This weekend, the San Diego Roadsters club was delighted to welcome more than two dozens Skys and Solstices from Arizona and Southern California for two days of rides, seaside fun, great food, and adventure.  This was the first regional event in San Diego, and we are truly thankful to the Phoenix Sky-Sol club for making this event a huge success.

DAY 1 - Coastal Run

About 20 people from Arizona (plus a few other SoCal folks) left the Best Western hotel on Hotel Circle and met up with our local San Diego crowd at the Joe's Crab Shack parking lot in Oceanside Harbor.  In addition to our most active San Diego club members, we were delighted to see some old and new friends from Los Angeles, plus a sneak peak at the new Kappasphere Sky, showing off their new luggage rack, plus several other cool new products.

Leaving the harbor, we headed directly down to the beach and lined up our 25 roadsters along the sand on the Oceanside Strand just South of the pier.  The line of cars was so long that nobody could get a complete shot, but we did manage to post a few pictures in our San Diego Weekend Sky & Solstice Photo Gallery. 

From the beach in Oceanside, we headed up to the Coastal highway to begin our two-hour cruise South to Mission Bay in San Diego.  We had twenty-six cars and more than 40 people.  At one point, Vicci pulled out fifty lottery tickets from Arizona's $300 million powerball lottery to be held later that evening, and everyone contributed a dollar with their name on it to get in on the lottery.  Then, throughout the day, when people asked if we were a part of a car club (as they always do), rather than just answering yes, we started getting creative, telling people that we won $300 million in the lottery and this was part of our reward.

As we drove South, we used FRS radios to keep the group together moving in one flowing caravan through North San Diego County's palm-tree lined beach towns, including well-groomed Carlsbad, Cardiff, and Delmar.  Our group moved down the Coastal Highway managing to stay tightly together in spite of Saturday morning beach traffic, eventually finding our way out to La Jolla Cove, and driving through the cliff-house neighborhoods of South La Jolla.

We completed our beach trip by stopping at a harbor-edge parking lot near the Bahia resort on Mission Bay where we had a delightful, if impromptu, lunch (deciding that parking at Anthony's was going to cut into our afternoon fun plans.

After lunch, the group split up, with some people heading to the beach near the Roller Coaster at Pacific Beach, and two groups of six venturing out on rented sailboats taking a tour of Mission Bay.  Then, just before sunset, we gathered at Pacific Beach to watch the sun fade behind the marine layer and down into the ocean, before heading up the hill to the Old Town Mexican Cafe for a delightful dinner menu prepared especially for our group of more than 40 hungry roadster enthusiasts.

Want to see the "plan" for Day 1?   Click on the PDF link below:
 san_diego_coastal_run_instructions_august_2007 1.21 Mb.

DAY 2 -  Palomar and Julian

We woke up Sunday morning to drenched roads and downed trees as the remnants of hurricane Dean came up from Mexico and began to spill its water-soaked storm clouds on San Diego.  At first, we were concerned that the day might be a total bust, but a quick check of weather.com said that the mountains were going to be spared from further rain during the day, so most of us left the Best Western as planned at 9:00AM.  About ten of the folks from Arizona decided to stay in town and go shopping in the Gaslamp district, but promissed to meet us up the hill for lunch.  As we left the beach behind us, following Tim (timo4563) up Highway 163, we wondered if they might have had the right idea for the day, but as we drove north, the skies opened up and the sun broke through the clouds.

In Escondido, we were delighted to find about a half-dozen more local cars ready to join us for the trip, bringing the count to 15 roadsters.  We were a bit late, and those waiting for us at the meetup spot said that they were beginning to wonder if we had actually won the lottery and everyone had headed back to Arizona to claim their winnings instead of going on the ride.  When we got there, we said, "no way, if we won, we might be quitting our jobs, but NEVER the ride!"  Sadly enough, however, we didn't win, so it was back to work on Monday.

Also in that Escondido McDonalds parking lot, we met up with the folks from the local San Diego Honda S2000 club, who were gathering in the same location for their own ride up the mountain that day.  We swapped cards and suggested that someday, we need to do a joint event.

From McDonalds, Gary (1redskye) lead us up the hill to Lake Wohlford and then to Mt Palomar Observatory, where we walked up the hill and toured the 200 inch main telescope, and then stopped for a group photo under the trees.

From Palomar, we headed back down the hill and then up to Julian for some Baileys BBQ and Julian Apple Pie.  The folks who went shopping in San Diego never made it up the hill, heading straight home to Arizona instead, but those of us who did were rewarded with HUGH bbq sandwiches, and for those who had any room left in their trunks, at least one or two pies to take home.

Julian being a mountain cross-roads destination, after tasting some pie, we headed in four different directions, Southwest to San Diego, Southeast to Mesa AZ, Northwest to Los Angeles, and Northeast to Phoenix.  The group who drove to Phoenix weren't finished with their run yet, as they headed home through the back side of the mountains down twisties, across desert roller coasters, and along Box Canyon Road through the the Painted Canyons.  Then, for the long ride on Interstate 10, the musically talented teenagers in the group played name-that-band from car-to-car, singing oldies tunes into the FRS radios most of the way back to Phoenix.

As we headed home in different directions, one person offered on the radio, "Same time next year?" and another replied, "To heck with that, same time next MONTH!"

Want to see the "plan" for Day 1?   Click on the PDF link below:
 san_diego_julian_run_instructions_august_2007 648.45 Kb