Volume 24 #4 May, 2014 May 31 Fellows Riverside Garden Cruise Upcoming Events Sep 20 Christmas in September Thu Jun 5 7:00 PM Jun 14 Jun 21 Jun 28 WPMC Monthly Teleconference Meeting Greendance Winery Cruise Holmes Amish Cruise Stramba Farm & Fiber Mill Cruise Sep 27 Oct 4 Oct 11 Dec 6 Foxburg and Glass Blowing Cruise Bellafonte Train Cruise Chautauqua and Wineries Cruise WPMC Christmas Party Thu Jul 3 7:00 PM -Sun Jul 19-20 Jul 26 Thu Jul 31 7:00 PM Aug 9 Aug 16 Aug 23 Sep 13 WPMC Monthly Teleconference Meeting Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix Night of the Living Dead Cruise WPMC Monthly Teleconference Meeting New River Gorge Cruise Coon Cruise WPMC Annual Picnic Golf Outing Fellows Riverside Gardens Cruise - May 31, 2014 by Dennis & Ruthann Weber L ocated near downtown Youngstown, Ohio are twelve acres within the 2882 acres that make up Mill Creek Metro Parks system. The gardens offer a cultural and educational center where people and plants connect. We will be dining in the beautiful Garden Café on Lake Glacier. After lunch, we have time for self guided tours of the gardens, gift shop, and art gallery at the visitor center. We will enjoy all kinds of roads through West Virginia and Ohio, from four lane divided highways to our much loved two lane curvy Miata back roads. I am estimating about four to five hours of driving and ending the cruise by 5:00 PM. Please RSVP to me by May 15, 2014 at zoomtopless@live.com or 724-342-1296. The chef needs a head count. (continued on page 2)
2 (continued from page 1) Meeting Place: GET GO Gas Station 6513 Steubenville Pike Route 60 Robinson Township PA 15205 1/4 mile East of I 376 Parkway West. GPS: N40.44742' W80.16355' Located on the corner of Park Manor Drive. Landmarks are: Staples, Ditkas, Eat&Park. Plan to arrive in time to fill the tank and empty the other. We will leave promptly at 8:45 AM. RSVP by May 15, 2014 to us at 724-342-1296 or zoomtopless@live.com Greendance Winery at Sand Hill in Mt. Pleasant by Richard & Leeanna Ryba T his is more than just a wine cruise as it will also include a bit of Westmoreland County history as we ZOOM-ZOOM around the county. At Greendance, they offer over 40 wines free for tasting every day and also offer a variety of gourmet snack and sandwich options for around $9. There is a possibility that a full luncheon may be available. An added benefit is being able to purchase a delicious dessert of pies and cookies made from the berries on the farm. Yum! Date/Time: urday, June 14. Meet at 9:30am to leave on the cruise by 10:00am Meeting Place: The Sheetz parking lot at 4701 Wm Penn Hwy (Rt.22) & School Rd RSVP: To Richard and Leeanna Ryba, Phone: 724-337- 8372 Email: rybar@nb.net Holmes Amish Cruise by Michael & Sandy Butler J oin Michael & Sandy Butler on an Amish Day car cruise to Holmes County, Ohio. After a short drive on Route 22, we'll hit the windy roads of Route 250W around scenic Tappan Lake, where we will make our first pit stop for a picturesque view of the lake. From there, journey through Sugar Creek, Walnut Creek and end in Berlin, Ohio where we'll do some shopping in this quaint Amish town. After that, we'll drive back to Sugar Creek, where we'll enjoy some Amish cooking at the Dutch Valley (Der Dutchman) Restaurant. After lunch, take time to visit the Dutch Valley Bakery, Cheese Shop and Dutch Valley Gifts & Coop. Then we'll drive up the road for a Wine Tour and tasting at Breitenbach Wine Cellars. On the way home, we'll stop for ice cream. Date & Time: urday June 21, 2014, Meet 8:00 A.M. Leave promptly at 8:30 A.M. Meeting Place: Shop N Save Parking Lot, 600 Marketplace Drive, Oakdale, PA 15071 (Imperial Exit - Route 30W/978S) Cost: Wine tour and tasting is $25, which will be divided among all participants. Limit: 15 Cars RSVP: mbutler@westpennmiataclub.com or call 412-498-0962 by June 18th. Stramba Alpaca Farm by Wally and Sherry Swarmer C ome pet an Alpaca at Stramba Alpaca farm in Wampum, PA. On urday, June 28, we will meet at the Target in Gibsonia. (550 Grandview Crossing; RT 8 app. 2 miles North of the PA turnpike exit 39 (Butler Valley)). We'll leave at 9:30 for about a 1 1/2 hour drive to the farm. We'll spend about 1 1/2 hour there, and then off to lunch at Shakespeare's Pub at Olde Stonewall Golf Club, Ellwood City. Save room for ice cream. From lunch we'll take a short drive to Katie's Korner ice cream shop (continued on page 3)
