Coast to Coast, an e30 American adventure

[benwalsh91]

Oh we will be at the meet I am literally about to drive to LA right now. I shall be there in an hour or so.

We have the correct pressure rated hoses on it all now thank you

[jgilber0]

Oh we will be at the meet I am literally about to drive to LA right now. I shall be there in an hour or so.

We have the correct pressure rated hoses on it all now thank you

Great!

[2mAn]

If you’re in LA, shoot me a message. I’ll have some free time and hopefully we can still meet up

[freeride53]

This is RAD! I did a 6,000 mile, coast to coast road trip in my E30 (Chicago - Montreal - New York - etc etc etc - Oakland) in the summer of 2016. I love, love, LOVE seeing E30 road-trip stories. Bummed to have not seen this thread, and missed you in Oakland! I live literally 1 mile away from Oakland airport. Best of luck in your journey. Do you have an IG that we could follow?

[benwalsh91]

First of all let me start by saying how sorry i am for being so behind on this and also i feel super bad about missing the meet, we ran into a little issue and also i completely didn't realise what day it was!!

If you’re in LA, shoot me a message. I’ll have some free time and hopefully we can still meet up

For sure, i am in LA for i think 3 more days, we may head out today to the last day of the LA county fair.

This is RAD! I did a 6,000 mile, coast to coast road trip in my E30 (Chicago - Montreal - New York - etc etc etc - Oakland) in the summer of 2016. I love, love, LOVE seeing E30 road-trip stories. Bummed to have not seen this thread, and missed you in Oakland! I live literally 1 mile away from Oakland airport. Best of luck in your journey. Do you have an IG that we could follow?

Thank you man its been a crazy couple of weeks and been so busy i have had no time to update this or even reflect back on the things that we have done.

My Instagram is benwalsh91

[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!

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

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.

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

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.

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

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.

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

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

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

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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[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...

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr
Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

I got very very tired at this point

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Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

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]

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.

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

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]

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...

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

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.

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

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.

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

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

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

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

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

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.

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

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.

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

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.

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Anyone see a face in the tree??

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Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

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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Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

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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Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

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

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Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

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.

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

[jpod999]

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

[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

[kyleconstantine]

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

[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.

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

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.

[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.

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

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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Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

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...

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

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.

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

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.

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

Untitled by ben walsh, on Flickr

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]

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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