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[Tom Nas <tnas@euronet.nl>]

Hi all,

Home again, getting used to the daily grind again and drinking lots of
industrial-strength coffee to disguise the fact that I'm still getting over
my jet lag...

While I was touring the US, my trusty old Mac Quadra decided that enough
was enough and it was time for retirement- so when my brother booted it up
te retrieve my e-mail there was one huge bang and a spectacular flame and
my Mac (plus assorted peripherals) were toast. Hmmmm... therefore, I'm
writing this from work.

Anyway, this was the vacation of my life. I've never seen so much, had so
many adventures or enjoyed anything this much. It's probably illegal to
have this much fun.
Firstly, thanks to my generous host, Steve Buchholtz for putting me up at
his place and making me feel very welcome. It wouldn't have been the same
without you, Steve.

Secondly, it was great to meet all the quattro listers, some for the first
time ever, some as old friends. I've never met such a wonderful bunch of
people and enjoyed your company very much. I guess a lot has been written
about the Monterey Historics already so I won't go into that (although I
could, at length!) but it was the best Audi event I've ever attended and
it's not likely to be bettered by anything. Those who decided not to
attend, you've missed a lot. Doing the parade lap in Steve's beautiful UrQ
was something I'll remember for the rest of my life.

For those of you who didn't follow my travels: from San Jose, I rented a
car (interesting choice: Daewoo Leganza, 2.2 16v automatic, actually a lot
better long-distance car than it sounds) and drove to San Francisco, where
I spent two days enjoying the great atmosphere and beautiful buildings. A
trip to Alcatraz was pretty interesting, too. From there I drove to
Yosemite Park (incredible!) and to Death Valley Desert (where I spotted the
prototype new Rover Mini being tested). Death Valley, for those of you who
haven't been there, is stunning. After that it was a visit to the
inevitable Las Vegas (which made an interesting contrast from all the
natural beauty I'd seen before). After Las Vegas I saw Hoover Dam (very
interesting from an engineering standpoint as well as architecturally) and
drove to the Grand Canyon, which is stunning and left me at a loss for
words. Next place of visit was Bryce Canyon (which is in some respects even
more impressive than Grand Canyon) after which it was time to head for San
Jose again. I drove through Zion National Park and most of Nevada, saw
beautiful Lake Tahoe to return to San Jose late last Tuesday. Wednesday was
spent around Monterey Bay and Carmel, doing the incredibly beautiful
seventeen-mile drive and generally relaxing, while Thursday was spent in
San Jose, adding a couple of CDs to my collection and shopping for books
and electronics. I headed back to Holland on Friday and still can't believe
it's all over. I'm running out of superlatives trying to describe
everything I've seen, the people I've met and the experiences. What a
beautiful country, what a great place to spend your vacation.
Thanks all of you who helped making the Monterey Historics an experience
I'll never forget and made me feel at home.

I drove some 3000 miles, shot 15 rolls of film and 6 hours of video.

Back to the treadmill...

Tom