September 2014 Newsletter

In The Breeze
Special Head for the Mountains Issue!
September 2014
Official Newsletter of the Bluebonnet MX-5 Miata Club
A
Still Free!
rguably the biggest event of the year, excluding our Statewide Round Ups and Christmas party, the Head for the
Mountains 4 is upon us! Next weekend some 30 Miata’s
will depart Haby’s Bakery parking lot for a weekend of fun
and adventure.
Each year with help from many of you, I try to come up with different
things to do so as not to get bored with the event. This year is no
different. A trip to Boquillas, Mexico (For those brave and adventuresome enough), a visit to the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center,
a return to the McDonald Observatory (There was no real planned
trip there last year), and capping it all off we’ll have our very own
impromptu Star Party on Sunday evening!
This years t-shirt design
I honestly was going to go to a bi annual format, but no sooner had
we returned from Alpine last year, I was inundated with queries
about this year’s trip from many of our new members that have
heard about it, but also some of our vets that were anxious to get
back out to Alpine! What’s a guy to do when he’s a guy who just can’t
say no?
Actually, I had planned to move the event to Ruidoso, New Mexico
this year but was told the second largest motorcycle rally was being held there over our Labor Day weekend! So, I cancelled and reverted back to the plans of going back to Alpine. (I later learned that the big motorcycle Rally in Ruidoso
was moved to another weekend! Arrgh!) So, back to Alpine we go. But, I am exploring plans to have the next HFTM in
Cloudcroft, New Mexico. It’s close enough so we can get there in less than a day and still give us a full weekend there.
The t-shirts are in and you should get yours if you make tonight’s meeting. This, the third year, more were ordered than
ever before! I think the garnet red will look good on all of you!
Goodie bags are being prepared by Ed And Barbara Smith for each Miata. North Park Mazda is also contributing with
“goodies” from Mazda as well. I certainly appreciate Ed and Barbara for helping out.
Let me also thank a few others for helping me put the entire weekend together. Dave and Marilyn Hamilton will be orchestrating the venture into Boquillas, Mexico. I’ve never been and I am pumped! I have my very expensive passport
and while I wasn’t able to convince Marilyn McCullen to join me, I’m excited to take this new journey! Speaking of
Marilyn McCullen, she’ll be taking folks to the Chihuahuan Nature Center, which sounds like lots of fun! I’m looking
forward to that too! Thanks also to Mark Hungerman for stepping forward and offering to lead the biggest group to
Marfa, Presidio and the River Road to Lajitas.
Giving the event a true State-wide flavor, we’ll be joined by members of the Tejas Club from Austin, Houston’s Miata Mania Club, the Lone Star Miata club from the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex and even some folks that aren’t affiliated with
any club but have heard about how much fun we have! The support and interest is humbling, indeed!
I hope you all will forgive me for obsessing about what to take, what to do, when to do it and asking for head counts for
meals, etc, but regarding the meals, I can’t get arrangements made just saying, “Oh, we’ll show with ___ people”. I have
booked Friday evenings restaurant, Guzzi Up! Italian eatery for 30 minimum folks. Sunday evenings big dinner in Lajitas will be for minimum 50 people! So, go where you want all weekend, or stick with the itinerary, but please, please,
show up for these two dining venues.
Feel free to call me about other details, but I’ll try to cover most of your questions in this months In The Breeze. I’ve
tried to make it easy for all of you by making an Itinerary you can tear out from the center and take it with you for the
weekend.
Are you ready for some cooler weather? Well, then, let’s Head for the Mountains!
AUGUST 2014
PAGE 2
2014 Club Officers
President and Newsletter Editor
George Lucas
New Members
Donny and Cheryl Darbonne
Crowley, LA
2002 Sunlight Silver Metallic
president@bluebonnetmiata.org
Jerry Akin
Vice President
San Antonio
2008 Brilliant Black
Jim “Jimbo” Treat
vicepresident@bluebonnetmiata.org
Garry and Bobbie Byerly
Secretary
Stephanie Turner
Liberty Hill, TX
2010 Copper Red Soft Top
secretary@bluebonnetmiata.org
Treasurer
Joe Knight
treasurer@bluebonnetmiata.org
Membership
Lisa Martin
membership@bluebonnetmiata.org
Webmaster
Don Privett
webmaster@bluebonnetmiata.org
Inside this issue…
Head for the Mountains 4………………......…………………………………………….Cover Story
Officers, New Members.……………………….………………………………………………………….2
Velocity Read (President’s Message).………………………………………..……………………….3
Peachy Keen Run.…………………………………….………………………..……………………….4, 5
Real Ale Brewery Run....………………………………………………………………………………….6
Quickly, Robin, to the Bat Cave!..................................................................................................7
Dash and Splash.………………………………………..………………………………………………….8
Special Clip Out HFTM4 Pocket Itinerary……………….………..…………………………..9, 10
Get Well, Linda.…………………………………………………………………………………………...11
Upcoming Events..…………………………………………………………………..…….….Back page
AUGUST 2014
PAGE 3
Velocity Read…
The mountains are calling me, I must go.
That’s the motto I adopted last year and for the years to come this time of year. I was given a sign bearing those
words and I love them!
I pretty much covered the HFTM4 information on the cover story, but, like last year, allow me to remind you all of
a few things you just must bring.

