When Johnny Comes Marching Home

It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a week since I returned from the cross-country trip with Johnny. The very next day I was out doing a thorough cleaning and then made arrangements to deliver Johnny to the Auto Haus Classic Center in Williamsburg the next day for Johnny’s initial evaluation. As you know, Rafi Autotech did a not unsubstantial amount of work on the car prior to departing Los Angeles, but really only enough to make it safe. The bottom line is this car has had a lot of maintenance deferred over the years. I’m happy to say that period of Johnny’s existence has come to an end. As you might expect during Mr. Carson’s ten years of ownership the car received regular service from Mercedes-Benz of Beverly Hills, with the appropriate stamps recorded in the maintenance book. That came to an end when the car was sold and no maintenance records exist, barring some CARFAX entries, between that time and my taking ownership.

Upon delivering the car to Auto Haus this past Friday, Johnny was placed Simon Wohlstaetter’s capable hands. Simon is from the “old country” and has been wrenching on classic Mercedes-Benz’ since he was a teenager. His initial impression of Johnny is very good, which is actually a relief coming from somebody I know and trust and who knows these cars inside and out. This confirms my impression that underneath neglected state is a gem in the rough. That said, I did hand Simon a laundry list of items and I’m sure he will find more that needs doing on top of what has already been done.

The current plan is to get Johnny into the best possible mechanical shape possible, tackling the big-ticket items first and moving onto the more mundane items later. After we get it mechanically sorted it will be time to move onto the paint and body. I suspect that will be the most time consuming aspect of bringing Johnny up to speed and something I will certainly leave to those who know better than I how to go about it. In the meantime, I’ll be collecting Johnny either later this week or early next and drive him a bit until we review the plan and timeline going forward.

There is already another list forming in the back of my head concerning how to take Johnny to the next level. We’ve already received an invitation to bring Johnny to Pinehurst. Sadly, that will have to wait until next year I’m afraid. We have a lot of sorting and spitting and polishing to do before he’s ready for that sort of event. In any case, we’ll try to get Johnny around to a few local shows this spring, summer and fall. He won’t be fully ready, but if you’re in the neighborhood be sure and come by and have a look. Maybe we can hire an Ed McMahon impersonator to say “Heeeere’s…”

Johnny, Simon, Avril & Preston @ Auto Haus Williamsburg

Wheeeeere's Johnny Day 10 - Final Day

Ten days, 3,477.8 miles, 13 tanks of gas and one quart of oil later “Johnny” and I arrived home safe and sound late Wednesday afternoon. This epic journey to collect Johnny and drive across country to visit friends and relatives, living and dead, came off without any catastrophic mechanical failures, flat tires or failure to perform on Johnny’s part, or mine for that matter.

The final day was probably the least interesting and eventful of the trip. I awoke early and we were on the road by 5:40 aye-em from Oxford, Alabama. The rainstorm that we pushed through on Monday, which caught up to us later that night, we passed through again Tuesday afternoon only for it to catch and pass us once again overnight made it inevitable that we would catch it again in the morning. Unfortunately, the timing coincided with reaching Atlanta during rush hour. Yet again I turned a deaf ear to Ms. Waze’s directions in what I thought would be a better route during Atlanta’s rush hour frenzy. BIG mistake. Waze wanted me to continue straight through downtown on I-75/85 and I thought that would just be insane. Certainly, taking the I-285 around the city would avoid the worst of the traffic. Wrongo moose breath. The traffic on the loop was crawling at 5 mph, therefore, I reevaluated Waze’s input and we thence proceeded through the streets of Atlanta to link back up with I-75/85 somewhere in the vicinity of the Georgia Tech campus.

Once clear of Atlanta the drive was smooth sailing except for the interminable construction zones, although the rain abated for a while. I did make one unscheduled stop at the Red Hook Brewery outside of Raleigh, NC. My neighbor turned me on to Red Hook awhile back, so I thought why not? I picked up a case for him and one for myself and got a brief peek at the operation too boot. Full brewery tours are only done on Friday afternoons. Back underway, we managed to make good time and hit the rain yet again as we crossed into Virginia. Undaunted, we pressed on and arrived home at 5:40 pee-em, exactly 11 hours after starting out that morning. For you math wizards you have to take the time zone change into account for the arithmetic to work.

