DML,
To all the CA meet people, Thanks for the great time! My wife and I
enjoyed meeting everyone and talking story, showing the daks and doing
donuts in the sand! Shaun, thanks for your hard work at organizing the
meet! The itenerary was just right! Sam and Sonya, thanks for spankin that
"tricked out" chevy 1500 for us (Joe T take note)! Mike B, thanks for
keeping us from getting about 5 tickets on the way up (never seen so may
CHIPS in my life on one stretch of hiway). Hope the pix turn out good, we
should have ours in a few days! We did a lot of tech talking waiting for
dinner, I only wish I had enough time to play with some of the ideas that
came up... maybe I will.... It was a great experience and you can learn a
lot from your fellow dak owner! I am looking forward to the next one!
Thanks again!
Bruce and Leonora Bridges
-----Original Message-----
From: Shaun.Hendricks@bergenbrunswig.com
[mailto:Shaun.Hendricks@bergenbrunswig.com]
Sent: Monday, January 18, 1999 8:28 AM
To: dakota-truck@buffnet.net
Subject: DML: California Meet: Success!!(long)
Hello everyone:
Just a (quick?) summary of the California Meet that took place last
Saturday. Altogether we had 16 people there, 8/9 Dakotas, 1 Durango, and 1
LHS... LHS???!!! Yup, Jon Hambleton gave his Dakota to his wife and kids
to
use in the Mountains. He (like the great DML'er he is) came anyway and he
wins the "Dedication" Award for the trip!
We all met at Hearst Castle. The group got a few stares with all these
Dakotas lined up in the parking lot. After meeting each other and
introducing
our Dakotas we did the tour of the Castle. First things: this guy had WAY
more money than I'd ever see in 100 lifetimes. After 2 enormous pools,
rooms
with 22k gold ceilings, and what looked like a guy who did all of his
shopping
at church "going out of business sales", we found ourselves amazed at the
estate. We then watched the movie on the making of the Castle on a 3 story
"IMAX" style screen.
For there we went down to a little Cafe in Cambria called "The Main
Street
Grille", and with food like fresh Calamari Sandwiches, Tri-Tip Sandwiches,
Roasted BBQ chicken, Foot Long Hot Dogs: we stuffed our faces and yakked Dak
talk.
It was then across the street to Moonstone Beach. Driftwood piled high
on
the rocky gravel beach, with blinding sunlight coming off the waves made for
an incredible sight. We monopolized the one end of the parking lot. Being
true DML'ers Tony modded Sam's Dak on the spot with a cool custom air
intake
setup that just bolted on in less than 15 minutes. Bruce showed us one of
the
Stage 1 prototype Throttle Bodies on his Dakota. It was very clean looking.
Down to SLO we went and stopped for gas in a Chevron station. It looked
like it had been invaded. There was no room for anything but DML'ers in the
place. After the pit stop, we trekked through Downtown Pismo Beach and to
Pismo State Park: Oceano Beach. There we lined up for a quick sunset pose
with our Daks and then ran down the beach. Flooring the pedal generated
nice
rooster tails of sand and of course: 'donuts' were the treat of the moment.
Those of us with LSD's and 4WD didn't have a problem, but we almost got one
of
the 4x2's stuck that didn't have an LSD, but in true form it made it through
with some minor assistance.
From there many DML'ers called it a night, but 11 of us went to
F.McLintocks steak house. It was an hour and a half wait but it was worth
it.
There was enough food to satisfy all. One of the best Steaks I've ever had
was on my plate (only for a few minutes ^_^) and we yakked until about 10
PM.
Everyone parted ways to whatever adventures awaited them on the drives
home. Personally, I had a blast and in looking back, I realize what a great
bunch of people are on this list. I'm sure you'll see many web pages and
pictures for everyone to ohh and ahh at, but that'll be a future time.
Happy Dak'ing!
Shaun H.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:12:05 EDT