Next Breakfast Club Sunday 8 June

The third Breakfast Club is coming around fast. In keeping with the plan of “always on the second Sunday of the month”, the next one falls on the Queens Birthday Long Weekend (Sunday 8 June). From 8.00am til 9.00am (or longer if you want) in Palmerston St Warragul. We’ll be there even without an “interesting car” this time (and probably the next few times as the new project will take a while to complete). So if you don’t have plans and fancy a drive come and join us. The coffee and hot breakfasts at the local coffee shops are fabulous and the atmosphere is brilliant. Last time an Amilcar and Bugatti were parked as neighbours (and both driven there) – doesn’t get much better than that!

There is no shortage of places to go and things to do using Warragul as a starting point. The opening of the ski season is next weekend and Mount Baw Baw is a little over an hour up the road. If you fancy a little wine tasting there are several wineries in the region with cellar doors and most with cafes or restaurants as well. Beer lovers don’t miss out either with the multi-award winning Grand Ridge Brewery in Mirboo North a leisurely and beautiful drive to the South East. I used to fancy that Grand Ridge Brewery was my well kept secret – ha! Their beers are so good that they are now world renowned and revered – dammit! Or just choose to drive North, South or East and discover beautiful scenery, a myriad of natural wonders (the Ada Tree on the Noojee-Yarra Junction Road is definitely worth a visit), lots of great eateries, galleries etc. There is plenty to do around here after breakfast!

Goings on…

Things have been busy in the Spyder household. Since the last Breakfast Club we have been running from one thing to the next. There is never a dull moment; between costume requirements for Charlotte’s Performing Arts concert, the dog injuring her paw and the subsequent trips to the vet (she’s fine BTW – just wearing a boot-bandage until it heals and munching on yummy tasting antibiotics – yummy for her that is), a new and fun part-time job for me (I thought I needed something to keep me busier, but it’s blown into something more major at the moment), soccer, acrobatics, swimming, Tom’s taxi to work and back, commitments for Spyder etc. Lots of interesting customer cars coming and going; a few trips to Melbourne for pick-ups and deliveries and on top of that Mike has been flat out at home clearing space as the organisation to collect the ‘new toy’ and myriad of parts is about done. We are looking forward to a 900km round trip very soon…trailers and tow-cars are getting serviced and then we’ll be off to pick up my new baby!

 

New toy coming!

He he…patience my foot! A new toy is on its way to the Spyder household (well not exactly – we have to go get it and all its bits and it’s not exactly around the corner).

I’ll tell all once the deal is done – but for now it’s German, a classic, rare, a coupe and everyone should fit in it. It needs work (what classic doesn’t) so it will be a great winter project.

Stay tuned…all will be revealed asap!

Baw Baw Lunch Run

After a fantastic morning at the Breakfast Club, Mike tucked the “Gregory Special” back in her “spot” at work and Billy, Charlotte, Mike and I piled in Bertha-the-wonder-van (yes my Multivan has a name; she deserves to have a name with all the hard work she does).

We had a hard task catching the group after the car swap – not because they were doing anything silly, but because we got stuck behind all the Sunday drivers, sightseers and locals. No-one wants to go any faster than 80kph on Main Neerim Rd, even though the speed limit is 100…so I sit behind the Sunday driver, then the “Farmer Joe” and finally the sightseer doing I kid you not – 60kph. Finally the way is clear and even though the road is twisty I chip away at the gap between us and the group. We got a good laugh more than once at the posted speed limit signs, particularly coming out of roadworks – apart from the towns the road to Mount Baw Baw is 100kph. It’s very twisty, in parts extremely narrow so it’s a huge challenge to be doing anywhere close to 100kph! We catch up with the group between Icy Creek and Tanjil Bren. Apparently the group stopped not once, but twice as Steve needed to pile on more layers in order to keep the roof down in the Fiat Spyder! We stopped at Tanjil Bren for the required “comfort stop” and the story apparently went something along the lines of ” how embarrassing – I was caught by a KOMBI”…good onya Bertha! To be fair, sitting up high and having great vision helps a lot. A lot of the corners are blind, the road was wet and slippery in parts and being able to see over the cars in front and gauge the road conditions ahead is a distinct advantage.

