Coast to Coast, an e30 American adventure

[benwalsh91]

Friday 21 September

We got back to working on the car, i woke up around 9 am and went straight to the garage.

Realised the paint had started cracking on the fender we just painted, something was reacting so my morning was spent sanding down the paint on the fender to get it flat and paint again.

whilst i was doing this Chris was finishing up on the wiring.

We also saw water marks on some of the hoses, the hoses was new so i knew something must be wrong, there was water leaking out of the thermostat, turns out that was fitted the wrong way around, rather not risk just turning that thermostat around we went and purchased a new one and new O ring and fitted it in the correct way. - To date no coolant has been lost so this is good.

When we was doing this the washer fluid tank decided to crack randomly and water was everywhere. FUCK sake.

We then took some time out of the garage and went to a local junk yard to collect some bits.

Back to the car we was getting the fenders back on, we also changed and fitted new front discs and pads as they was rather low, i was under the impression they had recently been replaced but nope thats a negative.

- on a side note whilst we was going over the car it appears to have had a short shifter fitted, 18mm rear sway bar and some other bits which i can't remember, the ARB wasn't actually connected though and the mounts had snapped so we welded up some new mounts and also re-inforced them. the drop link bushes are worn and rattling though which is rather annoying but we was running out of time.

I hardly took any pictures on this day as we was just busy trying to get the car ready.

also the IS front valance was so fucked i had hit it a few times and it was just falling apart so we decided to just rip the fucker off and just have the car without it.

Now i was trying to get the car together in time to make it to the R3V LA meet.

started the car and it was just cranking then BOOM!!

WHAT THE FUCK

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Yep, thats the fuel line. the car had carb fuel line fitted to it, not fuel injection. i literally have no idea how they hadn't exploded before hand and i am so fucking thankful they went bang when they did and whilst i was still in Chris's garage. we had time to run to the shop and get a load of fuel line (the correct stuff) and replaced it all.

Honestly, could not that Chris anymore for his help over the past few days. I have no idea how this car hadn't gone up in flames previously with the fuel line like it was and the electric like they where too. fuckkkkk

Here is Chris's e30, he also has a turbo's M30 e34

This e30 also has a M30, looks super evil.

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Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

During the past couple of days at Chris's house we went to a local shop near his that sell a ton of funky and weird things. i bought a load of Sodas amongst other things.

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And this lived up to its name! if anyone knows somewhere else i can buy it i would be super grateful.

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Now, it was time for us to leave, it was getting late and i had to be at my friends Robs house in Downing, LA.

We drive through Angels National Forest via Hidden Springs.

What a road!! i really wish i could have driven it in the light, we pulled over at a vista point which gave us a great view of LA, couldn't photograph it very well but the view in our own eyes was amazing.

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Got to LA i called Rob en-route to say lets get food, I'm hungry and so is Nicholl, and Nicholl turns into a right diva when she is hungry.

Went through a list of places to eat in LA and man there is a lot of places to eat there. we settled for the Cheesecake factory. called Rob when we was 45 minutes away and typical Rob fashion he still wasn't ready when we got to his.

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Rob finally ready we headed out, thankfully he drove so the e30 had the night off.

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We had some manly drinks.

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Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

By the time we finished this it was midnight and the restaurant closes then, we took our cheesecake to go!!

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[benwalsh91]

Thursday 20 September

So today didn't really consist of too much we had a bit of a lay in and spent the entire day checking over the car seeing what needed to be done/repaired. ordered any parts if needed and also removed the old fenders as we was replacing both the fronts.

I had the fenders collected in the dark and they wasn't quite what was explained to me but i didn't know this until i properly saw them in the light. i was told they was both Genuine BMW fenders, one was a DOT-R (i think its called) so at-least that is BMW. the other was not, it didn't fit great and also the paint was so fucked. Unfortunately, the non BMW fender was the passenger side which was the main one i wanted to replace to get rid of the gold!!

Pulled into the garage

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and this was with the non bmws fender just lined up to decide if i was going to fit it as is or strip the paint and paint it again. paint was badly burnt and just... was shit really.

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We decided to paint it which was fucking hell we had tons of issues with paint but we got there in the end.

decided to take a break and go get some food, drove past some planes.

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after food we then decided to try and figure out what was happening with the lights.

checked all the relays and stuff just didn't seem right, we looked under the wiring was a fucking mess to say the least.

we then looked under the dash and most of the wiring looked like this...

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Honestly have no idea how the car hadn't gone up in flames.

After working till about 3am on wiring we decided it was time to sleep.

[benwalsh91]

Wednesday 19 September


So we had an early start today on our way to Malibu, we decided to have a detour to Calabasas to see if we could do any spotting, no interesting people to see but i did see this gorgeous Porsche, dreams!!

