OK, here I am at the office in Beaverton. My friend Keith (a die-hard Supra aficionado, and the organizer of the annual Las Vegas Supra bash,) took the picture but didn't have time to drive up with me to Vancouver.
Yes, MarkG, I gots ears. Shut up, I likes 'em.

So I talked one of the women in the office into going up there with me so I'd have someone to take pictures. This poor woman had never been in a 2 seater before, in her 45 years. She about jumped out of her seat when I spun tires out of the parking lot. After the ride was over, she said she felt a little nauseous from sitting so low and from the way the car felt to her. Might have been my driving.

The entire trip up to Vancouver and back took about an hour and a half.

Here's the Washington border, in the middle of the I-5 bridge over the Columbia River.

And here's the Vancouver bus station. It took almost the whole trip to explain about the concept of the bus station. I'm not sure she quite understands even now, she might think I'm gay... although she knows about my past affairs...
Now I was surprised to find out that Vancouver doesn't have a proper bus station. Heck, even Eugene has a proper bus station. I'll shoot a pic of it tomorrow. I guess that Greyhound thinks if you want a real bus station, go on to Portland, a quarter hour away.

And back across the river. Welcome to Oregon. No Sales Tax. No pumping your own gas. Don't look too deeply in the woods for trees, they're all gone.

OK I should get to bed. I have a long drive ahead of me tomorrow.
I'll post the rest of my trip pix when I get back.

 

I fixed the broken links on my #1 post about the trip

Fixed the broken links.

OK, here I am at the office in Beaverton. My friend Keith (a die-hard Supra aficionado, and the organizer of the annual Las Vegas Supra bash,) took the picture but didn't have time to drive up with me to Vancouver.
Yes, MarkG, I gots ears. Shut up, I likes 'em.
View attachment 6250

So I talked one of the women in the office into going up there with me so I'd have someone to take pictures. This poor woman had never been in a 2 seater before, in her 45 years. She about jumped out of her seat when I spun tires out of the parking lot. After the ride was over, she said she felt a little nauseous from sitting so low and from the way the car felt to her. Might have been my driving.

The entire trip up to Vancouver and back took about an hour and a half.

Here's the Washington border, in the middle of the I-5 bridge over the Columbia River.
View attachment 6258

And here's the Vancouver bus station. It took almost the whole trip to explain about the concept of the bus station. I'm not sure she quite understands even now, she might think I'm gay... although she knows about my past affairs...
Now I was surprised to find out that Vancouver doesn't have a proper bus station. Heck, even Eugene has a proper bus station. I'll shoot a pic of it tomorrow. I guess that Greyhound thinks if you want a real bus station, go on to Portland, a quarter hour away.
View attachment 6266

And back across the river. Welcome to Oregon. No Sales Tax. No pumping your own gas. Don't look too deeply in the woods for trees, they're all gone.
View attachment 6274

OK I should get to bed. I have a long drive ahead of me tomorrow.
I'll post the rest of my trip pix when I get back.

 

slimdigits (Thom) showed up this morning at 7:30 sharp and we took right off. Thom's car is not feeling well after being spun out against a curb by his roommate. Lesson 1: Don't let your roommate drive your car.
Cold, cloudy out but dry road conditions. Weatherman promised nasty cold further south.
Gassed up in Salem and continued on.

We stopped in Eugene to get a pic in front of the bus station. Also, I signed the flag there, and so did he. I just noticed that we're both protecting our butts in that picture. It WAS the bus station, after all.

After about 125 miles I trusted him enough to drive my car. And he promised to give me a good deal on his team moons when he gets his 2zz in.
Just as we were getting to Grant's Pass, the clouds went away. It was clear as a bell and about 50 degrees.
We arrived in Cave Junction at exactly 1 PM, the promised hour. Damon (djb) flagged us down and we drove around the back of the restaurant we were supposed to have lunch in. It was closed. It was nice out so we both took our tops down. Damon embarrassed me into tucking my ears in. Mark, did you talk to him?
I turned the flag over to Damon and he signed the flag. His passenger was a friend but not a Spyder owner (he was drooling all the way, though) so he didn't sign. Did you ever see two over-six-foot-three guys get out of a spyder? Does the phrase 'Clown Car' come to mind?

We walked a half block further to have lunch at a kind of western deli bar & grill place. Great barbecue.
The 2 cars proceeded on to the California border Here's the "Leaving Oregon, Prepare To Pay Sales Tax And Pump Your Own Gas" sign.
Here's the "Entering California" sign. Notice all the graffiti on it, compared to the "Leaving Oregon" sign. The post on the left is all filled up with about 40 years worth of used gum.
[edit: The rest of the links on here will have to remain broken: The new rules only allow for 5 pictures per post.]