I now have a laundry list of items to address and as I finally get around to writing this Johnny has already been delivered to Auto Haus’ Classic Center in Williamsburg, Virginia for evaluation towards a sympathetic restoration. Initial reaction by the staff and owner was favorable, so I look forward to the final result, if there ever is such a thing, if not the final bill. I’ll keep you posted.

Would I do this trip again? Certainly! But I think I’ll wait a wee bit before doing it again. I couldn’t have done any of this without the encouragement and support of my darling wife Avril. When I first broached the subject of buying the car and then later driving it across country, Avril was all for it even though it would leave her holding down the fort here at home while I was gallivanting across the country in our Eighties Mercedes. Somebody should write a song…

Arrival

Wheeeeere's Johnny Day 9

I awoke this morning to rain, which is not the best weather one can hope for when touring grave sites; however, being the indomitable person I am I pressed on. The first disappointment of the day came when I opened Johnny’s trunk to find water had leaked in during the deluge the night before. Although maybe not totally unexpected, after running through rain in LA and during the drive yesterday and not getting any rain in the trunk, I really didn't expect it to be a problem. I guess as long as he’s moving the water sloughs off the back, but sitting is a whole ‘nuther story. Fortunately, there is a layer of cardboard that holds the old pax window and that managed to absorb a lot of it. Undaunted, I headed north out of Laurel to Sandersville to find the grave sites of one Benjamin Franklin Purvis, my great-great-grandfather and George Wesley Purvis, my great-grandfather. Pretty easy pickings as the church and cemetery were only about a 20 minute drive from my starting point and just a wee bit outside of Sandersville, MS where my grandfather was born.

After wandering around the cemetery a bit I found the markers quite easily, paid my due respects to the dear departed and headed out to find the elusive burial ground of John Purves II, my 4th great-grandfather, which I tried to find yesterday. I headed back to the original location and after stopping to talk to an elderly lady who had lived in the area for over 50 years, got no closer to discovering the plot’s location. Not to be deterred, I headed into the town of Bay Springs to check at the local court house. The clerk was extremely helpful as well as a local volunteer fireman who was chatting her up when I arrived. They were more than willing to give me more information than I actually needed, but hey, this is the south and that has to be expected. That said, neither of them ever heard of Old Enon Cemetery, not that that deterred them from discussing it at length. Finally, the clerk called a local funeral home and after being passed from one person to the other there was a gentleman who was sure he knew where the cemetery was located. Getting precise directions this time I headed out of town yet again on my quest for another dead Purvis, or in this case Purves. You might wonder what the difference in spelling, but you have to remember years ago not everyone was as literate as they are today (ahhh, right) so spelling was at the option of the person writing it down on some official document. In this case it seemed to change with Benjamin and the local draft board. This I'm a Purvis and not a Purves. Anyway, following the directions in was was now becoming a steadily increasing downpour, I managed to find the cemetery they directed me to, however, it wasn’t the right one either. After two and a half hours of searching I gave it up as a lost cause. Maybe I’ll return someday with better intel.

I decided I reached the conclusion of chasing things down rabbit holes so I set Waze for home and started out in and ever increasing rain storm. The roads through Mississippi and Alabama aren’t too bad for the most part, but Alabama seems to have a lot of I-59 under construction with miles and miles of road restricted to 50 mph, even though there isn't a damn bit of construction going on, only  “Begin Construction” signs and “End Construction” signs and of course “Fines Doubled in Construction Zone” signs along with a few orange barrels along the side of the road. All in all it was very maddening, especially when most cars and trucks seem to be obvious to the reduced speed limits.

