TC Motoring Guild 2003 Wildflower Tour

We had 4 TCs out for our tour this year. My trusty old blue TC, Harvey Schnaer eking a few more miles out of his TC, Dale & Joan Sheets in their beautiful red TC, and Gene Olson out in his TC for the first trip over 20 miles. Gene bought the TC off the internet last year and has spent many a hour working on it to begin his TC touring excitement. Congratulations Gene. Also out were Stan & Anita Roman who rode with Mike & Sharon Goodman. Bob & Charlotte Wilmer made it out as did Gordon & Fumiko Bundy. Gordon & Mimi Glass were in their Jag along with a friend. Mimi had surgery on her knee so was on crutches. My son Arn tagged along on his motorcycle and friend John came on his BMW cycle. John's girlfriend opted to ride in my TC. She liked the TC and the nice outing but was almost speechless at one point as we attacked up the hill at the poppy preserve. We headed off up Hughes Canyon Road and despite warnings of high winds, we found it to only be sightly breezy through the canyons and below passes. A very nice day indeed. On appearing at the desert after Muntz Ranch Road we saw beautiful flowers, quite a few to be exact. Even the poppy preserve had a nice display.

 

On a whim I led the pack up the little dirt road to the top of the Guild's famous ridge, that in yesteryear always had flowers when the "preserve" was bare. This time our ridge, wherein we have years of photos with TCs in flowers, was almost bare. Driving the road up was fun though. And while there were few poppies up there the views in all directions was magnificent! We continued down the South side and onto the Joshua Tree preserve area. There was one picnic table left but lots of space on the ground nearby for our lunch stop. It was very pleasant weather wise and we lingered quite awhile. Some, who were able to hoist themselves upright after the meal did the little nature trail. The dry years had done many of the plants in so the numbered markers labeling plants were in vain. We cleared out and reloaded the cars and continued on to Route N2, the start of the old Ridge Route over to where the old Sandberg Lodge location. The area was filled with equestrian activity and the riders were a little put out with the extra cars coming in. They warmed up when I took out a photo of this spot from 1961 when we had five TC's and a 3.8 Jag here. They were quite interested in how it looked here back then. Continuing on the old Ridge Route we encountered 10-15 cars (quite a crowd for this road). At this point Harvey and the Wimers cut off towards home by heading over to I-5. The remainder of us continued to the Templin Hwy before cutting over to I-5. We all split up and said adios in Castaic. Thank you to John Uniack for the poppy pictures. While John was not on the tour he took pictures when he went out earlier in the month along with his family.

Gene Olson took his TC out on it's first major outing since he bought it last year. Behind Gene's green TC is Dale & Joan Sheets red TC, Joe's blue TC and way in the back is Harvey's maroon TC.

At the top of the ridge they gather to view the poppies and talk TC.

The guys are checking out the girls and the girls are checking out the guys.

And you can't have a Guild tour without a meal. Some found a little shade in the flora while others spread out the picnic blanket and enjoyed the sun.