2008: Los Angeles and So-Cal for the weekend!

I have a habit of deciding at the last minute to do the almost impossible – ask Mike and the kids; they’ll tell you! And so it was in February…

I have always wanted to attend the LA Lit and Toy Show; a literature, toy and memorabilia show for Porsches and Vintage VWs. Well this year I decided (with permission from the gang) to attend and gave myself only a couple of days to get organised…I booked a flight to LA late on the Tuesday night and flew out on the Friday morning (22nd Feb) with a big suitcase full of Porsche literature and memorabilia as I was fortunate enough to be able to make a last minute vendor booking.

I telephoned a dear Porsche friend and announced that I was coming to stay for a few days (and was it OK)…could he possibly pick me up from the airport Friday morning LA time? Stunned silence from Chuck for a few moments…followed by laughter and a “sure; I’ll have your room ready for ya”!

Then the madness began – I had pretty much sorted out what we would keep from the many years of collecting Porsche (and VW) literature and memorabilia when we made our “tree-change”. Now I had to sort it again and pack it! I knew that we may use a 911 for the weekend’s adventures and so for space reasons I sorted and packed  in earnest! Clothes? Who needs a lot of those! I took the absolute minimum of everything for “me” and packed the cases with an assortment of 50 years’ worth of Porsche trinkets, sales brochures, napery (!), watches etc etc. I shall never forget the look on Chuck’s face when we started to go through this stuff the night before the Show…little gems he had never seen before (and he’s seen a LOT of Porsche stuff over the years).

We spent Friday getting organised and mooching around. The weather was lousy…wet and cold. Not so different from a Melbourne winter day actually. Yes it does rain in SoCal and it does get cold!

Late Friday afternoon we visited Dave at TRE Motorsports as he had graciously hosted an open house that day. There I met great guys who had come up from Mexico or down and across from New York for the weekend…I didn’t feel so crazy coming from Oz then…great cars in the shop in and in the parking lot; now I was ready for a mad weekend of Porsches and people!