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New MembersGerd Appel- 2008 Cayman S

Marla Podesta- 2013 Boxster SKurt Spycher- 2005 911Oliver Vine- 1949 356

TranfersNo Transfers

AnniversariesName Expires

Jim and Wendy Coddington 1/31/16George and Darrin Coe 1/31/16

Rodney and Susan Johnson 1/31/16Blair and Terri Reese 1/31/16

Eduardo and Diana Villarama 1/31/16Joseph and Maria Jocelyn Gayagoy 1/31/16

Fernando Olaguez 1/31/16Phillip and Alberta Corzine 1/31/16Gary and Dondra Dingman 2/29/16

W and Cathy Kuhn 2/29/16David Nilan 2/29/16

William Brady 2/29/16Steve and Beka Wunschel 2/29/16

John Copella 2/29/16

Members 127Affiliate Members 79

Total 206

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Happy New Year to All,

I wanted to introduce myself as the new Zone 7 Rep. I will be tak-ing over for Paul Czopek, who has moved to Arizona.

The Zone 7 banquet for 2015 will be held on Feb. 27th, 2016 at Dave & Buster’s in Milpitas. All are welcome to join us for a fun

evening of awards and a bit of non-driving competition.

Please note, the Zone Website will be undergoing some updating over the next few months. I hope this will make it easier for all to

find info on Zone events.

With the new year comes the Zone Autocross School to be held on March 26th and 27th, 2016 at Marina. Also, mark your calendars now for Sacramento Valley Region’s CRAB weekend May 13th -15th, 2016. This will be a multi-event weekend with something

for everyone from concours, rally, autocross and of course, a crab feed. Hope to see you at an event soon.

Sandy ProvasiZone 7 Rep.

408-947-0980

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Saturday: Autocross, Driving Tour, Walking Tours,Driving Funkhana, CRAB Banquet & Dancing with

Music by The Speedsters

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Zone 7 Awards Banquet Saturday February 27th, 2016

Dave & Busters 940 Great Mall Dr. • Milpitas, CA 95035

6:30 P.M. to 9:30 P.M.

Social Time from 6:30 P.M. to 7:00 P.M. • Dinner at 7:00 P.M. Awards at 8:00 P.M. • Social and Game Time at 8:45 P.M.

Buffet Menu: Veggie Platter

Greek Garden Salad Antipasto alla Caprese Salad with Fresh Mozzarella, Tomatoes and Roasted Peppers

Rosemary Roasted Chicken Breast Classic Vegetable Lasagna Garden Vegetable Medley

Fresh-Baked Rolls with Butter Unlimited Soda, Coffee and Tea

Fruit Cobbler Dinner also includes a game card of $15.00

Cost: $52.00 per person

Please send your check, payable to PCA Zone 7 and mail by Monday 2/22/16 to:

Sandy Provasi 1339 Glen Dell Drive San Jose, CA 95125

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It’s 8 in the morning on Sept. 30 somewhere in western Wyoming. It’s the beginning of the second day of a two-day trip to Rapid City, S.D., and the Black Hills to participate in Porsche Club of Ameri-ca’s Escape to Rushmore 2015.

It’s a trip that could take my wife, Cheri (Hill), me (Dave Hill) and our 2007 911 Carerra (997, automatic/tiptronic) from our home in Modesto to some eight states covering about 4,000 miles in two weeks. Obviously, we took the long way back home, but decid-ed to power drive out there and then use the bulk of the time set aside for our trip to do some exploring after Escape to Rushmore wrapped up.

Having lived in Colorado for more than eight years, we knew what we were in for on the drive from Modesto to Rapid City. As a result, our first stop was in Park City, Utah. It’s about half way and can be reached in 12 hours or less. It also puts you outside of Salt Lake, so when you jump back on Highway 80, there’s no morning com-mute to worry about.

Basically, from Modesto through central Nevada, Utah and Wy-oming, it’s wide open spaces with plenty of places to drop the hammer. With speed limits on the freeways, except approaching and leaving the occasional town, at 80 mph, the Porsche easily gobbled up asphalt and miles in big chunks.

Big rigs and oversized pickups were about all that was on the road as we chose to travel on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Light traffic, clear skies, dry roads, nothing on the radar detector for long stretches. In those conditions, kick on the tunes, ease back and just let the car do it’s thing. So we did.

