While gassing up my 200 series Lexus at the Chevron next to Boomtown, I saw a very well-equipped 80 series pass by. The first hurt was the price to fill up the gas tank. Lauren and myself found Tony Farson and his 80, where he asked me if I had a radio. And it was at that moment, I felt my second hurt as I realized that I had two sitting on the counter at home. So, Tony let me borrow the radio that I had donated to the club for times such as these. Thank you Tony for bringing it as an extra.
In a few minutes, Mark Weeks and Cruiser (the doggy) arrived in his Chevy pickup. Judging by the Chevy's stock ride height, I knew we weren't looking at difficult, rocky trail.....and it wasn't.
After about five minutes of greetings, we started driving through the back streets of Verdi, and after a few minutes, found ourselves on a dirt road. The road was surrounded by dead trees for the first mile or so but then the forest became green and full. About 20 minutes later, we descended down into a beautiful valley. The meadow had turned brown from the cold, but was still very beautiful. We stopped to take in the views and decided to air down. The speed we had been traveling was absolutely perfect at making sure I felt every bump. Airing down did Lauren and me a lot of good.
Not too long after our stop, Tony and Mark stopped on a nondescript turn in the road. There was a cute little creek that flowed under the road through a culvert. The creek wasn't much to look at because it was mostly covered in grass, but the sound really was very relaxing.
Mark and Cruiser followed the creek upstream a couple hundred yards. It didn't seem like he was gone very long when he reappeared back on the road with a nice Christmas tree. Since Mark was the only one with a permit and the only one who wanted a tree, our goal was achieved.
We continued driving around the valley and then headed back. The drive back was nice with only one small exception. There were a great deal of vehicles heading the other direction. We must have pulled over ten times for traffic. And another ten times people pulled over for us.
Overall, it was a fun day and a beautiful drive. It was much shorter than most club runs, but was very enjoyable. Mark, Tony, Lauren (and Cruiser) made is a pleasant and memorable day.