Turning around to re-enter Oregon. Here's where the "Welcome To Oregon, Now Go Home" sign used to be. here's me watching Damon drive away in that gorgeous blue car. I tried to talk him into a straight trade. No dice.

I'm tired, but had a whole lot of fun. Let's not wait 10 years to do this again. I'm really glad I had Thom along with me for this trip. I got to learn a bit about my car, including the fact that the steering is looser than his, the brakes are a little ways down, the clutch is a little ways down, the belt tensioner is ticking, and there's a humming noise coming from my right front wheel area, like a dry bearing or something. Let me know when you get yours fixed, Thom, and I'll drive it and let you know what I notice!

Total miles, Aurora to Beaverton to Vancouver to Aurora to Cave Junction to Aurora, 600. Flag miles, 300.

 

on the norcal coast

paul bunyan and his headless ox, babe

at the border

L-R, Thomas, me, Lou

signing the flag

departing Cave Junction, Or

nice shot from my passenger seat

the flag at the border

hey lou, remember the vette that went by us at the border? caught and passed him for you.

Nice to meet the two of you. Flag is safe, on it's way to MrToad on Monday morning. Drive was perfect, couldn't have asked for better conditions this time of year. Lots of attention at rest stops and gas stations, including the idiot in Oregon who filled my tank. He walked up and said, "Yeah, I have a Honda, too."
Glad this thing has started moving, happy to have been a part of it this early on. Thanks to all who are participating for giving me a reason to burn some fuel and hug the coastline for a day.

 

Another successful hand-off. Met with MrToad (Dave) and tonic_tiger (terrence) over a proper breakfast and a couple pints of IPA this morning at 8am. Dave has pics, and I hope he will get them up soon. Again, it was an absolute pleasure meeting up with the other owners. Good times, good conversation, good pictures. We hit the capitol building for a couple quick snaps, then over the the Greyhound station for a shot of the three cars inside the bus parking area. Got a stern talking to by someone who was apparently in charge of making sure people don't take pictures of the buses. Then a flag signing and passing, and we were out of there.

Good luck on the leg to Santa Rosa, Dave!!!

 

very fun and very tired

 

Both the Sacramento and Santa Rosa hand-offs were completed on Monday.

The Sacramento Pass began over Eggs Benedict and beers at the Fox & Goose. It's one of the less dressed neighborhoods in Sacramento, but provides an excellent contrast to good looking cars.

From left to right: djb, tonic_tiger, MrToad

Sacramento is California's state capitol. The Capitol Building is yet another suitable backdrop for good looking cars.

Since the relay is an authorized activity of SpyderChat, we could not pass up the opportunity to show our rear ends in the Sacramento Greyhound Depot.

Our presence piqued the intense interest of the Bus Station Master, who demanded to know our true purpose in taking a picture of his bus. We assured him that this was a normal behavior for people in our club and an important part of the cross-country relay.

The dearth of hospitality in the bus station forced us to find shelter in a parking garage for the flag signing ceremony.

MrToad

tonic_tiger

Then off on a very rainy ride to Sonoma County for the Santa Rosa Pass.

MrToad and Wildcard

Up next: Pinole!

 

Leaving Santa Rosa to deliver the flag to mang.

Richmond - San Rafael Bridge

Traffic Jam - Drive-by shooting on the freeway 4 hours previous closed two lanes.

Obligatory photo of Bus

The weather was not cooperating for a scenic photo shoot so we ended up shooting the cars in a parking garage.

The flag was passed to mang who passed it to sengk who passed it to supahamster. Supahamster took more pictures which he will be posting.

 

Cool wildcard. it was great meeting everyone. I'm glad to see that you made it home safely.

 

you guys are quick

 

Just got back from meeting "supahamster" Sam and the flag is now in San Francisco. The timing couldn't have worked out better: after weeks of rain and unseasonably cold temperatures, today is sunny and gorgeous. Ocean Beach was packed. Sam's lovely and helpful girlfriend took a more professional picture of us with the flag, but here is one I took with my phone:

 

Well, there is further progress to report. Had the pleasure of meeting "rortizo" Bob this morning; he was kind enough to meet me halfway, on the San Leandro Marina. Here are my phone pictures. He took some with an actual camera, including a few shots of the cars as a jet was about to touch down right behind them, so I'm sure he'll be along shortly to add his pictures.

