Teriann writes:
>There must have been something in the air last weekend... or perhaps it was
>national drive a Rolls/ Bently weekend.
Naw, it's called living out in the Bay Area. After playing in the Bay
Area during a week of record-warm October weather, all the sightings of
LBCs kind of blurrr together. But I'll still try to give some lucid
impessions.
MG's and TR's of all vintages were to be seen by the bushelful. XJ-6's
and 12's are a dime a dozen out there. They appeared in the same
frequency as do the Taurus and Sables around here. Sprinkled among
them was the odd Rolls and occasional Rover.
Thursday, Anne and I borrowed Bonnie's very red Miata and went cruizing
down Skyline to meet up with some of the Bay-Area folks for a very
pleasent lunch. Spent a couple hours telling stories, checking out
pictures and looking over the various cars. Then it was back up into
the mountains, stopping at the Boulder Creek brewery for a delicious,
though a bit young, sample before heading down to Santa Cruz and Hwy 1
up along the coast. Passed a dapper gent in an A-H 100-4, then, pulling
into a little place in the mountains, for a bite to eat, we saw a
perfect '63 Jag Mk-II parked out front. We talked to the owner for
awhile, it was his daily driver. The next day, while standing in one of
the Golden Gate overlooks watching an aircraft carrier steam under the
bridge and out to sea, this large 50's era Rolls comes motoring into the
lot, does a circle and cruises on back out. The grand finale was
Saturday, when we all headed into the city to do some roller-blading (my
brother Chris and his wife Bonnie are both speed-skaters and have these
bizzare 5-wheeled long roller-blades for their summer workouts). We
came around a corner, dodging a new Land-Rover and trying not to gawk at
the Blue Angels whistling overhead, when I saw a silver Jag Mk-II parked
a little ways down. As we got closer, I could see the dual exhausts
and, lo and behold, it was a Daimler 2.5L V8, just like mine. I was
amazed to come across one outside of a car show.
Some other general impressions of the area:
The combinations of twisty mountain roads and sea-shore straightaways
make for a wonderful driving environment. And blasting out of the hot
sun and into the cool shade and scent of the eucalyptus groves always
brought a smile to our faces.
Since they don't seem to experience snow out there, none of the cars
appeared to suffer from rust. And since they don't need to plow the
roads, it also allows them to put little bumpy things in-between the
freeway lanes and in the centerline of the roads. They're make a loud
noise when you drive over them and are fairly annoying in that they keep
you from freely using the oncoming lane when trying to straighten out
those twisty mountain roads. I suppose their best use is to wake up
dozing drivers. We came to refer to it as "driving by braille".
All in all, we had a great time. Thanks again to Teriann for setting
up the lunch, it was nice to put some faces with those .sigs.
/\ Lawrence Buja Climate and Global Dynamics Division
\_][ southern@ncar.ucar.edu National Center for Atmospheric Research
\_________________________Boulder,_Colorado___80307-3000__________
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