Movin’ Right Along: Cold Start

Cs Muppetmehari
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As you may remember David telling you last week, my son Otto and I are off to help David move from cold, snowy, rust-filled Michigan to the balmy, rust-free vistas of Southern California, where I can introduce David to the joys of It’s Its and being surrounded by beautiful people who use articles before they refer to highway numbers and so so many great cars, just around everywhere. That means we probably won’t be writing all that much this week, as we’ll be busy trying not to spin off into snow. But we’ll still have plenty of great content, and we’ll post updates! Updates fueled by my all-natural home-brewed trucker’s crank!

This is going to be a hell of a trip, and I hope I get to see a lot of readers out on the road. More importantly, this is enough of a reason for me to post this iconic road-trip-to-Los-Angeles song from The Muppet Movie:

You know what? Fuck the rules, I’m gonna stick the Steve Martin waiter cameo in here, too:

Also Muppet-car-related is this, your reminder that Gonzo the Great drove a Citroën Mehari, as you can see up top there, inverted on the Studebaker.

I’m excited for the trip! I just hope we don’t have to spend too much time driving through bat country.

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Mercedes Streeter

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31 thoughts on “Movin’ Right Along: Cold Start”

  1. This reminds me of one of my weirdest USDM car spots I’ve ever had – a US spec Citroen Mehari in Costa Mesa complete with original 6-digit blue and yellow California plates and Costa Mesa dealer plate frames.

  3. “cold, snowy, rust-filled Michigan to the balmy, rust-free vistas of Southern California”

    Mm, yeah, well…Michigan has bountiful water. Cali does not. You can enjoy the weather but you can’t drink sunshine

  6. Home brew truckers crank? Count me in! My regular run is right along your route, so maybe we’ll meet up. Maybe at Russell’s Travel Center. You’ll love it. One of the last true truckstops.

  7. Within a few weeks of Tracy moving to SoCal, car owners within a block or so of his place will start noticing bubbles on the rocker panels and wheel arches of their cars. Mystified, they’ll take their cars to their mechanic, who will scratch his head at this strange phenomenon while also noticing that mysterious holes have started to develop in the floorboards and previously easily-turned suspension nuts have suddenly become encrusted in a strange brown substance which renders them immobile. Helpless, the residents of Southern California will watch as their pristine vehicles deteriorate before their very eyes.

    Because you can take the boy out of the Rust Belt, but you can’t take the Rust Belt out of the boy.

  10. Safe travels! Arrive alive! Ha, when traversing the deserts of the Southwest try not to succumb to the temptation to use the primitive form of cruise control used by some people driving VW Beetles through said deserts in the 1950s where they would mash the accelerator pedal to the floor and jam a stick between the pedal and the seat (since a lot of air-cooled-engined cars can run all day at top speed with little if any ill effect.) Such a rudimentary device was sometimes called the “suicide stick” with good reason.

  11. “Updates fueled by my all-natural home-brewed trucker’s crank!”

    Oh come ON! Beau couldn’t even spring for name-brand trucker’s crank?!
    Now I’m worried he won’t even let you expense the mescalin and tequila!

  12. It’s a little off-putting to think that 2/3 of the OG Autopians are perilously traversing the frozen wastelands currently. Plus Otto, who has not been an insignificant figure in the journey to this site’s existence. If our collective wishing could effect the physical world, you will have perfect visibility & traction, and your chariots will perform flawlessly.

    May the road rise to meet your feet.

    PS a quick post along the lines of, ‘We made it alive; details to follow’ would be appreciated for those of us who don’t use social media

  14. Not sure how much leeway you give Otto as a parent (so maybe this is a recommendation for DT) in regards to hearing “Grown Up” content, but I once listened to Jack Kerouac’s “On The Road” on a long drive. It’s a fantastic way to burn through a shit ton of miles, in my opinion.

    Safe travels 🙂

      1. Which reminds me! If you guys find yourselves approaching L.A. from the east on I-10 (ahem… I mean “The Ten”) then take a tiny detour north in San Berdoo so you’re actually driving into the county on the 210 by way of Pasadena. Lots of car history there! Anyway, when you get to Old Town Pasadena where the 210 splits off from the 134, instead take the exit for California Blvd which heads you south for a mile or so on an unlabeled spur of the 710 freeway. The freeway ends at the California Blvd exit but you can go straight through the light onto St John Avenue. Three blocks down is Bellefontaine, and sonofagun, just there on your left, you too will actually see a genuine, honest-to-God fork in the road.

        For reals. If Otto knows and loves that scene in the movie, it’s totally worth the 5-minute detour, although the reveal might be better approaching from the south, where St John forks off from Pasadena Ave. But there’s a wee park where you can get out and take pictures by the fork.

  25. I would have been the world’s biggest fan if It’s It if the standard version had used chocolate chip cookies instead of (blecch) oatmeal. Few things are more disappointing than biting into what your eyes deceived you into expecting was a chocolate chip cookie and your mouth belatedly reporting is made out of healthful, nutritious, heart-happy but tastebud-wilting OATMEAL.

    Glad to see they make Chips-Its now. So overdue!

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