Pomona Sunrise

Arriving at the Pomona auto swap meet before dawn has its benefits. We drove over to the Pomona fairgrounds along very empty freeways and arrived just after 5:00 am. As we got closer, we began seeing lots of classic cars making their way to the entry gates. After paying for parking, we found a place to park not far from the entry gate and got our camera bags and tripods out of the car. It was bracingly cold outside and quite a bit colder than at home. Having attended this swap meet in the winter previously, we were well prepared and brought our scotty vest jackets to keep warm. For those who are unaware, the Pomona Auto Swap meet is a very large event that has been held for the past 47 years in Pomona California. It typically is held 7 times a year from 5:00am to 2:00PM on selected Sundays. I’ve heard you can find nearly any type of part for any type of car there. After having walked up and down a few of the aisles, I believe it. It is also a place for people to show off their cars. Sections for doing so are provided as well as places to display a car you wish to sell.

We like arriving early so we beat the crowds and are always there before sunrise in case it turns out to be a spectacular one like it was on this January morning. Even before the sun began peeking over the horizon, the sky to the east started glowing a yellow orange color which was promising and there were some clouds for the orange light to illuminate. The western sky was still deep in the blue hour when the sun rose above the horizon and the most beautiful orange colored sky quite suddenly lit up. Kathy and I returned to the cars we liked most that morning and began shooting some images. I really liked this 1940’s Fleetline panel delivery vehicle. I shot this from several viewpoints and was generally pleased with the results.

East Facing Pontiac

Kathy and I have a habit of getting to car shows very early. This show, actually a auto swapmeet held at the Pomona fairgrounds opens around 5am. We arrived only slightly afterward and there were already thousands of cars in place. This ncluded the subject of this photo a pontiac with a very cool hood ornament. This was shot with my nearly 40 year old 100mm macro lens.

Kingman Arizona to California and Home Again

I drove 365 miles today and had some time to reflect on this long road trip.

Train Travel:

I had long wanted to take an extended train trip crossing several states and time zones. I never expected to ride four of the great train routes in one trip however. To recap, we rode the California Surfliner for 39 miles from Irvine California to the historic Union Station in Los Angeles. There we transferred to the Coast Starlight riding it to Portland Oregon's own Union Station a distance of 964 miles. At one point our train was running about an hour behind schedule so we thought we would miss our connection to the Empire Builder. Somehow Amtrak got the train back on schedule and we had about a 40 minute wait in Portland before we could board. We then rode the Empire Builder 2,206 miles to Chicago. After spending the night, we boarded the Capital Limited train and rode that to Washington DC's beautiful Union Station a distance of 594 miles. We covered a total 3,803 miles by train.

Would I make that journey again? I would, but instead of paying for sleeper cars, I'd buy a hop on hop off train pass. Having private accommodations on three of the trains was great especially with the coronavirus to consider. In a post coronavirus world, a train pass would allow me to see more places and sleep in more comfortable surroundings. It would also allow me more flexibility to change my plans during the trip. I'd love to stay for a few days in Glacier National Park for example.

Car Travel:

Renting a car and driving it the 2,785 miles we covered including side trips to Dayton Ohio and Santa Fe New Mexico was fine. I drove for all but about 10 miles. I wanted my wife to relax and take in the view and avoid the stress of driving. I noticed some interesting things. The highways in every state we visited are being expanded or improved. We saw lots of construction throughout the drive across the country. Drivers in Texas were probably the most aggressive while those in Oklahoma the most polite.

The Wearing of Masks and Social Distancing:

I noticed that two states stood far apart from the others when it came to not people not wearing masks or maintaining a social distance. Those were Illinois and Oklahoma. We saw lots of people in downtown Chicago without masks. When we stopped for gas in Springfield, we wore our masks and were stared at by the other customers. I only saw the gas station attendants wearing masks and they all had their noses exposed. In Tulsa and Oklahoma City we had similar experiences. We always wore our masks when we left our sleeping compartment on the train or left our rental car. We also took care to maintain a social distance from others.

Navigating Route 66:

As mentioned on a prior post, navigating old Route 66 was very difficult. I noticed in many small rural towns, many intersections had no street signs whatsoever. Route 66 signs were more often than not missing and instead another street name or highway number was displayed. Using the GPS unit we purchased for the trip was of limited usefulness as it typically wanted to guide us to the fastest route which was rarely Route 66. We also saw sections of Route 66 which were just closed for maintenance or permanently shut down, requiring us to resort to the interstate. I think better planning on my part is the answer here.

Would I Do It Again?

