Buffalo to Burbank - Cruising for a Cause: Destination REACHED!

Buffalo to Burbank - Cruising for a Cause: Destination REACHED!: Days 11 - 14 After some white knuckle driving going through Flagstaff Arizona and various other mountains I finally crossed the border int...

Destination REACHED!

Days 11 - 14

After some white knuckle driving going through Flagstaff Arizona and various other mountains I finally crossed the border into California on the 11th.  For miles all I saw was mountain after mountain.  It was quite the brown state for miles upon miles on the highway to a point where I thought it would never end. 

I finally reached a city called Barstow before I settled for the night which is about 2 hours away from my hotel room.  It was the first major city I came to since crossing over the border.  I stayed at a Days Inn which was tucked away on a hill behind a gas station and "Subway".  It wasn't too bad for staying in.  I walked outside just after the sun set.  It was a pretty sight with the skys showing colors of red and orange over the city to the west and a full moon rising to the east.  I tucked myself in for the night after a long day of driving.

.

In the morning I headed to a town called Ranco Cucamunga. All these years I thought my father just made up that name and here I found myself in the center of town getting my car detailed by Planet Green compliments of Croftgate USA.  It was quite delightful to see the pony shining pink once again after all the dirt and tar from the roads. Thank you Scott Dufrane for getting her looks back into shape!

Once that was done, I was off to Corona CA, the town where SMS is located. As soon as I walked through the door, I was greeted by Adam of SMS and Molly Saleen herself.  She called my pony her twin. That made me feel quite honored. I had put the hood scoop back on it, backed it up next to hers and wetook some photos. 

We were chit chatting when Steve Saleen came out, asked me how the car came to be pink, what the year was, what color it was originally and then he was gracious enough to sign it for me. Molly had also signed it as well.  I want to thank everybody at SMS because not only did I get some autographs, but they also fixed my hood scoop and hood while I was there.  Once it was fixed, we backed the car up once again and took more photos with Molly, Mollipop, myself and "the east coast twin".  I couldn't have been more excited! Another shout out to Craig Cooper of Cleveland for making this happen!

Off to Burbank! 

While I was in New Mexico, heading to California, I had the fortunate conversation with an over the road truck driver.  When I told him I was heading to Burbank.  Since he had been all over the country, I had asked him about the traffic in LA and if it was worse than Chicago. He said it was. He also gave me advice to stay in the "slow" lane and I should be OK. Well, after driving through downtown Chicago during non rush hour traffic and driving through LA, Burbank, Santa Monica, Studio City, Hollywood etc during rush hour traffic, I will take LA any day over Chicago. (Here's a tip for anybody going west like I did.  Stay in the slow lane. It's sometimes faster than the fast lane). 

The difference between the two cities, is the way the freeways are set up. While there may be 8 lanes in each direction, in Chicago you might only have 1/4 of a mile to cross over 6 lanes to get to the exit that you need and the cars are flying 80 miles an hour one minute then find yourself in a parking lot the next minute.  In SoCal, you might only need to cross over 2 lanes and it just looks like a parking lot. The fact is you might only be doing 20 miles an hour. Staying in the slow lane, I was passing those cars that were 2 and 3 lanes over to the left.  Ok, enough about the traffic!


I reached my hotel and got settled in a bit after 6 PM. I unfortunately missed the Van Nuys cruise night.  They weren't expecting me so it wasn't so bad. It was still quite early so I headed to Universal's City walk.  It almost reminded me of Fremont St in Las Vegas without the casinos.  I took a walk around and headed back to the hotel for the night.

Yesterday I did some sight seeing before heading to the NBC studios for the Tonight Show which I had tickets for the studio audience.  After getting lost a few times and swearing at my GPS, I finally parked my car on Bob Hope Drive. It was time to go to the "waiting area" to get into the show.  There were still three hours to go before the show taping began. We (the audience) were sitting outside in 101 degree heat with only some shade.  At 2 PM the pages came out to greet us and slowly move us into the studio lot where we sat another hour but this time we actually sat in a covered area. Water and Lemonade was also available to us by this time.

