CRAB 37 – A Fun and Crabby Weekend

The Lima’s and the Smith’s met in Minden at noon on May 18th and left for Sacramento just minutes before Kingsbury Grade was closed for the “Tour of California” bicycle race. After navigating South Lake Tahoe, it was a smooth drive down Hwy 50 to the Hilton Garden Inn in Sacramento where they found Paul and Cindi Christensen. Then it was off to the CRAB Welcome Party at the California Auto Museum where they found Ron and Denise Lewis. Following registration, the attendees sampled appetizers and wine and toured the museum with its interesting displays of cars and auto memorabilia. Some attendees competed to complete a quiz of museum knowledge. The Smith’s observed the Funcana but declined to compete when they discovered it entailed driving your car blindfolded around a course, including parking and backing up, with the co-driver giving directions. Seemed a bit chancy with 530 hp under the right foot and could possibly lead to instant divorce.

All four Sierra Nevada Region couples had signed up for the CRAB driving tour that set off early Saturday morning through the back roads of the Sacramento Valley farm country. The last half of the tour wound along the Sacramento River, where it crossed and re-crossed the river, as if trying to cross every bridge that spans the river at least twice.  Beautiful old homes, quaint towns, and boats on the river gave us plenty to see while the tour twisted and turned its way atop the levee roads. The end of the tour found us at Detail Maniacs for a hamburger and hot dog lunch. Each couple then returned separately to the hotel to rest up for the CRAB banquet extravaganza that Saturday evening. The banquet brought us back to the museum for the “all you can eat” Dungeness crab feast.  A great salad, yummy pasta, and a good dessert rounded out the menu. The “all Sacramento region” Speedster band provided lively dance music, featuring tunes spanning 6 decades.

Sunday morning saw the Smith’s competing for the “Crabbiest Car” in the Concours de Crab, while the Christensen’s chose to participate in the CRAB rally. Our Vice-President, Jim Hemig showed up to view the concours, along with Don from EBS and Jim’s friend from the Porsche group in Grass Valley. The beer and brats luncheon and award ceremony followed the Concours, after the rally groups had completed their runs. At the luncheon there were awards for Crabbiest Person, Crabbiest Car, best quiz, Rally winners, as well as many door prizes. Paul and Cindi Christensen were recognized as 2 of the 4 people who had attended all 37 CRAB events and also won 1st place in their rally group. Although Ozzie and Millie Smith did not win Crabbiest car, they did win a $150 detail package from Detail Maniacs. The master of ceremonies insisted that each winner take a package or two of oatmeal cookies along with their award, to reduce the surplus of cookies left over from lunch and the welcome party. One or two winners were quick enough to escape without oatmeal cookies.

This event is sponsored biannually by the Sacramento region, so if you want a fun weekend, look for it in 2020.