Possible 4.8is Purchase Turns Into Actual Purchase

[LVP]

That exhaust is so intoxicating!!!

[Dking078]

Great story, and welcome

[crystalworks]

Thanks everyone for following along and commenting. The trip seems to have gone by so fast really, and writing this is actually helping to make it feel more tangible and real. If that makes any sense. We had a blast, well I can say I had a blast for sure, my buddy would have to chime in with his feelings. After my purchase experience and the car he is now on the hunt to replace his C5 Z06 with an e60 M5 or something like that. He is also a Bimmer-phile so it was really just a matter of time. Though he did say he was eyeing a GTS viper as well...

Before the next section, let me insert something I forgot here. Before we headed to Dinan we took stock of what the car had in it. Like the factory spare, jack, tools, etc. Well, it was missing the tools, but had everything else. During the course of our inventory taking we found this:



Score! Our trip tunes just got a whole lot better. Now whoever installed it should be shot. It was tuned like garbage and was mounted terribly. The poor Bav Sound amp is zip tied to the rail under the cargo tray. We did some adjusting later at an O'reilly's we stopped at. I bought a cheap tool kit, a couple quarts of oil, and some water just in case. We ended up not using anything but the tool kit and that was only to tune the amp lol. Wasn't til later I realized I had to tune the DSP in concert with the Bav Sound amp. Well, I should say I didn't realize it had DSP until later. It sounds amazing now. I used to do custom installs professionally so I'm familiar was auto audio and I have to say I'm impressed with the DSP setup.

Okay episode 3 of the saga. So after Dinan it's ~11:30AM on Friday I guess. Remember we have no plans so we just hit the road and literally jump on the first major highway we find going south. Why south? Because why not? Well, not totally... IH10 ends up in southern California so we were kind of aiming for that and neither of us had been to LA. We figured what the hell. It ended up being the 101 which ran through some beautiful country. I realize the 1 would probably have been more scenic and twisty now after looking at a map, but being from Texas where it's 95% flat, the 101 was plenty scenic and kept us entertained the whole trip. Some of the scenery we passed can be seen below.







We took more, but you get the idea. The weather was a perfect 75 degrees almost the entire time. I don't think we raised the windows on the X5 (other than to make phone calls) until after we left California. Coming from 100+ days... this was mind blowing. So we continued on the 101 until maybe 3/4 of the way to LA where the 101 first meets the coastline on our trip. Pismo Beach. Yep, we are stopping here to eat. I don't remember what time it was... but I could smell the ocean and it was time to stop and get on a beach. Now, my traveling companion is not nearly as fond of beaches/oceans as I am (read: hates them with the fire of a thousand suns) so he is less enthusiastic about the beach idea but is great with eating somewhere close to the ocean to watch the "scenery." "F&CK YOU SON, WE ARE GETTING ON THE BEACH!" I thought to myself. "I'm from Hawaii and wear sandals year round rocking my permanent sandal tan... this is going to happen!" And when the time came he finally relented. Here is a video of us arriving. Please excuse my exuberance in the video... lol I swear my excitement made my IQ drop 20 points, but it is what it is.





As I said, I don't remember what time it was, maybe sometime mid-afternoon. But we drive down the road that winds down and leads to the part of town that is beach adjacent. Looks like a typical beach community town... so I'm right at home. We just keep pointing the nose in the direction of the water and end up in a cool little dead-end turnaround that is used by beach goers for loading/unloading vehicles. Nobody is there... Perfect! So we park like we own the joint and hop out to take some pics. Hah you can already see the brake dust building on the 168's.









Funny story about this. While we were parked there a younger guy came up with, I assume his son. Man it feels like I'm getting old. Anyway, he comes up to us and starts asking about the car. "Dinan... is that your last name or something?" We chuckle a bit but not offensively and explain to him about Dinan and what they do for a few seconds. He compliments us on how nice the truck looks and that he hasn't seen an X5 look that nice before and knew that there had to be a reason. He says take it easy and heads off to the beach with his family... and if you look closely at the first pic above you can see them making their way down to the beach. I must say I was surprised about how much attention this vehicle gets... I saw more people than I could count checking it out and probably trying to figure out why it was more attractive than most X5's.

