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Avenue of the Giants Weekend Run - Sat. March 23, 2024

Saturday will be a very full day of cruising from Novato up through the Avenue of the Giants and ending at Eel River Brewing in Fortuna. Sun...

Highway1 Point Sur / Big Sur Recap



We started later for this run than the normal NorCal early morning. First meet point was our usual Starbucks in San Jose where a sized group quickly formed. This included two new paid members on their first run with the club. We also welcomed two day pass run people who came along to see what the club did.

After a short drivers meeting, Simon led the group of 16 MINI’s from San Jose down Hwy 101 South to Gilroy. Upon arrival in Gilroy, we proceeded to the second meet point where a further 7 MINI’s were waiting with David Sitter who was the other co-host for the drive

Due to a little confusion with the start / leave times between the first meet and the second meet point, the route had to change as we had a time limit to get to our restaurant for lunch. We continued down Hwy 101 South and then picked up Hwy 156 towards the coast, picking up Hwy 1 past Monterey before turning back in land on Hwy 218 towards Carmel Valley. Due to the sheer volume of traffic – we did get a little split up as a group – but everyone made it to the restaurant in time for lunch

Lunch was held at the Baja Cantina and Grille. Our group was very warmly accommodated by the restaurant and most people sat in the warm spring sunshine outside. The food was amazing and a good lunch was had by all

After lunch we held another small drivers meeting to inform the group the driving plan for continuing down Hwy 1 towards Big Sur. Again, due to traffic – the group did get a little split up – but we all made it safely onto Hwy 1. This did not spoil the drive though as the weather was wonderful and all the MINI’s managed to keep together in smaller groups.






After a few miles, the was a good location to pull over onto the side of the road to get a photo of all the cars with the Ocean behind us. It was fun dodging all the other traffic on Hwy 1 to get to a good vantage point to take the pictures.

Once the photos were taken we jumped into our cars again and proceeded further south towards our final point of interest – The infamous Bixby Bridge. This bridge has been seen in many movies and many car advertising. Sadly the pull ins were too congested with tourists to be able to get our group all together for some photos – so most of us drove across the bridge and then found a safe turning point to start the journey up north again. Some of the group did stop and take some pictures and others drifted off to make their way home.

From the feedback we received – a good time was had by all despite the traffic situation

Thanks to Anne Veen-Sitter who couldn’t make it on the drive with us – but did make the booking for lunch

Simon Tildesley and David Sitter

Check out all of the Big Sur Run photos:


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