I made a list of My Road Trips I took in 2009. With two rallies, one move, and several OEM car manufacturer tests it was quite a busy year. Gumball 3000 was by far the most memorable trip I made this year over seven days in May. These were the 10 best trips I took and remembered for the year. Thanks everyone who came with me on these adventures and hopefully we can do 20 for 2010.
February 2009: Atlanta, Georgia to Los Angeles, California
May 2009: Gumball 3000 from Santa Monica Pier to Miami, Florida (Gumball3000.com)
May 2009: Dubai, United Arab Emirates (You can only do public transit maps on Google Maps here so I just marked some places I went on a drive)
July 2009: 2010 Ford Mustang Road Trip (Red Rock Canyon, Formula D Las Vegas)
August 2009:2010 Hyundai Genesis Road Trip (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle)
August 2009: 2010 Nissan Altima Hybrid (LA to SF)
September 2009: 2009 Targa Trophy Rally: Los Angeles Leg
October 2009: 2010 Mitsubishi RalliArt Sportback Evo (Lima Ohio to Los Angeles, CA)
November 2009: 2010 Chevrolet Camaro (San Diego Beaches & PCH Cruise)
Here is a compilation of my encounters with the law in 2009. That would be 8 total that I can remember, one pull over wasn’t covered since it happened late at night in Oregon.
So on our convertible Nissan 370z drive we found ourselves spending the night in Laughlin, Nevada. Ricky Cervantes and I came up with the most amazing game ever. We played roulette at every casino on the “Strip” in Laughlin with a system. The first person to lose $20.00 at the table (you start with a $20.00 bill) we have to walk away and leave. The only casino we ended up never reaching this point was River Palms where we played for around two hours and were both up so we left. Here is how I stacked up and we plan to head that way again so let me know if you wish to join.
Here is a snapshot of our garage right now with the 2010 Camaro SS we have on loan from Chevrolet for a Road Trip and my 1966 Mercedes Benz. The cars are lined up front front/back if you can believe that the HUGE 2010 Camaro is that much shorter than the Mercedes. I have been loving every second of driving the Camaro SS around!
To find my interview, hit the On Demand button and find the section labeled Dave Mirra and I come in around 14 minutes.
So once you hit the 14 minute mark I come in the show for around 10 minutes with Jarod DeAnda. We talk about my favorite SEMA car, my true thoughts on the Rhys Millen RM450, and the first time I have talked about our 2010 project Fantasy Drift that we are excited about in our staff. We also brought up our UTI Nissan 350z Project Car and my fun 1966 Mercedes to finish out our interview. Thanks to Jarod for giving me a minute to chat on the live stream for SEMA.
We hit El Toro for a quick SEMA preview video of Neil Tjin’s 2010 Chevy Camaro. The car will be in the AirLift booth on display all week if you would like to take a close look at it. We shot this video in a small timeframe and I think it came out great as a small teaser video. Let me know what you think!
Don’t worry about me here out on the west coast. I know it’s flooding, pouring rain for the next 70 days and you guys might need boats to make it around but I pulled the weather report for the rest of 2009 in Los Angeles and it says sunny. Cody Wellons from S3 Magazine has even started a website called ATLflood.com which has a photo that looks strikingly like it was from my old house at 1280 West.Thank goodness we moved out west to the drought. I have yet to see a harder rain than a sprinkle in the year I have lived here and it rarely lasts more than 30 minutes, amazing I know. One thing I don’t miss is the stupid rain.
While reading the LA Times today I learned that 40 miles of Angeles Crest Highway is closed indefinitely due to the Station Fire. Just before the fires I took out this 2009 Scion tC RS 5.0 for a photo shoot and drove around half of the highway. I hadn’t been up the highway and up Mount Wilson since December 2004 when I came to visit for JGTC. With the whole area closed down for quite a long time I am glad we captured the area in it’s beauty before the fires attacked it.
According to Caltrans the reason for the long road closure isn’t from the pavement being damaged but the fires have ruined guardrails, street signs, and the road stripping. Lucky we took the Scion tC up when we did because I am guessing the road will be closed close to the rest of the year. Anyone that has any recommendations for any other roads I can use to shoot on in Northern/Western Los Angeles I would love to hear suggestions.
Although I have been a resident of Los Angeles, California for almost a year I have not attended a baseball game in Los Angeles since my arrival in November. In the honor of celebrating America I decided what better weekend than Labor Day to head out to Dodger Stadium to eat a Dodger Dog, drink some beer, and enjoy America’s past time.
An interesting fact that most of you might not know about me is that for two baseball seasons I operated the Publix Friday Night Fireworks at Turner Field for the Atlanta Braves with Jason Small. Here are some photos of a Friday Night Firework Show at Turner Field. So I may not be the die hard baseball fan I once was growing up hoarding Topps Rooke Cards but I still have a pretty jaded view of professional baseball you can enjoy below.
I have to admit that I haven’t been a huge fan of baseball in sometime but when I did follow baseball back in the 1990′s I was a huge Cleveland Indians fan. Back in the Cleveland Indians glory days we had two stars that now play for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the likes of recently acquired Jim Thome and of course Manny Ramirez. So getting a chance to see those guys in person was pretty exciting.
While the game I attended saw the Los Angeles Dodgers fall just short with a 4-3 loss to the San Diego Padres I have to admit that I like the ballgame culture around the Dodgers more than I do about most teams in the MLB. Sure, most fans show up in the 2nd inning and cheer louder/more about the beach balls flying around the stands than the actual baseball game unless Manny is up but the stadium is old and built for baseball and you have to respect that.
For those of you that don’t know Dodger Stadium is the third oldest baseball stadium still in use. The oldest stadium being Fenway Park (Boston RedSox) and second oldest field is Wrigley Field (Chicago Cubs). I’ve been to baseball games in roughly 6-10 MLB stadiums and the first thing that strikes you about Dodger Stadium is the seating capacity. They fill up at 56,000 making it the largest stadium seating wise in Major League Baseball. This title was handed to them recently with the retirement this year of Shea Stadium and Yankee Stadium.
Some other notes on why I like the Los Angeles Dodgers:
-The stadium is named after the team which is a true rarity these days in pro sports period.
-The whole place is BLUE. Anywhere you look in this place screams it’s love and support for the home team.
-It’s a stadium built for baseball and only that unlike all these new modern “multi purpose stadiums” that suck
-People in Los Angeles actually take Manny Ramirez serious and don’t seem to wonder why he plays in the outfield.
- They play fundamentally perfect baseball which I never saw growing up National League East.
Currently over 35,000 acres have been destroyed north east of my house in Los Angeles near Mount Wilson and on Angeles Crest Highway. Driving home from Walnut yesterday you could see the insane smoke clouds looming on the mountain range.
I wanted to go explore and snap some photographs since this is my first big Los Angeles fire during my nine months living here. Instead, I spent the morning combing the Internet and found some amazing photographs from the fires as they burn. I cannot really see much from my house due to Laurel Canyon and the Hollywood Hills. Here are some great photographs that will leave you speechless.
Check out the fires in Los Angeles proper as well out by the ocean. These are pretty crazy as well!
