Day 1

 

It was early Thursday morning and we were ready to be on the road to Monterey for the "Big Car Events".  Last year we had a horrible trip over to the Coast.  So this year it was an earlier start and different route.  This year we would take the longer, less direct route and hopefully the better route.  We were on the road only 15 minutes behind our desired departure time!  The traffic on Highway 12 east was light and moved well.  Then it was south on I-5.  We got to Stockton in time to catch some morning commute traffic and a fender bender on the other side that caused people going south to be "looky-loo's" and slow traffic to a crawl for a few miles.  After that slow down, it was quick light traffic all the way to the Highway 152 cut off.  This good fortune continued all the way to our juncture with Highway 101.  It almost immediately slowed to a crawl and then it stopped.  Jim threw me the map and we found a bale out point, county road G-11.  That road saved us a very long delay.  We were on our way to Watsonville and then south on Highway 1 to Carmel.  Even with the longer route we had some extra time to stop and top off the gas tank for the weekend.  We arrived in Carmel about 11:15 AM and found a parking spot a few blocks from the "Pebble Beach Tour" downtown.  Walking down Ocean Avenue there were several cars that had arrived early!  We also ran into CP member John Worsley and his brother Ray.  We continued down the street to "The Grill on Ocean Avenue" to walk in as their doors opened for lunch!  We enjoyed a very good lunch; Jim had a chicken Caesar salad and I enjoyed a salmon club sandwich.  Both entrees were very good.  Part way through our meal, we were joined by a fellow instructor at UOP Dental School.  I had told him about the "Tour" so he, his wife, and two grandchildren drove over from their home in Gilroy to check it out. After lunch, we toured the display. There were 116 cars on display. That is the best way to see the Pebble Beach Concourse cars and it is free to the public!  After that we headed to Carmel Valley and the Los Laureles Lodge.  We once again had the good fortune to stay with PCNC.  After unpacking the Pantera and opening the goodie basket of Italian items and a special 35th anniversary shirt provided by PCNC, it was time to go to the hospitality room and have a much deserved cocktail.  We relaxed and planned our free evening.  We decided on an early dinner in Carmel Village at The Village Fish House. The restaurant is a sister of The Monterey Fish House.  We hopped in the Pantera and headed for the Village.  Our map program gave us a misleading location and we almost gave up and started to go to plan B.  I saw the restaurant at the last moment; Jim made a U-turn and parked the car in their ample parking lot.  We enjoyed a very nice dinner; Jim had Mahi Mahi and I enjoyed the Sand Dabs.  We shared a piece of "Tuxedo Cake" for dessert.  It was a multi layer chocolate wonder with Bailey flavored crème filling and a chocolate icing.  While we were there, Terry & Sherry Morofsky came in for oysters and a glass of wine. They were dining later with a group from PCNC, back at the Los Laureles. When we returned to the hotel, the PCNC group was just going to dinner; we ended up going along, for conversation, no more food!

 

Another early day, the cars were grouped in formation for a 7:30 AM departure for Concorso.  It was a smooth drive over the Los Laureles Grade for the 13 deTomaso cars that were up early enough.  The designated deTomaso parking was wonderful. There were 83 cars signed up for the event! We heard later that the Lamborghini people were not very happy about being next door to the Pantera people.  There were some remarks made along the line of "there goes the neighborhood"!  It was cold, but Jim and I had allowed for this with multiple layers of clothing over lightweight long underwear!  The fog didn't burn off until almost 2 PM. There were several other CP members at Concorso; Linda & Jeff Budelli, John McNamee(entered his Ferrari since the Pantera was in the shop being painted, but he did wear a deTomaso shirt while parked with the Ferraris), Glen Cramer and family, John Worsley, Greg Armitage.  We spoke with Greg about the upcoming Nevada City Brunch, so we may see him there if not at regular CP meeting!  We also spoke with Tom & Kathy Vona, our newest CP people (Don't know if they have sent in their POCA form yet).  Jeff and Glen both won awards in the voting conducted by PI.  Jim managed to get our new white Pantera signed by Tom Tjaarda!  It was a long day, but an enjoyable day. I never made it to doing any crocheting. That evening we attended the dinner put on by PCNC at the Los Laureles, with an Italian theme.  There were 21 cars parked on the grass around the dinning area.  It is a truly beautiful site for the deTomaso aficionado.  When you checked in for the dinner, the guys were given a Mafia style fedora and the ladies a glitzy bow tie.  The food was an Italian buffet of Caesar salad, garlic bread, veggie salad, chicken cacciatore, pork picatia, two different pastas and a strawberry trifle.  There was plenty of good food and no one went home hungry.  We were at a table with all PCNC members.  We were the only CP members at the dinner, aside from Mike Drew who has duel membership.  Since this was our fifth year going to Monterey, we now know a lot of the PCNC people.  We thank them for opening up the Los Laureles to fellow POCA members.  We feel that this is the place to stay when in Monterey for the "Car Guys" weekend.

 

Tom Tjaarda and Jim (Tom's autograph in the door jam!)

