Oct 13, 2019 | Event Chronicles
John and Cher did it again! They organized a simple run that turned out to be a great event.
We started off on a very chilly morning at 7:30 and we’re on the road by 8 AM with 14 Corvettes and 2 “tin” cars. We hit all the quiet, farm back roads on the way up to Blackwell’s corner on Highway 33 and 46. These are not very heavily traveled roads, but they were awfully dusty as harvesting was going on in the orchards along the way. After our dusty and curvey drive, we reached Blackwells corners and enjoyed the quirky memorabilia and treats they had to offer. The store is almost a destination in itself as it the last place that the famous actor, James Dean, was seen alive before his crash in Cholame, California. Inside that huge store are bunch of snacks, homemade chocolate candy and sandwiches to enjoy on the long drives. Inside, also, is a tribute to the dustbowl travelers known as Okies that migrated to California as well as James Dean memorabilia.
As we left Blackwell’s Corner, we,headed down the back roads towards Coalinga, California. Coalinga was originally a Coaling station for the Southern Pacific Railroad Company named Coaling Station A where steam locomotives would stop to load up on coal mined from the foothills up north. While in Coalinga we had our Corvette’s pictures taken in a vintage Richfield service station at the R. C. Baker Automotive Museum. Inside the museum we saw many artifacts, tools and even fossils of life in Coalinga and surrounding areas. What is really neat is that many of the antiques were donated by residents of Coalinga.
After leaving Coalinga, we headed for Harris Ranch, famous for its legendary beef and hospitality. The restaurant offers casual and fine dining and sells fruits, nuts and bakery goods from the Harris Ranch Farms. We had a great time amongst our Corvette family to go with our delicious meal. Congratulations to Matt Collins who won our 50-50 cash raffle. As we broke up to head for home, a few of us made a trip to Tachi Palace Casino in Lemoore, California. Others decided to go to Hanford for some ice cream at Superior Creamery. We had a very eventful and enjoyable day.
For more pictures and video go to our Flickr page:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/158760832@N02/albums/72157711324576436
Sep 30, 2019 | Event Chronicles
Many thanks to Tony Ennis and Chevy Garza for putting together the 2019 Corvettes of Bakersfield Wine Run To Paso Robles this past weekend. As usual, we had a great time with 9 Corvettes caravanning in addition to 6 “tin” cars, quite a bit less than the normally 20-30 Vettes that attend. The three wineries we visited this year were Jada Vineyards and Winery, Brecon Estates Winery and the Derby Estates Winery.
Jada is an old favorite with the Corvette club with their beautiful scenery and an upstairs patio overlooking the vineyards (and our Vettes). The daytime weather was still cool in the 60’s and the wine flowed freely as we went from one sample to the other.
Our next stop is Brecon Estate Winery with a beautifully landscaped tasting area and a large patio. We enjoyed their wine and then later had our lunch break at the picnic tables down a grassy walkway. It was a very wonderful and relaxing atmosphere and the weather had warmed up to the gorgeous 70’s.
Our last stop for wine tasting was the Derby Estates winery. The building was originally built in 1922 as a warehouse and processing plant for the Paso Robles Almond Growers Association. The building went up for sale in 1936 and was owned by several businesses and associations where it became, eventually, in disrepair. It was in purchased by Ray and Pam Derby in October 2010 and completely renovated. Ray and Pam were retirees in Paso Robles who let their hobby of growing grapes and making wine become an obsession. A special thanks goes to Danny, our bartender, who gave us many an illustrious story of the making of the wines and of the landmark building. While most of our crowd drove off to check in to our motel to get ready for our barbecue, Danny enticed a few of us stragglers to tour the building and view the winemaking process. Danny was very hospitable and engaging and very proud of his work at the Derby Estates winery.
As we arrived to the Best Way Inn to check into the motel, our barbecue caterer, Big Ed’s Bar B Que and Catering from Bakersfield, was already preparing our delicious meal of ribs, tri-tip, chicken, rice and salad. As the evening wore on, we struggled through our raffle in the now windy cold, chilly air. We appeared to look like the homeless, bundled up under blankets, trying to get through the evening. Generally we stay up till very late at night but as soon as the raffle was over, we all turned in early to our warm beds.
