Miata's Pacific Coast Highway Cruise

Event Status: Scheduled
 

 Scheduled for: 9/13/2008 through 9/20/2008
Sponsored by: Gray Sands
 

 

I don't know if you've ever dreamed about running up and down the Pacific Coast Highway, with coastal mountains rising on one side & the blue Pacific stretching out forever on the other. And, with the breathtaking panoramas that you can only imagine unless you are there, with your rag top down & the wind in your hair, taking it in & savoring every minute. But, if you want to make that dream a reality, NOW is your chance.

Gray & Candace Sands are inviting you to join them for a Music City Miata Club Pacific Coast Highway Run in September, just four short months away. They will be flying out to San Francisco, arriving on Southwest Airlines at 2:45 PM PDT on September 13th & taking advantage of a time share in the San Francisco area. I have located a couple of places to rent a 2008 Miata ($60 to $100 per day) in San Francisco, but neither business will commit till later on in the year, when they are sure on availability. Just to be safe, I have a Pontiac Solstice ($45 per day) reserved at both the Budget counter & the Avis counter at the Frisco Airport.

From there we will base and take three or four outbound trips to destinations up to 300 miles to points North, South and East. We should have some time Saturday afternoon & evening to do a little sightseeing in San Francisco.
Our first trip out (on Sunday) will be south out of Frisco along the coast thru Santa Cruz, Monterey, Carmel, Big Sur, San Simeon, Morro Bay into San Luis Obispo, where we will bunk for the evening. On the second day out, we'll head inland thru Bakersfield into the Sequoia National Forest and check out them big old Redwoods. We'll then turn northwest and head back into Frisco for the evening (on Monday).

The next trip out (on Tuesday) will be due east into Yosemite National Park. I've visited Yosemite on two occasions (separated by 30 years) and it's right up there in natural beauty & grandeur, with the Grand Canyon & Yellowstone. Following two to three hours in the Park, we'll begin our return trip to Frisco to end our day.

The next trip out will almost due north into the fabulous wine country of the NAPA Valley. We plan on touring & tasting wine at a couple of the famous vineyards, including Beringer, Sutter Home, Robert Mondavi & others. We might plan on "hooking up" with some members of the Bay Area Miata Club (BAMA) for dinner, upon returning to Frisco on Wednesday evening. OR, just collapse, from all the running.

Finally, for our fourth and final excursion, we will head due north, out across the Golden Gate Bridge, past Sausalito & Alcatraz, thru Bodega Bay, Point Arena, Mendocino, Eureka and finally into Crescent City for the evening (on Thursday). We'll head inland on Friday and hook up with I-5 for a return south thru the Sacramento Valley and back into Frisco on Friday evening. We'll be returning to Nashville on a Southwestern flight departing SFO at 11;55 AM on Saturday morning.

So there you have the plan and itinerary. We will be flexible. We may decide to switch outbound trips, abort segments or change destinations. But we are going and would like to have your company. Just let us know if you are interested in joining the Pacific Coast Highway Cruise in mid-September 2008. Feel free to respond to Gray Sands at graype@bellsouth.net or to (615) 794-0852