Duarte Nursery Ponsettias

I was looking forward to this run for three reasons. 1) It was going to be a great run up the San Joaquin Valley from Fresno to Modesto utilizing only back roads, 2) This will be the last run of the year, and 3) This was going to be the last run before I start taking apart my 1964 Triumph TR-4 getting it ready for a brand new paint job. I’m so excited!!

On the run we had good weather and everyone had a great time. Now, for the story about my car. Opps!! I think you can see which subject has most of my attention. OK I will expand on the car run and leave my Triumph’s paint job story for another time. Duarte Nursery is a family owned and operated nursery located near Modesto. It is the largest permanent crops nursery in the United States and most of the time is not open to the public. However, Duarte Nursery does open their doors the weekend before Thanksgiving to view and purchase their thousands upon thousands of poinsettias. What a great way to get in the mood for the holiday season.  (Click photo for more pics)November 19th (Saturday) was the day of the run and the forecast was bleak with high wind and rain being in the forecast. Well, Saturday come and even thou there was a nip in the air, the weather was fantastic with blue skies up and down California. We meet at a Starbucks in the northern portion of Fresno and with a small but jovial group of five cars holding 10 people we headed north through the eastern portion of the San Joaquin Valley parelling Highway 99. We traveled north for approximately two hours, never traveling on a highway. If you know California, that is quite a fete. If you ask me there are too many darn highways, especially for our little cars. Heading north we saw the open pasture land, orchards of almonds, pistachios, peaches, plums, walnuts and of course the view of the distant Sierra-Nevada mountain range. Except for two cars losing their speedos (that is a speedometer not a swim suit), the drive was very uneventful with no one having problems with their cars. You know they are British so I always expect some type of car problems along the way. We arrived at Duarte about 12:00, viewed the many types of poinsettias and made our purchases for Christmas. After packing our little cars with plants we were off for lunch at the Fruit Yard Restaurant located east of Modesto. After lunch we headed home with poinsettias sticking out of our British car windows. This run was about 300 miles round trip which was a good long run before the winter months. Time for a nap!

If any of our club members have any ideas of different types of car runs or any new attractions that you think our car club needs to see, come on and don’t be afraid to bring your ideas up at our meetings. This is your club, the more you put into it the more everyone will get out of it.

See ya down the road.

Russ Weber

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