2017 was our 13th SLO/Central Coast Roadster Run held annually with our roadster friends in the Bay Area Roadsters (BAR). As our established tradition, we meet over the Memorial Day weekend, within the beautiful coastal town of San Luis Obispo (SLO), for a long weekend doing all things roadster.  I think this was a record run for attendance by both clubs, with 38 CRs and 46 BARs for a total of about 46 roadsters and about 92 people, including eight guests..

We reserved all the rooms at the PeachTree Inn, our favorite motor court along Monterey Street, just south of Highway 1.  This is an older, single-story motel, where you can actually park just outside your room and do a little detailing and/or bench racing with your neighbors.  It is owned by our friends Sandy and Hitch Hitchcock, who welcome us back every year and let us have the run of their facility.

We began the long weekend with two groups of CRs departing the OC from North and South OC locations, with a faster than normal drive through LA County, and rendezvous for lunch at the Padaro Beach Grill.  This is one of our favorite spots on a bluff overlooking the Pacific, and has pretty good burgers.  Both groups arrived about 12:30 PM, and had a leisurely lunch before heading onto SLO.

After lunch, we gassed up and took off for the balance of the day's run up the coast, which is about 2.5 hour drive northerly along Highway 101.  Arriving at the Peach Tree Inn, seems like coming home, since we've been making this trip since the early 1990's.  The first order of business was checking in, but our President Tom Schauppner had already arranged with the manager for individual room assignments, with keys in the room. 

Welcome Thursday is always informal, getting to see old BAR friends again after a long winter of non-events.  The next thing was to assist Bajajon Kennedy in setting up the deck bar, because the BAR guys/gals were rolling in and needed a cool one.  Bajajon and Dick Roseberry took off in his Woodie to stock the bar, and were gone for a long time, making Tom Schauppner nervous, because patrons were lining up for a cocktail.  

Dinner was open the first night with only a few couples taking the trolley downtown for the Thursday night street fair and some local BBQ.  There are lots of choices, from street food to nice sit down restaurants.  Some of our favorites are BBQ, turkey legs and roasted corn on the cob. The majority of the crowd was enjoying our open bar, decided to stay behind and have a pizza party, and I think we ordered a record number of pies this years.

Friday morning was our first organized roadster run, to the Hitching Post, a wood pit BBQ joint, about fifty miles south in the abandoned town of Casmalia. This 100 year old former hotel is the first wood pit BBQ restaurant, which coined the famous Santa Maria style of BBQ, and is a Santa Barbara County Historical Landmark. Jim StMartin put together detailed packages with some history, and turn by turn instructions and maps, but following Jim after the drivers meeting, we managed to miss one turn and had to take a U-turn to get back on track.  President Tom Schauppner knows the owner Bill Ostini, who was willing to open for a patio BBQ buffet, when the restaurant normally doesn't open for lunchs.  His brother, Frank Ostini, is the owner of the more famous Hitching Post in Buellton, which was featured in the movie Sideways, with Frank in his familiar pit helmet at the BBQ pit. Bill likes to BBQ the sirloin cut, which is juicer than the standard Santa Maria, tri-tip brisket cut. After a great lunch, we were free to shop the local old downtowns, or visit a few wineries. Some of us stopped at Teloso Vineyards in Edna Valley, which has an excellent choice of more expensive whites and reds. Bajajon and Dick are wine club members, which saved the group $50 each for a tasting.

On Friday afternoon, our world famous deck party was hosted back at The Peachtree, followed by an excellent Mexican dinner, featuring chili relenos and enchildadas.

Saturday was second first organized roadster run, and we had prearranged wine tasting and a lunch at Carmody/McKnight Estate Wines, a quaint winery, in the southerly portion of Paso Robles. We were again led by Jim StMartin, who planned out a very nice country road tour, with a missed turn for interest, but his excellent maps/instructions got us back on course.  

This was originally a very large 320 acre holding, but Carmody sold off 160 acres to neighboring Justin Winery, for construction of their very fine facility.  The winery is owned by a couple, who have been making fine wines for over thirty years.  Gary Carmody, or Gary Conway, his stage name, is a former actor, who starred in Burke's Law and Land of the Giants and movies, and his wife Marian, is a former Miss America.  Gary is also an accomplished artist and paints all the labels for his wines and sells his art in the tasting room. 

Carmody /McKnight's premium wine is Cadenza, a meritage blend of  cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franz and sells for about $32 per bottle, which Gary discounted down to $27 for our visit.  This is the same blend as Justin's most famous wine known as Isosceles which commands a premium of about $100 per bottle.  

I've tasted both and they are very similar, which is not surprising since they are adjacent acreage, use the same grapes and Justin copied Carmody /McKnight's blend. We had a very weak  tasting session, followed by a nice sit down, catered lunch on a grassy area with umbrellas and shade trees. The afternoon was free to visit the other wineries in the area, and/or explore old downtown Paso.

Back at the Peachtree Inn, the deck bar opened at 4 PM, with Jon Kennedy and Dick Roseberry having restocked the bar from the previously night's party. Again, we had a nice catered dinner, with tonight's fare being a BBQ ribs and chicken, from Rib Line BBQ, which was also excellent. We also added a DJ playing some oldies but goodies, and a little dancing after dinner, which the ladies really enjoyed. We wrapped the evening by a toast to our newlyweds Greg and Helen Bryan.

Sunday morning came all too soon, with roadsters heading out north/south after breakfast,  until we all join up again at the LA Roadster Show on Father's Day. We have been meeting the BAR for the past thirteen years, as a thank you for sponsoring us at the annual Roadster Roundup. This is the first run of our roadster season, and is our club's favorite run of the year.