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Stopped for a coffee, figured out our route and hit the road.

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There was an important stop i had to make going down the PCH towards Malibu

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We was doing the typical tourist thing and was trying to see who's houses we could creep up on, we pulled up down a road to see who we could find locally on our phones looking at our maps etc i heard a rather loud bark... thought that sounds like a familiar noise.

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looked to the side and there was a great dane and a mastiff at a fence barking at us, I have a great dane and a mastiff myself back at home and was awesome yet weird to see the exact same combination here in Malibu, the owner came running out shouting but not telling us to fuck off, she was being super nice saying that they just wanted to say Hello, i asked if i could get out the car and come see them, she happily agreed.

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We spent around an hour standing here chatting to her about everything from places to see all over the world and of course her dogs. She was actually the wife of a famous special effects director/manager in the Movie industry, her husband had done films such as King Kong, Godzilla and Mission Impossible to name a few. she was super down to earth and just an all around lovely person. We hopped back in the car and went exploring you couldn't really see anything at all but was cool to know you was in some what close proximety (potentially) to someone who might be world famous.

We carried on and was told about the University and that they had all the Flags on the mound.

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These flags just go on and on and on into the distance, each flags represents one life that was lost in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Centre. We took a moment and sat down and just really reflected on life and how lucky we are to be able to do a trip like this and all the people that we have met on our route and just really not taking it for granted.

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Filled the old girl up with gas and drove to my friend Chris's house who we are due to spend the next few days at to do some work on the e30.

Chris lives in Palmdale.

[benwalsh91]

Tuesday 18 September

??? what the fuck did we do???

[benwalsh91]

Monday 17 September

Today we ventured out to Sequoia, i really really liked this place!

At this point we was kinda National Parked out but i am so glad we went to this, the road through the park was super fun.

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Heres a photo of a rock.

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This was a crazy fun road to drive, kept it sensible though of course.

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Now i know you guys have been in suspense ever since i mentioned i fitted the new door strip, well here it is in all its glory, featuring Jewish Racing Gold front fender

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I will fight a bear if i catch him coming after my snacks.

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Went to go see some of the giant trees that Sequoia has to offer, parked up and thought it looked pretty.

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Now whilst we was off to see the General Sherman which is one of the largest Redwood trees, on route we came super super close to mother and baby deer.

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Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

At this point my camera ran out of battery, kinda pissed off as i knew you guys was all on the edge of your seats wanting to see above mentioned giant tree. i do apologise for this inconvenience.

Nicholl did get this photo of me driving through a tree though so i hope that make up for it.

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[benwalsh91]

Sunday 16 September

I knew i had a few days coming up where we would be spending a ton of time on the car so i wanted to focus on some things that Nicholl wanted to do, the Farm the other day and today we went to the Zoo.

We both love animals, I definitely prefer animals to humans.

Don't think the Donkey agrees with this sign

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You should have heard the noise these guys made when they saw the keeper coming with their food, its actually a similar noise to what i make when i know I'm about to be fed.

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The cages that some of the animals was in where kinda small, i didn't like it all that much and some was hard to get photos of, plus loads of the animals was tucked away and we couldn't see them which sucked!!

did get to see a couple of bears though, again enclosure seemed super small for them.

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Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

One itchy boy.

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Mountain Lions,

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Rest of the photos came out shit so won't waste my time or yours with them.

We did however go to Sonic for dinner, was good.

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[benwalsh91]

Saturday 15 September

Today we drove down to Santa Barbara, such a beautiful place to go see and visit.

Almost had to fight this bastard for my lunch but he made the right choice and backed off before he caught these hands!!

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Had a massive lunch down on the pier and i definitely ate more than i should have done so we went for a walk to help the ol' digestive system. Walked past this crazy lady who was actually having an argument with herself, it was amazing 10/10 wish i could witness it again. I love America.

Grabbed some Ice-Cream as we headed back to the car and had to have a serious conversation with myself to not buy this shirt.

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Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Came across this place, had to fight off all the Asians just to get a couple of photos.

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whilst walking back to the car i caught in the distance an equally as clean BMW as the e30 we was driving, ok maybe it is just a tiny bit nicer than mine...

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Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Whilst leaving Santa Barbara we decided to take a little look at who else lived around this area and went exploring. We heard there was a rather wealthy area up the road so we went to Montecito, was cruising around and stumbled upon Oprahs house, couldn't see shit so i done a U turn and found these badass old muscle cars just on the side of the road, believe the garage is still in use if not thats a lot of money just sitting there left.

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Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

I really felt that the e30 fitted in the area as we was driving around we went past a ton of Ferraris and equally valued cars as our little BMW. i think they was jealous as i kept seeing them look over at us.