Sunscreen

Water and an insulated glass so you can keep hydrated all weekend. Fill it with ice from the hotel.

Binoculars! You are sure to see things you never saw before and will want a close up look.

Camera. You may think you don’t need this reminder, but don’t forget the charger for your camera in case your battery runs low.

Flashlight

Snacks. Beyond what is in your goodie bags, you’ll want snacks for the road. Groceries in Alpine are much more expensive then your friendly
HEB, so get what you need now!

2-way radio(s). We’ll be in large groups and I’ll be asking for help on the road from various locations in our line so as to stay together as much as
possible.

Chargers for phones, iPads, 2 way radios, etc.

Batteries, AA and AAA

Cleaning supplies for your Miata! (Gee, did I even need to remind you???)

Light jacket or sweater. Don’t laugh, it may be 99 here but Alpine/Ft. Davis temperatures can be as much as 20 degrees cooler, especially in the
evenings.
Optional items:

Personal fan (Walgreens has these)

Go Pro or similar action camera.
Zoom Zoom!
George Lucas, President and Editor
The Lone Star Miata Club of Dallas/Fort Worth is proud to be hosting the Texas Miata
Roundup on the 25th Anniversary of Miata production. More than one 25th Anniversary edition
Miata have been reserved by our members and we hope that they will be delivered in time for
y'all to come up and get a look at them. Of course, the Roundup is not just for Texans! We are
hoping to see Miatas from all the nearby states and wouldn't it be nice to see come Canadians, eh?
Denton, TX, north of DFW has been selected as the official site for the Roundup. We will be
adding additional information as it becomes available. Take a moment and sign up for email
updates and you will get regular reminders about our plans.
The dates have been set. Mark your calendars and plan to come to North Texas:
October
23rd thru 26th, 2014.
For accommodations and more info...
Visit: http://www.internetcarclubs.com/Events/NorthTexasMiataRoundup2014.aspx for all the
details!!!!
AUGU ST 2014
PAGE 4
S
ome years back, I had heard of our club having a peach
picking run. This was before my time, but I was intrigued nonetheless.
Let me digress for a moment. Recently, one of the
many residents that spoil me where I work, gave me some
home made peach cobbler. She started out saying, “I apologize,
because these peaches are from Alabama”. I graciously accepted the cobbler, which was very good by the way. Determined to give her some real Texas peaches from our very own
Hill Country, Marilyn and I took a little trip up to near Fredericksburg to get some peaches for my friend at work. Oh, now I
know what you’re thinking...give her more peaches so she can
make me more cobbler, right? Well, not at all, my intentions
were purely showing my appreciation to that sweet lady.
Marilyn is truly the pioneer, the adventurist at heart, so we
take off, going up via some of our favorite roads, i.e. Marquardt
Road and other fun roads as well. We came upon a very small
peach orchard called Tuscany on the Pedernales. Now this
name is a bit pretentious considering the name as this place
was downright down home kind of place! We were greeted by
Dennis Neffendorf and his sheepdog and we just knew this was
a really cool place! Peaches were everywhere! He had peaches
stacked up in baskets inside and you could look into his orchard and see lots of peaches on the trees! We hit pay dirt!
While selecting my dozen or so peaches for my friend, I told
Dennis about what our club used to do and told him that, according to folks in the club that told me that the orchards no
longer allow people to pick their own, he exclaimed, “Hey, you
can come up here and pick all you want!” Well, that’s all I
needed and the Peachy Keen Run was born. He was pretty
much smitten with Marilyn, I believe he probably would have
said yes to any of our queries.
So, we picked out a date, put it together and as I said, the Peach Pickin’ event is back!
Since Marilyn and I had spent quite a bit of time in this area looking for a possible summer picnic venue, we had a pretty
good handle on roads to include in the Peach Pickin’ Run. Well, Marilyn did, me...not so much, as you will read soon enough.
We met on a warm Saturday morning at the Exxon/McDonalds and took off. Everything went well, nice vistas, some twisties,
some really cool farm houses, some deer along the route...I mean, it was truly delightful! People were on the radio thanking
me for these great roads...UNTILL….(This is the part where I have to take all the blame because I put this part in without
consulting Marilyn)….I look ahead and...OH MY GOODNESS…GRAVEL!!!!!!!. Yikes, too late to turn around and knowing
that a paved road was just a couple of miles ahead, I pressed on. I might mention the radio comments quickly changed. Well,
Mister-never-take-gravel-roads suddenly found himself in deep you know what. When we finally reached Hwy 1376, I think