When the magical hour of 3 PM hit, the pages started seating us.  My number to be seated was 12. They have a process of seating us that I still cannot figure out.  Although I was the 12th person to be seated, my seat was in the third row on the floor, opposite of the band side. There was Jay about 30 feet from my seat and when Gloria Estafan came out, I was only about 15 feet away from her. All in all, it was neat to watch how they taped the Tonight Show. Besides sitting in the heat, the only other downfall were the actual seats on the floor rows.  They were very uncomfortable and I walked out of there with a major back ache. 

After the Tonight Show, I was off to the walk of fame. The street itself reminded me of walking in Manhattan with all the big name stores near Times Square.  The only difference was that the crowd was walking on stars and not just plain sidewalks. Unfortunately my back was hurting so bad that I had only walked two blocks, turned around and went back to the hotel for the night.

Today started out right at the hotel where Lorin and her other half from Stangpede Mustangs came to greet me before we headed out to Wild Pony Motorsports.  Lorin driving a very nice looking silver pony with pink trim and her other half was driving a grabber blue Roush.  The three cars together looked quite nice in my opinion.

Off to Wild Pony Motorsports in Santa Clarita where I met Vicky Griffin.  She was quite an impressive woman who knows her cars!  I was also introduced to her staff. There we did a mini photo shoot and was interviewed by Brad Seidenglanz of KHTS AM 1220 in Santa Clarita.  After all was done, Vicky had the guys in the shop change my oil and check out the car while I was there.  Thank you Wild Pony Motorsports!!

I also have to give a shout out to my fellow co-worker Scott Felix for driving out to meet me there. We both use to work in Rochester NY side by side.  He moved back to California and I started working from Buffalo.

It's time to get moving to Redondo Beach!

Somehow or another I ended up taking the lead getting back to the freeway and I lost the other ponies in the caravan. No worries though, I made it safely to my destination.

The fog rolled in, I could barely see the Pacific Ocean but at least I could see it. It was getting cold and very damp but still many cars of all makes and models were there by the time I pulled in.  We did have some issues with a mix up with the venue but all in all we made it work.  A big thank you to Larry Neville and Ruby's Cafe for helping with the issues! The cruise came to an early end due to the weather but it was still fun and met a few people formerly of Western NY. Even still it turned out to be a good night.

I'm having issues uploading pictures but they will be posted!

Standings:

Kansas City/Olathe
Buffalo
Redondo Beach
Indianapolis
Erie
Cleveland
Chicago
Oklahoma

Next Stop: Dallas! I will be arriving there on the 19th.

Is this a Mustang or is this a jet ski?

Leaving Olathe KS, I did have some technical difficulties.  My hood scoop is currently off the hood.  I can't imagine what anybody was thinking when they saw me with a wrench under my hood taking it off.  Unfortunately the double sided tape that is used to hold it down came up.  This was causing the hood scoop to lift from the hood.  Somewhere between Olathe and Wichita, I found a Walmart, bought some tools that fit and took it off.  The pony looks a bit naked now, but at least I'm not in fear of it completely ripping off and going through the windshield or taking the hood of the car off with it.

After that 40 minute delay though I finally met up with some members of the Mustang club of Oklahoma at the last rest stop in Kansas.  From there we went to the Oklahoma welcome center and had our pictures taken in front of the Oklahoma sign.  We then proceeded to Route 66 famous barn and soda stop for more pictures then headed off to dinner. We were unfortunate to have some very bad weather on the way.

On the way to the restaurant (which I unfortunately cannot remember the name) the weather was scary.  I must say thank goodness for my SSBC Brakes!  There were walls of water coming up over the median on I-40 to the point that I couldn't see out of my windshield.  The Brakes worked very well for me when I most needed them!  Thank you SSBC!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

Anyway, the dinner was good.  Thank you for the treat!  There was no cruise night planned so off to the hotel I went for a nice long slumber.    Thanks to Patty for putting this little get together on!

Buffalo to Burbank - Cruising for a Cause: Kansas City beats Buffalo by a long shot!

Buffalo to Burbank - Cruising for a Cause: Kansas City beats Buffalo by a long shot!: Due to my unfortunate connection problems with internet access over the last two days, there will be a few different blogs. Here is Kansas ...