They say prior planning prevents poor performance and in this case that adage is true. As I passed through Tuscaloosa, Alabama I saw a sign for the Mercedes-Benz factory and visitor’s center. Well, I just has to stop, didn’t I? I got there at 3:00 pm, an hour before closing. The place was all but empty. A couple were just finishing a purchase at the gift shop and were leaving, so I had the facility to myself. If I had planned better, I might have arrived earlier and been able to do the factory tour. That said, it was quite the enjoyable visit. There were a number of classic MB vehicles including the first motorized carriage (Daimler), first motorcycle (Daimler again) and first automobile (Benz). There was a stunning cream 300SL, a 280SE Cabriolet, a new Maybach and my next car (in my dreams) a fantastic new S-Class Cabriolet. In addition there was Lewis Hamilton’s F1 W02 along with other significant MB’s. I even had my picture taken with my new BFF Lewis Hamilton (wink, wink). The whole deal only took about 40 minutes and I was back on the road only to realize I was going to pass Barber Motorsports Park and museum. Sadly that will have to wait for another trip. As darkness fell I had no desire to continue in the rain, so I decided to call it quits for the night. More rain is in the forecast so I may have to get a little rubber ducky to float in Johnny’s trunk for the remainder of the trip, which hopefully concludes after a long drive tomorrow. If this does turn out to be the penultimate Blog of the trip, then I can only say Johnny has preformed admirably thus far and I’ve learned a lot about him along the way. We surpassed 3,000 miles on this cross-country jaunt as of today. I guess you can say we’ve bonded. Certainly I felt as though my  arse has bonded to the seat at times.

New BFF

Wheeeeere's Johnny Day 8

After a great weekend visiting with family I headed out on on a rather gloomy Monday morning to points east. Originally, I planned to head for Nashville to visit an old high school friend with a possible layover in Memphis along the way for a little Blues and BBQ on Beale Street. Turns out my buddy was going to be out of town on business when I arrived, so time for Plan B. While discussing family history with my grandson and daughters I had a brainwave. Mississippi is not too far away and I’d still be heading approximately in the right direction, so why not drive to Sandersville, Mississippi and find the graves of three more sets of grandparents? Heck, I already visited my 3rd great-grandparent’s gravesite, now I could see the others. This trek has now officially become the Dead Purvis’ Tour.

The weather was intermittent rain as I headed down U.S. 69S to pickup I-20. Once I crossed the border into Louisiana it started bucketing down for about 20 minutes until finally abating just outside of Shreveport. My first real stop other than for gas was Barksdale AFB, in Bossier City just east of Shreveport. In the old days Barksdale was a Strategic Air Command (SAC) base and home to 2nd Air Force and later 8th Air Force, which it remains today. It is also home to Global Strike Command, a sort-of reincarnation of SAC, formed after several nuclear weapons handling SNAFU’s. The base is typical of the era and somewhat rundown in my view. Thank you congress for sequestration. They do, however, have quite a few aircraft on display, including a B-52G model which I wrenched on in the 70’s and flew back in the 80’s, tail number #57-6509. What does it mean when the primary vehicles I was once involved with are now museum pieces?

On the road again I spotted a sign for the Claire Chennault Museum in Monroe, Louisiana. Not being one to pass up an air museum I decided to pay a visit. For those of you who don’t know who Major General Chennault is, shame on you. General Chennault, then retired, served as an air advisor in China and formed the 1st American Volunteer Group, a.k.a., Flying Tigers at the outbreak of WWII. Unfortunately, the museum does not live up to the Chennault’s stellar achievements being a bit of a disappointment in size and condition with a dismal static display. I'm sure they are doing the best they can with what they have and I commend the volunteers for their dedication and contributions.

