Tahoe Showdown (rather long)

[Derek Daily <ddaily@SMTPGW.MITSUICOMTEK.COM>]

As mentioned in the CQ Tahr post....

'Twas a mix of sleet, snow, slush and rain that brought a few Q heads
together in Incline Village, Lake Tahoe this weekend.
Thanks to Mark Nelson and Ray B. for taking some time to come out,
have some lunch and rile the nerve of the local federales (more
later)...
Ray recently picked up the '85 urq that was for sale in SF and is in
the process of doing some _upkeep_ on it.  Namely a new turbo and new
exterior to start.  But for yesterday's exercise Ray showed up in his
VW Golf Country Syncro.  What a fantastic car!  Take a look at it on
the syncronized! site and it'll put a huge smile on your face!
Mark Nelson showed off the newly purchased red 4ksq that was
practically stolen from its former owner I guess.  Got it for
cheap-like as the poor thing has about 100k miles on
it...shame-shame-shame...some people just don't understand the whole
I5 reliability thing ;-).  Yeah, poor Mark had a smile ear to ear
when mentioning the plethora of q available in his stall...anybody
need a silver 4ksq?  
I showed up with the CQ loaded down to full capacity...about 500
pounds of dead weight (i.e. wife, friend, and ski stuff ).  And the
new Eagers seemed up to the task in the slicker stuff.
After a nice introduction lunch and stories of attemped bike storage
locations above the garage door and pulling idiot SUV owners out of
ditches, we decided it would be worth at least a few minutes of time
to rev the engines up in a vacant parking lot covered with about 4~6
inches of fluffy slush (little did we know how brief this excursion
would be)

And then came the Showdown at Ponderosa Ranch (Home of the famed
Bonanza TV show).
We were each able to complete a whoppin' 3~4 circuits of sidesliding
turns and S-wiggles in the snow, complete with maybe a couple of
fotos taken care of by the cute _dead weight_  before the Sheriff
rode into town with a glint in his eye.
Faithful Local (and perhaps more importantly, NV plate bearing) Mark
Nelson accepted the gunfight with a cold sneer and brandished his
piece(s).  A NV drivers license and perhaps a certified rally driver
card (?) and quickly shot off that he was simply teaching the poor
_Valley / Bay Boy_ how to drive more safely in the hazardous wintry
conditions.  After some delicate negotiations and a visit by the
Ponderosa owner (Ben Cartwright himself?) the blinking lights
evaporated.  And the herd was graciously let out of the corral.
Although short-lived (maybe, maybeee 5 minutes) the event left me
smiling all the way home to San Mateo (some 5~6 hrs later) and even
the girls got a little kick out of it.
Thanks Again to Mark and Ray for a great time...
Next Meeting:
The First (?) Annual Quattro Ski Trip
Any Takers?

Derek Daily
90 CQ
86 VW qsw (feeling left out)

P.S.  That is the first and ONLY time I have ever had a black and
white parked behind me and ended up leaving w/o that cute little
yellow slip...thank you Mark for ending the curse!