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Posts in "Road Trips"

Thursday, October 23rd, 2014

Day 1 | Day 2 | Days 3-7 | Day 8 | Day 9 | Day 10

Ah, Tahoe—it's no Bend, that's for damn sure. But I drove around the whole lake anyway by mistake, and it wasn't all bad, and then I went ahead and drove all the way back to L.A.

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posted in: Road Trips  Videos  

Tuesday, October 21st, 2014

Day 1 | Day 2 | Days 3-7 | Day 8 | Day 9 | Day 10

After a thankfully peaceful night in a vaguely Psycho-esque motel on the outskirts of Bend, I lingered downtown for most of Day 9, because really, why would you want to leave? But then I remembered that my destination that night was Tahoe, or close to it—which meant I had to make it to Crater Lake before dusk.

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posted in: Driving Impressions  Road Trips  Videos  

Saturday, September 27th, 2014

Day 1 | Day 2 | Days 3-7 | Day 8 | Day 9 | Day 10

Back in the 500 Benz (not pictured above), I left Portland expecting to be golfing in Sisters that afternoon and staying somewhere in Bend that night. And that, Benzitos, is more or less what happened.

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posted in: Road Trips  

Sunday, September 21st, 2014

Day 1 | Day 2 | Days 3-7 | Day 8 | Day 9 | Day 10

The pretext for this trip was that I had to be in Portland anyway for the unveiling of the 2015 Dodge Challenger Hellcat, a 707-horsepower monstrosity that will, as you'll see in a minute, do a burnout. I ended up spending a couple extra days with a notorious local I've done business with in the past—but first, I kicked it "Old-School" with Dodge as we drove candy-colored Challengers all over the place.

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posted in: Road Trips  Videos  

Sunday, September 14th, 2014

Day 1 | Day 2 | Days 3-7 | Day 8 | Day 9 | Day 10

The agenda on this day was redwoods—lots of redwoods. But we did wake up in Ferndale, and I did leave my camera at Poppa Joe's, necessitating an unscheduled return trip some hours hence...so more did happen than just the trees.

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posted in: Road Trips  Videos  

Tuesday, September 9th, 2014

Day 1 | Day 2 | Days 3-7 | Day 8 | Day 9 | Day 10

Who says you can't rely on a 1998 Mercedes-Benz SL500 to take you about 3,000 miles from LA to Portland to Bend to Crater Lake to Lake Tahoe and back? Worked just fine for me and mrs500benz back in July; here's how it started.

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posted in: Road Trips  

Thursday, October 24th, 2013

Being close to the Pacific Coast Highway is one of the best things about living in LA, and since the 500 Benz is doing a whole lot of this these days, I concluded late Tuesday afternoon that it was time for the two of us (that would be me and the Benz; mrs500benz is so not into it) to execute a PCH-centric driving loop.

So I put the top down and headed west, and yes, I know I owe you a "Things That Happened in June, July, August, September and October" post, but let's take this one step at a time and just talk PCH protocol for now.

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posted in: 500Benzlife  Road Trips  

Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

There's some insouciance going on in the passenger seat above, and I didn't appreciate it one bit, because the 500 Benz was looking truly, solemnly beautiful on Sunday morning in San Francisco.

Get close enough, of course, and the car will show its age like any of us—but come on, scroll down and tell me it's not doing a damn good impression of a brand-new R129 right here.

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posted in: Road Trips  

Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

As it turns out, the aforementioned uncle500benz daily-drives a silver 2006 Maserati Quattroporte—you know, the one with the single-clutch automated manual transmission and detuned 4.2-liter Ferrari V8.

This was going to be a most excellent wine-tasting taxi.

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posted in: Driving Impressions  Road Trips  

Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

Not surprisingly, rain was in the forecast for San Francisco as mrs500benz and I packed for her aunt and uncle's place last Friday morning, so I prevailed on her to help me install the 500 Benz's hardtop, which had been sexing up my living-room wall ever since my man Johnny Turbo helped me take it off a few days after I bought the car.

In brief, installation can be something of a challenge when the hardtop's on the third floor, the car's in the basement, and you don't have the little rolly cart that Benz originally included to help you wheel the top around...so I naturally captured the whole carnival on video, and then we headed north to see what the Benz feels like with its helmet on.