people were pretty ticked at me. Hey, my car got dusty, too! (But, since I was leading, not as much as the others.)
When we arrived, the peach place was also a dusty parking adventure so most of the folks stopped complaining and like little
kids at Christmas, grabbed bags, buckets, and wagons and took off for the orchard! We had that orchard covered. The
peaches were big and ready. I don’t mind telling you that it was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done! I had picked 12
bags of peaches! (The ladies where I worked all wanted me to bring back for them.)
After we all paid for our peaches, we headed on over to the Wildseed Farm just outside of Fredericksburg for lunch. Good
food, fun people, and save for the gravel road, a wonderful run.
I’ll be sure to make this event again next year as everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves. Thanks to all that came and I
hope you’ve forgiven me for that nasty gravel road.
-George Lucas
AUGU ST 2014
PAGE 5
PAGE 6
AUGU ST 2014
A huge thanks to Rich and Gayle Sandenaw for organizing a great run through some new roads, taking us to the
popular Red Bud Café in Blanco on the square, the day culminating with a really neat tour of the Real Ale Brewery
in Blanco, TX.. Good job, you two!
PAGE 7
AUGU ST 2014
"Quickly, Robin... to the BAT CAVE!!!"
On Saturday, August 9th, seven Miatas and their crews braved the heat for our club's 19th Annual "Bat Cave Run". We departed from
behind the Whataburger at Loop 1604 & Bandera Road (roofs up and ACs blasting), went out Bandera to the Scenic Loop Road, then
left on Toutant-Beauregard, where a Bexar County Deputy in a white Chevy Tahoe joined our procession, but eventually pulled over,
let our last two cars by and went on his way. Arriving at Boerne, I trimmed part of the route off to get us to the old tunnel a bit early, as
the bats had had a very early emergence the day before. So, we zipped up IH-10 to the Welfare-Waring exit and stopped in front of PoPo's to lower our roofs for the nice, shady roads ahead. I still had my AC blasting, though (and my James Bond theme music)! The road
wandered through Welfare, Waring and as we crossed the Guadalupe River, I slowed to let everyone enjoy the view. I have been to the
tree-lined River Jordan south of the Sea of Galilee, and this section of the Guadalupe is very reminiscent of that scenery.
Truly peaceful and lovely.
Then I hammered the accelerator for the sweeping uphill curves! West onto State Road 473 and then north on the Old San Antonio
Road (a.k.a. "Old No. 9 Rd"). Lots of twisties, dips and crests to enjoy in our nimble sports cars.
Arriving at the Old Tunnel State Park by 6:30, we were early enough to get seats and hear the volunteers' "bat talk". At 6:51, the emergence began from the south end of the tunnel and continued for some 25 minutes. The first-timers seemed to really be amazed by the
millions of bats and some of us shared stories of other bat colonies, such as Carlsbad Cavern, Bracken Cave, Congress Street bridge in
Austin, and various locations in San Antonio, such as the North Star Mall garages, I-10 over Vance Jackson and the Camden Street
bridge over the north reach of the River Walk.
After the bat emergence, four cars went on their own way home and three cars went to the "Center of the Universe" at Hills & Dales for
a cold one and fellowship. My friends with the Rusty Martin Trio started played acoustic blues. All in all, it was a very nice evening. I
hope to get a BIG turnout next year for the 20th Annual Bat Cave Run, so save the date for the second Saturday of August, 2015!
- George Briscoe
PAGE 8
AUG US T 201 4
Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center with Marilyn McCullen
Join me for a visit to the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center (a.k.a Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute) on Saturday morning Aug. 30 after
the Balloon Fest. The Nature Center has geology & mining exhibits, botanical gardens, hiking trails & walking paths, a cactus & succulent greenhouse, and Nature Shop. Marilyn McCullen will be leading a run leaving from the Alpine Airport at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday morning Aug.
30. Admission is $6 for adults and children 12 & under are free. The Nature Center is open year-round, Mon.-Sat. 9:00-5:00 and is located
four miles south of Fort Davis on HWY 118.
I think this will be a nice addition to the many activities planned for us on Labor Day weekend. Hope to see you there!
The Fort Leaton State Historic Site
...is located on Farm to Market Road 170, in Presidio County in the U.S. state of Texas. The original adobe structure was a private residence
dating back to the early 19th century. It was purchased in 1848 by Benjamin Leaton, who adapted it as a fortress. Fort Leaton was the Presidio County original seat of government. Through murders, financial difficulties and abandonment, the structure changed hands numerous times.
In 1967, it was deeded to the state of Texas and opened to the public in 1978 as a Texas State Historic Site. It was added to the National
