by Greg Blake

I want to start this article by first saying how grateful I am for the telephone system that is used to alert members when an event is about to happen. Julia and I got home late Saturday night. We were talking about the fact that we hadn't made any plans for Sunday when I went and checked my messages. When I did, I heard the familiar and friendly voice of Scott Harrison reminding me of the outing the next day. It was a beautiful sun-shiny day for our trip to the Menghini Winery .The temperature couldn't have been better and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. I mentioned this fact to Goran at the start of the day and it almost threw him into a panic. It was as if saying something positive about the weather would somehow change it. That would be like starting a project on your Volvo and saying, "This shouldn't take any time at all!" would jinx it. Oh yeah. That has happened hasn't it? Like every time I open my big mouth. Sorry Goran. I wasn't thinking. Gratefully the weather held in spite my indiscreet remark.

The drive to the winery was very pleasant, as expected. There were five 1800s at first. Four arrived in time to have breakfast. Then Rich and his family turned up just as we were leaving COCO'S.

We headed out towards the bakery for the first leg of our trip. You people who live in San Diego County are fortunate to have so many nice country roads so suitable for sports cars. In Orange County they just keep building houses. All the country roads are residential areas. I'm sorry.  I digress.  Back to the bakery.  

A few minutes at Dudley's allowed Randy to join us in his 122 Wagon (It makes me think it's time to trade in my Dodge Van) and off we were again. In Julian we almost had a multi-Volvo pileup when negotiating our way around a non-Volvo driver trying to make a left hand turn. No problem. Superb driving skills and great 1800 handling ability reigned supreme and I somehow ended up at the end of the line. Hey, that's OK. You may have heard my 71 E and I got the Road Warrior award in Arizona! Talk about mixed blessings.

Anyway, we drove down the driveway of the winery and onto the grass. Everything was so green. ..different from our last visit. You know how grass gets green? I know, some of you smart guys are saying it's the chlorophyll. Not true! It's water!  In this case lots of water.

I was the last car in as I said, and therefore had to go a little farther down the hill to pull in. When I did, I heard this squishing noise. Good sense overcame me and I backed out immediately. I moved up to where it seemed a little drier and got out to see my nice new wheels and 195/60 tires covered in mud. Gene Bellegarde has a picture. He seemed to think it was typical of a Volvo to have mud on its tires. Gene actually arrived much later in his 445. By then, the mud was nicely dried on. That's OK. Before Gene got there we gave Volvo owners a good name when we helped a man get his Crown Victoria out of the mud in the middle of the field. He really got in deep. I suggested to him that this wouldn't have happened if he had been driving a Volvo. He in-turn told us that it