Moving east once again, the weather was now great for elbow on the windowsill driving. Eighty degrees and mostly cloudy. The roads in Louisiana are nowhere near as nice as the ones in Texas. I have to give Texans credit here, even though they have more than their fair share of abysmal drivers, pickup trucks and just plain stupid “frontage roads,” the condition of their roads overall is some of the best I’ve encountered. Speaking of encountering, as I was driving along I-20 in Louisiana I saw a billboard alerting me to watch out for black bears on the road. My first thought is it was some sort of animal protection league advertisement until only a few miles later I came across a bear warning sign. They are a lot like our deer crossing signs back home, but larger and ensconced with flashing yellow lights. Fortunately, I did not encounter such Smokey da Bear, although I guess Smokey is technically a brown bear . The singular striking feature of Louisiana is how flat it is. Like Florida only without orange juice.

Once I crossed the Mississippi into, well, Mississippi, the terrain changed dramatically. The endless flat became rolling hills and thick woods. I was making pretty good time and shortly turned off I-20 onto Route 15 to Bay Springs. You haven't lived until you’ve driven Route 15 in Mississippi. OK, maybe you’ve lived, but… Well, you can probably go your whole life and not drive Route 15 to Bay Springs and you will be better off. I finally hit Bay Springs just before sundown and was beginning to run short of time to find Old Enon Cemetery where my 4th great-grandfather John Purves is supposedly buried. Not being one to be stymied by such things as daylight I pressed on after refueling. I found the road on which the cemetery is supposed to be located, but bugger if I could find it. I gave it up for a lost cause that day and headed for the barn, in this case a Hampton Inn in Laurel about 30 minutes down the road and vowed I’d find the plot on the morrow.

One of the things I told myself at the onset of this foray it that I would make some attempt to stay in decent hotels and eat at a few good restaurants. So far it’s been Hampton Inns and Buffalo Wild Wings. Go figure. Tomorrow’s another day.

Wheeeeere's Johnny Day 5

Day five started as I departed my friend Paul’s house for Howe, Texas to spend the weekend with my daughters and grandkids, but first I was going to make a stop at a namesake town, Purves, Texas. I headed up U.S. 281 through the Texas Hill Country, which is rather scenic with rolling hills and large ranches. Fortunately, this route precluded me from dealing with San Antonio morning rush-hour traffic. One rather quaint town I came across was Marble Falls. Unlike the usual gritty Texas backcountry towns it was a quaint mixture of old and new, well laid out and rather inviting. They even had a Starbucks.

Getting to Purves wasn’t difficult, but being somewhere west of East Jesus, there isn’t any regular cell phone coverage, meaning data was not available thus rendering Waze and Google Maps unavailable. Therefore, I went old school and broke out a map. Any man worth his salt can still navigate using a map, so it was none too difficult and I found Purves exactly where I needed it to be. My first stop was Pecan Cemetery where James and his brother and their wives are interned, James in 1900 and his wife Mary Ann some 16 years later. It took awhile to actually find the graves, but it was worth the effort. Job done I headed into town, as it were. Purves was founded by my third great-grandfather, James and his brother William in 1890. John established the church and like other Purves’ was likely the preacher as well as the village blacksmith and Postmaster. As I pulled off the road next to a couple of derelict buildings I happened upon a woman out retrieving her mail. I asked if she knew anything about the history of Purves, now just a collection of crumbling old buildings and a few mobile homes and she pointed to the structure I was parked in front of and told me that it was once the post office. Bingo! It looked like the typical general store of the times, which the Purves brothers ran as well and next to it was undoubtedly ye old blacksmith shop. Tour complete.

From there, map in hand, I navigated to civilization and then Wazed myself through Dallas/Fort Worth rush-hour traffic to Howe for a very nice weekend with family. Johnny performed admirably, not missing a beat along the way, although as usual, about 15 minutes out the SRS light stared flashing again telling me it was time to call it a day. Uncanny. I won’t bore you with a full report of the weekend other than to say Johnny got a much needed bath on Saturday and Greg, my son-in-law, helped me retract the permanently extended radio antenna and re-affix the front license plate, which by this time was only hanging by one screw. The road trip continues on Monday.

