I had a few days off from the office
since my assistant had the week off for vacation. I told Jim that I wanted
to at least get out of town for a couple of days, if not take a for real
trip. With Jim's work schedule, it
ended up a couple of days out of town.
After much discussion and looking at maps, we decided on a road trip in
the Pantera. This would be the
first non-car club related trip for #7114.
We started out on a Wednesday morning. We headed for the North Coast of
California. It had been a long time
since we had been to the Mendocino area.
It had been so warm in our area, that the thought of cool weather seemed
very inviting. We drove Highway 12
westbound, then I-80 to 37 then to 101 north. Yes, we know this is not the most
exciting route to drive, but it gets us quickly north to our goal.
Traffic was very
light; after all it was a weekday.
Our first stop was lunch at the old
Chateau Souverian in Geyserville.
Francis Ford Coppola now owns the facility. The place does not yet have an official
name. The restaurant is currently
called "The Moving On Cafe". We
arrived too early for lunch by about 20 minutes; our map program speed estimate
was way off for the Pantera. So we
were off to the tasting room to kill a little time. Tasting is free if you have lunch in the
restaurant. So for lunch, we were
seated on the patio with a beautiful view of the mountains and the
vineyards. With the warm weather it
made for a wonderful sitting. Jim
had the salumi plate and I had the smoked salmon plate. Both were perfect for a lighter
lunch.
Midweek travel is nice with no crowds
After the meal, some shopping at the
gift shop, and a rest stop, it we were back on the road northward. We were headed for a second Italian
winery, Pedrocelli's. We arrived to
an empty tasting room! What a
pleasant change from a weekend. The hostess heard us drive up and commented on
the sound of the car. We tasted and
bought a couple of wines. The Port
was especially good. By the time we
were ready to leave another group had arrived. We ended up with everyone in the tasting
room, including the hostess, going out to look at the
Pantera!
Out on the road again it was my turn to
give Jim a break with the driving.
I drove up 101 to Willits. This was the longest stretch that I had ever
driven in the Pantera. I know
driving 101 is not a big deal to most of you, but for me driving 101 in very
light traffic in the rolling hills of Northern California was a very pleasant
activity. We filled up the tank in
Willits, knowing there was no gas for the next 35
miles.
Jim took over the driving duties for the
drive to Fort Bragg on Highway 20.
This route parallels the famous Skunk Train. I had always wanted to take that train
ride, but now I feel that I had an even better ride through the redwoods. It was
only about 35 miles, but it is a very twisty road (2nd &
3rd gear the whole way).
The most interesting thing about the drive was the fact that at least
five of the cars that we caught up to in the course of the drive actually used
the turnouts to let us pass! At one
point we were behind an empty logging truck. We thought wouldn't it be nice if he too
pulled over to let us pass, but then he took a look in his rear view mirror, saw
us, then took off big time. This
guy must have done autocross in his spare time! The way he handled that big rig was
amazing! We followed him for about
10 miles before he pulled over to let us pass. During that stint, the Z rated Michelins
were making squealing noises in the turns, but the logging truck was still
pushing hard! I bet he had a great
story that evening about road racing a Pantera in his
Peterbuilt!
The road racing Peterbuilt leading the way!
We arrived in Fort Bragg in late
afternoon. We had no reservations,
but there were plenty of vacancy signs to select from. We decided on a Best Western that was up
on a hill over looking the Pacific Ocean.
We even got a AAA discount!
We checked in and again had to explain what kind of car we were
driving. They too heard us drive in
and knew we were there before we walked through the door. We unpacked the car, reviewed a tour
book and the headed out to check out a couple unusual specialty stores on our
way to our selected restaurant for the evening. We stopped to get truffles at the
Mendocino Chocolate Factory to go with the Port that we bought earlier in the
day. The other specialty stores
were closed, so it was time to go to the restaurant.
We had researched the area and came up
with Mendo Bistro. www.mendobistro.com It is located upstairs in a
restored old building on Main Street, Fort Bragg. We think that it might have been a turn
of the century department store.
The restaurant is on the mezzanine floor, open to the first floor. We
enjoyed a wonderful meal. The service was very good. They brought extra chilled
water to the table in a white wine bottle.
Our first course was a shared half order of Caesar salad with fried
polenta croutons. Jim’s entrée was
grilled pork loin with a mustard-tarragon sauce and mine was the pine nut
encrusted halibut. We finished with
a shared desert of "coffee and cigarettes." It was a mocha crème Brule with
meringue sticks. That meant that
the port and truffles would have to wait until we got home. It's too bad this restaurant is so far
away or we would be there on a weekly basis.
We got to sleep in a bit the next
morning. After all, this is a
mini-vacation road trip with no real time table or itinerary. We had our complimentary continental
breakfast at the motel then headed south on Highway 1. We planned to drive south along the
coast to Bodega Bay then head east to home. But we didn’t even get out of Fort Bragg
without having to stop. The
first stop was at a NAPA store to buy and apply some Rain-X, since there was a
wet fog in the air. Jim had
forgotten to pack the Castrol Accuvision.
