Weather looks good for a run, forecast is 84 partly cloudy. See you all at breakfast - Putah Creek Cafe at 9:45 am.

 

I just realized it's the 16th.

Hope everyone had a great time.

 

^We did, and we missed you!

 

The weather could not have been better, much cooler than last year which was in the triple digits. Today was between 64-84 degrees with some clouds that made for great pictures. Breakfast as usual was superb and we had for the most part of breakfast our drivers meeting with a short after breakfast instructions by tail gunner-Hal. The staging was much better organized this year and we were out of the parking lot in 8 minutes. The roads were great and as usual on hywy 128 the normal occasional boat and a few slow drivers, but we had chances to turn up the wick for those that choose to.

Our changed route from the original posted route turned out to be the most exhilerating part of the run. Pope Valley Road was smooth with a lot ot twisties, then cool off with some straights and back again with twisties, this occurred three times. We had a close call with the you know who. Just when I thought it was clear ....bam two of them sandwiched in between cars going the opposite direction in the twisties. Uhhh can you say 70 in a 55, no time to break as they would see in their rear view mirror my brake lights, so a quick downshift. As it was they did turn around and follow the last two cars for three miles, they were doing 40-45 by then. They finally gave up, then another road block, this time for a bunch of motorcyclist that were pulled over, as I passed by them doing 25 mph I heard a motorcyclist shout to the you know who "Hey look they have no front license plates". We came away with no yellow slips nor pull overs. Steady Eddie from then on.

The timining of the start stop times I organized were right on. If we were in a timed Rally, our team would have taken the gold. I believe we had 18 cars when we left the main staging area...and finished with 18 cars at the final photo stop.

It was great seeing some old friends and making new friends. Thanks everyone for joining us on this Run! It's the kind of Run that looks boring on paper, but is really an awesome Run.

A special thanks to Cindy & Jim (Zedhead07) for suggestiong this alternate route after our May Run. As it turned out this section of the Run was the highlight of the entire Run.

Tail gunner- Hal, did a great job with the staging of cars, timing the depart times for drivers in their groups. And directing the cars at a possible dangerous intersection after Lake Hennesy onto Pope Valley Road. No one was left behind, great job Hal!

Thanks to Stephne W. for timing the drivers departing from Lake Hennessey. Thanks to John for making it out to this run when he was sick with a bad cold and for being a warrior and sticking it through to the end.

Thanks to all, see you all on the next Run on Aug 13th - Summers End Run.

Curtis

 

Three words about this run today: fun fun fun

The only pano I took (exposers went stupid on me, sorry):

Hwy 20

 

Still an awsesome shot...agreed...fun...fun..fun!

 

I have not even begun downloading two 8 gb cards and a partial 2 gb card. It's gonna take all night to download Raw + Jpeg files = big files with a 15mb Canon 50D. Then there is the GoPro HD video footage.

 

Final list that made the Run


1) ZeeForce aka ZForce (Curtis) 370Z
2) TheBrosZ (Hal) 370Z
3) Flyinion (Charles) 350Z - canceled
4) Junl350z (Johnnel) 350Z
5) willow350 (Jun) 350Z
6) miles85916 (Chai) 350Z
7) z styln (Lyent) 300ZX - no show
8) 06CPV35 (John) +1 G35
9) Lou 370Z - canceled
10) tomnavone (Tom) 370Z - canceled
11) Steve B (+1) 350Z
12) Steve B (buddy) G37 (Jeff & Julie)
13) Charlie & Pam 350Z Rdstr
14) Zedhead07 (Cindy & Jim) 350Z Rdstr
15) onzedge (Donald) 240Z/370Z - canceled
16) jlaughman22 (Josh +1) 370Z TT Amuse
17) CodeofSilence (xxxx +1) 370Z - no show
18) Joe A (+1) 260Z
19) Stephen W. 280ZX Mach 5
20) Jasonp350Z (Jason) 350Z
21) Simon - corvette - canceled
22) Geo - RX8 - canceled
23) LocalMotionZ (Albert) 350Z
24) -bigc- (Chris) G35
25) Lost Cloud (Oliver)



Final groups that made the Run

Group #1 -semi (Blue)
1) Curtis
2) John
3)
4)
4) Chris
6) Jun



Group #2 (Yellow)
1) Cindy & Jim
2) Jason
3) Albert
4) Johnnel
5) Charlie & Pam
6)


Group #3 (Pink)
1) Chai
2) Steve B
3) Jeff & Julie
4) Josh
5)
6)


Group #4 Cruiser (Purple)
1) Stephen W.
2) Joe A.
3)
4)
5) Oliver
6) Tail Gunner - Hal

 

you guys did a great job organizing a terrific run! big ups to the organizers!

 

^ +1000

Was good rollin with ya in the twisties

 

Thanks guys, I was not sure if the adrenaline factor was up to your expectations.

Three weeks with a downed car (-bigc-) get raise the fever pretty high for expectations. Pope Valley Road was the bomb.

 

Update on my photos....total taken 643. Still sorting out the junk ones and touch up only on the real bad ones, either over or under exposed. For about 90% of them with the great lighting we had (slighty cloudy) made for some perfect contrasted photos with rich colors.

Oh....I took the Pope Valley Run again today and all the way to Cache Creek Casino...total 2.5 hrs in my arm chair watching the video on the 73" DLP screen.

I cannot say when I will be able to edit and upload to the tube. It's been over a year since I dabbled with Vegas Studio, not even sure my version will edit HD video 60fps 1081p. But on the big screen with direct feed from GoPro NTSC HD even the scenes with the "you know who" were in there, and one did pull around and follow tail gunner -Hal and Joe (260Z) for several miles before turning around with a tow truck to go back to the accident with the motorcycles. I think he turned around for both us and the accident...A close one, but it's all there and pretty darn smooth footage. Hwy16 Capay Valley Road looked awesome with the narrow canyon and the river running. I did not see the Bridgestone squirrels in the video even though I dodged about 5 of them within the first three miles on that hwy.

 

Here are some of my favorite photos.




Cindy took this photo with my camera. It captures the excitement of the day.