3 (continued from page 2) for our last stop of the day. At this point we'll be close to Rt 79 near Zelienople, so the cruise will end there at app. 4:00. RSVP to wsswarmer@consolidated.net or 724-443- 0834. Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix By Bob Coon P lease plan to join us for this wonderful annual event that includes the International Car Show on urday, July 19th. We will again have a 20 by 20 tent and tables for our use to shade us from the hot sun and to rest our legs after admiring all the beautiful cars on display scattered across the golf course. There are typically 30-40 Miatas parked in our designated area for the urday car show. All cars must be registered. Preregistration is recommended, but registration can also be done on urday morning. The tent is available for Sunday use, the day of the races. For more information about the week long event and preregistration visit www.pvgp.org. Next month's newsletter will detail more specifics about the club activities on urday. Night of the Living Dead Cruise By John and Shar Whitmire P lease join us as we cruise curvy, back roads over hilly farmland on our quest to find vintage Zombies. We will be driving through beautiful countryside and visiting the infamous graveyard where scenes from "Night of the Living Dead" were filmed and our group picture will be memorialized. Then on to the Zombie Museum, the only one in Pennsylvania...or so we've been told. In keeping with our theme, lunch will follow at a wonderful restaurant that has pitchforks for door handles. Following lunch there will be more cruising to the inevitable ice cream delight. A sophisticated cruiser will have watched the movie before coming on the cruise, as there will be a quiz, and prizes awarded! For nostalgic film lovers, this cruise will be ghoulish good fun! Date & Time: July 26, 2014 - Cars need to be at the Dairy Queen by 9:00am. We'll have our drivers meeting and leave promptly at 9:15am. Place: Zelienople Dairy Queen parking lot adjacent to Northgate Plaza (BiLo Grocery) approximately 1/2 mile north of Zelienople on Rt.19. We'll gather in the Dairy Queen parking lot, next to Burger King. Cost: $3.00 per person for the Zombie Museum (please have correct change) RSVP: We are limiting our cruise to 15 cars in addition to ourselves so please make your reservation ASAP by emailing johnandshar1@comcast.net or by calling 412-716-4314. Heinz Field Cruise By Candy & Jerry Spehar R emember when the Beatles sang the lyrics "Little darling it's been a long cold, lonely winter"? Well Brother has it ever been one of those! But finally the harbinger of spring, our first Miata cruise of the season arrived on May 3rd. Sixteen hardy souls in nine Miatas met at the Sheetz in Wexford ready to begin a new cruising season. With temperatures a brisk 48 degrees the only sane course of action was "Tops up, everybody". Lead by our President Larry Pietropaoli and First Lady Patty, our band set out at 9:00 a.m. sharp. Our course took us first to Bradford Woods, then down past the State Game Lands and into Economy Borough. From there we drove through Bell Acres and into Sewickley Heights. Country estates lined both sides of the road and the newly budding trees didn't block our view of the mansions that they hide in the summer. From there we traveled through the down town business district of Sewickley. Now a days they call it Sewickley Village, don't ask me why. Our route then took us back into the Heights on some roads that are traveled by few. I thought I knew all of the roads in this area, but Larry found a few new ones. We then headed through Ohio River Boulevard and to Pittsburgh's North Side. We arrived at our lunch stop, (continued on page 4)