Wheeeeere's Johnny Day 4

I’ve been a bit recalcitrant to updating this tome while visiting friends and family this weekend. The trip from Van Horn to San Antonio on Thursday began just before sunrise heading out I-10 over the Trans-Pecos. There is quite a topographical change between the deserts of California, Arizona and New Mexico to the rolling hills of West Texas where scrub oaks predominate the landscape. The gradual elevation decrease of 3,000 feet enroute to San Antonio is masked by the constant undulation of the terrain. Just before crossing the Pecos River I spotted a “scenic loop” and me being me, I decided to check it out. The 24-mile diversion took us through the town of Sheffield, which unlike its namesake in England was never a center of manufacturing of any kind. This town is probably as desolate and as poor as it gets in Texas. A bit further on I came across the Fort Lancaster Historical Site. The fort was established in 1855 to protect travelers and mail on the overland route from San Antonio the San Diego. The outpost was permanently abandoned in 1868 and all that remains are some foundation walls and a small visitor’s center. As far as the diversion being “scenic,” the only difference in the view that I could see was the change from a four-lane Interstate to two-lanes.

As with the journey through Arizona and New Mexico, this area is also heavily patrolled by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents. I encountered two Border Patrol checkpoints and several unmanned gauntlets where your picture is taken as you cruise through. The speed limit along I-10 is 80 mph and I spent a majority of my time at or above that number with nary a complaint from Johnny. Only the minimally annoying vibration from the front, which seemed to subside somewhat as the speed increased. I’m beginning to wonder now if it may be a motor mount instead of a strut problem. Something to look forward to sorting out at the end of the journey. One of the nice things about this car that I eluded to earlier was the expansive glass and great visibility. This lends itself to resting one’s elbow on the door ledge with the window down. That is something I can’t really say is comfortable to do in a modern survival cocoon.

One slightly disturbing image I passed with almost as much regularity as mile markers were spots of burned areas along their shoulder of the road. These weren't from the carelessness of a discarded cigarette, but a marker of where somebody's car burned to the ground along the highway. Miles from nowhere, I’m sure this was a completely helpless feeling watching what in some cases must have been all of one’s worldly possessions go up in flames. The striking regularly of these spots along the highway traversing the desert and chaparral gives one pause. I’m glad I brought along a fire extinguisher.

It took the full eight hours to make it to my buddy’s house in San Antonio and of course, I hit the north west part of town during rush hour. Like El Paso before it, San Antonio traffic is every bit as bad as what I encountered in L.A. or even back east in D.C. The other thing I find universal is that the closer you get to big cities the more assholes you encounter on the freeway. Sheer stupidity, ignorance and arrogance must be genetically engrained in at least 15% of the population. True to form, the SRS light came on about 15 minutes from destination telling me it was time to call it a day. Thankfully, Johnny and I were able to arrive at Paul and Julie’s house unscathed and enjoyed a nice dinner along with a few adult beverages while we caught up and reminisced.

Ft. Lancaster

Wheeeeere's Johnny Day 3

I started out today from the No Tell Motel, A.K.A., the Space Age Motel eastbound on I-10 hoping to make it as close as I could to San Antonio, with a stop at the Pima Air Museum outside of Tucson. Along the way I spotted a boneyard of old airliners, so of course I had to stop. I tried to get close enough to get a picture or two of Johnny up close to some derelict airliners, but the guard would have nothing of it and I figured I’d waste at least an hour trying to get permission from someone in-charge, so I pressed on. For some reason, I can’t seem to post pictures on the blog, so you will have to visit my Facebook page to see them.

Next stop was the Pima Air Museum and there was a long line of mostly ROF’s in line waiting to get in. I finally got through and I can say this is one of the best aviation museums in the country. Maybe not as good the Smithsonian or the Museum of the United States Air Force, but pretty close. If you are an aviation buff then this needs to be on your bucket list. They have a B-29, B-17 and B-24 along with a number of other commercial and military aircraft. They even have three B-52’s. One was #183, which was at Loring AFB in the early 70’s. As I recall, Vern Davis was her crew chief, while I was Crew Chief on #57-6512 and # 58-0239. Walking around #183 I was starting to get a little too nostalgic, so it was time to press on.