 

Glen Cramers Manugusta on center stage

 

One more early day!  We had to leave earlier for the Vintage races at Laguna Seca than planned due to the fact that PI left our corral pass out of the envelope with our event tickets and lunch tickets!  We had not bothered to check the envelope when we picked it up at Concorso.  That will be the last time we fail to double check the tickets!  This made us very nervous, so we left very early, ahead of the caravan to the track.  We wanted to allow plenty of time to be hassled on our way to the corral.  We had the PI envelope, marked paid in full, and our original receipt, but we made it down to the corral area with only one question about our missing green pass.  We parked and Linda Adler of PI was sorry about the mix up and we were parked by 8 AM.  Then it was off for coffee at the track.  We walked the special displays for Cooper and Toyota, then the garage area for F-1 cars and finally the Trans Am area to find CP member Carl Stein's Mustang.  We saw Carl & Leslie Stein, Rick Moseley and friend Diane.  It was too loud there to say we spoke!  We then worked our way back to the PI area for lunch.  It was once again catered by Tarpy's Road House.  Great lunch!  Beef, chicken, Caesar salad, garlic bread, green beans, potatoes, chocolate cake, cantaloupe sorbet, and macadamia nut cookies, plus beer, wine, soda or water!  The PI package is the way to go at the Vintage Races!  There were about 40 deTomaso automobiles in the coral.  After lunch we went over to the bleachers and watched the races for the afternoon.  This year we sat over between turns 3 and 4. I think I like this area better than at the start finish line stands. Also, since my left foot has been bothering me for several weeks, this was a much shorter walk!  We were able to watch Ricardo Zonta set a new track record for Laguna Seca in the current Toyota F-1 car.  The sound was great!  We also saw Carl start in row 11 of his race and finish in 11th place.  Way to go Carl!  After the F-1 vintage race we headed home.  Once back at Los Laureles, we had a cocktail in the hospitality room and were invited to join the PCNC group for dinner at the lodge restaurant.  So no new restaurant to review, but we had a great evening of food and conversation and no drive back to the hotel!  We were going to try The Corkscrew Bistro in Carmel Village, but that will have to wait for another time. It came highly recombined by some of the locals that we had spoken with at the Village Fish House earlier in the weekend.

 

Carl Stein's Shelby Trans Am Mustang at Laguna Seca

 

Finally got to sleep in, to 7:30 AM.  We cleaned up, packed up and hit the road.  For the second time this trip, we went over the Los Laureles Grade with zero traffic in front of us!  That makes it a really fun road in the Pantera!  The drive home was smooth with one stop for gas in Salinas and a stop for lunch at In-n-Out in Stockton.  The burger was the correct food for the end of our "car guy weekend & road trip"!  Pantera #7114 made the weekend very enjoyable.  It was a good inaugural trip, hopefully the first of many such trips.  We encourage everyone to get out and drive their cars, its great fun!

 

 

Meeting Notes, September 12, 2006

 

The September meeting of the Capitol Panteras was held on the patio at Mimi's.  When we arrived at Mimi's the parking cones were out!  The restaurant remembered to set out the cones this month.  Even though it was hot in Sacramento, we had four Panteras and a DeLorean  in the parking lot. 

 

The attendance was good for the September meeting; Ken Montgomery, John Worsley, Rick Carlile, Jim & Emilia Seiferling, Henry Kirk, Tom & Kathy Vona, Carl Stein, Ed & John McNamee, Dennis Gacutan, and Lamar Fairchild.  Tom is our newest POCA member and Lamar has already sent his membership application  to POCA!  Lamar lives in Placerville.

 

Treasurer John McNamee reported that CP has received $60 from POCA for those members who have their renewed membership in the last quarter.  The club gets $20 per member.  The treasury has $971 .   John has not yet done the donation to St. Pat's.  We voted several meetings back to donate $300 to the charity.  John reported that several members offered to match and donate to bring the total to $1000.  The money will be used by St. Pat's to repair autos that are donated to them, so they can get a higher price at resale.

 

There was also a raffle for a $20 gift certificate for Kragen's and a F-1 Toyota poster. John McNamee got the gift card and Tom the poster.  A profit of $19 goes into the CP treasury!

 

Since Treasurer John had missed several meetings, this was the first chance we had to return the unsold shirts that had been made for the Las Vegas POCA event in May.  Of the unsold shirts, four were sold at this meeting to our newest members! 

 

Carl reported that he finished 11 in his race at the Monterey Historics at Laguna Seca.  He started 22.

 

The joint brunch with the Reno-Tahoe Panteras was held on Sunday, Sept. 10, 2006.  The group met in Nevada City at the Northern Queen Hotel.  There were 23 people and 9 Panteras.  The weather was just right, the food was very good, the conversation was continuous. There will be a full article in the October newsletter.

 

The CP are currently in first place for the POCA article contest.  Chris Difani has sent a second technical article to Jack DeRyke.  Look for its publication soon!  Thank you Chris!  Remember there are bragging rights and money at stake.  So please think about writing an article about your automotive adventures or a technical item.

 

Emilia offered to provide breakfast to anyone who joins Jim at the Rio Rendezvous Car Show on Oct. 14.  It will either be at the Rio Vista Lion's Club Pancake breakfast or maybe a home made meal at our house.  Please contact Jim if you plan to attend.

 

Tom Vona will be setting up a drive to have lunch in Sausalito at Scoma's.  The target date is early November.  Please keep you calendar flexible so that you can attend this fun event.  When Tom has the exact date, we will get the word out.  Tom has done this type of event in the past for the Corvette club.  In order to get the preferred parking at Scoma's, you must drive your club car. This is an RSVP event, we must have an exact count for the restaurant!  If your car is out of commission, you can still attend, but you will have to park on your own elsewhere.  Maybe some PCNC members will be able to join CP at Scoma's in early November!