4 (continued from page 3) Max's Allegheny Tavern, at about 11:00. The sun finally came out to welcome our band of travelers. Did you know it's called Max's "Allegheny" Tavern because that area of the north side used to be called Allegheny which was a separate city from Pittsburgh? The area was annexed by the city of Pittsburgh; some say it was gobbled up by Pittsburgh in 1907. Speaking of gobbling, enough history, back to lunch. Our server Diane met us at the door and led us to a private dining area in the Ratskeller where our tables awaited us. We enjoyed a delicious lunch of German fare and even had time for a tasty dessert. It was back to our cars after lunch where we lined up for the short drive to Heinz Field. There we were met by our tour guide Theresa. Wait a minute, Theresa... Heinz Field... could this be the famous pickle heiress Theresa Heinz? But no, our Theresa is a retired school teacher from Murrysville. Theresa gave us an in depth tour of both the public and behind the scenes working areas of Heinz Field. Our visit included the visitors' locker room (rather Spartan), Steelers locker room (rather plush), the press box, the Steeler offices, a private box and finally a trip through the tunnel and onto the field. Joe and Linda took lots of pictures, proving that we are all rather small compared to the Steeler players. Theresa gave us lots of interesting facts. Did you know it cost $258,000,000 to build Heinz Field? And did you know that NCAA rules prohibit visiting the Pitt Panther locker room? Finally we stopped at the Steeler souvenir shop where we encouraged some out of town visitors to spend lots of money. After our tour rapped up, it was back to the Miatas for a drive out Route 28 to Millvale. Yes Route 28 is still under construction. When will it be done, you might ask. Never. Anyway, Millvale is the home of a great French bakery Jean Marcs; however he closes at 2:00 on urdays. If you are ever in Millvale you must stop and try it, it's great. Our stop in Millvale was Rita's for our customary ice cream treat. In this case it was custard or Italian ice. Either way it was all good. Thanks and a tip of the hat to Larry and Patty for putting together a very different and interesting cruise. 2014 CRUISIN & ZOOMIN SEASON BY LINDA ZIMLIKI T he Zoomin Season has started! We've had our first cruise with some great roads and a very interesting tour of Heinz Field. There are plenty more to come. There have been some changes to the 2014 schedules. June 7, Burtner House, Aug 2, Bigler Rocks and Aug 30 - Sept 1, Topless In the Mountains have been cancelled. Burtner House and Bigler Rocks leaders had changes in their lives so they had to cancel their cruises. Topless In the Mountains didn t have enough participation. They had to make a decision out of respect for the hotel and people's holiday plans. Reminder to cruise leaders, your article with details of your cruise is due to Steve for inclusion in the newsletter the month before the date of your cruise. Example: If your cruise is in the month of July then your article would be due for June's newsletter. Details of upcoming cruises will be in the newsletter and on the website forum. Mazda USA is having an event at their Laguna Seca Raceway on August 15-17. There is a Mazda Corral which will cost $25. For details go to mazdaraceway.com or call 800-327-7322 Zoom Zoomm Zoommm June Deadline The deadline for articles for the June newsletter is June 7, 2014
5 25th Anniversary Edition On May 20,2014 at 10:25 am PDT, the pre-order Microsite will go live. _ If you are one of the 100 lucky customers you will be directed to a Mazda Dealership to finalize the transaction. _ Customers who have completed the pre-order process will be contacted by Mazda North American Operations to confirm purchase intent. T wo weeks ago, the MX-5 Miata 25th Anniversary Edition was unveiled at the New York International Auto Show. With its signature Soul Red paint, Almond interior, Brilliant Black exterior and Red stitched interior details, this special vehicle has drawn your attention and for all the right reasons. This is an exclusive car in very limited supply -only 100 will be available in North America. If you would like to reserve your MX-5 Miata 25th Anniversary Edition vehicle here are some important details and dates: On May 1st, 2014, there will be a MX-5 Miata 25th Anniversary Edition microsite on the Mazdausa.com website. This microsite will feature: _ A countdown clock to 10:25am PDT on May 20th, when the pre-order system will be open. _ Vehicle MSRP. _ Option for a reminder to be sent on May 19th (day before pre-order date) Additional Information When the MX-5 Miata 25th Anniversary Edition microsite opens, interested parties will be asked to complete a registration form where they can select their choice of