| Finally got around to editing the few pictures that I took in San Antonio. For some reason it just wasn't all that important to be taking pictures of everything at every given moment.... For example I didn't even touch the camera ( nor the in car video camera ) at the track event at H2R... unheard of in my world. The reason was that ZCon is more about the people you get to see and spent time with... as it is the cars. The cars might bring you together but it's getting to see Damon, Mindi and Greg and the twinturbo.net events that they put together... getting to see Bernie and the NoVA crew ( waves to Ashley, Adam, Carl and Spencer! ) for the first time since the Dallas Zcon... it's getting to see Halo work his camera magic in person ( I need more practice and a real flash )... getting to meet Luis and his ZCon team ( Russell, Ken, Miles, Chris and Ron ) and then enjoying the fruits of their hard labor the whole week... getting to see fellow Texans like Rodel, Jeff, Doug, Pete, and Mitch... Kyle seemly hard at work 24/7, Sean with the evil twin and Kuah with his track only monster.... Z-less travelers like Pat and Ahmed... getting to watch Guapo and AliaZ track their cars for the what seems like forever ago... getting to see Woody and Ron with their award winning cars come from Colorado... even ex Z owners like Brian and Nazeer were a welcome sight. The car show was fun. Getting to see so many different Z models in one place is always a treat. The work that goes into some of these automobiles is mind boggling. It can also be a bit dangerous as there's always something to see or learn about... that just might work on your car... Congrats to Glenn from the ZCoT with his Gold Cup winning Z32. Track day was another fun day. Z's and a road course are always a winning combination... and Harris Hill Road is a tight, fun, and challenging track. With what seemed like small run groups... open track time was available each session. Somehow I think I was only passed 4 times all day... 2 of those coming in the last session with Brian and Barry in their pesky Lotii... When Damon gets his fuel pick up problems sorted... I'll be toast out there! The day was nice and cool ( for Texas ) and other than Z-Labs' fuel pump problems... I think everyone's car went home in the same condition that they started with. Greg, Damon, and Mindi had 2 twinturbo events lined up for us.... the annual dinner and the cruise to Shiner, TX. The dinner was a blast... seeing and admiring the Z32's lined up outside and the raffle giveaways inside. Good people and good fun. The drive to Shiner and brewery tour was great... seeing all the cars lined up traveling down the freeway and the tour to a building I haven't seen in over 30yrs. Raising money for the town's park was a really nice touch... and one that was greatly appreciated by the town. I was fortunate enough to have Jennifer join me for this years ZCon. Unfortunately Jenn didn't get out much... she had to work most days in the hotel.... Working at home is great but it means you are able to work from most anywhere... even ZCon. She worked during the car show and cruise.... then conveniently she slept through track day.... ( 5a.m. wake-up!?!?! who's idea was this ) but was able to go to Shiner and the downtown tour later that night. We had a nice walk up and down the famed river walk... got to once again see the outside of the Alamo... and got ripped off on this stupid... stupid... expensive tourist trap garbage game like thingy outside the Alamo that was so bad and short it wasn't even worth going in at quarter the price. Glad she paid. :) The cruise may have been the most pleasant surprise of the week. Any drive trough the Texas Hill Country is a good drive provided you know the proper roads and don't stuck behind some Winnebago going 15mph. I've done hundreds of miles on my motorcycle back when dad and I used to ride down there on a regular basis.... so I decided to join the 'spirited' run group hoping to have a bit more of a fun drive. I'll just say that it was the most fun I've had behind the wheel that did not involve a road course. The event was run by someone who does these 'cruises' on a regular basis... the planning... the particular roads... the maps... the radios... the scout... the speeds! He's been there and done that.... and it showed. It was spirited... and it was fun. Enough said. Still grinning actually. At the dinner it was fun watching Mad Mike work a room... especially the auction... the man knows everyone by name it seems! We got to listen to Mr K live from Japan... good connection or bad... the man still has tons on that automotive mind of his. Luis told everyone that the charity chosen for ZCon was the Leukemia Foundation so Greg got up and talked about the the work they do and story of his daughter and her successful battle with this disease. Some of the money collected during the auction went to the charity as did the fees for the cruise. It was nice moment getting Damon,Mindi, Greg, and the twinturbo people noticed for the money raised on the Shiner tour. The car awards were handed out with many familiar faces winning awards... Woody, Roy, Rodel, and Glenn with his Gold Cup Z32. The next day we all left.... Tim and Roy were gone before I got up at 7.... The NoVa group pulled out sometime around 8 behind Greg.... Jenn and I left around 8:30 and nearly lost the trailer because I decided to be a moron that morning and insert the holding pin in the hitch before I inserted the ball assembly.... Amazingly we got all the way down near the San Antonio Airport before I noticed that I could see the trailer in my side mirror... that can't be good. Luckily all that happened was some weight savings on the underside of the ball assembly... Thanks goodness for chains. So sorry this got so wordy... not exactly what I had in mind this morning when I decided to post my pics. All in all it was a really enjoyable week of good people and fun cars. Once again thanks to Luis and the 2009 ZCon crew for a job well done. Thanks again to Damon, Greg, and Mindi for the twinturbo.net events. And thanks to all the people I got to see again or meet for the first time. Can't wait to do it all again next year. Be seeing you in Nashville.Tu.
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17:02:57 10/02/09
