Angeles Crest Cruise - Wrap Up

The cameras were put away and we spent the rest of the (now cool) afternoon cruising down the mountain:


A quick fill up a Jay's Shell again and we all went our separate ways.

But, not after our Federico Fellini in-residence (my father, driving the truck full of precious goods in case of VW break downs) paused to compare some pictures:

Stop #20 - Rocky Road in HGTMC

At the end of the road (literally - the Angeles Crest is closed here to everybody except bicycles and snakes because of rock slide damage) you find a turn off for Highway 39 (aka Beach Boulevard), which as well as being my current address in Huntington Beach was also used in Monte Carlo for all that yodeling:

It is also closed for everybody except bicycles and snakes, so the closest we could get to the filming location was this gate by the side of the road:

Stop #19 - Upside Down Tunnel from HGTMC

Plenty of matte work here to paint the coast of Monte Carlo on a hillside in La Canada Flintridge:

You can see that Disney blacked out the center section of the tunnel + added a little ramp on the left side for the bit where Herbie drives off the side of the tunnel:

Stop #18 - Dragging the Brake Drum on 3 Wheels from TLB

Thankfully, it was much cooler up at the summit where this bit was filmed:

Stop #17 - Newcomb's Ranch for Lunch

At this point it was about 100 degrees, time to stop the silly photoshoots and get some lunch + a gallon or two of ice water. Newcomb's Ranch is a great little cafe/biker bar on the Crest near the top of the mountain.



After lunch (and we talked Jason into ditching his racing suit, since he looked like he was about to succumb to heat stroke), a couple of guys riding Harleys came over and asked "What's with the V-Dubs?".

Turns out one of them worked with Wax Balchowsky preparing the souped-up camera car "Old Yeller" and other motorhead bits from "The Love Bug". I don't think he was quite prepared for the level of Herbie nerdiness he was to encounter in our questioning, and asked Jerry (a machinist) if he had ever kept any metal chips in response to our question if he had kept anything from filming. After that, the questions became a little less detailed!

The fomer crew member then gave us the location of "Old Yeller" and the fate of the two Thorndyke (Buick Apollo) cars and wished us well on our way to the top of the mountain.

Stop #15 - Wheelie in HGTMC

Most of the stops up the mountain were skipped for photos because the temperatures were creeping into the nineties, but we decided to stop at the location where the shortened wheelie car did its stuff in Monte Carlo:

Scott/Michelle and family parted company with us at this point:

Stop #13 - HGTMC Rocky Road Turn Off

Pine trees grow pretty tall in 30 years:



The actual turn off heads down to a campground, not the winding rocky road in the film (which is up at the top of the mountain, our last stop):

Stop #11 - Third Love Bug Bridge

Stop #10 - Two-Wheeled Cliff from TLB

It's hard to spot the exact match because the shot above is at least 50% matte painting, but the consensus was that this cliff was a pretty close match by looking at the rocks: