| Maybe they’ve had ‘em
bigger than ours…but no one has had more fun than the 29 drivers and 68 people
who turned out for the Southern California-Arizona Passat Meet/Drive in San Juan
Capistrano, California on August 14, 1999. Most
of the participants are avid readers of VWVortex.com, specifically the B5
Discussion Forum. After months of false starts and "we shouldas", Jimbo stepped
forward and grabbed the bull by the…uh, grabbed the Passat by the wheel and asked
people to choose a date in August for such our first-ever gathering. An e-mail mailing
list was constructed and each interested driver was asked to submit possible dates.
Finally, August 14 was selected as the best compromise date.
The meet was planned for San Juan Capistrano for two reasons:
it’s halfway between LA and San Diego, thereby minimizing the drive time for the
largest number of people; and because it was on Jimbo’s home turf, it was easier to
organize the venue, route, and meal plans.
We met at a public Park ‘N Ride lot off Interstate 5 and
got to know each other a lot better. Everyone checked out each other’s
mods,
and everyone learned something new from someone else. Bilstein shocks, ABT and Kamei
grilles, lots of clear corners, amps and subwoofers, and even some wives and
girlfriends who discovered (to their own amazement) that mods can be fun! VW Jarhead
distributed the cool name tags which he worked so hard to create, Miles and Gary from Capo
VW handed all of some great t-shirts, and Andreas from AMS gave everyone a very
generous gift certificate for upgrades from his store.
After our ninety minute social time, we formed a single file
line and poured out onto the Ortega Highway, State Route 74, heading east. As far as the
eye could see, nothing but Passats! How beautiful. Our procession was filmed a few miles
down the road by Gary, and Thanasi (1BadGreek) hopes to post this on the site at a later
date for viewing by all.
Near the 2700-foot summit of the road, we stopped a scenic
overlook (the only one large enough to accommodate us!) and took some group shots with the
mountains as our backdrop. Then on over the top and down to Lake Elsinore. Our originally
planned stop at The Lookout
Roadhouse had to be canceled because we’d far outgrown their parking lot!
After a pit stop at the Ortega Market at the lake, we
reversed gears and backtracked. We arrived back in San Juan Capistrano, thirsty, hungry,
but happy, and just in time for Mario’s Cucina to open privately for our party. As
usual, Mario outdid himself and cooked way too much food, though my initial fears
that crimnlst and his brother would be intimidated by the size of the portions proved to
be unfounded. ;)
After everyone had tried their best to conquer a Mario’s
meal, we headed back to the parking lot, for pictures, fellowship, test drives (especially
to check out Flash’s Eibach suspension upgrade), and just plain hangin’.
For most of us, this one was of the highlights of this
summer, and we all drove off eager for our group to meet again soon.
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