The second stop was to put on the windshield wipers because the Rain-X
really didn’t work very well in light misting conditions. Now we were on the road for real. The
traffic was fairly light and some of the cars did use the
turnouts.
Our first stop was the Point Arena Light
Station, which was built in 1870. www.pointarenalighthouse.com It was partly destroyed in the
1906 earthquake. We toured their
museum and took the tour. That
meant we climbed the 145 steps to the top of the lighthouse. That is equal to a six-story
building. The original first order
Fresnel lens, which stands over six feet in diameter and weighs more than six
tons, is still there. The lens will
be removed and placed in their museum some time this winter. So it you want to see the lighthouse
completely in tact, you need to visit Point Arena very soon. By the time we
reached Gualala, it was time for another gas stop. Once again the Pantera
created a lot of interest. Jim is a
one-man promotion team for the marque. We continued down the road to our
next historic stop, Fort Ross. We
toured the site and learned that the Fort had been established by Russia in
1812. It lost money from the first
year and continued to do so until 1841, when it was closed. When it closed, John Sutter, of Sutter’s
Fort in Sacramento, bought much of it’s operating equipment! The United States
bought Alaska and the California land in 1860.
The church in Fort Ross
By now our continental breakfast had
worn off, or should I say we walked it off touring. The next town south of Fort Ross was
Jenner. We parked at the first
restaurant that we saw. It turned
out to be the best place in town.
We had stumbled onto “The River’s End”. www.ilovesunsets.com We were seated at a table with a
great view of the Pacific Ocean and had a very good lunch. The only weak spot was the service. It was very leisurely, bordering on
inept. We finally got the manager/owner(?) to help us at the end. The odd thing was that this restaurant
has won several Wine Spectator awards. I guess that service must not have been
one of the criteria for the awards.
After lunch we were back on the road,
heading south again. By the time we
got to Bodega Bay we had had enough of scenic Highway 1 and the gloomy cold
weather. We happily turned eastward
toward home. The sky begin to clear
to a bright blue. The layers of
sweaters and coats had to be peeled off.
We went to Petaluma from the coast.
From there we tried to take less traveled roads home, because it was
commute home time for everyone else and the traffic congestion was getting very
nasty. It was good to be back home
from our 450 mile two day road trip.
The cool weather that we had hoped for turned too cold and foggy. The blue sky of home was very welcoming.
Our first non car club road trip in the
Pantera was a good one. The car
preformed well. It was comfortable and had plenty of room for luggage and stuff
that we picked up alone the way. We
encourage everyone to get out and drive their Panteras. You’ll have a good time and the public
really enjoys seeing them on the road.
Meeting Notes - January 9, 2007
For the first meeting of 2007, we had a good attendance. Those present were: Tom & Kathy Vona, John Worseley, Grant & John McNamee, Henry Kirk, Jeff Budelli, Rick Carlile, Mike Drew, Jim & Emilia Seiferling, Lamar Fairchild, Dennis Gacutan, Rick Moseley, George Potiris, Ken Montgomery.
A raffle was held, netting the club $25. The winner of the gift card for Kragens was ???.
Rick Moseley is still a member of the Automobile Club de Monaco, so he can assist in getting tickets for the F-1 race there.
The Club voted to renew CP membership in the Association of California Car Clubs, Inc. and to become a member of the Towe Auto Museum. There are benefits to CP members at the Towe, such as free admission to museum during regular hours.
Autorama will have two cars from the Capitol Panteras. John McNamee and Jeff Budelli will have their Panteras in the show. We need some one to take photos and write up an article for the newsletter. Let's not miss seeing these beauties in person or in the newsletter! (Jim and I have other plans for that weekend,so we will not be attending.
The CP Events Calendar for 2007 was reviewed. The calendar below reflects the current planned events. We thank those members who stepped forward to chair the events. We are in the process of getting a date for a Fall joint Brunch Run with the Reno/Tahoe Panteras. It appears that those who attend the Euro Sunday gathering enjoy going to Brunch afterward. That will continue for those who show up. This will continue to be very informal and depending on who and how many can attend. If there is an event that you feel the CP would enjoy, please bring it up at a meeting.
Dates were set for 1) the Tech session at Rick Carlile's shop - Sunday April 15 at 9 AM
2) Lunch Run to Placerville - Saturday May 12 - Lamar to firm up details
3) Thunder Valley Brunch - June date to be set - John Worseley in charge
4) Festa Italiana car display on Sunday August 5 - Jeff Bundelli in charge
5) Rio Vista Car display with lunch at Foster's Big Horn - Sat Oct 13
Jim Seiferling in charge
Mike Drew is again an associate CP member in good standing. That means that he gave Treasurer John some money.
Dennis announced that he has Port from TooGood Winery for $20 a bottle. He bought the port futures while on the CP Foothill wine Run last year. Contact Dennis if you would like a bottle. Act quickly before Patty and Dennis drink them. Dennis will deliver the port at the next CP meeting.