Register of Historic Places listings in Presidio County, Texas on June 18, 1973.
Contrabando Movie Site
One particular part of Big Bend Ranch State Park might look familiar, even if you've never been here before. Hollywood has come to the
northern bank of the Rio Grande several times, using the colorful landscape as the perfect backdrop for a tiny, Wild West town The Contrabando Movie Set is what remains, from the production of movies like Streets of Laredo. At first glance, you'd swear that this is a real ghost
town, but once you walk inside any of the buildings, it's obvious that these were only façades.
The McDonald Observatory
...is an astronomical observatory located near the unincorporated community of Fort Davis in Jeff Davis County, Texas, United States. The
facility is located on Mount Locke in the Davis Mountains of West Texas, with additional facilities on Mount Fowlkes, approximately 1.3 kilometers (0.81 mi) to the northeast.[1] The site is property of the University of Texas at Austin, and is primarily funded through two special items
in the Texas state budget: the McDonald Observatory line item and the CASA (Center for Advanced Studies in Astronomy) line item.
Fort Davis National Historic Site
Established in October 1854 along the Limpia Creek at Painted Comanche Camp by Bvt. Maj. Gen. Persifor Frazer Smith, Fort Davis was named
after Secretary of War Jefferson Davis.[2]:4 "Hoping to protect the garrison from winter northers, Smith tucked the fort into a canyon
flanked on three sides by sheer rock walls. Commanding the post, was eighth Infantry regiment commander Lt. Col. Washington Seawell. From
1854 to 1891, Fort Davis was strategically located to protect emigrants, mail coaches, and freight wagons on the Trans-Pecos portion of the
San Antonio-El Paso Road and the Chihuahua Trail, and to control activities on the southern stem of the Great Comanche War Trail and Mescalero Apache war trails.
The Marfa Lights
Also known as the Marfa ghost lights, have been observed near U.S. Route 67 on Mitchell Flat east of Marfa, Texas, in the United States.
They have gained some fame as onlookers have ascribed them to paranormal phenomena such as ghosts, UFOs, or Will-o'-the-wisp, etc. The
first published account of the lights appeared in the July 1957 issue of Coronet Magazine,[1][2] the earliest source for anecdotal claims that
the lights date back to the 19th century. Reports often describe brightly glowing basketball-sized spheres floating above the ground, or
sometimes high in the air. Colors are usually described as white, yellow, orange or red, but green and blue are sometimes reported. The balls
are said to hover at about shoulder height, or to move laterally at low speeds, or sometimes, to shoot around rapidly in any direction. They
often appear in pairs or groups, according to reports, to divide into pairs or to merge, to disappear and reappear, and sometimes to move in
seemingly regular patterns. Their sizes are typically said to resemble soccer balls or basketballs.
Sightings are reported occasionally and unpredictably, perhaps 10 to 20 times a year. There are no reliable reports of daytime sightings. According to the people who claim to have seen the lights, they may appear at any time of night, typically south of U.S. Route 90 and east of U.S.
Route 67, five to fifteen miles southeast of Marfa, at unpredictable directions and apparent distances. They can persist from a fraction of a
second to several hours. There is evidently no connection between appearances of the Marfa lights and anything else besides nighttime hours.
They appear in all seasons of the year and in any weather, seemingly uninfluenced by such factors. They sometimes have been observed during
late dusk and early dawn, when the landscape is dimly illuminated.
The state notes the lights in travel maps, the city has erected a "viewing platform", and the Marfa Chamber of Commerce promotes the lights
with a weekend-long Marfa Lights Festival held annually in the city's downtown
AUGU ST 2014
PAGE 11
Our own Linda Morrow was quite surprised when 10 Miatas pulled up to her Georgetown home, honking horns and
announcing our arrival. You see, Linda is battling cancer, very bravely I might add, and she just returned home
from her second surgery in two years. Surprisingly chipper, we all smothered her with love, have a really nice visit
and I think it lifted her spirits a bit. I say that, but I tell you, that girl has grit and determination.
After visiting Linda, we set out for lunch in Buda at Gayle and Rich Sandenaw’s cousins BBQ. Great roads and great
food...what more could you ask for?
A big thanks to Cheryl and Joe Knight for organizing this run. A bigger thanks goes to Linda Morrow for showing us
how brave she is.
In The Breeze
Bluebonnet Miata Club
San Antonio, Texas
http://www.bluebonnetmiata.org
Check your mailing label for your renewal date.
Please renew your membership promptly!
Remember When?
Upcoming Runs and Events