Long live the SC Relay!

 

Well, there is further progress to report. Had the pleasure of meeting "rortizo" Bob this morning; he was kind enough to meet me halfway, on the San Leandro Marina. Here are my phone pictures. He took some with an actual camera, including a few shots of the cars as a jet was about to touch down right behind them, so I'm sure he'll be along shortly to add his pictures.

Long live the SC Relay!

It was 2008 six years ago

 

 

nice to meet ya gene the flag moves to san jose tommorow docdang is next

 

the relay rolls on to ben (docdang) frost monkey is next spyderchat rocks

 

That is a very shaky picture of me. Maybe I'll get the wife to take a pic in the sun tomorrow, when it is all shiney.

The flag is mine forever now! Muahaha. J/p Goes to Frost Monkey and then to Sunburned.

 

Alright gang! Sorry for a long awaited progress. It has been raining in Nor Cal for weeks and it has finally let up. Today I just met up with fr0st monkey. Cool guy. We chatted a bit about modding while we chilled the only In-n-Out in Stockton.

The journey

The meet

The ride home

Next up is Sunburned!

 

Nice meeting you Ben. Thanks for taking the trip down to Stockton and letting me take a look at your Spyder.

 

Since I had the flag all too myself. I took the liberty to snap some fun photos over the week.



In the flesh



I've got some more which I'll post after I sleep.

-Ben

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, the responsibility to carry the flag has been passed off to Sunburned! Please bug him if the flag has not moved any bit.




It was good to meet you Sunburned. Sorry we couldn't drive through Skyline which was a couple feet away from us. We'll have to rally the spyders for a drive. Also very nice 202!

 

MAGIC ACT #3..... Replication

Two Spyders are always better than one.

After the hand off the Spyder made a final lap around the Bay to commemorate the flags time here.

Then on to Mariposa and back to the mighty town of Planada to meet up with DJB. Yes this really was about the most scenic location we could find in town. LoL.

Onward and Southward

 

We'll we had initially planned a canyon meet, run, and hand-off but unfortunately things didn't work out quite like that. We did however resort to 'Sisters Beauty Supply' which was obviously the second best option. Good meeting you djb, I gotta give it to you for delivering the flag down to the southern end of the state, on Easter no less! We hung out for a little while, I learned some things, and then straight to business.

The signing of the flag.

djb explaining to me how I screwed up the signing of the flag.

The Easter flag!

 

I had a nice easy drive down to Santa Clarita tonight and met up with xcellflyer. A really nice guy with a super clean, low mile spyder. I tried to convince him to swap engine bays with me but I don't think he's going for it. After a double double animal style (alright it was just a cheeseburger) we discussed future plans, compared woofers, and called it a night. See you in about a week Andrew.

San Andreas Fault. Not much to look at now but this is where Ca. cracks in half.

Its Official.

Obligatory "Here's the flag photo".

WMD's!

WMD's!

 

Yep! Definitely a fun few hours. Steve's an awesome guy, with an awesome car. Always nice to meet another enthusiast! Can't beat eating a good burger while talking about the Spyder! I don't have to many good photos, but ill post what i have. It was nice to watch the people walk buy our cars and just stare. One kid even leaned all the way over my car to see the inside! Anyway, it was all cool!

Check out those rear ends!

And now the front.

space taken up on the flag. Not that much compared to the size of the flag.

how the people have signed it.


Alright, I'll see Steve and a few others at the meet!

(sorry for the big pics)

 

SoCal Meet

moygirl's cute car

impromptu random shot

i want 03! nice muffler

insert your own caption

a dying breed where only the strong survive.

thank you

fun meet. nice meeting all the new faces

 

The flag has moved on!

Here are some pics from the SoCal flag meet! It was a blast!

The lineup! (From left to right: Marlee, MikeRose, Coil2daover, Luckyboy, Sxlostv1, Xcellflyer)

Sxlostv1 setting up, while Marlee, Coil2daover, MikeRose and Luckyboy look on

Coil2daover carrying the flag to our picture spot. Marlee and Luckyboy walking out too!

What the shirt says! Awesome guy that MikeRose!

MikeRose and his answer to weight reduction.

Awesome car and sweet gearbox!

Marlee's beautiful red Gem

My little Spyder. Cleaned inside and out! (sxlostv1's car in the background)

I thought I had more pictures of everyone cars, but I guess I forgot to take them

Thanks again everyone! Hope to do it again and I won't be late next time!