So after 6,588 miles, was it all worth it? Were this two weeks well spent? Absolutely! The most enjoyable thing was spending time with my family. Long, unhurried conversations with my brother-in-law were great and we laughted a lot. We all kept seeing interesting things and had the time to stop and look if we wanted to. I also got reacquainted with my camera equipment. I definitely packed too much stuff. I also pushed myself to meet and speak to more people. I found ready smiles and nearly everybody who asked "Where are you going?" seemed amused at my pointing vaguely at the western horizon as I explained "That way!" I loved not having a set schedule, not knowing in what city we would sleep in or where we would have our next meal.

Conclusion:

Coming home today, after following a long winding ascent, we crested one final mountain and found ourselves high atop a desert plain with the road now ramrod straight, descending and stretching out unbroken to the horizon. Not one cloud marred the sky, and we knew we had returned to the place we had started, California. While I'm glad to be home, I'm sorry this great adventure is over. For now, I'm too tired to post new photos. I'll add them tomorrow. 

1948 Chevrolet Fleetline and Point Fermin Lighthouse

About 6 or 7 years ago during my vacation from work, I attended a car show at the seaside town of San Pedro, California. The Legends car club was hosting their yearly big event at Point Fermin park. Roll in was scheduled for 7am but we arrived around 5am and found about 50+ cars waiting in the dark to be admitted. The organizers recognized my wife from her attending other events and they kindly granted us both early admission. We walked around the park and found the host club member's cars parked in some prime spots. One of those was this pristine 1948 Chevrolet Fleetline located right in front of the historic Point Fermin Light house. With the moon rapidly setting and the blue hour fading more and more by the minute, Kathy and I didn't waste time. We setup our tripods, cameras, remote shutter releases and started shooting. Later that morning there were thousands of people walking around the park and taking photos the way we like to take them became impossible. That was ok because by that time we were packing up and making ready to leave with several hundred photos each saved on our memory cards.

Mission Inn Grand Courtyard Overview

Here's another old vacation image from one of my visits to the historic Mission Inn Hotel in Riverside, California. This hotel is very large and consists of one main multi-story building. The architecture is California mission style as established by the Franciscan Padres from Spain who founded 21 California missions in the mid to late 1700's with a goal of "pacifying" and bringing religion to the native Indians. Instead, their European diseases decimated the tribes who had no immunity.

Racing Along Southern California’s Coastline

This photo was taken from the observation car on the Amtrak Coast Starlight train. We were just passing through Vandenberg Air Force Base and I could clearly see the historic launch facilities now being used by SpaceX for their military payloads. This has been a great trip so far. Kathy and I are enjoying traveling by train. Taking a shower last night was a bit of an adventure since the shower stall is the size of a telephone booth. Later I was able to provide some entertainment for my wife as she watched me climb into the top bunk of our sleeping accommodations. 

How I took this photo:

This is a 3 shot HDR composite image. I brought my tripod with me on this trip but I'm sure the Amtrak employees would not appreciate me setting it up in the aisle way. Instead I held my camera steady by putting up against the side of the doorway. The train was rocking and rolling but I was able to hold it still so it was in sync with the movement. The longest exposure showed some motion blur out of the windows so I enhanced that.

1941 Pontiac Timelapse

Kathy and I drove out to the City of Chino car show this morning. She initially said she wasn't going to go since it was going to rain. It ended up raining but later in the day. The clouds were very impressive so after taking just a few photos (too many cars with their hoods up) I shot this short timelapse video:

Duty Now for the Future

Devo 2.0 holds down a thunderous bottom line while Nigel and Eugene respectively see to the vocal and guitar responsibilities. Disneyland park, tomorrowland terrace stage.

Colby / Glendale Fire Panorama

I arrive at work before daybreak each morning so I usually make a point of checking to see if the sunrise is going to be a pretty one. On this day as I approached a window near my office, I could see a red glow coloring all of the cubicles that are adjacent to it so I expected something spectacular. This is what I saw. The Colby fire as it is being called is still burning as I write this. It has caused a lot of damage and it was apparently set by 3 idiots. The smoke was so bad on Friday that I had to leave Pasadena and work from home. I'm hoping the air quality will be better tomorrow.

There Goes the Neighborhood

This is all going to end in tears, I'm sure of it. They opened up a liquor store right across the street from the Aztec temple in this striking hood mural I spotted at the Santa Fe Dam car show in Irwindale, California. Does this mean that all the Aztec dudes are going to start showing up at the human sacrifices hammered, three sheets to the wind? The skull-double headed arrow thing looks like it would hurt. The car's a Chevy, didn't catch the make.