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2006 California Trip
San Diego
My buddy Frank Sparby, the Kongsvinger Open match director from Norway and I made a plan last year. After shooting the US Area 2 together, we would drive over to California and see everything from San Diego to the Redwood Forest. So we did. On a whim, Chris Tilley joined us for our adventures in San Diego and LA.
I also set a personal record. First of all, I'm always pushing my gas tank to it's max. It's nothing new to me to run out of gas, trust me. I don't know if Frank and Chris will ever trust me again, but we ran out of gas about 3 miles before the gas station in Alpine, CA. This story tops all other of my "bests," including Mats and mine pushing his minivan into the gas station in Toronto last year. The "goal" is to run out of gas as close to the gas station as possible and still make it.
So, here's the story. Chris was driving and he's reminding me for the millionth time that the needle is beyond past the red mark. I'm like "don't worry, based on my calculations we should get 25-28 mpg and the spare has about 2 gallons, so we should be able to push maybe50 miles on the spare if we're lucky." Well, some math must not have been applicable because we ran out at about 40. The car started choking and we were all like; THIS EXIT, NOW. As we got on the uphill off-ramp and having to stop at the stop sign, the car stalled. We're all laughing at this point. No gas station in sight. What do we do? Well..., we could push the car down this uncertain road and probably end up calling AAA. Nah, trusting my car to pull through for us and feeling in my gut this would be a great one, I called it. "Let's push it back on the freeway. It's all downhill from here anyway," (no pun intended...) All three of us, laughing the entire time, got out and pushed it over the road and back down on the on ramp. We started coasting downhill and was able to squeeze some fumes into the engine. After a few miles (at least) of rolling downhill - in neutral - we saw an on ramp with a gas sign. We couldn't believe it. All we needed now was enough umpf to get us up the ramp. The Audi pulled through, got us up the hill, but finally died at the stop sign. Lucky for us the gas station was only a few yards up so it wasn't a bad push. The maintainance workers at the gas station was laughing at us, especially since ... they were closed.
Surfers by the pier on Pacific Beach.
btw. PB has a killer block party every year!
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Chris and Frank at the Pacific Beach Pier.
Frank in the most natural pose.
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Out of gas in Alpine, CA.
Note the band behind Chris, indicating it's closed.
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Sunset at Lahaina.
Everyone's there to catch the green flash..
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The PB Boardwalk.
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