Today I attended the Bay Area Exotic Mini-Rally III, sponsored by FerrariChat.com. The Pony Express II open road race was cancelled so I had a free weekend. I was joined by fellow East Bay 928 owner Kevin Geraghty in his Black 1987 928 S4. Ben Lobenstein sent out an email inviting Bay Area Exotic car owners to participate in this event. I think 25 vehicles joined the fun. There was two starting locations, northern and southern groups. I joined the northern group and we started in the Stonestown Galleria Mall parking lot "B". I was the first car to arrive followed by Ben in his slate gray Testarossa then Art Chambers in his red 355. After all the cars (4 Ferraris, 2 928s, 2 Lambos, 1 NSX, 1 Renault 5) arrived we drove to Menlo Park to join the southern group (more Ferraris and 2 Lotus Esprit). Once all the cars had fueled and were ready to go Larry handed out route maps and discussed the days plans. West on 84 to the coast, up 1 to Halfmoon Bay, East on 92 to Niles Canyon. Lunch at the Hot Rod Cafe, then East on 84 to Livermore, South on 130 to Mt. Hamilton, then I680 to San Jose, with Ice Cream at Dairy Belle Freeze in Los Altos the final destination.

We left San Mateo around 10 AM, and had a spirited drive to the coast. At least the front 7 cars did, a California Highway Patrol inserted himself into the line of cars and slowed down the rest of the cars. We waited on Highway 1 for them to catch up, and the CHP to leave the area. A Honda S2000 group was parked on the otherside of the highway, which made for an interesting situation. After the last cars arrived, we left for Halfmoon Bay. The pace was a little slower, since we didn't know where the CHP went.

The trip to Niles was uneventful, there was lots of traffic on 92, which slowed the group down. It also split the group into my small clusters. We arrived at the Hot Rod Cafe about 12:15. The place was definitly not set up take a big group of people at one time. It took about an hour to get everybodies orders and a half hour to get everybody thru the single bathroom. On the good side, the burgers were tasty, and it gave everybody a chance to talk. After lunch we left the cafe parking lot and headed East. Many of the participants left the group at this time. When we found that 84 was closed to 680, we had to take a 20+ mile detour. It was getting late, so I decide it was time from me to leave the group. I want to thank Ben, Larry and the rest of the FerrariChat group for inviting me on the Rally. I enjoyed it very much. I hope to see you all again in the future.