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posted in: Driving Impressions  Road Trips  Videos  

Saturday, February 16th, 2013

Intro | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5

That's what DeAndre Jordan thinks about all this Puerto Rico stuff, perhaps echoing the sentiments of some of you Benzitos out there.

So how about you all just watch the Day 5 video below, take a deep breath, and brace yourselves for a renewed onslaught of often-daily content that's at least tangentially related to the 500 Benz.

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posted in: Road Trips  Videos  

Friday, February 15th, 2013

Intro | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5

Shortly after an ominous cloud bank compelled me to put the Mustang's top up (see Day 3 video @5:46), the rains arrived with real exuberance and stayed for a few hours, making for some unpleasant nighttime driving en route to Isabela.

But we got there in one piece—even had time to stop at Walmart for supplies and put down a nice authentic meal at Panda Express (yep, Puerto Rico really is the U.S.)—and then we awoke the next morning to this...

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posted in: Road Trips  Videos  

Thursday, February 14th, 2013

Intro | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5

So after I picked mrs500benz up at the airport on Wednesday evening, took her to a highly civilized restaurant on the beach, and introduced her to her twinkly new companion, we headed back to La Concha for the night, having booked the following two nights at Villa Tropical in two-hours-distant Isabela.

That meant we had to get to Isabela by roughly dinnertime on Thursday, but before we left, we managed to do justice to Old San Juan, which is one of my new favorite places in the world...and I also mounted the GoPro to our 2011 Ford Mustang V6 Convertible's trunklid for some exciting San Juan driving footage.

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posted in: Road Trips  Videos  

Wednesday, February 13th, 2013

Intro | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5

We rose early on Day 2 for an outdoor breakfast in the Plaza Las Delicias (see Day 1, above, for background), and then it was time to pick a Paceman and head for a coffee plantation in the mountains, where we understood a few 2013 Mini Cooper S John Cooper Works GPs were waiting to amuse us.

As such, there are two, count 'em, two videos in this post, Benzitos: one for the Paceman drive, and one for the few hot minutes I spent driving that GP around.

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posted in: Road Trips  Videos  

Tuesday, February 12th, 2013

Intro | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5

When I first perused the itinerary for last week's Mini Paceman press event in Puerto Rico, I found it odd that the Bulldog Inn, our lodging for Tuesday night in Ponce, was not known to Google. Then I noticed the following fine print in a separate email:

During the event, we will be staying at the "Bulldog Inn," a local property in the square of Ponce that has undergone MINI you-ification for this event.

Yep, Mini was going to commandeer some random hotel and redecorate it just for us—a power move that would really set the tone for the rest of the trip.

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posted in: Road Trips  Videos  

Monday, February 11th, 2013

Intro | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5

The best-laid plans, you know?

Anyway, actually I got engaged, so that changed—but since I'm a week behind on posts, it's going to take me a minute to get back in the flow, so here are a few Puerto Rico teaser photos to tide you unwashed masses over till the story starts tomorrow.

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posted in: Road Trips  

Tuesday, January 29th, 2013

I've already covered the 500 Benz's ability to haul pizza, but what about furniture?

Well, as this resourceful Mainer demonstrated on 95 South last summer, at least one chair almost fits if you leave the trunk lid open.

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posted in: Road Trips  Spotted in the Wild  

Friday, January 11th, 2013

My mom had less time to kill than my dad when she stopped by last October, so we didn't go farther than Point Mugu, a 45-mile drive up the coast from the 500 Benz's home base in Hollywood.

But two momentous things happened anyway: (1) we saw a green MG Midget in the wild that was almost an exact clone (Spridgets!) of the Austin-Healey Sprite that my mom drove during her college years, and (2) she showed an incredible beginner's aptitude for pan-blur photography.

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posted in: Road Trips  

Wednesday, January 2nd, 2013

So my dad came out last summer for an epic road trip that started in LA, meandered up to Big Sur via the road where James Dean and his Porsche met their demise, and ended up in San Diego, where, speaking of Porsches, my dad's friend Dave introduced us to his 997 Carrera S convertible and also taught us how to surf.

I'm going to let the photos do the talking on this one.

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posted in: Road Trips  

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