life.