Mon Weekend Avec Le Baron: Troisième Partie

[zrath]

(Warning: lots of pics this one, so I used not one but TWO LJ-cuts! OMG!)


Sunday April 20th

I was tired from the previous day's escapades, so I slept in, then wasted time on Furrymuck.
At 4pm, I finally tore myself away from the computer and hit the road.
I had no specific plans aside from taking the 10 freeway Westbound and staying on it as it turned into
the North of L.A. portion of the Pacific Coast Highway, cruising the coastline until I got sick of it.
So I did that.
And I took some pictures while driving.
I'm so naughty!



Here's a shot of PCH as I'm leaving Santa Monica and heading up the coast.



The white building dead ahead is full of expensive condominiums with impressive front row seats in case
there's ever a tsunami. Or a really strong earthquake. Downhill house racing! Sunday Sunday SUNDAY!!!!
Ahem, yes, anyway...
PCH is actually kinda boring to photograph. It's clusters of houses that hide the beach from view,
followed by long stretches of mountainous greenery. It's pretty, but it makes for boring photos.
And the sun was facing me, and my poor cellphone camera couldn't deal with it.
So I'll keep those kinds of photos to a mininum.
Here's a shot in Malibu:



If you look real hard you can see Malibu's only McDonalds. Ooooooooh...
Here's another snapped a couple of miles later, with the world-famous Malibu Inn!



Okay, yeah, I've never heard of the Malibu Inn. But dig those palm trees on top of the hill!
About 5 minutes later, I was leaving Malibu behind and heading for Zuma Beach:



There was some crazy hazy action happening with those rocks out in the distance.
10 minutes later, I was in Zuma Beach. I pulled over to stretch my legs and take some pics.
This is Zuma State Beach, facing West:



And this is Zuma State Beach, facing East. With the sun behind me, it looks normal!



As I drove up PCH, I wondered why there were so few people at the beach on a sunny Sunday like this.
After stopping in Zuma, I wondered no more. It was COLD!!
There was a steady wind blowing, the temperature was low, and you needed a sweater to be out here!
Of course, being naturally insulated, I was okay with just my Big Dogs Motorycle Club t-shirt.
Herewith, portrait of the Kzin with wind and lifeguard tower:



My hair was like that from the gel I had put in, and from driving with the top down.
Well, enough of this, time to press on!



I got back in the Red Baron and headed up the coast some more.
After driving for a while, I reached Point Mugu, famous for its naval base and air show.
I went to the base gate, but it was closed:



However, parked outside the closed base gate was a truck with some goodies on it:



The thing under the black tarp in back was vaguely armored-personnel-carrier-shaped and had treads.
The gizmos in front were a circular radar dish and a curved radar dish.
Notice the white dots on top of the mountain in back: those are listening/radar/tracking stations.
Point Mugu is a naval weapons testing facility, so those installations up there make sense.
I drove up the coast a little more, looking for Point Mugu's main gate.
Instead, I came across the Point Mugu Missile Park:



A couple of MST3K quotes came to mind: "Phallic symbols at the ready, sir!" and also "Gooood morning!"
I had to check it out.
And this is where this post goes into missiles and jets and stuff that goes boom.
You can skip over to the end if you like.



Anyway, the Missile Park had a couple of jet fighters on pedestal, like giant desktop models:



The F-14 Tomcat, definitely one of the coolest things to ever take to the air.
It was the inspiration and foundation for my favorite transforming mech ever designed EVAR:
the VF-1 series Valkyries from "Super Dimensional Fortress Macross":



The other fighter was the beast itself, brute force made manifest, and proof that anything will fly
if you attach big enough engines to it. The one, the only, ladies and gentlemen, the F-4 Phantom!



You forget how big these things are until you stand UNDER them. The Phantom is HUGE.
IT BLOTS OUT THE SUN!



