Dec 11 Blat with dinner!

[magnusfeuer]

Ok.

A plan seems to be emerging here.

We could do the Ortega Highway(74), which is more of a cruise than a blat since it is:
A) Packed with idiots.
B) Packed with cops.

It is however very scenic and nice.

If we want to continue, we can just go on inland from Lake Elsinore where things start to loose up.

If we decide to turn around at Lake Elsinore, we are probably looking at a total drive time of two hours.

If we move on inland, we would probably look at a of 4-5 hours.

After this short/long blat we can return to the beach cities, eat some dinner and then head homeward.

We could do this:
11-12 - Meet and brunch somewhere close to the coast.
12-18 - Blat (And hit sunset on the way back)
18 - XX Dinner.

If people sign up,I'll take care of the booking procedure.

Yep/Nope?

/Magnus F.

[slomove]

I would prefer the longer blat to make it worthwhile. Maybe something like this (details to be worked out and maybe somebody knows the area better):


It is pretty exactly 200 miles including Ortega Hwy up and down. Sounds alright to me.

Gert

[magnusfeuer]

I'm on!

Let's meet up earlier (10:00), blat away and have lunch somewhere (Banning?), complete the loop and do dinner.

/Magnus F.

[soareyes]

I'm in, but I might meet up with everyone up towards Beaumont/Banning area rather than driving down to Capistrano from Victorville. If you are considering stopping for lunch near Beaumont, I can recommend the Oak Glen area a few miles north of Beaumont (www.oakglen.net). Its a pretty apple growing area up in the hills and there are a few restaurants to choose from, and I think it is past the apple harvest season so less traffic/tourists than earlier in the fall.

Gert, will you drive or trailer the Birkin to the starting point of the blat?

After dinner, I would probably spend the night at my inlaws in Anaheim rather than drive back to Victorville that night. Driving the Birkin at night still makes me nervous!

Stan

[soareyes]

Most of these roads are described on www.pashnit.com, and it sounds like a great ride. Which direction would we do the loop, clockwise or counter?
Stan

[magnusfeuer]

I'd say clockwise if we want to hit lunch on Beaumont.

/Magnus F.

[slomove]

Beginning to look very promising :P

Might be interesting to just go back on Hwy 243 instead of fighting Saturday suburb traffic through Hemet and Perris. Reading all the road descriptions it must be quite a drive, worth doing it the other way again. Then return via Sage road to Temecula. Disadvantage (if you want to call it one) it becomes 260 miles :oops:

Maybe we can decide on the spot if we really want to do that. 260 miles on smaller highways might become a drag. On the other hand I am planning to do exactly that for 2 weeks next year on the USA2005 Sevens tour :shock:

The Oak Glen lunch sounds good but would add another 40 miles. Maybe we should rather stay in the Banning area.....

Gert

P.S.: I am probly going to trailer to Orange County. Magnus: can I leave the trailer/car at your place?

[soareyes]

A slight change in my plans - my wife's work Xmas party is that night (I forgot about it :? ) so I will do the blat but not dinner afterwards. I will probably get up early and drive down to Magnus's house so I can do the Ortega highway portion of the blat too. As long as I get home by 5:00pm my marriage will remain intact!

Stan

[magnusfeuer]

Oki.

Brad was wiped out with kids and other household choirs, so he cannot join us.

Gert: You can leave the trailer on the street around the corner from my house.

/Magnus F.

[soareyes]

So, just the three of us? The weather forecast looks great for Saturday.

Hopefully, we will make better time than I did last Saturday in our local Xmas parade, 2 miles in about an hour! The clutch got a good workout :?
Our group (Victor Valley British Car Club) did get first place in the "wheels" division. We had 16 cars, mostly MG's, Triumphs, new Minis, but just one "7".

Looking forward to Saturday!
Stan

[slomove]

Well, looks like three. And I am also beginning to run into a time crunch in the evening (Christmas party invitation from the boss), i.e. have to leave around 4pm. That means it does not look good for the dinner, which was the original intent of the event :?

That is too bad but maybe we can do the dinner thing sometimes when the holiday madness is over.

As for the blat I would then do the same thing as Stan: drive down to Orange County, meet you guys, go north on half of the proposed trip, have lunch (Idyllwild? There is e.g. a Greek restaurant) drive a little more and then go home.

Magnus, does that still sound interesting?

Gert

[magnusfeuer]

Absolutely!

I'll mail you both my address.
What time can I expect you at my house?

/Magnus F.

[soareyes]

The blat went great, and I had gone 315 miles by the time I got home :shock:
The weather was perfect and the mountain scenery was stunning!
Thanks Gert and Magnus for a fun ride and hopefully we can do it again soon :D
Stan

[magnusfeuer]

Yep, it was great.

I managed to shoot a sequence of more or less random photos with my wife's (non digital) camera. As soon as the film is processed, I'll try to put them up on our gallery page.

Gert's car is LOUD.

/Magnus F.

[slomove]

Hey Magnus, what do you mean "LOUD"? Can you repeat that again, I did not hear you :wink:

Let me agree, I enjoyed it a lot. 316 miles total for me and a lot of that on very nice roads. Although it took me an hour to get home on the freeway. Horrible traffic :roll:

Anyway, I came to the conclusion that the Sunday morning blats are probably better in terms of other folks with slow trucks or sightseeing sedans on the road. At the right time Hwy 243 to Idyllwild must be awesome. And maybe next time I would insert another stop or two to enjoy the scenery.

I will be out of the blatting business for the next few weeks with holidays, visitors etc. But maybe we can do another one end of January or February. I liked the roads in the Mt. Palomar/Julian area......

Maybe we should also get back to Brad's idea with an extended/overnight relaxed blatting weekend.

Gert