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From YourSITE.com Events Coverage Sometimes it’s hard to imagine that it’s been seven years since the inagural TT-West took place at Nakoma, just northwest of Lake Tahoe. The first TT-West location was chosen due to its association with the world renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright, to coincide with the inagural TT-East celebration which took place at Fallingwater, one Wright’s most famous works. The point being that the amazing surroundings of the Sierra Nevada mountains played a secondary role in the choice of this particular location.
I’ll say it right upfront, next year’s event has its work cut out for it! While the event was based in the Historic Ashland Springs Hotel in downtown Ashland, the drives covered some of the most spectacular scenery southern Oregon and northern California has to offer. The crowning jewel was the drive on Saturday to Crater Lake National Park, or Big Blue as it’s often referred to due to the incredibly deep blue color of the water. In order to shake things up a bit, the organizers, Gina Castle and Peter Grabowski took a slightly different approach to the event and provided just enough activities, which allowed people more time on their own to explore the many hidden treasures that Ashland and its surrounding area has to offer. While the event officially opened with early registration on Thursday evening, a tour of the local wineries with Ashland Wine Tours [http://www.ashlandwinetours.com] was offered as an option for Thursday morning. A total of about ten attendees hopped in the van for a tour several Applegate Valley wineries, which are located just west of Jacksonville Oregon, between Ashland and Grants Pass. While not nearly as well known as Oregon’s Willamette Valley, the Applegate Valley is an up and coming wine region which specializes in Merlots, Cabernets and a variety of Rose blend wines. Needless to say, no one was disappointed with the reasonably priced wines and most everyone walked off the van with numerous bottles in tow. As with past events, the majority of attendees started rolling in on Thursday from all over the country. While “local” Russ Scott from Jacksonville, Oregon probably could have walked to the event, others came from as far away as Jacksonville Florida, Ohmaha Nebraska and Duncan Oklahoma had a slightly longer commute. A total of sixty three people and an estimated forty Audi TTs were in attendance at the event, including representatives of the events many sponsors. In addition to all the first generation TT’s, three new second generation MKII TT’s also attended – one on loan by Audi of America to Fourtitude and two via Sunset Audi in Portland Oregon. For many, this was their first opportunity to see the new TT, both in coupe and roadster form, as well as be able to sign up to drive either or both of Sunset Audi’s vehicles during the upcoming two days of planning driving excursions.
REVO has been the primary sponsor for TT-West now for several years and Rene and Dan from Hillside Imports were in attendance providing REVO flashing for those who were looking for a bit of a performance boost prior to the drives. With Thursday night open, many took advantage of the excellent local restuarants in downtown Ashland or simply window shopped the many art galleries and local establishments. Ashland is famous for hosting the Oregon Shakespeare festival, which takes place between February and October, and I’m sure at least a few attendees caught one of the many performances. As the crowd gathered in the lobby of the hotel on Friday morning, you could feel the excitement building for the day’s events. The planned drive was through historic Jacksonville Oregon to Grants Pass and then on to Crescent City California, on the far northern reaches of the California coast. The drive went through Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park in California, which was established in 1929. The predominately old growth coast redwoods park is bisected by the Smith River, the last major free flowing river in California. With the prospect of driving one of the most scenic roads that Oregon and California have to offer looming ahead as well as an opportunity to drive the new TT, you would think everyone would be ready to roll to the coast. However, the organizers threw everyone a big curveball and offered an option to stop in Grants Pass and take a ride on the Rogue River in a jetboat courtesy of Hellgate Jet Boat Excursions [http://www.hellgate.com/Splash]. The lure of this amazing adventure was too hard to pass up for a majority of the attendees opted to try it out, which left a small group heading out to Crescent City California to finish the drive. With ten TT’s in tow, including the two new TT demo cars, our group headed down Highway 199 towards the coast. After stopping at the coast and pestering a Crescent City local for a good place to eat, the group headed to the Chart Room for lunch and then hit the road back home, retracing the route back on Highway 199, with a stop and short hike through a grove of old growth coastal redwoods thrown in for good measure. Upon returning to the Hotel later that afternoon and speaking with those who participated in the Jet Boat Excursion, it was easy to see that they had a great, ableit watersoaked time.
By the time Saturday morning had rolled around, it was apparent that everyone had plenty of opporutnities catch up with old friends, meet some new ones and get a lot of the “car talk” out of their system. The time had finally arrived to take the long and winding road up to Crater Lake National Park. Crater Lake is located in the the Cascade Mountain range, 100 miles east of the Pacific Ocean. It lies inside a caldera, or volcanic basin, created when the 12,000 foot high Mount Mazama collapsed 7,700 years ago following a large eruption. That’s not a misprint, we’re talking 7,700 years ago! With no inlets or outlets to the Lake, it’s the winter snow, which averages about 533 inches per year, that supplies the lake with water. At 1,943 feet deep, it is the seventh deepest lake in the world and the deepest in the United States. With the group rolling out of the hotel, the mountains just east of Ashland loomed ahead as we headed up Green Springs Road for the first leg of the journey. It was apparent that Russ Scott and John Wiegert had done their homework. The route was simply remarkable. It offered narrow twisty sections followed by long wide straights, all on decent good quality pavement. With a couple stops along the way to regroup and offer some photo opportunites, the caravan of TTs eventually made it to the Visitors Center at Crater Lake and then finally up to the top for the annual group shot. Like all previous days, the weather couldn’t have been any better, with blue skies intermixed with a few clouds here and there and relatively warm temperatures that, along with the deep blue of the lake and snow, covered peaks contributed to a perfect backdrop for the group car shot. After enjoying the sack lunch provided by the event, everyone set off in smaller groups to explore Crater Lake or head back to the hotel or explore the many sights in and around the area.
In keeping with the past TT-West tradition, the event wraps up with a dinner and raffle on Saturday night at the host hotel where the sponsors of the event contribute lots of TT and car related prizes to be raffled off. Some of the most notable prizes were the Audi Club of North America certificate good for one Audi Club driving event of your choice this year, a gift certificate from REVO for a free ECU flash, AWE’s boost gauge vent kit and a gift certificate from Modshack for the intake of your choice. Sunset Audi also provided a variety of TT related items such as small and large MKII TT die cast cars, watches, hats and other goodies. After the prizes were raffled off and the event concluded, many people stuck around to talk TT or to say their goodbyes, as most were leaving early Sunday morning to drive home. As an attendee at all but one of the past events, it was readily apparent that the friendships created both old and new at these events are as important as the cars themselves. Everyone was eager to find out what was in store for 2008. The organizers announced that 2008 might bring a whole new format for TT-West which would consist of a travelling caravan that would travel both the north and southwest parts of the Country. That should be interesting.
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