I always loved that funky 3-pointed star configuration of the tail.
Aside, from the two jets, there were a lot of missiles.
And this one took me a little aback:



Yeah, that's a German V-1 buzz bomb. Apparently, the Navy used them for research post-WWII.
Still, it's a strange sight, this infamous terror weapon, painted white, with the word "Loon" on it.
And then, there was this oddity:



It's basically a torpedo with wings and a rocket motor strapped to the back.
It was designed to fly low, like a sea-skimming Harpoon or EXOCET missile, then the rocket booster would
fall off and the torpedoe would go in the water and travel to its target. I don't think it worked well.
Next up, we had the Regulus Brothers: Regulus and Regulus II:



Regulus II reminded me of the Espadon (Swordfish) jet fighter from the old Edgar P. Jacobs "Blake And
Mortimer" 3-part graphic novel "Le Secret De L'Espadon" (Secret Of The Swordfish), which posits a
nukeless WWIII against China. Mind you, that stuff was written in the early '50s. Great artwork though.
The Reguli are cruise missiles, by the way.
And then there was this thing, which I didn't know what it was until I saw the writing on it:



The Polaris missiles they show in movies and/or as stock footage never look like this.
When someone says "Polaris missile", this is what I picture in my mind:



This is the Polaris A3, a later model. The one on display at Point Mugu is the A1, first generation.
Next up, a quartet of missiles that have been the fighter pilot's best friends for many years:



Like it says on the picture: Sidewinder for local calling, AMRAAM for local long distance, and Phoenix
for interstate calling. The HARM makes the other guy hang up the phone. With extreme prejudice. LOL
Only the F-14 Tomcat had the radar to handle the Phoenix properly.
A couple of extra fighter pilot's friends:



Notice the very pointy nose on the Sparrow I. Not sure what's that about.
And here are a couple of bastards:



The Harpoon is a sea-skimming cruise missile that likes to meet new ships, preferably enemy ships.
The Standard ARM is interested in any kind of radar source, especially ones used to launch SAMs.
These guys are usually fired from ships, but they can be fired from the air too.
And here's one that's been in movies a lot:



Oh yeah, the Hawk. It's usually painted all white when you see it.
It's a Surface to Air Missile that's been around since 1965 and that just about everybody uses.
It can shoot down aircrafts or even other missiles. The Wikipedia entry on it is actually fairly long.
And finally, some Bullpups!



I tried to resize the Bullpup's picture so it was roughly to scale with the Bullpup II.
The Bullpups were "video-game" air-to-ground missiles, manually guided to their targets by the pilots
who launched them. They were an attempt at making a weapon that could be guided with more precision.



And that concludes this tour of the Point Mugu Missile Park.
I hopped back into the Red Baron and decided to look for the 101 Freeway, to head home.
It was 6:30pm. The sun was starting to set, and I was getting hungry.
I picked an inland-bound road and cruised it. A sign promised that Downtown Oxnard would soon appear,
but all I saw around me where fields and more fields, not something that could hide a bustling city.
Then again, Oxnard is not exactly bustling.
And before I knew it, I ran smack into the 101! That was easy!
I never did see Downtown Oxnard...
I took the 101 Southbound (really more like East by Southeast bound) and looked for some place to eat at.
Remembering how much coyoteseven and I had enjoyed our dinner there, I kicked myself for not
checking where I could find Red Robins on my way back to L.A. before leaving for my roadtrip.
Maybe 5 minutes after I had that thought, the 101 entered Calabasas and I spotted a tall Red Robin sign!
Like, no way eh!
I exited at once and cruise through Old Town Calabasas to reach said Red Robin.
A tasty meal was had: clam chowder, and a whiskey river BBQ chicken wrap with bottomless fries.
Some nice hot food after a sunny but somewhat chilly day.
Afterwards, I drove home and got there in record time, thanks to the light Sunday night traffic.

Well, it had worked. I certainly felt refreshed.

Comments

[girlfmkitty.livejournal.com]

But... but... I was expecting the helmet! And the goggles! And the scarf!

That's standard attire for riding on the Red Baron. For Snoopy. But still... ;)

[coyoteseven.livejournal.com]

Displaying such an interest in military hardware makes you EVIL!

Surely you must be a warmonger and a Satanist who puts babies on spikes.

[kvogel.livejournal.com]

The V-1 shown is actually the American built copy, the JB-2, orginally made for the Airforce. They were intended as stand-off weapons to use against Japan, but the war ended before they were used. So they ended up being used as targets or to develope first-generation cruise missle techniques.

[snapes-angel.livejournal.com]

It's basically a torpedo with wings and a rocket motor strapped to the back.

ROFL! Sounds like it works just about as well as one, too.

[thatdonoguy.livejournal.com]

That's one of the many things I miss about LA, you can take a wondering day trip just about anywhere in any direction. I miss those days trips.

Don-O