Friday, August 29th, Head for the Mountains 4, hosted and led by George Lucas. Meet Friday
morning at 8 a.m. at Haby’s Bakery in Castroville for a weekend of adventure and starry nights fun!
Details are on the website.

Friday, September 5th, Olmos Pharmacy Dinner with the SA BlueCats. Fantastic music featuring our very own George Briscoe and his blues band. Meet at 7 p.m. Olmos Pharmacy is at the corner of Hildebrand Avenue and McCullough.

Monday, September 8th, Sundaes on Monday, hosted by Mark Hungerman. Details will be
available soon! Be sure to watch your emails or check our website!

Saturday, September 13th, NASCAR Run to Bubba’s, led by Jimbo and Freda Treat. Details
TBA.

Saturday, September 20th, Pedernales Falls Run, led by Mark Hungerman. Details coming
soon!

Tuesday, September 23rd, Monthly meeting, Bigz Burger Joint. Meet and greet and eat at 6:30
p.m., Meeting starts at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, September 27th, TECH Day, hosted by Jeff Holbrook. Meet at Jack’s Paint Place at 8
a.m. in Converse to get those little mods done to your Miata! Except for overhauls, get almost anything done on this day. Horns, Paintless dent repair, pin striping, you name it! This is the day to “git
‘er done”.