Honestly, it was only meant to be a pre-run with several couples attending. Somehow things got out of hand once it was posted on the Corvettes of Bakersfield private Facebook page, “My Corvette”. Instead of just 2 or 3 Corvettes attending, we had 14 Corvettes and a truck heading towards Creston, 10 miles east of Atascadero in San Luis Obispo County. We took the long, winding Hiway 58 from Mckittrick, Ca. through the scenic hills and switchbacks to Hiway 229 just south of Hiway 41. Creston, with the population of 94, was the home of the Cardiff Stud Farm owned by the TV personality, Alex Trebeck.
The small Central Coast community of Creston was founded in March 1884 by 4 pioneers. It was named after one of the pioneers named C. J. Cressy. The town was once home to three saloons, two restaurants, a couple of delivery stables, two laundries, a pair of blacksmith shops, a hotel, bakery, post office, church, school and jail.
Once we arrived in Creston, we stopped at the restaurant named the Loading Chute.The restaurant was originally built and opened in the late 1800s where it served as a general store and offered everything from groceries, clothing and hardware to horse and farm equipment. In the 1950s, the Loading Chute was deserted and became “tumbled down and ramble shack “ according to local lore. In 1973, lifelong Creston native, Herman Heilman, bought the Loading Chute and opened a saloon, cafe and grocery store. The Loading Chute changed hands over the years several times and burned to the ground in 1992. It was completely renovated and reopened in December 1999.
It was a warm day when we arrive at The Loading Chute and we walked into the very cool restaurant. Unfortunately, we were sitting out in the rather warm patio. The service was quick and friendly by our three waitresses and the food was excellent. We had a great time with our 50-50 raffle (congratulations Bill Frye who was the winner) and sold 4 of our Corvettes of Bakersfield cookbooks to the local patrons.
Everyone looked splendid in their red club shirts, the official club color. Afterwards, 13 ‘Vetters’ drove to Cayucos and enjoyed the very cold weather by having an ice cream party outside the Cayucos Candy Counter and Ice Cream Shop. Passerby can be overheard calling us the Red Shirt Club. After strolling around and walking up and down the pier, we decided it was time to come back home. The road back home was taken by small groups going in different directions. Rolling home, our group of 5 cars determined that it was a very enjoyable run that wasn’t supposed to be; but it was.
For pictures of this run, click on this link to our Flickr page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/158760832@N02/albums/72157709523977562
