Feb 28th Meet and Drive, Santa Barbara, Solvang and Lompoc
We had a blast meeting new and familiar faces. It was great to meet the newer members: namely Durkatlon (Durk and Marcelle), Todd157K (Todd and Grace), SantaMonicaSLK32 (Bill); and familiar faces: Bleen (Pablo), Cyberdrakon (Ed and Kandy), and V6SLK (Bob and Lee Ann).
My hats off to Durk and Marcelle for waking up before 6am and meeting us at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Fountain Valley. They drove all the way from San Diego (Santee).
Tslick, you have competition. Bill's SLK32 sounded really good.
We missed a lot of the familiar faces: V8SLK, Tslick, slkluv, Davids88keys, h8crooks, zcloud, tpman, LynxFX and some we haven't met yet like Sid, netmiami, and many others that my Old-Timer's brain cannot recall.
Please decide on March 13th (or another date if so desired) - perhaps a seaside park 11 am barbecue at Dana Point Harbor near where the ship Pilgrim is located. There's parking and BBQ stands, and it's also near the famous Rainbow Sandals factory store (Hint: Kandy ) Someone please decide on a route to drive after lunch.
No. 5 showed up (not in photo) but someone was telling him where to park and we were ready to roll. Bleen was the pathfinder to the first photo stop and onwards to Santa Barbara.
Just got home from the drive. What a blast!!! And so great to meet everyone in person.
The drive was awesome, good weather (finally!), great roads (with a few 100 mph bursts), great scenery, great stops, great group of people and GREAT CARS! Oh yeah, and great sounds. The top down drive up San Marcos Pass road, when we hit the passing lanes, sounded like a formula one race with 5 SLKs in WOT! Obviously, I love the 55 and 32 AMGs, but I award the best sounding exhaust note to the SLK 350's. They really had a sweet, racing sound under full throttle.
I only took pics (posted below) at two points: way point A and the beach stop. I think the copilots were getting some great action photos and vids and there were a lot of group pics taken, so some of later posts should have lots more to look at.
Photos from the seaside stop. As we left heading north, there were a lot of debris washed up on the roads from the Pacific Ocean (Chile earthquake tidal surge effect?)
Photo of the place we went to in Solvang. Two people in the group said we want to order "that".
An image of "that" before the raspeberry jam and powdered sugar and vanilla ice cream (piccie from the internet). I was too busy eating.
It was a "kick in the pants" day today (as someone in this forum likes to say). The SLK55 managed 23.1mpg with some episodes of speed surge (kick-down not needed, ergo, SantamonicaSLK32 wasn't impressed in terms of sound ). Overall a 402-mile round trip. It was GREAT to meet everyone. Too bad there wasn't enough time to inspect each other's ride in detail. I still need to see the engine on Bill's SLK32 and evaluate the airducts that go to the air filter box.
Saw law enforcement vehicles at least 4 times at different places and once when I was just starting a speed surge that was cut short really quick. Lucky he was busy nabbing somebody else. PHEW!!!
My "Escort Radar" prevented many attempts to do speed surges. She instantly knows as I am still thinking about what to do with the accelerator pedal. She is a keeper. She keeps me safe
Special mention to V6SLK for leading the group from Cold Spring Tavern to Solvang to Lompoc via a "ribbon" road.
Glad you guys had a good time. The weather looked great for the ride. Wish I could have gone up, at least to provide some black & white protection for those speed surges.
Glad you guys had a good time. The weather looked great for the ride. Wish I could have gone up, at least to provide some black & white protection for those speed surges.
Could have used another E3C (dmjonez would know). Todd157K had one but would be nice to have one at each end of the caravan.
The Dec. 5th, 2009 Santa Monica run should be revisited sometime in the future.
Etyu/Eddy: Great set of photos and a very thorough narrative on how the day went for us! I still have a big smile (and a slightly sunburned forehead) from this trip.
Etyu/Eddy: Great set of photos and a very thorough narrative on how the day went for us! I still have a big smile (and a slightly sunburned forehead) from this trip.
slkluv learned quickly on our first meet-and-drive. Now he has a hat, light-weight long-sleeve windbreaker, and IIRC, sunblock always handy in the vehicle.
