[JONAT-chat] Re: JONAT San Francisco Sector Report -- May 121th (very long).

[Jerry Mouton]

Wednesday, May 12th dawned in St. Helena, and we all
rose to face another adventure.  Today would be a long one,
over 260 miles through some slow, twisty roads.  We had breakfast
at a nice cafe, and strolled through the nearly deserted streets
of St. Helena, admiring the chi-chi shops and regular ones, the
fine restaurants and the others.  Then we filled up and
prepared to head off.  We were joined by Gil Lesage, who drives
an XK120 -- actually an art car based loosely on the 120.
Gil has modified it heavily, as you will see from the photos.
He has uprated the brakes, installed very wide wheels and tires,
and lumped in a Ford 289 V8.  Wild!

We headed North through Napa Valley through miles and miles
of vineyards and wineries.  Past Calistoga, the road becomes
deserted and curvy, through a beautiful pastoral landscape.

Here we encountered our first and only RV -- a deluxe
trailways size Winnie with blue pickup in tow.  This gave
us a great excuse to unleash our cats to blow past -- this
is always a treat -- ONCE PER TRIP!

I have to note how very useful the FRS radios were, allowing
us to converse about the scenery, to warn passing Jags about
upcoming cars, etc.  They worked great!

Approaching Geyserville on these great roads, we came upon
an attractive woman in a cute straw hat and a Jaguar Racing
Green XJ-S convertible -- with Euro headlights -- waiting
along the road.  This was Diane Andrews, meeting us right
on schedule.  She tacked on the end of the caravan and off
we went.

We crossed Hwy 101, on the Road to Booneville and Mendocino.
This continued to be a curvy.twisty narrow road through the
sunny countryside.  Then we encountered the LUMBER TRUCK!
This guy was returning to load up, and his massive trailer was
loaded ON TOP of the tractor -- must have been almost 20 feet
high, or seemed so to me.  Another RV story?  Au contraire!
Proving once again that road speed is much more a function of
the driver than the vehicle, this masterful guy led us a chase
for many miles over
a great road, going almost as fast as I could have pushed the
E Type.  He finally pulled over to let us go by, but we felt ourselves
in the presence of greatness!

We arrived in Booneville, but I sort of missed it -- it just
did not look the way I expected it to.  Even the "Horn of Zeese"
cafe didn't look the same - to me.  Rather than going back,
we went on to the Echo winery, courtesy of Henryk's familiarity
with the area.  Here, we took the opportunity to taste the local wines,
and Fazal bought a bottle or two for our later enjoyment.

After a rest, we pressed on toward Mendocino.  The road got twistier
and twistier, finally turned by us into a "Star Wars" thrill ride.  As the
redwoods got thicker and the road narrower and twistier, we alternated
between a trip through the Ewok village, and the race of Land
Speeders through the Tatooine forests -- no smashups, happily.

Reaching the coast, we found ourselves wrapped in he really
magical coastal feeling for which
Mendocino is so famous.  We had lunch upstairs in a cafe with a great
ocean view, relaxing and fun.  Afterward, everyone walked through
town ,and drove the few but scenic streets as others filled up for the
road.  Gil and Diane left us here -- we enjoyed their company.

The rest of the road to Eureka continued our Star Wars ride, for the
most part, twisty and shouldered with redwoods.  At Leggett, we
stopped to drive through the "Chandelier tree", a truly massive redwood
which had been tunneled through for the purpose.  The tree looked
healthier than any other I'd seen -- and more massive.  Going onward, the
Star Wars drive reached a climax with the 4 Jaguars playing tag
through the massive trees on the Avenue of the Giants.  As on most
of the trip, there was little or no traffic.  We were going so fast
(relatively --
probably 55 - 60 MPH) the trees were a blur.

At Eureka, Craig left us, pressing on toward Vancouver for a non-JONAT
'event.  We all enjoyed a dinner at the Samoa Grill.  No, this is not
a Polynesian Luau, but an actual chow barn for a former lumber
mill -- the Samoa Company.  Good Hearty chow, and we all
ate for less that any one of us had the night before.  Fazal
provided a nice red wine, and we finished off with a few
rousing stanzas of "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK..."

Next morning I visited Arcata, a few miles up the road -- and a
much nicer place for a handoff next JONAT.  After breakfast there,
we met Bill Smith for the handoff.  Poor Fazal had to continue in the
covered back of a big pickup truck -- most of the Oregon drivers were
joining later up the road.  Jay Jaguar continued to look dazed -- If
only that little cat could talk, eh?

Jerry

Jerry Mouton    '64 E Type FHC    "Laissez les bons temps rouler!"
      Jaguar Owner's North American Tour - http://jonat.org
      April 15, 2004 - July 4, 2004