Happy St.Paddy's Day!
(Well, a bit late but I'm here now.)
As has been said in the post-event write-ups so far, this years' event was a huge success; dare I say it was the largest of the post-Covid events held so far (a shame we have to classify things this way now, but oh well).
First off: a HUGE thank you to this years' hosts:
-Darin (MLastovo): He opened up his house for a bunch of us couch-surfing bums and had a nice taco night on Friday.
-Carl Nelson (and the whole crew at La Jolla Independent): They once again out-did themselves having an open house at their shop and supplying an amazing food spread for most of the day on Saturday. Carl's generosity and selflessness along with a general laid-back, chill nature make him the perfect host.
It was great, as always, to see a lot of old friends once again; some I haven't seen for quite some time and traveled great distances to there. As always, the weekend proved to be just what I needed to welcome Spring in SoCal and to relax. Lot's of conversations about cars, life, the weather, and I did mentions BMW's?
Friday:
We all seemed to wander into San Diego at some point for the general hang-out with Darin to catch up with everyone. Doug (photopark) spearheaded taco night and brought in all the fixin's.
At some point Ivo & Francis showed up in complete RV-lifestyle and somehow convinced/conned Darin's neighbor across the street to allow them to park the rolling love-shack in her driveway for the weekend.
It was a relaxing night and kind of cool once Carl Nelson, Ben Thongsai and other LJI'ers showed up to listen to Carl hold court in Darin's den. We all then retired for the evening dreaming of the possibilities of going into the parts business and somehow aquariums(?)
We were all asleep and an embarrassingly early hour (hey, we're all getting to be middle age, so cut us some slack).
Saturday:
The day broke bright and sunny. Once the Dutchmen showed up with a bag of coffee in hand, we all got moving. A bit of odd turn-around: When I walked out the door, I watched about a dozen heavily outfitted police officers walking down the sidewalk and then turning up Darin's neighbor's driveway. It was a strange turn of events in that in the two decades of this event and all the past Saturday night frat party-style ruckus that has been had, the police have never showed up. So it was kind of an odd way to start the day, but as they say, it sucks to be him (his neighbor, that is).
The Mission Bay Gathering turned up a near record amount of cars this year and was great as always. Not a single Park Ranger to be seen (yay!)
(This was not the Rolling Love Shack, but the actual one was nearly this large it seemed)
La Jolla Independent Open House:
What more can be said? Great food and lots of it, great friends and lots of them, great conversations and never enough. Special shout-out to one of Carl's long-time customers who happens to be one of the family owners of the Julian Pie Company. He continues to donate some the best pies in the world to not only this event but to SoCal Vintage BMW's premier event in November (every category winner and many raffle winners get a free pie of their choice). I had to have what I consider one of the best pecan pie slices I have ever had, hands down. And I let him know it since he baked the pies himself.
You know what they say about a messy desk? Funny thing is Carl knows what and where EVERYTHING is in here:
Hey, what's this doing in here? Turns out it belongs to one of Carl's clients and has left JP and guys scrambling trying to figure out a source for a new MB weird generator. It's a nice 1961 180 and kind of classes up the place, don't you think?
Well not much more to say; it was great and to everyone elsewhere in the country/world that what to see what it is all about, just mark your 2025 calendars for the weekend around St. Patrick's Day and plan accordingly.
See y'all next year!
I seriously need to take notes from this dagwood & trim some of the fat car meat here at Der BimmerGarten Midwest Müll-yard... 
Perhaps before Boones Farm was conceived? Great meeting ya Ken! We'll catch up over red coffee someday. 
