I've mentioned a couple times that our Jaguar club's road trip for the month was an Oktoberfest Lunch hosted by members in Merced on the 18th, yesterday.

Nix was ready for a Long road trip as I have recently installed a new vacuum advance that, for the first time since I've owned the car, actually works properly (the old one was seized when we got the car). Her best fuel economy to this point had been 14 miles/gallon US. Pretty abysmal I thought. This time though, she did Way better.

We left at 06:30 am Saturday to meet most of the other attendees at a market parking lot in Sacramento by 9am. For some reason, we have the farthest to travel but are the first ones to arrive! This has happened 3 times this past year! We went in to check out the store for about 10 minutes and when we returned the cruise organizer and drive leader were parked on either side of Nix, both couples admiring her shiny Blackness.

In about 10 minutes other members began to arrive until there were 7 cars in all, 5 of them Jaguars; 2-XJ-Ss, 1-Xj6, 1-XKR and 1-XK8. There was also a Mazda driven by the Club President and a Toyota driven by the editor of the club newsletter so we sort of had to let them in the line. As we left the market parking lot a passer-by stood taking photos of each passing Jaguar!

Other members were to meet up with us on the way to Merced, falling into line as we passed their locations. And sure enough, as I was near the end of the line I saw a white Xj6 in my mirror a car or two back.

We all stopped at a rest area just South of Turlock to regroup (traffic was quite heavy for a Saturday and we got a bit scattered) and to allow still more members to catch up with us including yet another Xj6. Now we were 7 Jaguars and 2 civilians.

The venue for the Oktobefest is the rural home of a member couple who host this event every year. Their distance and occupation prevent them from participating in many other events but this is their special thing to do for the club. Their two grown children were visiting and helping host, all in full costume.

The setting was beautiful! They had ordered up Perfect weather; not too warm, a gentle breeze, lots of shade from an Enormous Oak tree that is at Least 300 years old.

Some of their neighbors came by wondering what was going on, all nice people. Also, a couple members of a now inactive Jaguar club came, one of them bringing a couple restored Ancient Ones in truly great condition, along with his wife's XK120. We now had 12 Jaguars on site. He joined up by the way as our Membership VP can be quite persuasive.

After much food and beer tasting, with a selection of wines for the non beer drinkers and lemonade for the non drinkers, we left for our motel. The closest available rooms were in Turlock 25 miles away because the local college was holding Parents' Day and every room in town was taken weeks ago. It was OK though, we were all headed in the right direction to return to our homes Sunday morning.

As a final treat, the event organizer had arranged for us all to have a fashionable dinner Saturday evening at the Bistro 234 in Turlock. This is said to be The Place in the area to have a special meal. Their specialty is French Cuisine and Boy Howdy is it good! I've had better Margaritas but I highly recommend their Chocolate Raspberry Martini!

However, menus do Not include prices, and you know what they say about that. If you have to ask... Our dinner cost more than the gas.

I usually don't sleep well in a motel but after driving 250 miles yesterday, starting very early and then having lots of food and wine I slept like the proverbial log. We were ready to leave early and didn't want to disturb the other members, some of whom are sort of elderly, so we packed up, put 5 gallons of gas in Nix to ensure safe arrival at a cheaper station in Sacramento (turned out we didn't need to do that), got back on 99 north bound and took off; more or less literally. The air was cool and dense, traffic was light at that time on Sunday morning, Nix was feeling her octane and we moved right along.

I drove Nix 517 miles round trip and she used only 27.5 gallons of fuel that cost us less than $100! But the most astounding leg was the last 120 miles (some of which were at 130mph) where she made an astonishing 19.37 miles/gallon US!! Husband said, "WOW!! She LIKES to go fast!" That's just Fine with me!

Below are a few pictures of the cars participating in the event.
(';')

 

Sounds like an amazing day Elinor, some beautiful cars in attendance and Nix performed flawlessly too by the sounds of it?

All good.

Thanks for sharing

 

Thank you, Jim,
Yes, it was a completely amazing day for sure!

But when we have a lot of fun we get dirty. Nix is no different. She is SO dirty after spending all those hours in the southern part of the valley where several crops are being harvested and/or transported to market. As we all know, any harvest is a dirty business.

Not only that, the weather is so warm yet that there were Hoards of bugs so she's not just dusty but her face is covered with bugs too!

I'll be working several hours tomorrow to shine her up again.
(';')

 

Hi Elinor, thanks for the write up of the event. Nice pics.