After the mini-photo session we parked up that road on the right hand side and walked in the direction of a beachside cafe that the guy had recommended to us. He warned us it was kind of "famous," which usually means touristy. It was called the Splash Cafe. Well, it was busy as hell... nope we are not waiting for beer and food. So we go to the cafe right across the street with no line, the Cool Cat Cafe. Alliteration aside, it was a nice little place. At the risk of sounding sexist, whoever does the hiring knows what they are doing if you know what I mean. Then again, as I mentioned before everyone there was gorgeous. Damn, walking there we saw what had to be a 65+ year old man loading surfboards onto the back of his truck who was cut up like Jean Claude Van Damme. I'm sure the crowd here will get the reference. If not, I really am getting old. Anyway, we each had a beer and I had the best bread bowl of clam chowder since I left Hawaii. It was amazing. Being the 6'8" 220lb fatty I am, I also had a turkey melt which was equally delicious. I felt bad for my bud because his stomach was still jacked up from the first flight the day before.



After eating we walked back to the boardwalkish area and bought the women folk some souvenir T-shirts. Mine was Ariel from the Little Mermaid in a mug shot photo for jaywalking. My wife liked it. Here's where we had our debate about getting on the beach. "Dude, we're 1700 miles from home, 100 yards from the ocean. Let's go for a short walk on the beach..." Below are the exploits. He remarked on how soft the sand was, and it was. To me, that's how beaches are supposed to be. Here in Texas at Corpus, Galveston, Port A, etc we have small stoney beaches and the water is really hot. Lots of jelly's too depending on the time of year. We were in jeans so didn't get in the water, not that he would have... but I sure as hell would've.





After this we walked back to the cars, shook off the sand (came off really easily thanks to the cool weather and not being sweaty), and jumped back in the X5. We climbed back up the hill and onto the 101 and pointed her south again towards LA. Along the way we ran across some really nice scenic outlooks with the Amtrak rails running along the coast. We stopped to take some pics of course. The train went by, but unfortunately I didn't snap a pic of it.





That's me leaning on the truck. See, told you I was 6'8" tall. After this we headed down to LA and got there sometime around 8PM I think. We tooled around for a bit trying to decide what we wanted to see or do. We landed on heading to Rodeo Dr. and Wilshire Blvd. We've never been there and heard plenty in TV's and movies so why not. Well, lol it's exactly like it is in film. My truck that was so excited about owning was now, in the eyes of everyone there, equivalent to an 84 civic with 4 different paint colors on it. Every make of high end super car, luxury car, and in between could be found there. We even caught a glimpse of (after first hearing it) a 60's Shelby GT500. Sounded amazing. The people were beautiful of course but now they were in clothes that probably cost as much as the truck I was driving in some cases.

Almost empty now of the tank the dealership had provided it was time to find a gas station and head towards IH10. Premium (yuck 91 we get 93 in TX) was a mind blowing 4.99 on Rodeo. Um, no... we headed a few miles up Wilshire Blvd and got a more respectable price of 4.19 I think it was. Anyway, the full tank was $92. Haven't seen those kind of prices here in TX for at least a year and a half. LOL I thought oil was @ $40 a barrel? Where's my cheap gas?! We finally left LA and headed east on IH10 shortly after 10:00PM I think.

It's 1:30AM here so I'll end here for now... tune in for the exciting conclusion. Well, the conclusion anyway. I better not oversell it.

TO BE CONTINUED...

[jopecasa]

Originally Posted by crystalworks

Nice shots!

[kvc]

Great story and pics to match. Kinda reminds me of when my family and I were in California last year. We toured from the Bay area to LA, stopping at a few places in between, before boarding the A380 for home.
Bet you regret not going for a dip while you had the chance...

[cragglemiester]

Looking forward to an epic conclusion

what an epic road trip with a new beast of a motor to boot.
id like to do the drive around alone

[PropellerHead]

Loooove Imola!

X5's are like women. Once you've seen one of 'em naked... Ya gotta see the rest.

Great story!

[525iT_Feen]

I used to spend my summers in Pismo/AG and even worked out there for six months or so when I first graduated college. Its a great place. One of my close friends still lives there. You should of drove the X out onto the dunes and watched all the pre-runner/atv/motocross guys tear it up. Would of made for some cool pictures.

Story sounds real fun so far.

[Ricky Bobby]

Lol @ California gas prices

Oil could be $20 a barrel you aren't seeing less than $4 for 91 octane, and they don't even have 93.......crying at that lol

I just filled up the X5 for $60 or so with 93 at Shell, in Jersey and I'm in a decently built up area so the gas is cheaper elsewhere in the state, $2.69 a gallon.

[B-M-W]

Very cool story and what a ride you have there. I really like that color.

I skimmed through some of your other post and noticed you mentioned taxes. Did you pay a California tax on the vehicle or did you pay Texas taxes to the California dealer? Did they give you a trip permit?