ONLY SIX MEMBERS OF THE SDVSA showed up for the General Meeting on February 9th. We were happy to see Russ Orrell back with us after a lengthy business trip for his new employer. Since Peter Webb had a prior commitment, Russ ran the meeting — for old times sake. Our main topic once again was the ongoing discussion of the future direction of the SDVSA. Lee Cordner, president of both the Volvo Club of America and Golden Gate Chapter of VCOA, has written an open letter to SDVSA, starting on page 9, explaining the advantages of being affiliated with the VCOA. Once again we appeal to our members to attend the meetings held on the second Wednesday of each month at the Auto Museum in Balboa Park to participate in this very important discussion!

     Also, we are still looking for a more economical way to print 1800 NEWS, so again, if any of you work for a company, which lets its employees obtain copies for a reasonable price, please, let our club president, Peter Webb, know at (858)414-6915, or peterjwebb@yahoo.com. We are also looking into making the newsletter available on-line to paid-up members as another cost saving measure.

     However, our main ambition at this particular meeting, as advertised in previous 1800 NEWS issues, was to indulge in pizza and club provided refreshments, while watching entertaining videos! Kurt Sievert brought his personal VCR copy of “The Best of Mr. Bean,” which had us in stitches, so we had to be careful not to choke on the beer!

     We still have lots of things left from the 2004 VSA West Coast Meet, held in San Diego on September 10 through 12, 2004. Besides T-shirts and two varieties of hats, we have really beautiful grill badges, which were used as prizes, and miniature “Volvo” P1800 C-pillar emblems in the form of tie or lapel pins! The club, of course, had to pay for all these items, and now we offer them to you to raise some much needed money for our treasury. A list of items and prices appear in “Annonser” on page 11, as well as on page 10, accompanied with pictures of each item.

     The Fall 2004 issue of VSA (the national Volvo Sports America quarterly newsletter) was finally published and received by some local chapter members. Make sure you are still a member of the VSA before you get too upset if you didn’t get a copy, since many of our club

members have not received renewal notices. Please check the last issue of VSA you received for your renewal date found in the top right hand corner. Out of reportedly around a dozen articles covering the VSA West Coast Meet, VSA selected the article written by Sven Olafbrosson, which appeared in the October issue of 1800 NEWS.

     The Temecula wine tour was pretty exciting! Between sunshine, lighting, thundershowers, hail, and even (reportedly) tornadoes, the weather did its best to deter us. However, it’s pretty hard to divert the Volvo Vikings from their appointed rounds! The only effect it had on Del’s plans was to cancel a visit to a remote winery on a long dirt road. Ten cars, with a total of 18 hearty souls, put in their appearance. There were four 1800s, two S60Rs, one each of 122, 240, 740, and one 1800, cleverly disguised as a Chevy Blazer. Our first stop was Stewart Cellars, where they were quite proud of their wines. Tasting was $8 for 5 samples, and no bottle of red wine was under $28. Maurice Carrie was a little friendlier to our pocket books with a great selection of wines. The tasting was gratis for as many sips as you could handle, and the prices started around $12 a bottle. Freshly baked bread with brie in the center enticed some of our participants who didn’t pack a lunch. After another downpour and safely back in our Swedish Steel classics, we made the short drive to the brand new Longshadow Ranch Winery, which was our last stop. Besides good wines by the German owner and vintner, a huge barn with picnic tables was available for us to enjoy our lunch out of the weather. As always, Del did a fantastic job of planning, and it really paid off, as all participants certainly would agree. Thank you, Del, for another memorable wine tour, and for putting up with Bob and ensuring his recovery from more ailments that anyone should be asked to endure. A pictorial account of our excursion starts on page 7.

     Keeping with our “an event every other month” policy, the next SDVSA event is Mark Jankowski’s San Diego East County Tour on Saturday, April 23. Mark has toured every part of San Diego since the late ’50s, so he is somewhat of an authority on the subject. Turn the page for the preliminary plans for this year’s installment. Mark is still working on the final arrangements for lunch and a guided tour of the observatory. Make your plans to attend now!