We then started heading back to our hotel which was a few hours away, Nicholl now being fascinated on who lived in the area we realised if we took a short detour we could pop by to see Michael, maybe see if Annie was Ok, Annie didn't answer but it was super spooky to be at the Neverland Ranch. There was a ton of shit on the front gate.

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Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

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Peoples views aside on what Michael did or didn't do you can't deny that if you have had a few too many and one of his songs comes on you know your foot is either tapping or you are up there cutting shapes on the table. I am the later, i have no shame.

[benwalsh91]

Friday 14 September

So we finally had a chilled day!! we was staying in Bakersfield for a few days as it was central to a few places that we was off too see.

Nicholl loves going to the farm back at home and we found one local so we went to go give it a visit.

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Got my balls stuck.

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Apparently this was just for kids... but rules are meant to be broken right? also, i felt proper dangerous so i kept my shoes on too! Fuck the system

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On the way back from the farm we went past a BMW dealership, i stomped on the brakes and turned in as i wanted some clips to fit the door strip on as it hadn't been on this entire journey and looked proper ghetto.

i only needed 4 of them but they had a pack of 10 and thats all they had, at the cost of 0.76c each i figured i would just take the bag. Fitted the side strip in the parking lot the car looked much better and then i realised we was due to change the front fenders so the extra clips would come into use in a few days time!! No photos but i am sure you can use your imagination.

[kyleconstantine]

bump....checking thus thread 2x a day for updates

[TimKninja]

Incredible thread!!!! If you have sealed beams you may have just burnt out the filaments on both of the low beams. Could also have a grounding issue as well

[jpod999]

Holy shit you actually went to Freedom Meat Locker, that’s so awesome! Glad you enjoyed it!

[benwalsh91]

Thursday 13 September

Making up from the day before we crammed a hell of a lot in, i believe when i uploaded and started editing photos from this day i ended up uploading 188 photos.... so yeah this could be a long one but i will try and only post the best. But there was a lot of good shit!!

I made Nicholl wake up early, i was excited, we was going to a place i had followed on Instagram for a while now. We was going to Canepa!!

The doors of Canepa open up at 9am and it was north of Monterey by about an hour.

We got there early...

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The way the photos have uploaded to my Flickr is not in any sort of order for the day which is really annoying so this is going to take a while, i may just dump a load of photos below and then go through at a later date to add more detailed description for them but you are car people so i would like to think most of you know the history of the cars.

As we was so early we actually had the entire place to ourselves (other than staff) for about 2 hours and then we left. it was so so good to be able to shoot these cars and not have to worry about people being in the damn way!!

I ended up posting a load of photos on here but deleted them all, it was getting a little crazy so i will just post my favourites of the day. if there are anything you see in the photos and want more of i shall see if i have photos and upload them later.

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by ben walsh, on Flickr

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That was a brief run down of what was on the first floor, we then went upstairs where the personal collection is, everything shown above is for sale... if your pockets are deep enough.

Upstairs is the actual museum, again i will just do a quick run down and not go into a ton of detail.

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So that is my short run down of Canepa, i am sorry, i was excited and i had a ton of fun there!! everything was amazing and i have SO MANY more photos from that day.

Once we left Canepa it was time for some food!! someone mentioned Freedom Meat Locker and i just want to thank you so so much for that!! It was damn amazing!! if your in the area you must go!

Oh, i almost forgot, this was sitting in the workshop

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Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

I had the Brisket and Nicholl had the pulled pork, both was bloody amazing! Fuck i want it again.

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Now it was time to hit the road again...

Next stop... Point Lobos National Park

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another beautiful spot to go and explore on the PCH so much to see!! this was an old Whaling village on the coast, they had a ton of old Whale bones on display.

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all the views walking back to the car

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Once back on the road we hit the PCH once more traveling down the coast, destination: Anywhere South.

There was roadworks going on and unfortunately they was working on the Bixby bridge itself, we drove over it but no idea what all the fuss was about. i mean it was cool... but idk.

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Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

back in the car we kept going stopping every now and then to get in the views. We decided to set the navigation to the Big Sur National park.

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Nothing but blue.

We then got to the Big Sur National park, i loved it. we stopped by the big ass trees and was reading up loads about them but i won't bore you with the details.

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Anyone see a face in the tree??

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Back to the car again and across the road from the Big Sur National Park was the Pfiefer Beach.

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I mean it was cool but it cost us $10 to get in and we was there for like 20 minutes. it was super windy and just unbearable to be honest. but i got some photos...

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This doggo was having fun though and thats all that matters.

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Fed up of the wind and chasing my hat across the beach we then headed back, we was causing along and wanted to go see the seals before we headed back to the hotel, the sun was starting to go down, realising that we wasn't going to make it we found a vista point to park up at and watch the sun set.

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Oh wait i am meant to be watching the sun set. Best turn around.