We would arrive with plenty of time to check in at our hotel in the downtown, across the river from the event headquarters at the massive Holiday Inn. There was even time to wash the car at the washing station set up in the parking lot adjacent to a parking area set aside for Porsches only. And, yes, there was a line of cars wait-ing for a wash -- Porsche owners after all, just like me.

After checking in at the Holiday Inn, we got our itinerary of the days for the various drives and tours we signed up for in advance. Driver briefings were held an hour before departure and started

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promptly -- to our surprise the first day. Cars lined up in designated areas of the parking lot for each group. Group sizes varied from 10-12 cars to more than 30.

There were about 300 cars and 500 people at the event. It was amazing to see so many different Porsches from so many different parts of the country (California, Nebraska, Iowa, Texas, Florida, etc.) and even Canada. It was a reminder of how many different flavors Porsches come in, from the latest, greatest GT3s and GT4s to classic 356s and 912s. And there were plenty of Porsches sport-ing all kinds of aftermarket wheels, wings and body kits. Go-Pro cameras were a popular addition for those wanting to video some of the scenery.

And there was plenty of scenery. Having never been to the Black Hills, Cheri and I were surprised to discover it was much more mountainous and heavily forested than we thought it would be. We had expected rolling hills and grasslands, which we saw lots of heading out there and back, but the Black Hills reminded us of parts of the central Sierra Nevada near Sonora, Murphys and Mariposa.

Our first drive was to see Crazy House and Mount Rushmore. It

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was overcast but the weather was good enough for us to see and photograph both of these amazing monuments. Unfortunately,in the following two days, the weather closed in and folks on those drives weren’t able to see much if anything. But the driving was great because the local club had done an amazing job of finding less traveled routes to take that had plenty of twists and turns.

The next day we took the Northern Hills tour, with stops in Sturgis, Deadwood and the Latchstring Restaurant and Village. Funny to see the streets of Sturgis, home to the world’s largest motorcycle rally, lined with only Porsches -- not a Harley in sight. After lunch at Latchstring and a great drive to Deadwood, we were free to go our own way, so several of us stayed to explore the home of Wild Bill and Calamity Jane. We visited a couple of museums, Boot Hill where the pair is buried and a saloon where locals conduct a reen-actment of the “Assassination of Wild Bill.”

Our final day was a tour of the Southern Hills, which would take us through Custer State Park and the Black Hills National Forest. This would bring some of the most challenging driving, with rain-slick roads and foggy conditions. The Iron Mountain Road and the Needles thread their way up steep grades with switchbacks, blind corners and one-lane stretches with a series of tunnels just big enough to accommodate one Porsche at a time.

Despite the weather and road conditions, this proved the most spirited driving during three days of pretty spirited driving, but no accidents and to my knowledge no tickets -- although one fellow did get a warning for trying to keep up a little too aggressively through Rapid City.

We had planned to take the Badlands tour on our final day, but the intensity of the first drive and prospect of hopping back in the car for 10 hours the next day to start our trip home convinced us the Badlands would have to wait till next time.

That evening, there was a farewell dinner. It was a chance to chat up some of the great people we met during our time there. So many nice folks from so many different backgrounds with one important thing in common: Their cars. So getting one last opportu-nity to interact with them, share stories, exchange contact informa-tion was a perfect ending to a well thought out, well organized and well executed event.

Cheri and I would hit the road early the next morning, the hotel

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parking area set aside for Porsches now quickly emptying out. We would make it to Bozeman, Montana, with a quick detour to Devil’s Tower (featured in the movie Close Encounters). From Bozeman, we would head to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, an amazing leg of the trip on scenic Highway 90 through the mountains and over the passes. Sunny, in the 60s, light mid-week traffic -- perfect.

From Coeur d’Alene, we would make it to our niece’s home in Salem, Ore., driving along Highway 84 through the Columbia River Gorge, with a stop for lunch at the historic Columbia Gorge Hotel and a self-inflicted detour on the old gorge highway to see all the waterfalls and the amazing gorge overlook.

After a couple of days in Salem, including a visit to Portland and the David Hill Winery (no relation, but I couldn’t pass up my name-sake winery) we would stay in Lincoln City, Ore., at our niece’s beach house for a few days, and then head south to Grants Pass, Ore. After relaxing overnight there, it was an easy one-day drive back to Modesto.

A lot of driving to be sure. But well worth every mile. Saw some great country, met some great people and had the chance to see just what that little black car I purchased about a year ago would really do. It didn’t disappoint, nor did Escape to Rushmore. Both were everything my wife and I hoped for.

Can’t wait for the next one.

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