Once again I ignored The Lady from Waze and stayed on I-10 through El Paso getting ensnarled in rush hour traffic. Who would think El Paso would have a rush hour? Finally through, I pressed on, but there are precious few places to stay in the wilds of West Texas. I finally turned off in Van Horn some 20 minutes after to became dark and found the El Capitan Hotel. The El Capitan is a bespoke hotel built in 1930 and as the story goes they had a speakeasy in the basement during Prohibition. I managed to get a room and then went downstairs to grab some dinner. They had a pistachio fried steak with jalapeño gravy that was different, but very good. Hey, it is Texas after all.

Johnny performed admirably today, although the SRS light came back on later in the drive, almost as if to tell me it was time to call it a day. The suspension vibration did not seem as bad and although the transmission seemed to clunk a bit when selecting drive there were no noticeable problems. I’ll check the fluid level tomorrow morning. The one nice thing about this car is that there are no “nanny” devices, unlike my E350 Cabrio with its blind spot warning and backup camera and buzzers, which means I have to look before I leap. Fortunately, there is a lot of visibility so you can see everything around you quite easily, unlike a modern car where you are enclosed in a protective shell with limited visibility. So much for modern technology.

Tomorrow I’m off to San Antonio to visit an old Air Force buddy and then up to Dallas to see my daughters and grandkids.

Outside Las Cruces, NM

Wheeeeere's Johnny Day Two

The day started with a visit to the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center in Irvine, California. Charles, the parts guru, met me as I arrived and introduced me to the facility. As I was looking around Mariella arrived and gave me a personal tour of the Center. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many 300 SL’s in one place at the same time, all awaiting restoration. Mariella told me they have about 40 people working at the center of which 20 work in the restoration shop. Restorations take from two to three years and there is a two to three year waiting list. I suspect they are very selective of the cars they take in. The Center has several classic Mercedes on display, including a fabulous red SSK, a Pagoda and a couple of Fintails. They also had the obligatory Mercedes-Benz accessories for sale, some of which I could not pass up. In all I spent about 45 minutes looking around and then ordered some window seals for Johnny before heading out.

My second stop was in Banning, CA for gas and to pick up a few emergency supplies such as JB Weld, duct tape and a fire extinguisher, just in case. For armed is for warned, or something like that. Who knows? I am a bit dyslexic. The obligatory Starbucks drive-through was next. Back on the road I spotted a sign for the Palm Springs Aviation Museum, so I thought, why not? That killed about an hour looking at the WWII and Cold War vintage aircraft. I was chuffed to see one of the hangers was named after an old acquaintance, Bob Pond of Reno Air Race fame, or infamy, depending on your point of view. Bob also brought cars to the Monterey Historics, which is where I first met him. That guy was always living the dream.

Initially, I figured I’d make Pima by sundown, but yet another diversion sidetracked that plan. Instead of heading on I-10 to Phoenix and then down to Tucson, I decided to ignore Waze and turn off on CA-86 to catch I-8 at El Centro. That way I’d miss the Phoenix rush hour traffic. CA-86 takes you along the Salton Sea and I thought what a great picture that would be if I could get a shot of Johnny along the shoreline. It really didn’t look too far off the road to make happen, but as always in the desert what appears to be two miles turned out to be ten and a lot of it was on very poorly maintained dirt roads. Undaunted I pressed on only to find I couldn't really get all that close. I did manage to get a couple of snaps, but not what I had hoped. This foray killed about another hour, so I was now well behind my not so well planned ETA to Pima.

As is always the case when you ignore the Girl from Waze, I hit a lot of construction on I-8, the worst being just outside of Yuma where it went from two lanes to one. It took about an hour to go 9 miles. Now a “fur piece” behind my non-existent time-table I started to formulate an alternate plan in order to stop before it got too dark. I almost forgot how beautiful the desert can be, especially when the sun is going down. The various shades of purple, red, blue and green are truly spectacular and sunset in the desert is sublime, even if I was viewing it through my rear view mirror. Driving through the desert at night can be serene, but the desert is also where the deer and the antelope play and usually in the middle of the road at night. Discretion being the better part of valor I decided to pull off at Gila Bend and call it a day.

