Road Trip to the International Jaguar Festival in California
The IJF was in Santa Barbara, CA on the first weekend in November. Not one to miss a chance for a trip, I drove there and back. I was the only one from the NC Region to attend. The other 5 regions had higher attendance. I left the Detroit area on Wednesday, October 17 and drove across the northern part of the country, south on the Pacific Coast Highway to Santa Barbara and then Returned on Old Route 66 arriving home on Friday, Nov 16. I was surprised to see 80 mph speed limits in SD and WY. The 2018 Corvette GS didn't mind. The link below is to a Flickr photo account where I posted my daily photographs from my travels and stops. You may care to view some of the sights from the trip. I took over 1300 photos and posted about 750. They are shown on 8 pages so can be viewed quickly. The IJF Concours was on the hotel lawn under the palm trees with the beach and ocean right across the street. There was a nice selection of beautiful Jaguar cars represented. The rally was on some very winding mountainside roads ending up at a winery. We were close but didn't win. The Slalom was on an airport parking apron and I was the fastest car on the course that day. https://www.flickr.com/photos/131947224@N08/ Stops along the way will be: Lou Mitchell's Restaurant in Chicago, the official eastern end of Route 66, The Harley Davidson Museum, Milwaukee, WI House on the Rock, Spring Green, WI, John Deere Museum, Waterloo, Iowa, Pioneer Auto Show and Prairie Town, Murdo, SD, Sturgis, South Dakota, Mount Rushmore, Keystone, SD, Crazy Horse Monument, Custer, SD, Devils Tower, Hulett, WY, Yellowstone National. Park, WY, Jackson Hole, WY, Idaho and Oregon was boring, Redwood National Forest, Crescent City, CA, Golden Gate Bridge and Lombard St, San Francisco, CA, Winchester Mystery House, San Jose, CA, Pacific Coast Highway, CA, Hearst Castle, San Simeon, CA,
The Peterson Museum, Los Angeles, CA. IJF in Santa Barbara, CA, Sequoia National Forest, CA,
Drove Angeles Crest Hwy, Rt 2, CA. Santa Monica Pier, CA, the western end of Route 66. Return on Route 66.
San Bernardo and Barstow, CA.
Kingman, Flagstaff, and Winslow, AZ.
Side trip to the Grand Canyon,
Side trip to the big Meteor Crater,
Side trip to the Petrified National Forest and Painted Desert
Albuquerque and Santa Fe, NM.
Amarillo, TX.
Oklahoma City and Tulsa, OK.
Springfield and St. Louis, MO.
Stopped for the Budweiser tours and the St. Louis Arch.
Springfield and Chicago, IL.
Back to Lou Mitchell's Restaurant for a completion dinner.
The trip took 8500 miles lasting 31 days. It was truly a great trip.
I got home a day of two early because Winter Storm Avery chased me home all the way from Texas.
I had to keep moving to stay ahead of it and I almost accomplished it.
Historic Route 66 has moved around over the years. Some if it and the relics from the past are still there. Others have to be sought out. In some places a 2-lane county road follows the interstate and it is marked State Route 66. Other places you really need a map and person navigating to find the next section and artifacts along the way. In some places the road is long gone.
Bob