Morgazette May-June 2011 Issue - Morgan Cars for Sale

Mission Trails & Making FriendsSpringMog 2011 • Story by Gordon Craig, Photos by Michael Jhon & Gordon“Welcome to theSpringMog. Your hosts areJohn Grosetto, Bob Paneroand Michael Gerdts. Ourtrip will take us to PasoRobles where we willspend three nights. Theroutes are planned to takeus to/through interestingand beautiful places toinclude Parkfield, MorroBay, Cambria, Eagle CastleWinery, Big Sur, and San LuisObispo Farmers Market...The weather forecast indicatesclear skies and daytimetemperatures in the 70’s. Weplan to cover at least 692miles in about 21 hours and50 minutes. So,... fill up yourtank, pack your bags, and getready to have a good time.”Tuesday, May 10The foreward to the SpringMog2011 by our three leaders beckonedus to a four day road adventure,setting the stage of whatbecame a wonderful sojourn intoOld California, the Mission Trail,Antique “Brass Cars”, superb winetasting and a bonne chance meetingof fellow travelers finding their wayto the sparklingwaters and rockyocean shores ofBig Sur, blockedoff by major slideson the main Hwy.1. But back at thestart, we assembledat MorganHill, Cochrane exitoff Hwy. 101, fromdifferent cornersand routes of the Bay Area. Therewere 8 Morgans in all, 2 +8s, 6 +4s,one Lotus Elise belonging to Johnand Jan Grosetto and Dean Jacksonbrought his brand new Mini CooperWagon “All 4”. Bright, sunny morningand from Hwy. 101 we headedfor San Juan Bautista/Hollister alongHwy. 156 and turning south ontoHwy. 25 down through little townslike Tres Pinos and Paicines. We arein the Old California, the Old MissionTrail/Land Grant California, the timeof Spanish and Mexican colonizationand settling, decades of years beforeStatehood and the 49ers. You canrealize this just by the size of theranches you are passing, huge, largetracts hardly fenced at all, exceptfor the road, just open country andmore open country the farther yougo. This is also the home of thePinnacles, a unique geologic formation,we didn’t go this time, but it iscertainly worth a look in the futureand you know onceyou’ve driven this road,you’ll do it again, well,at the right time of year.It is just too hot in thesummer to consider.We wound our waythrough a series of lazy,angling cross valleyzigs and zags with longstraightaways so you could get upspeed and see miles ahead, then aslowing to a gentle turn back theother direction and across the valleyagain, moving on to the Hwy. 198/Peach Tree Road junction. Just aswe slowed and stopped to checkour maps, along comes of all thingsa blue high bodied, spoke wheeledopen roadster Brass Car on 198from San Lucas to the west, andit’s moving along at a good clip,the driver and rider give us a wave,and soon, coming right behind, isa Model A four door roadster, andgives us an “OOOGA” horn. Theygo on to the right turn south onPeach Tree Road, and we light theengines, and follow on. We catch theModel A fairly quickly, and he pullsover waving us on, and we waveback, but the first car is far ahead,gone from sight, certainly doingmore than 65. Eventually we runup behind a deep blue with brassaccents Bentley, but we’re enjoyingthe country too, no need to rush,and he leads us through lush countrysidespeckled with Spring Flowersand green and growing grasses.Peach Tree becomes Indian ValleyRoad and we begin to see vineyards,rows and rows of vines. The Bentleyis huge compared to our crankylittle roadsters, like a Hummeron big spoke wheels, straight andtrue down the road, no wavering,wandering, no slowing, just steadyon. Indian Valley Road takes a widesweeping turn to the west and soonwe are in San Miguel, another ofthe Mission Towns. We park underthe shade of the Mission Oaks, takeMorgazette • May / June 2011 • Page 11