Kansas City beats Buffalo by a long shot!

Due to my unfortunate connection problems with internet access over the last two days, there will be a few different blogs.  Here is Kansas City.

The Buffalo Bills may have won the home opener, but Kansas City was the big winner when it came to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.  Although the final results are still under review, it blew Buffalo out of it's top spot for donations.

Pre Game Show:  Fox 4 News did an interview with Jim Peterson and I bright and early. It was live and I was nervous as it was my first ever interview.  Hopefully somebody will be able to send me the video of it.

First down and 10 to go:  Stop at Oklahoma Joes for some down right awesome BBQ pork.  Sorry Rochester, it beats out Dinosaur by a long shot!  The food was great, the company even better.  It was a continuation of the night before with good ole fashion friendliness of Kansas City.

Second Down:  4:30 pm a stampede of Mustangs arrived at the Residence Inn awaiting my arrival in the parking lot.  5:00 pm, the wonderful Olathe KS Police department motorcycles and car shows up for the motorcade over to Bass Pro parking lot.


















Third Down 100 yards to go:  The motorcade proceeds.  I've never seen anything like it before.  Very busy intersections came to a dead stop as 10+ Mustangs head over to the Bass Pro Shop in Olathe.  We arrived before the cruise technically started and there were more than 50 cars already parked.  It was a welcoming sight.


Touchdown KS for the WIN!  It was wonderful cruise in that included food, music, door prizes, silent auctions, 50/50 and cars LOTS OF CARS! 

A big congratulations to the Mustang Club of Greater Kansas City.  A big shout out to Sara Grieving and Jim Peterson for putting the show together along with everybody else that helped and a special thank you to Aaron Kalmer.  Aaron contacted me about the cruise.  If it weren't for him it wouldn't have happened.

Question of the day: Will Buffalo make a comeback at the end of the trip? 

Standings:

Kansas City
Buffalo
Indianapolis
Erie
Cleveland


Stay Tuned! More to come!

Buffalo to Burbank - Cruising for a Cause: Toto, we're not in Buffalo anymore!

Buffalo to Burbank - Cruising for a Cause: Toto, we're not in Buffalo anymore!: There wasn't a cruise tonight but I felt compelled to say WOW! Kansas City MO is one of the friendliest towns I have ever been to. I arriv...

Toto, we're not in Buffalo anymore!

There wasn't a cruise tonight but I felt compelled to say WOW! Kansas City MO is one of the friendliest towns I have ever been to.

I arrived sometime just before 2 PM.  I am staying at The Raphael Hotel.  The door man came out to my car to greet me. Yes I did say door man.  He helped remove the bags from my car and the bell hop came out to load them up and take them to the room.  At that point, I had to ask myself what town I was in. 

The hotel room is absolutely gorgeous with a great view.  Two flat panel TVs, a wet bar, refrigerator and a bathroom that I could live in.  What a great place to spend the night.  I have to thank the Mustang Club of Greater Kansas City for the great surprise!

Once I was settled in to the hotel I went back down to park my Pony and start cleaning her up.  She was definitely a dirty girl!  Unfortunately the hood scoop came loose. I lost a screw/nut in the travels.  The plastic decor came out and the screw was hanging off to the left hand side where it also left a 3/4 inch scratch in the paint.  I was able to contact Sara from MCoGKC and she hooked me right up with Tallants Auto Body Hot Rod Shop.  They had the scoop fixed in 10 minutes and the next thing I know they were mixing paint to match my pink to hide the scratch.  A big thank you to Tallants for the help!

After the scoop was fixed, I found a self car wash place and gave the Pink Saleen a bath and headed back to the hotel.  I did some quick detailing and then it was time to get ready for dinner at Buca di Beppo Italian Restaurant.  The food was great but the company was better!  I was able to finally meet Sara and the committee that put the cruise together.  I really couldn't ask for a better non cruise evening while in my travels. 

Tomorrow is a big day.  TV station in the morning, lunch at Oklahoma Joe's BBQ and then the cruise at Bass Pro in Olathe KS.  

Until then, good night!