In Northern California 

Builders,

After a long productive stay at Chino, I have packed up and driven 500 miles north to prep for Corvair College #38.

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I took the coastal route out of LA for the first time in 24 years. I got to know Malibu in 1982, when is still had  elements of the world that inspired Brian Wilson, In 1992, they were faded thoughts. As I drove through on Saturday afternoon, there was nothing detectable left, and perhaps no one left to care about it either. 

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Things got better by the Ventura County line,  Oxnard had changed little, but Santa Barbara looked overbuilt, and I made a good decision to take the very steep route 154 over the coastal mountains and travel inland to a more desolate part of the state.

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154 leads into Los Padres National Forrest, and from there you can hook up with 101 again and run 160 miles north to Salinas, through rolling golden hills , broken only by vineyards and little farm towns. The contrast to Malibu was astounding, it was hard to picture them on the same planet far less in the same state.  It was pretty enough that I stopped at a quiet rest area at mile marker 256 at sunset, in a few hours there were a billion stars out, and I camped  out right there, enjoying a solitary night that brought back a lot of what I love about the most geographically diverse state in the nation. 5 am brought first light, and I drove on to Vacaville to meet Woody Harris, the local host of CC 38.

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Above, Woody stand with his grandson at the historical NutTree airport in Vacaville. CC 38 is two hours north at Cloverdale. Woody is holding the Cherry Grove Trophy, which he was awarded last year at CC 35.  His grandson is experiencing at lot of success racing karts on road race tracks. He is a very sharp kid, but some of it may be attributable to his Grandfather having ‘car jobs’ like heading up McLarens North American efforts. Sometimes it isn’t who you know, but who loves you.

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Above, sunrise on 101, near Bradley.

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-ww.

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