[Shotimes] California Convention (2004) Itinerary Proposals ... Long.....Part 1

[George Fourchy]

Ladieeeeeeeees and Gentlemeeeennnnnnnn.....!

...Before you say anything....it's NEVER too early to plan......;-)

(And...I don't want to take anything away from the officials in charge of the
upcoming Madison 'Cheesy' Convention.  It's just that I've had this on my mind for a
while now, and in getting ready for Madison, I'm thinking farther ahead for our
convention next summer.  Since it is so very far for a lot of you to come, I want to
make sure you all can expect to have a great time here with your cars and your
families, so that you will in fact make the trip.  For many it will be your first
trip to California, and I want it to be a rewarding one, with long lasting happy
memories.  So read through the data, and let me know your ideas and suggestions. 
Check a map to see where things are relative to each other, and if someone sees
something I should alter, by all means let me know.    Thanks!!)

Planning has begun on the itinerary for the 2004 California SHO Convention.  Those
of us who live here can hardly wait for the rest of you to join us next summer for
our convention.  We want to plan the maximum amount of enjoyable and interesting
things for you to do, so that you will remember fondly your visit, and when the next
one hopefully comes along in a few years, you'll want to come back.  I know the
weather will do its share to make you feel welcome....we pay sufficient taxes to
insure that fact!....but for full enjoyment of a vacation, the entertainment needs
to match the
environment. 

So anyway, here's what we have tentatively planned so far.  First, I'll lay out the
SHO functions that will occur each day, then after that I'll give you the options we
have been considering, and the time required for each one.  Where we have already
tried placing a tour or other non-SHO event on a daily schedule, it has been put
there due to local considerations, usually rush hour traffic or other occurance that
we cannot avoid.  We can consider moving the afternoon events to other days, but
sometimes one particular day is better for a given event.

As of now, the hotel we will be staying at is the Holiday Inn in Vallejo, which is
about 35 miles east of San Francisco.

Gasoline here is more expensive than anywhere else in the country.  In Vallejo,
there is a Safeway store on I-80 with a gas station that sells good gas for about 25
cents a gallon less than everywhere else around.  The Fairfield Costco, just west of
Fairfield, and about 10 miles east of Vallejo, sells it for about the same price, if
you are a member.  Vallejo should have a Costco, too.  If you want the cheapest
Chevron, Shell, or Unocal, they are in Cordelia, right across I-80 from Costco (on
the south side).  If you get it in any of the cities in the area, you'll pay about
15 cents a gallon more than at Cordelia.   As of the first of June, gas at Costco is
1.68 for regular, and about 1.78 for premium.  Chevron at Cordelia is about 1.85 for
87, 1.95 for 89, and 2.05 for 91.  Hopefully we won't have any more wars between now
and next summer.
 
Sunday.....Check in early if desired, and tour or visit afterwards.  If you are
arriving via Interstate 80 in the afternoon, you will be swamped in traffic
returning to the Bay Area from Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada mountains.  I-80 is
either 3 or 4 lanes from Sacramento to San Francisco, and from about 3 pm to 8 pm on
Sundays, the road will be crammed full of traffic, moving as slow as 10 or 15 mph. 
If you are arriving on Sunday, plan to be in Vallejo before 3 pm, or delay your
arrival until after dark.  There are no easy shortcuts/bypasses from Vacaville to
Vallejo, so the best thing is to time your arrival to miss those hours on Sunday.

Monday.....Scheduled check in all day.  At your check in, you will be given a
program  for the convention, including a detailed map (which I haven't seen yet, but
will verify is correct by then) showing where you are, and where you can go within a
certain amount of time.  We are planning group trips to and through San Francisco,
and to the Napa Valley wine country, with a tour of a winery, so you might want to
wait until these time frames arrive before taking these trips.  There is also Six
Flags Marine World right across the street from the hotel....I mean RIGHT across the
street....so you could spend the rest of the afternoon there, if there are kids in
your party (of any age!).

Tuesday....Concours de Elegance/CarSHO....display and inspection of SHOs, with
awards presented for appropriate finishers.  This event usually takes most of the
morning, and might be followed by a demonstration or two of one or another
mechanical procedure or technique.  There will also be the standard tech session
with (perhaps) Vadim from the SHOSHOP after the SHOw.  For demonstrations, I could
be persuaded to again demonstrate the balancing on the car of a front wheel, or
perhaps the 15 minute front strut removal and replacement that we are known for out
here in rust-free California.  I also might be convinced to crank my car across the
parking lot using the alternator nut and a ratchet as motive power.....one never
knows.  There would be a significant fee charged to witness this last event....I
need to pay for the blood pressure medicine I had to take when I was told it was
impossible.  (J/K)

After the morning events on Tuesday, there are about 8 hours of sunshine left, from
about 12:30 or so til 8:30 in the evening.  Rush hour occurs from about 3:30 to 6 pm
or so, but if we did things correctly, we could tour San Francisco with relative
ease.  I could lead a caravan, or several groups of cars could leave at various
times on their own.  We'd cross the Bay Bridge, go see the South Embarcadero, where
they filmed Nash Bridges, then go to Market Street, the main drag, then Columbus
Ave, where the financial district is, then the North Embarcadero, to Lombard Street
and the steep crooked street, then North Beach and the topless joints, to Golden
Gate Park and the Great Highway with the ocean, then back to Lombard for the trip
across the Gate.  It would be a good idea to try to converge on Fisherman's Wharf
about dinner time, to have a really good fish dinner, and then tour the immediate
local area on foot for a while.  There is USUALLY sufficient parking available there
for quite a few cars...hopefully there will not be a SF convention of businesses or
something like that to help fill up the parking.  It would be a good idea to fill
cars, rather than take an extra large bunch of them with just one or two people, to
conserve highway and parking space.  We also have carpool lanes on I-80 that require
3 people per car....that extra body can come in handy.  Also, you can cross the Bay
Bridge free if you have 3 folks or more in a car, otherwise it's 2 bucks.  We'll
cross the Golden Gate bridge (free direction...5 bucks the other way) at about
sundown, and park for a minute at the north end viewing point, where you can look
back and see all of SFO and the bay.  It's pretty nice in the sunset, or just after.
 Then there is another bridge we cross, the Richmond/San Rafael Bridge, to go back
to Richmond and I-80, to go back to the hotel.    Whew!!!  

End of first section.  See part 2 for the rest.

George