Roadster Roundup 2006     September 15-18, 2006      by Mark Byer

            The 41st Roadster Roundup held September 15-18 in South Lake Tahoe is one for the books, and was the fifth RR that the California Roadsters have had the pleasure of being invited to attend.  This RR is the most memorable for several reasons, including: it was the furthest distance, which cut down on attendance; the most spectacular due to scenery; the most severe weather, with strong wind gusts, rain and even snow flurries on Friday night.    

            Dick/Barb Roseberry suggested that we break up the long drive and invited the club to cruise up Hwy. 395 to Bridgeport for a fish fry at their motor home parked on a trout stream in Robinson Creek.  Meeting the Roseberry's for the early morning run were: Jerry/Judy Kugel, Don/Patty Prieto, and yours truly. 

            We met up with Duane McKinney for breakfast in Adelanto, and pulled into Bridgeport some 400 miles later after a very scenic drive up Hwy. 395.  Unfortunately, Bridgeport was blown out and our fish fry turned into a cocktail party with peanuts for the lunch we missed.  Dinner was moved to a cowboy bar down the hill in Bridgeport, with Dick extolling the virtues of their screw capped wine.   

            The next morning we set out for a three hour run to South Lake Tahoe via the Monitor Pass (9,200 Feet).  A half hour out of Bridgeport, Dick decided to scramble his distributor due to his lack of regular service, which took a little roadside attention from our traveling band of backyard mechanics lead by lead wrench Jerry Kugel, who can bend and a tape a distributor back together along with the best of them.  

            Back on the road, we enjoyed some spectacular scenery, stopping for a break in Markleyville, a nice little country burb with a general store and a warm pub shared with some new Harley friends, who were also freezing to death and tried to swap a few bikes for a couple of our roadsters.   

            Bay Area Roadsters (BAR) did an excellent job of job of putting together the run, with a good choice of accommodations, including a nice warm and secure underground garage for our roadsters.  Max/Sue Jamiesson arrived a day ahead of us, spending Wednesday night in Jackson, and then motoring into South Lake Tahoe with a group of forty roadsters, including members from BAR and SLO. The Friday welcome BBQ on the lakeshore luckily was within a heated tent, because the weather was turning nasty with snow flurries and the threat of rain.   

            The next morning we took off on our cruise around the lake with more spectacular scenery ahead of us and a nice lunch, albeit cold once served, at GarWoods.  This was next to a classic wooden boat show, with a small car show along the lakefront, which was overshadowed by a traveling roadster show.  

            The rest of the afternoon was open for a cruise around the balance of the lake, with time for a little gambling next door at Harrah's, a cocktail hour back at our hotel, and the dinner banquet hosted by BAR at Harrah's, which included assigned seating, giving us the opportunity to meet members of the other clubs on a one on one basis.   

            Sunday morning came all too soon, and the thought of an all day run of about 500 miles was not being looked forward too, but turned out to be not a bad thing.  I cruised down Hwy 50 with Jerry/Judy Kugel and Duane McKinney and chose I-5 as the fastest, albeit most boring route home.  The weather went from freezing in the morning to very hot down the valley.  As always, we were welcomed home with bumper to bumper traffic when we hit LA . No, Randy we don't love LA, especially the traffic.   

            Well, it's Valley Roadsters turn next year to put on the RR, which will be in the Central Valley somewhere, which we are already looking forward to cranking up the roadsters and heading northward, with hopefully better attendance than this year.