Arctic Apex Country Road Tour this Sunday, Nov 19th

[tmhazen]

Back by popular demand, and because my turbo LOVES the cold weather:

You are cordially invited to join us for the

Arctic Apex Country Road Tour

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Meet at 8:00am at the Machine Shed, 8511 Hudson Blvd in Lake Elmo, MN.
Take I 94 East past St. Paul. The first exit to the east after the 94/494/694 interchange is Inwood Ave/Radio Drive. After exiting, turn left onto Inwood Ave/Radio Drive. Then take a right at the light onto Hudson Blvd. The Machine Shed parking entrance will be your first right.

The tour will LEAVE the Machine Shed at 8:10am on Sunday.


http://thumb19.webshots.net/t/50/50/8/25/33/2447825330098025379wZSnUi_th.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/album/555515086jiMQYV)

Yes, the Murcielago is scheduled to appear again. As for the girl…well…

Drivers of cars like these (click for more photos from this past Sunday) are determined to get in at least one more brisk country road tour BEFORE the snow flies. Mark your calendars for this Sunday boys and girls. We’ve found some GREAT roads around Stillwater, Osceola, and St. Croix Falls. The weather forecast looks lovely. Let's cheat winter for another weekend!

Please note that this is just an informal gathering among friends, not an official outing of any club. Everyone is required to drive responsibly. No one will be pushed to go fast. We always drive SLOWLY by pedestrians, houses, and farmers. At intersections each driver will wait for the car behind so no one gets lost. Bring FRS/GMRS radios if you have them. We will have some to loan out also.

Everyone please have a full tank of gas, an empty bladder, and be ready to leave the Machine Shed by 8:10am on Sunday.

If 8am is too early for you, drive up to Taylor’s Falls around noon. We’ll be stopping there for lunch (exact restaurant TBD) before carving a few more corners.

Feel free to forward this info to any talented drivers you know, and respond if you plan on joining us.

Call me (612-237-1883) with any questions.

See you in the twisties this Sunday!

[weidnerpaul]

Repeat after me:
Hi, my name is Tom and I have a driving problem..."
:lol:
Three w/e in a row?
Don't you have a Roller Girls match to go to or something?
:p

[AlexL]

Maybe I'll take the 626 out. Twisty roads, 180,000 mile shocks, and 10-year-old tires sounds like a good combination to me.

[FOCUS_ST]

Tom do you have a map of the roads you are running on. I may be able to suggest some other great roads if you haven't found them already. Unfortunatly I can not go this sunday have some hunting to do. But maybe I'll get lucky and get one saturday so I don't have to hunt the rest of the week so I can show up.

[Thornton888]

Let's see if I can finally make it this time. With the 12:00 noon backup I have no excuse for being too tired :rolleyes:

[tmhazen]

Yes Paul, I'm a drive-aholic, but look at the car and the girl and tell me if you really think I should go on the wagon. ;o) Better yet, come on a tour with us. Once you see the roads we drive, you'll be addicted too!

Focus ST, I'm sorry but in the interests of national security, the route remains a secret until the morning of the tour, and is only revealed then to the people who meet at the rendezvous point. Guess you'll just have to be there! But feel free to send me a PM or email libertytrans@mn.rr.com with any road suggestions. I'll be happy to check them out.

[tmhazen]

Three w/e in a row?
Don't you have a Roller Girls match to go to or something?
:p

That was last Saturday night. You missed a GREAT bout between the Minnesota RollerGirls and a team from Columbus, Ohio. At halftime we had a polka band. Do you know now challenging it is to polka with a sweaty rollergirl while she's wearing skates? Especially when her girlfriends keep cutting in?

[Thornton888]

Anymore info on the noon restuarant at tayor's falls?

[weidnerpaul]

Better yet, come on a tour with us. Once you see the roads we drive, you'll be addicted too!

Tom,

All the cars are put to bed, I'm driving the Dodge PU or Fester the Festiva nowadays. Both get the same mileage*!!!

