6th Annual Wine Country Tour - 9/14/02 From the archives: "Big Thank you to all of you that come up our way! This was a nice smallish Tour, 10 cars in attendance, and everybody seemed to bring along great attitudes despite the dreary SFGate fog :) We had 7 Fiats, some viciously fast BMW M3 thingy piloted by Rob Dietz, and then there was some big Fiat-looking thing with a horse on it's nose. Jerry Stadler said it was called a 'Mondial t' and would do 100mph in 3rd gear, and apparently he displayed this ability to a recalcitrant BMW lane-hogger today... :) BARF Regulars Dan/Pierre/Rich/John made a fine showing in 124 Spiders (save for Rich), and I must say that Rich's splendid 1978 131 'Familiare' was my prize car for the day. What a machine, and this big Family hauler did indeed haul ass today despite a few difficulties with big hills and weakish brakes. Dan Loomis deserves the 'spooky corner' award for his fabulous performance in recovering his car from a nasty drift on Trinity Road today. This was a performance observed only by me, Dan of course, and his really nice passenger whose name continues to escape me [Laura]. Trust me, Dan did a nice job, and I'll personally beat him senseless if he buys another set of Pirelli Tires ;) Dan Joel (a relative newcomer to the group, (and a helluva nice/mellow guy to hang with) brought his nice Black Spider and a seriously hacked RioCar in addition to a leaden right foot. Nice meeting you in person Dan! FA Member Carol came up with a really nice Spider, and the strongest FRS radio of the group. When the Group got separated late in the day (!), my 4-watt GMRS Kenwood radio and her fantabulous FRS brought us back together, and now that I look at the map in hindsight this was almost 4 miles of separation. My radio was operating a wee bit above the limit of 500Mw (!!), and her trunk mount FRS antenna must have been optimally placed, because she got OUT well beyond the range of any standard handhelds. Carol also brought homemade Cookies, which were distributed at each rest stop to the joy of all. Our only other Non-Fiat was driven by Brian, and is a nicely prepared example of an Alfa! The Tour went like a well-oiled machine, impeccably (ahem!) managed and organized, save for a few *coughs* exceptions. We almost always seem to have those... Jared and I worked our butts off on the Tour Maps, but I did not have a chance to run the Tour through from end to end in advance this time around. Lesson learned, and we made it thru to the endpont just fine. Survivor's Dinner at the Rustic Depot Hotel came off with most of the4 original group intact, and we're ready for the next go around! Thanks again for running with us, and for your good humor folks! I hope to organize a couple of BARF events next Summer, if not sooner." - Eli Caul

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