Johnny performed admirably today with the exception of an annoying vibration at speeds over 70 mph. It seemed to vary with the surface condition so I’m thinking it could be the front dampers have seen better times. The only other maladies raising their heads were an SRS light, which came on about an hour before quitting time and the trunk lock that needed to be unlocked twice on occasion to get opened. I ended up settling into the Space Age Lodge in Gila Bend. Obviously a Fifties era motel, it is now themed in an interesting mix of alien spacecraft, Star Trek and the early U.S. Space Program. They are vary proud of their hotel as I paid more for a room here than I would pay at the Newark Airport Marriott. Tomorrow I'm off to the Pima Aviation Museum outside of Tucson and then see how close I can get to San Antonio were I plan to visit an old Air Force buddy.

Wheeeeere's Johnny Day One

I managed to get on the first flight out of IAD to LAX its an aisle seat for the trip to LAX. After landing about 20 minutes early I caught Uber to Rafi’s Autotech in Culver City to pick up Johnny. Ronny met me as I walked in and handed me off to Bob the mechanic who did all the work. What a great experience. Bob showed me all the old parts and we had a bit of a chat about the car. They did quite a lot of work including replacing the right side passenger window. Bob showed me the completely rotten window mount and they even saved the old window in the event I may need it in the future. As I said, there was a lot of other items addressed, including the tie rods, steering box, etc., etc. I would strongly recommend this shop to anyone in SoCal needing some work done to their Mercedes.

I headed out initially to Beverly Hills to see if I could get a picture of Johnny at his point of origin, but coming across Mercedes-Benz of Beverly Hills it was obvious it was a new building and not the facility from which Johnny was delivered. I contemplated a picture anyway, but there simply was not a good vantage point, so I headed out to Fullerton to visit my step-daughter Sherri. At least Johnny had a chance to visit his old stomping grounds in the posh section of LA, albeit briefly.

I can’t say the drive was without its maladies. The weather in LA was beautiful so I rolled down all the windows to enjoy the SoCal air and sunshine. Once I got on the Santa Monica Freeway I went to put the windows back up to cut down on the noise and when I pushed the button for the right rear window the switch fell down into the console. Bugger. That would have to be resolved when I got to Fullerton. In addition, about half way there the car’s alarm system started going off. Lights flashing and horn sounding for 30 seconds at a time and then silent for 30 seconds. I managed to pull of at a local shopping center hoping if I shut the car off it would reset. No luck. I checked the fuse box to see if there was a fuse I could pull. No luck there either. Finally, after locking and unlocking the car a couple of times the system reset. No further problems.

I spent about an hour with Sherri. Seeing as she is going through cancer treatment I didn't want to take up too much of her time. She looked pretty damn good, considering. Unfortunately, I missed her husband Steve as he was still at work.

After fiddling around long enough to close the window I took off for the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center in Irvine, just so I would know where it was to pay a visit tomorrow. As it was well after 4:00 pm they were closed for the day, but while I was outside a gentleman came out, seen the Virginia license plates, and asked me if I had come a long way.  He offered me a chance to come inside for a brief visit; however, I declined and said I would be back the next day to have a proper look. Very nice of them I thought.

I managed to find a hotel not far from the Classic Center, had a bite to eat and then sat down to write this short bit. Tomorrow I will pay a visit to the shop and then out to San Antonio, probably stopping in Tucson to overnight and visit the Pima Air Museum first thing Wednesday.

Looking back, it seems like my initial drive in Johnny when I collected the car from Mike last Friday was kind of like a first date. You’re not really sure what to expect and hoping that it would not be complete disappointment. It wasn’t. Retrieving the car today is akin to the second date, which is full of anticipation and although all was not perfect, it was very satisfying. This car still has a long way to go, but I came away very satisfied and I’m looking forward to a long term relationship. At the end of the day I was left thinking this will probably be the best car I have ever or will ever own. Time will tell.

