SoCal MINI Maniacs weekend adventure.
SCMM went to Solvang last weekend, around 40 MINIs. Solvang is a quaint little Danish inspired tourist town 2.5 hours up the coast from Los Angeles or about 45 minutes from Santa Barbara.
Most of us met for breakfast in a town called Moorpark and afterwards did some spirited motoring to Moss Motors in Goleta. Goleta is the 1st town north of Santa Barbara. Moss sells aftermarket stuff for MINI and Mini plus other makes of cars like MG, Sprite, Healeys, Fords to name a few.
MOSS MOTORS
The staff at Moss were very helpful. Most in the club had pre-ordered so it went fairly well. Moss gave us all goody bags; 60th Anniversary Tshirts a few stickers and a lanyard strap. Many boxes of Rusty's Pizzas were offered up by the club for lunch. Rusty's is a locally famous central coast American style pizza. Thank You Moss!
After we took the group pic at Moss we headed to Solvang. I had to stop for petrol so I lost contact with the group until I got to Solvang. Of course it didn't help that I went south on the 101 instead of north. Didn't realize I was going the wrong way until I was back in Santa Barbara!
Most of us stayed at the King Frederik Motel.
SOLVANG & FRIDAY NIGHT DINNER
A dinner and wine tasting was the thing for Friday night at the River Grill Restaurant. The wine supplier was The Wandering Dog Wine Bar. The company was great, the food decent and the wine tasting, though a scant pour, was good. I will say for your $5 you could refill seems as much as you wanted. Our dinner was a Santa Maria style BBQ. Grilled steak, chicken, veggies, salad, beans and dessert were offered for $30 per person. I think most were quite happy as was I.
After dinner some of the group went to the Chumash Casino nearby. Myself and a few others went a different route and walked over to a bar for some cocktails and conversation.
This was all set up by by our former president George Marsh. Thanks George U DA MAN! Not a weather god but one hell of a guy.
SATURDAY RUN
Saturday morning the plan was do your own thing and then line up around 9:30 for a run out to Jalama Beach and some lunch there. Seems there were 2, 3 groups. Sightseers and those who wanted to test their cars and themselves with some spirited driving. I choose the quicker group but we got separated by a slow truck and were left with about 4 or 5 other MINIs in our group.
The rains came late Friday night, even though our resident weather god, George, said, "No Rain", and continued most of Saturday. Needless to say the rains made the drive even more exciting and some did a bit of "Loco Vaca Off Roading", I'm told. I faired OK but it's always easier to follow than lead these things. I'm defiantly no Schumacher in the wet stuff but I do pretty good for an old off roader racer type.
JALAMA BEACH
Jalama (Halama) is a small beach camping area near Solvang. They have a store with cafe. The food was good and the scenery spectacular. Sadly for some reason I didn't go down and take some photos of the actual coast?
Ordered my burger and talked with some MINI friends, Ernie, "120-mph Carol", Jack and others and some surfers and just had a nice time.
I thought I was following some of the club for some wine tasting and other stuff when I left the beach but it turned out I was behind the wrong group, they were all headed home, and ended up going way out of my way until I woke up and turned back towards Solvang. I had a great run back to town.
WALKED THE TOWN
I just sort of hung out near my room and talked with others for the rest of the afternoon and made plans for dinner. I did walk around the shops with Joanne from "Stuck On MINIs". We talked about when we used to come up to Solvang as kids and about our MINI business'.
WILL BILL CODY & DINNER
A few of us, 7, still didn't have any desire to do the "Casino" thing, they allow smoking, or the buffet dinner offered there so we made plans to do one of the "Sideways" featured restaurants called A.J. Spurs. Talk about your "Cowboy" restaurant theme! Wild Bill Cody would have felt right at home there with animal heads lurking from every wall, corner and ceiling spaces. The service was very good, the steak excellent but the rest just OK. I always wonder why any restaurant serves a tomato as hard as a rock , totally flavorless and no matter how much dressing you glop onto it, it still tastes like sawdust. Oktoberfest large beer glasses were a welcomed sight.
We had a fun time talking about our MINIs and other things as well. A large Corvette group was at the table next to us and they seemed to be enjoying themselves as well.
Jake, Elif, Gary, Tina, Andy and Jennifer... I had a great time, I hope you did also.
I road with Jake and Elif to and from the dinner in their Clubman. For those who don't know MINI makes a wagon now called the Clubman. Nice.
HEADING HOME
I went back to my room around 10 pm and tried to sleep but by 5:30 am I was wide awake, so I packed up and headed home. Home by 2:20 pm. Sorry to anyone I woke up while I was leaving the motel, I tried to be as quite as possible.
I had a great time thanks to all of you SCMM'rs. Also, thanks for the name help George & Lex.
A SIDE NOTE: After the runs through the rains many went and found a car wash and washed their cars. I went with Joanne and helped her with her MINI loaner. Yup a loaner! Now that's dedication to clean or maybe they need some help. Andy, Lex, others, that was meant as a joke. TWSTBTZ... IT'S STILL FILTHY!
Keep the shiny side up... Giacomo (GEE-AH-CO-MO)
