Central Coast BARF - 1/29/05 - 1/30/05
Shoefish's account: I left the house about 8:15 to go to Ocean Beach to meet, well nobody, as it turned out. What anyone could possible have to do that is better than this, I don't know. At the beach Steve Ferrari called, saying he was just minutes away from finishing his car and joining me on the ride to Hollister. I headed down 280 and got off at the appointed meeting place, but Steve was nowhere to be found. Turns out he missed me by five minutes. Oh well, solo Barf to Hollister. I got into Hollister slightly ahead of schedule, around 10:15. I called Mudge and found out he was in Tracy. Uh-oh, it looks like I'll be spending some "quality time" by myself in Hollister. Found a strip mall that had a hardware store and a Kragens right next to each other, so I had a good place to kill some time. Decided to try out some octane boost and see if it had an effect on my 1800 with the 9.8 (10.5?) pistons. It did. Just like clockwork, Mudge (with Cathy and Jack the dog) show up, noonish. Let's hit the road! Not so fast, gotta walk the dog. Ok, we're off! No, we need to grab a quick bite at the golden arches. All right, let's drive! Well, just let me make a quick stop at Kragens,... My theory is that Mike has tried to join us on all our Barfs, he just shows up after everyone has left. ;-) Finally, we hit the road. For those who have never been on it, Rt. 25 is a joy. There's really no reason for this road other than fun driving, it doesn't go anywhere that 101 won't get you to sooner, almost no one lives on it, so there's no traffic, and the scenery is fantastic. Some very tight twisties, separated by some nice sweepy cruising. It ends, all too soon, at Rt. 198. But a 100 yard jog to the East brings you to Peach Tree Road. It's very similar to Rt. 25, but with less traffic (and only one lane). About 1/3 of the way South it changes names to Indian Valley Road, but is just as fun. It ends 80 miles from Hollister at 101 in San Miguel. I think we passed four cars the whole way. From there we followed 101 South to Atascadero, and 41 West to Morro Bay. After some initial mini-van hassle, I got around him and had some fun before catching up to more traffic as the road terminates at Morro Rock on the coast. Just a quick drive found us in Baywood, and a wonderfully eclectic gathering of cars. After an enjoyable hour and a half milling about and chatting with the friendly folk (It's true what they say about Southern hospitality), we went over to Tom Tallone's house to see the beautiful 1959 MGAs (coupe and roadster), and the fantastic views of Morro Bay as the sun was setting. From there we took some scenic back roads to San Luis Obispo and a fun dinner and brews at the SLO Brewery with Jack and Susan, Tom and his wife, and Brian Corsiglia. Then it was off to Cambria up Rt. 1 under a billion stars, for a very nice stay at the Cambria Pines Lodge. The lounge is fantastic, comfy couches and great service by cute waitresses. But the band, oh the band.... I have no idea how to describe it, other than they did a cover of Jimmy Buffett that made the original sound like Parliament/Funkadelic. I didn't think you could make it sound more "white," but they found a way. Pat Boone has more soul. But what they lacked in groove they more than made up for in lack of talent. We debated at length about which musician was the weak link, but we couldn't reach consensus. The next morning, we got up, had a great breakfast and went our separate ways, Mudge and Cathy heading inland on Rt. 46 to 101. I took Rt. 1 all the way to San Francisco. Perfect day. No clouds, and almost no traffic until after Big Sur. Only saw one highway patrol, and that was when I was stopped to take some pictures. I had a guy in a yellow 911 following me for a good stretch, and although I'm sure it was more a matter of will than capability, I lost him regularly on the curves. Got the polite wave as we parted company in Carmel, which is always nice. I was planning on heading over the hills on Rt. 17 when I got to Santa Cruz, but I couldn't bear the thought of ending the day on the 280 slab-o-matic, so I stayed on Rt. 1. My only regret was the inevitable hassle getting through Half Moon Bay, but it was worth it to stay near the coast as long as possible. Pulled into the garage at 1:00pm, exactly 4 hours after leaving Cambria, including stops. Not bad at all. 521 miles total. MMMV (Mudge's mileage may vary). Mudge's Account: Man that’s a long drive for dinner with friends in So Cal, but it sure was worth it. I have to apologize to Dan for showing up an hour late (or was it 1.5 hrs?) in Hollister. I underestimated the drive time by a hair. Hwy 25 to Peach Tree Lane to Paso Robles is a whole bunch of fun! Since I had Cathy and my dog, Jack, I was hindered a bit with regards to speed and cornering. Since dogs don’t understand, “Barf is just a figure of speech, Jack.”, he barfed about 2/3’s of the way to Paso Robles. As for keeping up with Dan forget it. I felt kinda bad. He’d rip it for 30 minutes then stop and wait for us to catch up. It was kind of like “Where’s Waldo”, in cars. The Baywood crew was great too. Jacko, of course, then Rich with the Dino coupe, Mark with the 85.5 Pinnin, Brian Corsiglia and his “84” ( :-) ), Tom Tallone and his wife, Suzanne and Jackos’ wife, Susan. There was some very cool machinery down there. Not just the I-car stuff but a repro Ford GT40, and early 50’s Chevy that just made you smile and a V12 flathead Chrysler -- can’t remember the year. This one guy showed up on a home made Horseless Carridge. There wasn’t any mfgrs name on it but the owner figured it was homemade around 1915. I figured it was a Fiat because while it was running there was someone under it! I have some pix and will be posting them on www.photobucket.com a bit later on. When you get to the site type in mikemudge in the album search. After that we headed for dinner in downtown SLO for burgers and beer. Got to know some of the So Cal folk and had a very tasty Bleu Cheese burger. That broke up around 8 and Dan, Cathy and I headed 30 miles North to Cambria and overnited at the Cambria Pines Lodge. We stayed up till close to eleven drinking beer and hoping, against all odds, that the beer would make the band sound better. We breakfasted at the Lodges’ buffet this AM then parted ways. 750 miles round trip and worth every minute of it. Before you die you must experience this route. In the 2 ½ hours on this road, on a Saturday, I don’t think we saw more than 3 cars going the other way. Later in the season it could be a bit more crowded. I don’t know. The scenery is beyond belief. Right now the hills are so green you’d swear you were in Oz. Okay I ramble. So sue me! :-) I finally BARFED!! back to past events