2012 NEWS & EVENTS, By Mark Byer            News & Events Archive

Chris Unger’s Car Crazy Shop in Orange.  Paul Rieker arranged our first run meeting for 2012 to Chris Unger’s shop, who specializes in the estate sale of vintage automobiles and memorabilia.  Chris currently is handling the sale of 45 miniature scale engines, which all actually ran.  They varied from steam, one-hits, both Chevy and Ford V-8s, an Offenhauser, V-12 Rolls Royce, rotary aircraft engines and a Caterpillar diesel.  Chris also had on display a 40 Ford Coupe vintage racecar, a Ford Convertible, two deuces (roadster and 3W Coupe), a 1933 Packard Convertible undergoing restoration, and a recently restored 1973 Ford Pantera.  Thanks again, Paul, and we’re looking forward to the next run.

It's been a busy summer 2012 for the California Roadsters, starting off with a visit to the LA Roadster Show (June 16-17), and then our annual club Summer Party at Jon/Midge Kennedy's beautiful home in Orange Park Acres. We can't thank Jon/Midge enough for offering their home for our Summer and Christmas Parties.

Our next major event came in July (18-22), being our annual run to the Central Coast with the Bay Area (BAR) and San Luis Obispo (SLO) Roadsters..We alternate the responsibility for hosting this run with BAR, and this year it was our turn. Jeff Bates was our Run Chairman, with field co-ordination provided by Max Jamiesson and financial co-ordination by our Treasurer Joe Scanlin. Their combined efforts resulted in what most have said was "the best run ever". We alternate the responsibility for hosting this run with BAR, and this year it was our turn. Jeff Bates was our Run Chairman, with field co-ordination provided by Max Jamiesson and financial co-ordination by our Treasurer Joe Scanlin. Their combined efforts resulted in what most have said was "the best run ever".

First of all, the weather for our run was perfect. We kicked off on Thursday morning in two groups, northerly (Brea) and southerly (Costa Mesa); with the northerly group taking an inland route that was faster, but a lot hotter. The southerly group took a coastal route up Highway 1 through Malibu, which was more scenic and a lot cooler. Both groups ended up at The Beach Club, just south of Summerland for lunch. It's one of our favorite places, located on a grassy knoll above the beach and has pretty good food. After lunch it was a bonsai run up the coast to The Peachtree, our home away from in downtown SLO. That afternoon, we cranked up the deck party overseen by Bajajon, our club caterer/bartender. We were on our own for dinner, with most going downtown to the Thursday night street fair with plenty of opportunities for good BBQ.

Friday morning we got an early start, with about 47 roadsters, for our first run of the weekend to the Hunter-Liggett Military Base, about sixty miles northerly along Highway 101. This very large, active military training base, extends from Highway 101 to 1, with narrow winding roads and extreme topography. We took a leisurely drivethrough the base down to Highway 1, with our destination being The Ragged Point Resort for lunch. The ocean view parking on a grassy knoll was spectacular, but the box lunch a little slow. I would say for the $25 cost, can be attibutable to the parking which was worth $20 and the lunch at about $5..

That afternoon, we were are our own with some taking in the coastal towns of Cambria and Morro Bay, and others finding some of the wineries in the rolling hills of nearby Pasa Robles. We all met back at The Peachtree for another deck party and culminated with an excellent, catered Mexican dinner.

Saturday morning was a more leisurely run to nearby Lake Lopez, with Brian Lawler, a professional photographer, taking individual pictures of each roadster against a beautiful lake backdrop, and he had the photos ready that night at dinner. After the photo shoot, we saddled-up for a short run into Edna Valley, for lunch at the estate of Jim Eckford's, who we visited about three years ago. Jim is a car guy, and has recently completed his own roadster. This started as a 33 Speedstar, and was completed by The Roadster Shop, Illinois, to a vintage track nose theme, with rear mounted radiator and Buick 455. The catered lunch was excellent, and we again got to visit with Jim's Spanish Donkeys Lula and Lolita.

That afternoon, we again were free to wander the countryside, visit a few wineries, or take a nap. That night of course we had another deck party, with a catered BBQ dinner and dancing to DJ Sam, which was a first for one of our runs. The girls seem to really enjoy this, and did a little line dancing.

Sunday morning came all too soon, but we said our goodbyes to our BAR and SLO roadster buddies until we meet again at Andy's Picnic (August), and/or the Roadster Roundup (September) in Clovis, CA