The festive season has just wrapped up. For Margo and me traditions need to be maintained. Good wine is shared and then even as it’s darkest January, Margo and I are fond of pulling out the maps and looking at roads less travelled and this time, given the general poor road conditions everywhere we look, a trip to southern California via Interstate 10 is really enticing. Simi Valley via Tuscan, Yuma and San Diego just has to be done. A very long time ago I drove my then-current 1976 BMW 530i down this route at pretty much this time of year and enjoyed the winter sunshine. I know I have a picture of that very BMW around here somewhere. It was my very first BMW and I really enjoyed driving it all those decades ago. After two GM Holden Toranas , one a 3.3 liter straight 6 GTR the other a screaming 5 liter V8 SLR5000, the step up to the BMW turned out to be an experience on a whole different level – I skipped the air conditioning in favor of a sunroof and checked the stick-shift, r...