It all started out well enough, for our trip over to Monterey.  We allowed for the commute traffic on our route to thin out before we left in the morning.  Well, like the best laid plans, it did not work out as planned!  First, we were slowed way down in Antioch, on Highway 4.  Then we moved smoothly all the way to San Jose.  It was there that we totally fell behind schedule!  The traffic on Highway 101, at about Capitol Expressway, ground to a stop!  The one good thing was that the Pantera handled the stop and barely go traffic in fine form and did not over heat!  We were eventually forced to exit off Highway 101 at Hellyer.  What  an appropriate name for a street.    It seemed as if we did drive to hell and back before we were back on the freeway!  We later found out that it was a wreck with an acid spill that closed down the entire freeway.  All of these travel problems lead to an hour and a half addition to our travel time to Carmel.  We arrived too late for the lunch in Carmel, that we had planned, but we did get to view the Pebble Beach Concours cars when they were on their tour and parked on Ocean Avenue. ( Note: the best public restroom ever is located at the corner of the park where the Tour has lunch!) There were a couple of special sightings on Ocean Ave.  We saw Sir Sterling Moss and his winning Mercedes #722 300SLR. The car was on the original factory carrier.  We also saw the Batmobile driving around town.  We then headed to the Las Laureles Lodge, where we had a room with the PCNC group.  We stopped for gas in Carmel.  The cost was $3.05 for 91 octane.  We later saw it for $3.11 in Carmel Valley.

Once at the hotel, we checked out the hospitality suit.  We munched and drank our missed lunch.  While we were there, we were joined by CP members Rick Moseley. and Carl Stein.  They were staying with the PI group in Marina and had come over to Carmel Valley to see what was happening with PCNC.  At that time there was nothing happening at PI.  What no hospitality suit at PI?  We learned that they had an easy trip from Sacramento.  In fact, they stopped for lunch early in San Juan Bautista since they had made such good time.  Carl especially enjoyed telling us about his great Mexican lunch after he learned that we had missed lunch!  
Jim and I went to an early dinner at a new restaurant for us, Cafe Rustica, in Carmel Valley.  We had a wonderful meal!   We dinned outside. Jim had the lamb filets and I had the pork loin medallions.  We shared a heirloom tomato salad with pesto and goat cheese that was huge and delicious.  The Monterey county wine that we enjoyed was Logan. There was ample free parking for the restaurant.  After dinner we returned to the hotel and the hospitality suit for a night cap.  Then it was time to get some sleep, since tomorrow would be an early day.

Day Two

It was up at 6 am to be showered and dressed  in order to be ready to leave with the group for Concorso Italiano.  There were 8 cars that were ready to leave at 7 am.  It was an impressive line up of cars on the road.  There was fog at the top of the Laureles Grade that limited visibility and required both head lights and wipers!  I was very glad that Jim was not one of those guys who had removed the windshield wipers!  The drive into Concorso went smoothly for us, but the organizers still need to fine tune traffic control on the entry and exit route.  Once parked in the DeTomaso area, we began our quest for the "free coffee" for the exhibitors.  In the process of trying to find the exhibitor hospitality tent we bumped into several people all doing the same thing! Steve & Merry Dalcino, Linda & Randy Welsch, and their neighbors from San Ramon Gary & Sue .  Gary and Sue have had their Pantera for about 6 months.  It turned out that they were parked right next to us in the show. (There was no map and the event volunteers didn't have a clue where the hospitality tent was).  The weather was cold and foggy for most of the day.  The sun came out only very briefly in the afternoon.  During the course of the day we met up with several CP members; John Worsley, Carl Stein, Rick Moseley, Linda & Jeff Budelli, & Glen Cramer.  There were four Panteras, from our club, at the event and three of them won awards!  Jeff -Best Engine, Carl-Third place touring Class, Glen- Best Interior and Best Modified Car!  Very impressive for our small CP group.

 

Glen, Carl, & Jeff