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At this point it was time to head back. My headlights didn't work and its pitch black.

I could only drive with the high beams turned on which made all 4 of the front lights work, this was getting my so paranoid when driving and fed up of everyone in return of blinding me.

It was pitch black and i hoped out the car in the middle of nowhere and uplugged the centre lights with the high beams so although my high beams was on, only the headlights was on and not all 4, if that makes any sense.

Pulled into an old gas station on the way back to get gas and found this pretty cool old Datsun.

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[benwalsh91]

Wednesday 12 September

The road to Monterey.

We had over a 6 hour drive ahead of us from Mammoth Lakes to Monterey, the good news was we got to drive through Yosemite once again to take in those breathtaking views once more for the last time.

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Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

We unfortunately was not able to spend too much time looking around Mammoth Lakes, the village itself was beautiful and i would 100% plan to go back there at some point in my future, maybe rent a cabin and chill in that area for a while.

This was kind of a boring day to photograph, well the views was amazing we drove back through Yosemite but i have shown that above and then after that Nicholl fell asleep for a couple hours so i didn't want to keep pulling over etc at risk of waking her.

It was a long day but it was what it was.

We hit traffic and i took just a slow cruise across i didn't want to be driving and pushing the car to hard. by the time we got to Monterey it was late and dark, i can't even remember what we ate on this day.

[benwalsh91]

Tuesday 11 September

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Today we got to explore Yosemite, What a beautiful place in the world, as you know we stayed in Mammoth Lakes so we entered the park via the North East section of the park, it was just shy of an hour drive to the gates of Yosemite.

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From the gates of Yosemite it was about an hour and a half drive to the Half Dome Village, we stopped plenty of times at vista points and take in the amazing sites infront of us.

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It was a slow paced drive just cruising along the bendy roads.

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As we got to Half Dome Village we grabbed some food as by this point it was lunch time, we got this very over priced pizza, it was reasonable, I've had better.

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and then we decided it as time to walk off our lunch, we done in total just shy of 10 miles of walking.

By the village was the remains of an old log cabin, this cabin was built to not disturb the natural surrounding to much, what was left you can see the stones cut for parts of the walls and also the fireplace.

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as we looked opposite this old remain of the cabin you can imagine how beautiful the view was when sitting on the front porch before the new cabin was built.

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We then went on our walk...

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I got very very tired at this point

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Not too many photos taken on this day we was just taking it in ourselves and just enjoyed the day and the views for what it was.

I recommend anyone to experience Yosemite at some point in your lives.

[benwalsh91]

Monday 10 September

So on this day we drove from Sonora to Mammoth Lakes,

We started the day in our own time, we woke up when we woke up and left the hotel.

We drove route 108, Sonora Pass all the way from Sonora Pass through to Mammoth Lakes!

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My god what a road, from start to finish it was super scenic and incredible as we left we started to climb in elevation and had some really nice long swooping corners, we stopped off at plenty of vista points along the route to take in all the breathtaking views.

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We got a few hours into the drive and found a really nice spot that we could get out and stretch out legs and go and explore a little bit.

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Its crazy to see in the above photo how much of a drought California has been in as you can see the old waterline on the rocks to where it used to be.

Back in the car we kept on going and found some amazing sets of switch back corners i found a spot that we could pull over for a quick minute and take some photos where you can really see what the road has to offer.

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Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

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After beating on the car for a while and with the elevation the car started acting a little weird and i noticed the oil light had come on, thankfully i had some oil in the trunk so we again pulled over to let the car cool a little before i checked the oil to top it up.

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Whilst we stopped i heard some rustling in the bushes to the side of us and looked over and i could see a deer watching us.

We watched them for about 25 minutes as they was just chilling out and then they moved on and walked off into the distance until they disappeared, at this point i topped the oil up, closed the hood and we too moved on.

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The fire threats are still here in California

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AS we carried on we was getting extremely hungry (Nicholl getting cranky too, she gets really angry when she hasn't been fed)

So we waited for the first town for us to pass through for us to stop and eat what we could, we hit some road works and some traffic too but thankfully we found this really nice picturesque town which the name i cannot remember.

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We had a little walk to let our food go down, stumbled upon an old corvette which seemed to have sat for at least a few months hiding behind a motorhome.

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Time to hit the road, Destination: Mammoth Lakes

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As we was heading closer to Mammoth Lakes we realised we was to drive straight past Mono Lake. Not to sure what the big fuss is about for it, it smelt bad and tbh wasn't really that fascinating, spent about 10 minutes there, got back in the car and off we went.

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As we got to Mammoth Lakes we checked into our hotel room, chucked our cases in the room and went to have a little look before the sun went down, we was driving a really picturesque road once again and managed to stop right at the top of a waterfall.

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