Heading out

Ronny @ Rafi's Autotech - Culver City

Bob @ Rafi's Autotech - Culver City

Wheeeeere's Johnny?

On the eve of the beginning of the journey, I travel to Washington D.C. via train to overnight at a hotel near IAD in order to take the first flight out to LAX in the morning. All going well, I should be in L.A. by 11:45 and to Rafi's by noon to start the road trip.

The first stop is to see my step-daughter in Fullerton, who is going through chemo to battling breast cancer. It's a hard road for her at the moment, but Sherri is a tough cookie and she will weather the storm.

A visit to the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center in Irvine is on the itinerary as well, but that may have to wait for the next day. After that I'm east bound and down (sorry no CB), with no firm agenda or schedule other than a visit to family in Texas. I'll keep posting updates here and on my FaceBook page.

"Johnny" awating pick up at Rafi's

The Adventure Begins 02.13.17

The Friday before last I flew a trip into LAX and then Ubered (Is that a word?) out to Chino to pick up the car from Mike. To the butt-head who said it never rains in California... Bite me.

It was raining, although not too hard, but it created a bit of a traffic headache getting from A to B. As it was we were late getting into LAX due to ATC delays for weather. All this put me a bit on the back foot because I had to then get the car back across town from Chino to Culver City during a wet rush hour. Joy! But I get ahead of myself.

As I say with these types of purchases, on faith, over the Internet, they are seldom as good as you hope, but rarely as bad as you fear. I'd say this was a little closer to the latter than the former. There were a few items which seem to just happen to occur from the time of purchase to the time of pick-up. Go figure. I would't say Mike actually misrepresented the car; however, he wasn't as forthcoming as he could have been. The condition of the cladding and the wheels were enough of a surprise as these defects did not show in the pictures. The interior was not terrible, but worse than I expected with a loose headliner and a faulty seatbelt retractor. I knew about the recalcitrant pax window going in (more on that later).

Anyway, I didn't have as much time to go over the car as I would have liked as time was running short, so after a quick look and chat with Mike it was off to Rafi's Autotech. I found Rafi's on BenzShops.com. Again, it takes a bit of faith to choose a repair shop 2,600 miles away online; however, I vaguely remember reading something about this shop some time ago and the reviews were good so I took a chance. I did ring them up before heading west to discuss who, what, where, when and how and Rafi was completely open to helping me out.

Despite the LA rush hours traffic and rain I was able to get it to the shop with twenty-five minutes to spare on a Friday afternoon and almost got killed along the way only once. Some jack-ass in a white Porsche Cayenne with a Porsche Downtown LA tag in the license plate frame pulled right out in front of me as he kept darting in and out of traffic. Whether he was a mechanic or salesman or just some pecker-headed delivery boy, I'll never know. Fortunately my brakes worked well enough and so did the person's behind me. What an asshole. Upon arrival, much to my chagrin, I found another defect on the exterior of the car. Some paint bubbling on the rear of the hood, obviously from some small under-hood fire. I neglected to see it when I picked up the car in all likelihood due to the rain. Oh well, by that time it was a moot point. I handed the keys off to Keith and after a bit of an explanation of what I wanted, I Ubered off to my layover hotel.

By Monday afternoon I received a work-order of all the things they thought needed doing. I was about twice the amount I thought would be required to drive across country, but what are you going to do? Turns out the car was more neglected than loved of late. It's all good though as I think of this as something other than an investment. Almost a calling, if you will. At the end of the day this will again be one fine automobile. It's not always about the money. Hell, if I played golf I'd spend more on green's fees, clubs, balls, memberships and the 19th Hole. I don't. This is my thing.

Coincidently, as I am writing this, I received an email from Rafi saying the car is ready. The adventure begins 02/13/17.

Mike & Me 02/03/17