This affects anyone in the San Francisco Bay Area who is
planning to come to the mountain tour and Filoli expedition
on April 29th. My apologies to the half-dozen or so of you
who are going to get this letter more than once but I need
to reach everyone in every list that's been corresponding
with me.
The time is almost upon us for the Bay Area Spring Tour!
The people at Filoli have suggested, and I've told some of
you one at a time, that you should buy tickets for this event
in advance. The tickets cost $15 per person, not per car,
so if you're planning to bring along a spouse, add $30 to
the cost of the day. (It's normally $8 but this is a special
event; the extra $7 buys you the 7th Annual Flower
Exhibition, which is actually a charity event.)
We will have a picnic lunch at a site overlooking the grounds;
there is no picnicking allowed at Filoli, but the standard
recommendation by the people at Filoli is to have lunch at
the scenic overlook about 1/4 mile from the gate. This gives
a view of the gardens and estate, I understand. Pack a nice,
light lunch that won't slosh, break, or spill on the way there;
we're going on some Targa Florio roads.
I'd like to hear from each of you who is definitely planning to
attend. For those of you who represent clubs outside the
purview of electronic mail, please give me a head count -- as
accurate as you can make it -- of the people from your club
who have confirmed their intention of arriving. The best way
you know they have confirmed their intention is if they have
bought tickets already.
If you ARE planning to attend and you have NOT bought your
tickets and you CANNOT buy them yourself, please reply to
me at SEFisher@AOL.com by Thursday night and I will make
arrangements on Friday. Include your phone number so that I
can call you to verify what we need to do. You can try calling
me at (408) 736-3124; I will be available on and off and there is
no answering machine, so email is preferred. (This number
supersedes any other numbers you may have for me, so please
use it and no other.)
If you have NOT bought your tickets and you CAN buy them
yourself, call (415) 364-2880 on Thursday and make
arrangements to pick the tickets up on Saturday.
If you have NOT bought your tickets and you do NOT either
arrange to buy them or contact me Thursday, there is no
guarantee that you will be able to get into Filoli. You're
welcome to join us on the drive, which is free anyway, and
I'll have some directions and maps to pass out for anyone
who would like to see other (cheaper...) sights in the hills
that day.
Please note:
The people at Filoli will tell you that there are NO tours on
Saturday 4/29. That is correct. The story: most weekends,
you can arrange a guided tour of the grounds if you call
in advance. This weekend because of the flower exhibition,
guided tours are unavailable, but we can still walk the estate
and grounds to our hearts' content and see everything we
could see with a guided tour, and more.
One final note:
I'd really like to add one particularly scenic road to the tour,
one that has a glorious attraction about halfway out -- the
Heritage Grove redwood preserve on Alpine Road. This is a
rough road, about like Tunitas Creek for those of you familiar
with the Day Before The Britcars Day tour. It's paved all along
the way, but the maximum speed here isn't set by police,
by the curves, or by the dropoffs, but rather by the amount of
time your tires are actually in contact with the tarmac. It feeds
into a smooth, flowing, exquisite road, Highway 84 up to
Skyline. If you've been meaning to add fluid to the dampers
or check out some bushings, now's the time.
Those of you who know my past tours know that I like to try to
split the difference between spontaneous and disorganized, with
a fairly definite route but a lot of flexibility, and with a completely
open attitude about who shows up the day of the event. Because
of the way Filoli is set up, we have to lose some of that spontaneity
but I understand the rewards are worth it. If you can all make the
effort to get in touch either with Filoli or with me, we'll make this
a fabulous tour that everyone will treasure.
And for those of you who have the only Lancia/TR3A/M.G. K3
in Ulan Bator or wherever you may be, I apologize for taking
so much of your screen space with a local message.
Thanks,
--Scott Fisher
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