Thanks to Gregg Brott for this awesome video of our Corvettes of Bakersfield Wine Run. Click on picture/link to watch video: http://web.photodex.com/view/2ppw47x4/?watch-2ppw47x4
For hundred of more pictures, Click on our Flickr Page link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/158760832@N02/albums/72157711156455766
Sep 22, 2019 | Event Chronicles
This event was a first for COB. Our president, Larry Young, graciously offered his shop to the membership to bring their Corvettes over to do some minor repairs. First he moved out his wonderful collection of Sunbeam Tigers and his partner’s Triumph TR7. That freed up three bays for the participants to work on their cars. One bay had a car lift which allowed us to get underneath and examine what was really under there. One by one we lifted up the car‘s to do some minor repairs or just to look and see what needed to be done. For instance, my car needed to have the front splitter repositioned after a minor bump pulled the bumper skin tabs out of its slots. Virgil made a very detailed examination of what gaskets needed to be replaced on his ‘54 C1. Note the excellent job of using speaker wire to secure his tail pipe. Don did extremely good job of polishing his car and wheels and Terri discovered the source of an assortment of noises underneath her beautiful ‘65 C2. She also got her engine timing adjusted. Annie had her interior trim worked on and Mark had his engine scanned for error codes. Chris Espitia did an excellent job of buffing Annie’s car and used his mighty muscles to take the lugnuts off of Terri’s Vette. We all hung around and looked at each other‘s vehicles and gave our expert opinions. We also enjoyed some coffee and donuts (thanks Larry) and some fruit salad supplied by Annie. There may even have been a can of beer here and there. Many thanks to master mechanic David Kielty for helping all of us and doing a majority of the work involved. Again, thanks to Larry for offering the use of his shop. It was a fun and fruitful event and we look forward to doing it again.
Click on this Flickr link for many more photos: https://www.flickr.com/…/158760832…/albums/72157711007707973
Sep 10, 2019 | Event Chronicles
Congratulations to our raffle winners at tonight‘s Corvettes of Bakersfield members meeting. They are Tony Ennis, Skip Schipper, Myna Stewart, Michael Rouw and Kathy Telese. Raffle prizes included two very good sized pumpkins as well as movie tickets, wine and a gift certificate to the Guild House. A couple of videos were shown of our most recent events edited by Danny Ellison and Gregg Brott. Good work guys! Thank you to all who attended our meeting. As always, it was very fun and productive.
For more pictures, Click on the link to our Flickr page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/158760832@N02/albums/72157710792527238
Sep 5, 2019 | Event Chronicles
We are a hardy bunch! We had COB members with nine Corvettes braving the 103° heat tonight as we tried to scramble to find shade in Chuy’s parking lot for the weekly Chuy’s Cruise-in. In spite of the hot weather, we got to enjoy our root beer floats handily served by our beautiful Corvettes of Bakersfield ladies. These hard-working girls served up some mean root beer floats and made the gathering all the more bearable. Lots of Corvette talk of the new C8 that was revealed in Tulare the day before and lots of camaraderie as friends and families got together and had a great time.
Thanks to Lugnut Larry for his hard work in putting on this event every week as well as the Fire House event on Friday nights.
Click on Flickr link for more photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/158760832@N02/albums/72157710790100422
Sep 4, 2019 | Event Chronicles
We had a nice run up to Tulare less than an hour north of Bakersfield this past Wednesday to view the brand new 2020 C8 Corvette. Nine intrepid travelers plus a guest drove north on the 99 to Merle Stone Chevrolet and were met up by several other members of our club (16 Corvettes in all) that showed up later. The object of our trip was to see the local unveiling of the new mid engine C8 Corvette and boy were we impressed. Many minds were changed and who knows how many members took the plunge to get on the ordering list for the new mid engine Corvette. At least three members have committed to get on the waiting list and put in an order.
Many thanks to the managers and sales people at Merle Stone Chevrolet for hosting this event. We had a great time taking turns getting into the driver’s and passenger’s seat of the gorgeous Elkhart Lake Blue Corvette and asking a multitude of questions about its capabilities.
Food was provided by Mariscos Colima of Fresno, Hanford and Oakhurst. The tacos were delicious and were provided the whole day for all customers coming to the dealership in conjunction to its grand opening.
Click on link to our Flickr page for more pictures: https://www.flickr.com/photos/158760832@N02/albums/72157710789465271