Paul

*I've driven Fester about 150 miles since my 1st fill up with her. The gas gauge reads about .6 full, just like the Dodge, ergo they get the same mileage :lol:

[tmhazen]

Anymore info on the noon restuarant at tayor's falls?

I'll be picking the restaurant during reconnaissance on Saturday. The one we went to last time was too smoky and had slow service. Gotta find a better one. I'll post it Saturday night. It'll be one of the eateries along the two blocks of beautiful downtown Taylor's Falls.

You can also call my cell at 612-237-1883 for last minute info.

[tmhazen]

For those of you who prefer to sleep in, our noontime lunch rendezvous point will be:

Schoony's Malt Shop & Pizzeria, 384 Bench Street, Taylors Falls, MN

Many more apexes will be nailed after lunch, so join us in Taylors Falls at noon!(approximate time)

[tmhazen]

Friends of Horsepower:

What a gorgeous day! A total of 15 cars took to the twisties, for some or all of the tour. We started with 13 at the Machine Shed at 8:00am, but I had to leave my Evo there because of a loose control arm. I could drive it, but I didn’t want to push it. So I jumped in with T-turbo in the Nissan 300 ZX Twin Turbo. We hit a few dozen icy apexes and admired the crystalline hoar frost covering the countryside as we made our round-about way toward Stillwater. Only one minor mechanical incident: an oil leak due to a dip stick that popped up. A few paper towels later we were rolling again. After a brief pit stop in beautiful downtown Stillwater, we picked up Glenn in the Lamborghini Murcielago. I hopped in the “Ghini” and had Glenn lead the pack out of the driveway of his beautiful home.

Everyone drove superbly (although I messed up the “don’t lose the guy” rule, sorry) as we carved corners on the Minnesota side before crossing the St. Croix at Osceola. At the BP stop we said good-bye to Bob who had to leave early in his red NSX. While nailing lots more apexes on the Wisconsin side, we waved with all five fingers at the blaze orange hunters, and they sort of waved back at us, even though we drove slowly by them. One hunter (bless his heart) actually gave us the “rev it up” gesture as we passed.

After lunch at Schoony’s in Taylors Falls, we were joined by two more drivers, a black RSX and a red Jetta (if I remember right). My apologies to those gentlemen because I forgot to do a photo stop post-lunch, so they don’t appear in my shots.

Thanks to everybody who came along today. It was fabulous!

If the tour area roads remain sand-free, we’ll be out there again next Sunday. 9:00am at the Machine Shed. I’ll start another thread shortly.

Yours in Speed,

- Tom

Click on the photos below to see more from today:

http://thumb19.webshots.net/t/59/159/2/56/31/2794256310098025379ujiLdA_th.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2794256310098025379ujiLdA)

http://thumb19.webshots.net/t/52/152/7/46/22/2234746220098025379EwNFRn_th.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2234746220098025379EwNFRn)

http://thumb19.webshots.net/t/42/43/1/69/43/2447169430098025379lWqARC_th.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2447169430098025379lWqARC)

http://thumb19.webshots.net/t/63/163/9/26/36/2872926360098025379ibBqeG_th.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2872926360098025379ibBqeG)

http://thumb19.webshots.net/t/64/164/1/49/69/2634149690098025379RfmDsx_th.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2634149690098025379RfmDsx)

[Thornton888]

Glad I finally made it. It was a great time, those roads (specially that first one after Taylor's Falls) were really quite amazing.

Thanks for having us, and I hope to join you again sometime. :drool:

[FOCUS_ST]

Looks like you hit up the new winery for your photo shoot. Hope you hit up River road along the ST. Croix river while you were out there.

[Thornton888]

Looks like you hit up the new winery for your photo shoot. Hope you hit up River road along the ST. Croix river while you were out there.

Yeah, River road was the "first road after Taylor's Falls" I was referring too. umm...good stuff :p