PVCA Mystery Dinner

  May 22, 2004

story and pictures by Ansel

click on any picture for a larger image

It was early afternoon at Denny's and a lot of folks that were just finishing their lunches got an extra surprise when a bunch of Corvettes started pulling into the parking lot.  Yes it was a meeting place for another PVCA Run.  This day's run, titled a Mystery Dinner, is being put together by Bob and Diana Davis.  One little hitch, Diana was unable to attend due to work commitments and the other unfortunate thing was that Bob also got stuck with some work commitments but rather then let everyone down he was still able to put on the run and lead us to dinner where he bid us good-by so he could head off to work but I am jumping ahead, so back to the parking lot.

For those of you that were unable to make it, you missed a number of Corvette improvements and changes.  Check out the "mud flaps" on Georges car.  He says they are great for stopping all those little stone chips.  As we are having a look at these mud flaps in drives Gary with his Z06 sporting a new wild looking paint job.   You've all seen flames before but this car was on fire!

Rick and Ansel both showed up in their '66 Corvettes minus wifes.  Rick's is a beautiful deep burgundy powered by a 383 stroker with fuel injection.  Ansel's (mine) is painted 2000 Corvette Pewter with a 385hp engine.  Hmm, wonder what Rick is looking at?

Before you could say "Holy Smoke Batman" in drives Randy sporting a new set of wheels.

Ok, what next?  Oh that's just Dave's car!  It looks so normal!  Back and forth we all went looking at all the goodies.

Soon Bob called a drivers meeting so that we could get under way.  Our route would be taking us out through the San Fernando Valley and Hidden Hills.

At Malibu Canyon we left the Freeway and made a quick stop for those needing a break

While we were driving Bob was announcing over the radio, trivia questions, mostly related to the Corvette.  You were supposed to write down the answer and the person or persons with the most correct answers would win. 

After passing the Rock House (a biker hang-out) we pulled off the road for a quick photo shoot.  Driving this old canyon road is always fun and when we caught our first glimpse of the ocean it was breath taking.  The sun was out with a clear blue sky, we couldn't ask for a better driving day.  Now if only the gas prices would go back down...  Bob kept control of the group and the speeds were held to the posted limit, but then what Corvette ever goes over the posted limit?

After reaching the coast we head north watching the waves breaking and the surfer's trying their skills.  After passing Point Mugu we point the Corvettes towards Oxnard and our destination.  We get all the Vettes parked and now it's time for a group shot.  We arrived with twenty Corvettes and almost forty people.  The folks in the restaurant had a nice long table for us and for those that couldn't fit there were several booths right next to the long table.  All worked out very well.  With that many people to feed in addition to their normal crowd I thought it would take forever to get our meals.  They served our drinks right away and while there was a little wait for food it was not bad at all.  While we were waiting Bob announced the winners and there were a number on them.  I don't have all the names but there were ice cream sundaes being given and some other items.

Bob was able to place an order to go and with that he left us to finish our meals.  The food was good and for most of us it was more than enough.  I won't mention the one's that ordered a couple of Hot Fudge Sundays.

After we were all finished and the bill was paid it was time to think about heading home.  Randy knowing about the recent earthquakes in the area was found outside doing his part to protect everyone from falling objects.

A good time was had by all...