Our Drive to the Lake
May 5 started out bright & sunny, a perfect day for a trip along the East side of the Santa Cruz Mountains en-route to Hollister with the Bay Area Backroads team in tow. Host Doug McConnell, producer Eunice Louie and cameraman Jack Uhalde could not have been friendlier nor more interested in our Arcane assemblage.
Twenty six or so Arcane carriages showed up for our jaunt through the hills, a healthy turnout by any measure. As may be considered typical for any event involving filming for the small screen, things proceeded rather slowly at first, and when we ultimately hit the road about 11:00 a.m. our shopping center meeting spot was bustling with activity. Thankfully, Mara Brill jumped into the fray (the middle of the road, actually), bringing the center’s traffic to screeching halt while all twenty six (or so) of us circled our portion of the parking lot one last time for the benefit of the BAB cameras. Just as security was showing up to escort Mara to the Paddy Wagon, we made for the exits, leaving a somewhat bewildered shopping center traffic jam in our wake. Things went smoothly along the road to our first stop, Calero Reservoir. After several takes, re-takes and re-re-takes of Ken Chambers’ lovely Amphicar diving into the chilly waters, we hit the road once again enroute to our next stop, the wonderfully entertaining garage of Morgan Hill collector, Ford enthusiast and all around brilliant host Byron Bertsch. In addition to his hot rod Fords and cool forties cab-over Ford big rig, Byron had a beautiful little Toyota Sports 800. He also set out a great spread of soft drinks and snacks just for our visit – what a guy! Even though we arrived like a swarm of hornets well over two hours late, he couldn’t have been a more gracious host.
From there, it was on to our ultimate destination, Frazier Lake Airport just outside of Hollister where fenders rubbed up against the wings of airplanes on the grass just off the runway. We looked at the aircraft and consumed our picnic baskets of goodies. Several people got to ride the Amphicar in the lake (well, more like a elevated ditch, but floatplanes do use it). After Doug interviewed just about everyone, we went our separate ways, only to meet again the next day for the Hillsborough Concours d’Elegance, but that’s another story. And now, a ridiculously large collection of photos...