After leaving Tanjil Bren, we ascent and then descent and ascent again. The road gets twistier and narrower and we move up into the clouds. I now know why the road lines are yellow up there…at times on the way back down, following the yellow line was the only way to know where the road went.

We set a leisurely pace to the summit, rising above the clouds into the sunshine. We elected to sit outside for lunch, in beautiful sunshine for the most part, although the clouds threatened to engulf us a couple of times. Charlotte and Billy were amazed by this – Charlotte even decided to try “tasting” them. Charlotte’s verdict on cloud tasting – apparently they taste just horrible!

We enjoyed the company of several GCC Sporting register members over lunch (more correctly whilst waiting for lunch to arrive)…the Pub was not prepared for a deluge of people with no lunch booking; but they managed just fine in the end. Next time we’ll ring ahead, won’t we guys!

We left the mountain just before 3.00pm and boy was I pleased we left when we did. The cloud cover and fog going back down was so thick that I could do nothing but keep my eyes glued on the yellow line for a few kms. I kept hoping that the yellow line wouldn’t run out until we were clear of the clouds. Now this is the freaky part – the yellow line stopped EXACTLY at the point the clouds and fog cleared. At the very point where I could actually see the road ahead, the yellow line ran out. Now how many days did it take the engineers to work out where that yellow line should end I wonder?

A fabulous day spent with terrific people – our first outing of hopefully many with the Sporting Register. It was fun! Thanks to all the guys and gals for making us feel so welcome…

The kids enjoyed themselves running up and down the old ski slope after lunch – nothing like fresh air and space to run…and this is the usual result:

May Breakfast Club

Whenever a new event attempts to get off the ground, one thinks that the first will be a success as it is a novelty. Maybe the second shall do well, depending on how the first was received and reviewed…and then one thinks about the consequences of a date clash with Mothers’ Day and what effect that may have…WRONG!

The GCC Sporting Register Breakfast Club had only ONE problem today – where to park everyone! People came from Lilydale, Gembrook, Melbourne, (all over in fact) in an amazing variety of vehicles both 2 wheeled and 4. Glenn you are “da man” as a good mate of mine “up over” in USA would say! I know that Glenn has spent a fair amount of time emailing and contacting car clubs to grow this event. It is fair to say that all his hard work has paid off and he deserves to be acknowledged (even if he is being modest and doesn’t think so!). If anyone doubted this event could grow so fast from one month to the next, then put that doubt aside NOW. People and cars were coming and going from 8.00am til we left for the lunch run after 10.30am. At any one time there would have been over 50 cars and bikes assembled – I tried to keep count of all the comings and goings and simply gave up.

I managed to get an article published in our local paper here about the event and Glenn contacted the Herald Sun in Melbourne (one of 2 major daily papers in Victoria). The Herald Sun published a great piece and a photo in the “What’s On” Section of the Motoring Guide on Friday and the publicity machine worked brilliantly. I spoke with several people who had seen the paper and decided that Warragul for breakfast was a great idea. One lady I spoke with turned up in her pristine Morris Minor Convertible without the kids and hubby…Mothers’ Day meant for her that she could do what she wanted for the day and she chose to jump in her little car and join us in Warragul.

This event will continue to grow and grow…and there is PLENTY of parking. I doubt it shall be long before we see the “triangle” of Warragul’s CBD taken over by the “Breakfast Club”. There were a lot of people just out for coffee or Mothers’ Day breakfast this morning and they ALL walked around and admired the amazing array of machinery. Mike spoke with quite a few and the concenus was that this is a great event, even for the not-so-car-minded community.

Check out the pics – the photos tell the story of another successful Breakfast Club here in Warragul. As much as we tried to take decent photos of ALL the cars and bikes, I am afraid we failed to do so…apologies for those we missed and for the photos that didn’t make the cut.

The half-scale hotrod:

Some of the bikes:

MG Evolution:

Some of the American Muscle, newish, oldish and older:

Holy Grail indeed:

Some of the “custodians” and their cars:

You just never know what you may see at the “Breakfast Club”…

Hope to see a few of our Melbourne friends for breakfast next month in “Wild Dog” Country….

PS – a big thankyou to Billy for some of the photos – he’s a great little photographer (and he’s only 8!)