Our 2003 Year End Review

In the summer months, BAR tries to hold their monthly meetings on Saturdays in different locations so that we can take advantage of the beautiful Bay Area weather and picturesque back road sights. The ideal locations are not to far away so that we can drive our hotrods and enjoy the scenery within one day. We also look for places where the gals can enjoy themselves while we are holding our meeting (like SHOPPING)

In June the club meeting was held in Sonoma, in the beautiful Napa Valley wine country, hosted by Terry Elby. We had a BBQ on the patio of the historic Swiss Hotel, followed by our meeting. The women all enjoyed browsing the quaint shops and visiting the Arts and Crafts Festival coincidentally being held in the park that weekend. After the meeting, we had a professional photographer take pictures of all the Club roadsters. This proved to be quite a challenge but in the end, the pictures turned out great.

In the first week of April, several members, lead by Chet Thomas, traveled down San Diego way to attend the annual Goodguys event in picturesque Delmar . As always, a good time was had by all.

In April Andy Brizio posted a one day run which was hampered by torrential rains but that didn't stop the road warriors of BAR. We first toured the beautiful historic mansion of Rose Bud Rancho in the quaint, waterfront town of Freeport along the Sacramento River. Owners John and Cheryl Cox, long time car enthusiasts and collectors, provided us with a wonderful and informative tour of the mansion, which they completely restored to its original design and décor. The house was featured in Victorian Homes Magazine this year, which attests to the beauty and workmanship that went into the restoration.

After touring their home, John and Cheryl took us to their extensive car collection located in a large warehouse in the middle of Sacramento.

Continuing on in the downpour, we traveled to Lodi, just outside of Stockton, where we were taken on a tour of Bob Panella's unique train collection. Bob owns many trains, complete with engine, riding cars, and caboose that have been completely restored and are authentic to actual full-scale trains. In the "train house" there are five train tracks, complete with turnstile for turning the trains around. The tracks extend out over the expansive acreage of the Panella property, which includes a miniature city that can be enjoyed while riding through the lovely and picturesque trail created by Bob and his wife Dorothy. Unfortunately, weather did not permit us to take an actual ride, but BAR is sure to return so that we can complete this experience.

We ended the day with a great family style Italian dinner at Pietro's, one of BARs favorite restaurants located in Vacaville.

An annual event for BAR is to support our local car builder extraordinaire, Roy Brizio at his open house in South San Francisco. Many members attended and enjoyed the catered lunch and numerous activities throughout the day. This is always held the first week in May.

Another annual run for BAR is the San Luis Obispo car show, held in mid May. Many members traveled to SLO on Thursday, as we have always done in the past, so that we could partake in all of the activities of the traditional Farmer's Market held in the middle of town every Thursday night. As always, SLO were gracious hosts and made every effort to make this event memorable and enjoyable for everyone. They hosted a delicious BBQ dinner on Friday night, followed by their car show on Saturday.

Fathers Day run, organized by Tom Akeman and hosted by the LA Roadsters. This is another event that BAR supports and attends each year on fathers day in June. The expansive car show is held at the Ontario Fairgrounds in Southern California and provides great tire kicking opportunities and camaraderie amongst care enthusiasts from all over California as well as out of state.

In mid July the club cruised to Grass Valley for a Run, and monthly meeting. Hosted by Danny Settle and Bud Root. Another great weekend was enjoyed by 15 club members and their partners. The run started on Friday with a tour of Danny and Bud's properties in Grass Valley followed by a great dinner at the Northern Queen restaurant. There was much fun and entertainment to he had on Saturday, starting with a leisurely ride through the Grass Valley/Penn Valley countryside, ending up at the Emigrant Mine where we were met by a personal guide who enlightened us all on the days and lives of the Gold Rush miners. We then were invited to partake in a "traditional miner's lunch" which consisted of pastries and Cole Slaw. The Cole Slaw was good and the pasties gave us all a new respect for what those miners were forced to contend with on a daily basis; pasties were the mainstay of their lunch menus! (Needless to say, we were ready for the great dinner we enjoyed in historic Nevada City later that evening.) After dinner, we all enjoyed a play featuring the life and musical career of great country music legend, Patsy Cline. Once again, all had a good time.

Well its back on the road again,
BAY AREA ROADSTERS
Topless and Proud