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Volume V, Issue 4 April 1, 2010
The price? An unbelievable $2000!!! When I heard that I took a test drive and was impressed by how sure and
light the car felt. Even the 318 seemed respectable in this car. Within five minutes behind the wheel I was
hooked––I was going to stay A-body.
I handed over the cash; he signed the title over to me and asked us, “Do you boys like beer?” We replied that we
did and he directed us to make a left out of his neighborhood, follow the twisting road for a few miles and to watch
for a little sign that said Port Costa. He told us to follow that sign, drive to the end of the road, and go have a beer
down there.
We followed his advice and took off on a beautiful drive that skirted the edge of the hill above the Sacramento
River. We found the sign and turned. The road led us into what seemed like an impossibly untouched relic of a tiny
town on the edge of the river bank. We found the bar in an old warehouse chock full of ephemera and dominated
by a stuffed polar bear in a glass case.
We really loved this place immediately and when
we found out they had a steak or lobster dinner
for two, including hotel room in the old Victorian
whorehouse across the street for only $49, we
knew we’d be back with our girlfriends.
Buying that Barracuda led us to Port Costa and
several years of good times hanging out down at
the Warehouse, getting drunk and spending the
night.
Eventually we even had whole caravans going
down and staging poker games late into the night
in one of the suites.
Like all good things, it came to an end as more
people discovered the place and it became
overrun by weekend warrior Harley types. The
business changed hands, the special went away,
the lousy beds in the hotel got worse and we
pretty much gave up on it entirely after one
drunken 4th of July when a yokel nearly lit the
whole town on fire with a bottle rocket gone
wrong.
I went back a few months ago with my friend and
her son on a lark. It was a Saturday afternoon
and the town was surprisingly quiet. The Warehouse was still going strong, complete with the polar bear looking
over the scene. We had a couple of draughts out back under the sun and strolled the tracks by the river––it
seemed like the idyll of long ago back in ’91.
Oh, and the ‘Cuda? I road tripped the hell out of it until it got nailed by a taxicab and wrapped around a telephone
pole. I gave the carcass to Bumbeck and he quartered it in his back yard in Emeryville, salvaged the seats and
used what he could for his own notchback ‘Cuda until it too got T-boned.
Damn notchbacks, I’d love to have another one some day and I have a good feeling I will.
Basement Garage - How to find Port Costa - Page 2 of 2 - MoparMax.com