We just got back just 30 minutes ago or so. We had a fantastic time today!! Cool rides and amazing weather. I can't believe you guys already posted pictures up. I got mine off the camera but I'll have to go over them first to get to the good ones so hopefully I'll post mine up tomorrow.
On a sad note, I mentioned to a few of you that Marcelle and I got detoured this morning by an unexpected freeway closure on SR-52 Westbound. It turns out this was because of a Sherrif's deputy just having gotten killed while pursuing a wrong-way drunk driver. Here's a link:
We just got back just 30 minutes ago or so. We had a fantastic time today!! Cool rides and amazing weather. I can't believe you guys already posted pictures up. I got mine off the camera but I'll have to go over them first to get to the good ones so hopefully I'll post mine up tomorrow.
On a sad note, I mentioned to a few of you that Marcelle and I got detoured this morning by an unexpected freeway closure on SR-52 Westbound. It turns out this was because of a Sherrif's deputy just having gotten killed while pursuing a wrong-way drunk driver. Here's a link:
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2005 Iridium Silver SLK 350
Mods: Comand 2.5 retrofit, SmartTop, Schatz hood fins, clear marker lens, chrome turn signal bulbs (front and back), OEM plexiglass wind blocker, shorty antenna, aluminum door pins, John's 3rd brake light flasher, center console storage tray, cargo net, license plate frame, LOVE To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 5 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
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We had a really fun time too. Great to meet everyone. I think I have "tennis elbow" now trying to shift and keep up w/ you guys!
I'm thinking that spare LS1 sitting in the corner of my garage should would work out real nice
Here's a few of our pics. Sorry but I can't get to a hosting site here at work. Attachments will have to do.
Lee Anne and I had a great time meeting up with you all at Cold Springs then riding the "Ribbon" on the way to Solvang. Hopefully next time we can take you on the Sideways wine tour run and thru Foxen Canyon...(just a sip will do though)... There are some nice twisties and sweepers you will love. That can be on the way to Monterey for a weekend perhaps this summer. We can take Hwy 1. It's a fantastic ride. I heard someone mention they wanted to experience the 17 mile drive thru Pebble Beach. It's very beautiful as well. I would like to try and make the March 13 drive if possible. I have vacation hours I HAVE to burn this year or I will lose them if you can believe that. The date will have to be nailed down at least a week before though so we can schedule the time off. We have been desiring to drive to San Diego sometime this spring or summer as well so this could work out. If not maybe later in the spring or early summer we can arrange another run down to San Diego..what say ye?
So that's what blue sky looks like. Thanks for sharing. Looks like you had a great time, and makes me wish I lived a little further south this time of year.
Thanks for the pictures guys, looks like you all had a blast
It really was fun. If you look in the first pic I posted, you'll see the mist in the air which was caused by the hard surf pounding the rocks. It was the "tsunami" aftermath of the Chile earthquake. There was quite a bit of debris all over the road.
Picture was taken a couple blocks from Emma Wood Campground.
2008 Mercedes Benz SLK 55 AMG (R171.473)
Feb 28th Meet and Drive, Santa Barbara, Solvang and Lompoc
) Someone please decide on a route to drive after lunch.
to the first photo stop and onwards to Santa Barbara.
2002 Mercedes Benz SLK 32 AMG
Mustang Convertible
). Overall a 402-mile round trip. It was GREAT to meet everyone. Too bad there wasn't enough time to inspect each other's ride in detail. I still need to see the engine on Bill's SLK32 and evaluate the airducts that go to the air filter box.
2006 Mercedes Benz SLK350
Family coach
SLK55
. There are some nice twisties and sweepers you will love. That can be on the way to Monterey for a weekend perhaps this summer. We can take Hwy 1. It's a fantastic ride. I heard someone mention they wanted to experience the 17 mile drive thru Pebble Beach. It's very beautiful as well. I would like to try and make the March 13 drive if possible. I have vacation hours I HAVE to burn this year or I will lose them if you can believe that. The date will have to be nailed down at least a week before though so we can schedule the time off. We have been desiring to drive to San Diego sometime this spring or summer as well so this could work out. If not maybe later in the spring or early summer we can arrange another run down to San Diego..what say ye?
