Woodies at the Rock 2023

One of our most favorite Woodie runs of the year was just held the first weekend in October. For JoAnn and I, next to Woodies on the Wharf, the trip down to California’s Central Coast including Cambria and Morro Bay to attend Woodies at the Rock ranks as the most enjoyable Woodie show of the year. One we look forward to every year.

This event is well known to the Santa Cruz Woodies and Santa Barbara Woodies Clubs and while not advertised, it never-the-less has been going on for the past twenty-nine years ever since late SCWC member George Benson and current SCWC treasurer Kathryn Benson started it. I recently asked Kathryn to give me a brief history of the beginnings of Woodies at the Rock as I never knew the real background story.

Kathryn replied as follows: 

“Back in the early 90’s, the only Woodie gathering was at Wavecrest.  Even though George and I enjoyed our work at Wavecrest along with the Doherty’s and the Kidwell’s, it was still so far away.  So, just for fun, we talked to our friends, made a few calls and had our own woodie gathering in Morro Bay – just locals – and only a very few cars.  To our surprise, we became a “featured” event at the Morro Bay Harbor Festival and found our home in the Wavelengths Surf Shop parking lot.  As usual, one short afternoon with our Woodie family just wasn’t enough, so we started hosting the “after party” at our home – just to extend an event that was, at that time, the final event of the season.  The Harbor Festival was always the first Saturday in October, so we adopted that date and have stayed with it for the past 29 years. 

Throughout the years, we have ventured from Morro Bay and were kind of the “traveling” woodie event.  We were featured at Hearst Castle (Woodies at the Castle), have had our event at the Linns Farm (Woodies at the Farm) among the berry vines, and all met at Leffingwell Landing (Woodies in the Woods) for a very damp afternoon.  Eventually we returned home to Morro Bay – Wavelengths – Morro Rock and our permanent name of Woodies at the Rock.  No matter where we traveled, it seemed we always ended up extending our day into the evening, a tradition that continues today. 

At one time, we even gave ourselves a name just in time for our Hearst Castle event – Central Coast Woodies – but this is definitely not an official woodie club – just a bunch of friends getting together to enjoy our cars before we put them to bed for the winter and a relaxed venue to visit with friends, do some shopping, have some food and beverages, and – if we’re lucky – have a sing-along with our favorite troubadour Bob Lopez.” 

Led by our Wagon Masters Joe and Janice Cosgrave nine Woodies made the trip to Cambria from the Bay Area plus additional members in their daily drivers. We had an unscheduled stop in King City for gas and noticed that potential new members John and Vicki Stewart’s ’47 – ‘48 Ford was leaking power steering fluid. Luckily, they drove to a local repair shop where they were able to repair their power steering hose and were then able to continue down to Cambria arriving just in time to join us for late afternoon snacks and refreshments.  After stopping for lunch in Paso Robles at the Su Casa Mexican Restaurant we motored over to Cambria on Highway 46.   

Friday afternoon, we enjoyed drinks and snacks on the patio of the Bluebird Inn.  Unfortunately, another mechanical malady occurred with Jim Vickery’s ’46 Ford when his neutral safety switch failed, and he was unable to start his Woodie. A couple of hours later, after some shade tree mechanical work, Jim got it to run by jury-rigging a new switch sourced from the local hardware store.  Dinner this year was at The Sows Ear restaurant. Later that night, some of us hung out around the cozy firepit at the Bluebird while partaking in some homemade cookies. 

On Saturday morning we drove down to Morro Bay, parked the Woodies at Wavelengths Surf Shop on the Embarcadero. After saying our good mornings and wiping down the cars-headed over to Dorn’s Original Breakers Café for a hearty breakfast overlooking the water.  While waiting for our table we had what ended up being the first-of-three unusual animal encounters when a mourning dove took a liking to Jim Vickery and Woody Yerxa.

After breakfast we broke off into small groups to shop, explore Morro Bay and walk the promenade on the Embarcadero. By 2:30 PM the day was starting to wind down and we left Wavelengths to return to the Bluebird Inn to get ready for the annual Benson Family get-together.  

We drove over to SCWC Treasurer Kathryn Benson’s beautiful home later in the evening, on the way there we had our second animal encounter with a gaggle of wild turkeys. After arriving at the Bensons home, a couple of deer approached Mel and Evie Dias as they were getting out of their car. The deer were as friendly as dogs and got right up into the cars open door. I’ve never seen deer that were so un-afraid of humans as these two were.

Later we enjoyed a great Italian themed dinner; the food was delicious!  The highlight of the evening was the wonderful and obligatory olallieberry cake from Linn’s Bakery that we had for dessert.  SCWC Troubadour Bob Lopez serenated us on guitar with a few favorite classic rock tunes. With the evening coming to a close we thanked our always generous host, said our goodbyes, and drove off into the night back to the Bluebird Inn.  

For those of you who have never made the drive down (or up) to Cambria/Morro Bay for Woodies at the Rock consider going to this relaxing show and enjoying a great time with good friends.  

We hope to see many of you at our next SCW club event which will be the Santa Cruz Downtown Holiday Parade on Saturday December 2, 2023. After that SCWC members can look forward to our annual installation dinner on Saturday January 13, 2024 when after three years as VP and the past year as President, I turn the gavel over to Jim Vickery who will be installed as your new club President.   

Until then…see you down the road.