 |
| "Santa Barbara Courthouse" 10x12 oil on panel $500 |
The van we now drive when traveling to painting locations and events was given to us by my wifes parents. It was very gracious of them and we greatly enjoyed driving it back to Seattle from Ohio via the Trans-Canada highway. We had a grand adventure in the process! The only drawback to the van was it's early life on the salted winter roads of Ohio which can turn a new car into a rust heap in a few years. They took great care of it and kept it in the garage but there is no avoiding that salt!
 |
| In Santa Barbara 2016 |
..That's what came to mind when backing down the steep driveway of the airbnb we stayed at the first night in Santa Barbara. Ann decided to get out and check for oncoming traffic and I jammed my foot on the brake pedal ...then heard a pop and the pedal hit the floor! Ann was out of the van and there seemed to be enough pressure left to keep the beast from careening backward down the hill so we slowly wound our way to town and stopped at the first auto repair shop we came to. Ayers Repair. They took us right in and gave the job a priority because we only had a few days to get to Tucson and make it on time for the convention.
 |
| Waterfront |
If your going to break down, Santa Barbara is not a bad place to do it in! After leaving the van in the capable hands of Rodger and his crew at Ayers Repair, we quickly set up home base at a nearby Starbucks to check the internet for places to stay and see in SB. Then we took a walkabout to see the sights and scout potential painting sites. May as well get some work done while I'm stuck here!
I settled on the amazing grounds of the Santa Barbara courthouse for my first painting. What a beautiful location!
After that we walked back to the repair shop and found out that sure enough, the break lines had rusted through and the extra pressure exerted backing down the driveway caused a rupture.....We would be staying the night in SB....What a bummer!....I had already located several good painting sites!
2 comments:
Sorry for the late response Robin, just checked in on your blog.
Well, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger someone once said. I'm so glad nothing worse came of this incident.
I'm so familiar with "rust buckets" from those heavily salted roads back east. Many years ago whilst undergoing my starving artist period in SoCal I traded my loved but abused Ford Pinto along with some hard earned cash for a '65 Mercedes 220S I spotted in a used car lot. I had to have that car, a Mercedes after all, even though obviously an east coast or midwest salted road model, at what I thought was an absolute steal of a deal. The lot had put a Earl Scheib ("19.95 any car, any color") silver paint job on the thing and it looked great. Just don't open the hood or the trunk. When you did you saw plenty of asphalt thru the rust holes. To this day I'm amazed that upon hitting a bump, engine, driver and passengers didn't just drop thru the rusted out frame onto the highway. It wasn't at all unusual to open the cavernous trunk and find things you were certain you'd stored there missing (including jack, tire irons, tools, etc). The liberal use of cardboard and duck tape to cover escape points only worked until the cardboard got wet or vibrated to pieces. I'm not exaggerating when I tell you I had to rescue the battery one day, only one cable still barely attacked, keeping it from going thru to the roadway.
Anyway, thanks for the report on your adventure, and the trip down memory lane.
Lou
Lovely photos and your paintings are beautiful!
Post a Comment