When travelling to a new place, each member of our family sits down and creates their own Bucket List. We come back together and work out how we can create an itinerary that includes each place. It takes a little juggling, but usually we manage it. Our trip to California, USA was no exception except this time we had to incorporate T’s love of cars between our cultural visits.
It was thanks to T’s Bucket List that we found ourselves staying in Simi Valley, just north of Los Angeles, for a night so we could visit Da Rod Shop. The shop was made famous by the show Rods N’ Wheels on Discovery channel and was one of the many places that T was excited about visiting (we also visited Count’s Kustoms, Barris Custom Industries, El Rey’s Garage, West Coast Customs and Chip Foose just to name a few of our stops).
When we arrived at Da Rod Shop early on a Monday morning to find it closed. Just as I was about to launch into an argument with T about whether he checked the opening times, a van parked outside the garage and a tall bloke jumped out and walked to the front door, unlocked it and walked in. “Hey, that’s Steve Reck“. T said. I assumed he must be one of the guys from the show. The sign on the door still read closed but I encouraged T to go and knock on it and at least meet the guy.
Someone was looking down on us that day. Despite being closed, Steve had decided to go into the garage that day to attend to a few little chores. When he heard we had travelled all the way from Sydney, Australia, he invited us into the garage to have a look around. T was immediately overwhelmed with gratitude.
We spent the next hour or more with Steve. He provided a tour of the garage, answered T’s questions (there were thousands of them) and even spoke a little about Rods N’ Wheels. Of course, T asked to buy one or their tshirts from their merchandise table. He was a little down when we realised they were out of sizes by Steve organised for one to be sent to Sydney. Sure enough, when we returned from our California tour, it was waiting for us.
The kids loved exploring the garage and looking at all the old hot rods in various stages of build and restoration. While I wouldn’t recommend this excursion to all families, if you love cars and have watched Rods N’ Wheels on Discovery, a trip to Simi Valley might be something fun to add.
You can visit Da Rod Shop – darodshop.com at 958 Chambers Ln, Simi Valley, CA. It is open Tuesday –-Friday between 8:00 am – 5:00 pm and on Saturday between 9:00 am – 2:00 pm It is closed Sunday and Monday.
Steve is working on my 1954 Chevy panel truck. So far, so good! I’ll be even more exited when it’s done. Keep up the good work
I want to work with Da Rod shop company by 2022,am a graduate of cross river university of technology calabar, department of mechanical engineering