San Diego's Weekend Driver

What do Lawrence Welk, Jesmond Dene and a gaggle of golf courses have in common? Read on to find out.

El Cajon native and NASCAR great Jimmie Johnson was profiled on CBS Sunday Morning yesterday. He’s active in San Diego schools, having donated thousands to the automotive technology programs. Go Jimmie!

Bouncing around in the purple green-car this weekend. Already worrying about where to charge it.

Before it gets too hot, take this drive out Highway 94 east to the little mountain town of Boulevard. This particular article is a golden oldie… it’s one of the first drives I did for the Union-Tribune way back in 2001, then updated for my book, Weekend Driver San Diego, which was published in late [...]

I’m finally back to working on the next Weekend Driver column for UT San Diego and have a Mitsubishi i on the way. Any suggestions on where I should take it? It will need to be somewhere close, as my home base is downtown San Diego. It has a range of about 100 miles, so [...]

Just uploaded a new old video to my Youtube page… it’s a spot for the 1966 AMC Rambler Marlin. Yes, if Chevrolet had success nicknaming the Corvette after a fish (Sting Ray) and nobody had success with a full-sized fastback, then certainly folks would flock to AMC dealers to buy this turkey. A cute ad [...]

Go back a century and a long auto trip meant stopping frequently for more than just snacks or gas. Cars needed sometimes hourly maintenance to fill the radiator, change tires and add oil. Along the two-lane highways of the day, garages sprang up every few miles. Later, entrepreneurs built roadside attractions. Most survived into the [...]

See story http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-sports-car-legend-carroll-shelby-dead-at-89-20120511,0,5669921.story

Here’s a drive that always amazes first-timers: the drive from Temecula to Fallbrook on DeLuz Road. You’ve seen the mountains every time you take I-15 north from Escondido to Riverside County, but the freeway slices straight through. East and west of the freeway the mountains are rugged and the road is twisty. It’s up and [...]

Someplace west (or is it east) of Amarillo, Tex., is on my map for a visit one of these days. Why? Because I like miles and miles of flat land and farms? No, because it’s the home of the Cadillac Ranch. Charles Kuralt visited there years ago and CBS’s Steve Hartman did a follow up [...]