Merced--Nicer than we thought!

 OK, when I first heard that this year's West Coast Citroen Rendezvous would be in Merced, I was not amused. Bit far from SoCal, meant driving over the Grapevine (not an Auld Crate friendly road) and up 99 which is only slightly less boring than I-5. Sigh.

Hunter's Moon over Gorman

Be careful! This jumped on our car as we went through Bakersfield. It's the last remaing GOP spine. 

Lovely room! 

 

Turns out, that yeah, the drive up was long and straight, but Merced seems to be a neat town. We were all booked into the El Capitan Hotel, an historic old place and it was wonderful. It's been totally upgraded to modern standards, but in a quite tasteful manner. The room was comfy and the bar was decent. Food in the area was really good (oooh, spiced pork rinds with sliced chilis and blue cheese!) at the Mainzar Theatre/Restaurant on Friday evening...it turns out it was the same place our banquet was--also good for banquet food. 

The drive the next day was terriffic. Never a bad drive that takes one through rolling foothills dotted with oak trees. This wound along to the little town of Hornitos (a cool little town--Joaquin Murrieta either a horse theif of the Robin Hood of Old California escaped from the jail there), thence to Henderson Park on the banks of the Merced River. Great shady place for us to eat the Claro's sandwiches we brought just for the occasion. 

The usual suspects

The banquet was enlivened by a talk by a guy who's spent most of his life climbing the rock formations in Yosemite (as well as others). Interesting stuff, but I had to wonder if he realized he was speaking to a crowd that earlier that day were totally winded and not happy that the elevator to the top of the parking garage were we'd stashed our cars for the night was NOT OPERATING! Gettin' too damn old for 3 floors of stairs. 

The drive home was, well, 99. We'd decided, however, that we'd NOT climb back up the Grapevine, and instead headed east on CA58 through Tehachapi and over to Willow Springs to take in some CalClub racing. It's been a LONG time since we worked the races (35 years? WOW) and remembered why we don't anymore. The food at the track is REALLY good and here's hoping that the new owners (yes, the family has sold the place off--😪) keep it as it is and not "develop" it like Riverside, OMS, and now Fontucky. 

oops! Seems that trying to hold your place out of T3 when the other guy has clearly taken you under braking is NOT a good idea! Driver was OK, it was a really slow roll. 

Yeah, the race was red flagged for this. Emergency did a great job (as usual) clearing the mess.

From there it was an easy drive back home. So, a good long weekend all around. 

Here's the directions for the Drive we took from Merced, just incase you're so inclined. 

El Capitan Hotel

609 W Main St, Merced, CA 95340

Head northeast on M St/Veterans Blvd toward Arbor Ln    0.3 mi

Turn right onto W 21st St        1.8 mi

Turn left onto CA-140 E/Yosemite Pkwy

     Continue to follow CA-140 E    20.9 mi

Turn left onto Indian Gulch Rd    4.5 mi

Turn left to stay on Indian Gulch Rd    0.5 mi

Turn right to stay on Indian Gulch Rd    3.9 mi

Turn left onto Hornitos Rd    1.4 mi

56 min (33.3 mi)

Hornitos, California

Head northwest on Hornitos Rd toward Bear Valley Rd    7.2 mi

Turn left onto Lake McClure Rd    180 ft

Continue onto Hornitos Rd    0.4 mi

Turn left onto Merced Falls Rd    5.2 mi

Turn left

Destination will be on the right    167 ft

17 min (12.9 mi)

Henderson Park

2641 Merced Falls Rd, Snelling, CA 95369

Turn left onto Merced Falls Rd    1.1 mi

Continue onto State Hwy 59 S    1.0 mi

Turn left onto Snelling Rd    9.4 mi

Continue onto G St    4.2 mi

Turn right onto W Yosemite Ave    0.5 mi

Use the left 2 lanes to turn left onto M St/Veterans Blvd

 Destination will be on the right    2.1 mi

28 min (18.6 mi)

El Capitan Hotel

609 W Main St, Merced, CA 95340

Here's looking at us!