transmission and preferred Mazda dealership location. The first 100 verified registrants will be given the opportunity to pre-order an anniversary model. Any attempt at multiple entries will void that participant's offer and disqualify them from the program. The pre-order program will run through 11:25 AM PDT, May 31, 2014, or when 250 customers have registered, whichever comes first. All 100 MX-5 Miata 25th Anniversary Edition buyers will go through an exclusive pre-order process for their vehicle. Registered customers will be contacted directly by MNAO to confirm purchase intent. Upon verification, the customer's information will be forwarded to the dealership of their choosing to finalize the transaction. Additionally, MX-5 Miata 25th Anniversary Edition owners each will receive a custom-crafted Tourneau watch and display winder box. The Swiss-made, stainless steel watch sports Italian-made genuine leather black straps with contrast red stitching and a deployant buckle. At 42 millimeters in diameter, the watch features a genuine sapphire crystal face with an anti-glare coating, as well as a genuine sapphire crystal on the see-through case back to showcase the watch movement and rotor. The exhibition case back features a 25-jewel ETA 2824-2 movement with special two-tone Cotes de Geneve decor. Each watch and display set also will feature MX-5 and 25th Anniversary logos. Starting at $32,205 MSRP, the top-of-the-line 25th Anniversary Edition model offers trim-exclusive features such as hand-selected pistons, connecting rods and flywheel to deliver an engine that revs more freely with extraordinary response and acceleration. With only 100 vehicles for sale in the U.S., all anniversary models are outfitted in a deep Soul Red Metallic exterior coat with A-pillars, windshield (continued on page 6)
6 (continued from page 5) surround, outside mirrors and a standard PRHT in contrasting Brilliant Black. Seventeen-inch Dark Gunmetal aluminum alloy wheels wrapped in 205/45R17-84W tires and black front combination lamp bezels complete its premium exterior. The interior is outfitted with exclusive Almond leather seats and door trim with a satin chrome finish used on the louver rings, gauge cluster meter rings and inner door handles. Brilliant Black reappears in the form of the seatback garnish with Piano Black featured on the steering wheel spokes. Genuine black leather wraps the steering wheel, parking brake lever, armrests and manual transmission shift lever boot. The contrast color theme continues with distinctive red stitching used on all soft touch points. The decorative instrument panel features a hand-painted Piano Black and red paint gradation with aluminum alloy pedals offering added interior flair. G Boomin' Zoomers by President Larry Pietropaoli reetings, all, and welcome. This is just a short message to alert you to some interesting information that may interest you. If you are anxiously waiting to see the 2015 Miata MX- 5, join the club. Like you, I have heard release dates from February to June. Being first with the new model is going to take a little longer. The new design stories just keep getting better and better. If you follow the success of Mazda in terms of sales and financials, the FY 2014 results are available at miata.net. Good news. Pat & I sponsored the first cruise of the season on May 3. With a group of "die hard" football fans, we braved weather, traffic, and baseball fans to tour seldom seen areas of Heinz field. Areas of interest included the press box, home and visitor locker rooms, "The Tunnel" and "Hall Of Fame". You might say that it is only May, but remember, the NFL Draft is right around the corner. Exclusive 25th Anniversary Edition badging is tastefully etched into the leather headrests and stainless steel door scuff plates. On the exterior, a single anniversary badge is mounted onto the driver's side front fender and features an identifying serial number. This cruise included a short run highlighting great Miata roads in our back yard that can be explored on any warm, sunny afternoon. Continuing to lunch at historic Max's Allegheny Tavern restaurant, we finally arrived at the stadium. The return trip included an inspection of the progress at the Route 28 stretch to Millvale, and our traditional stop at a local Rita's. In all, a nice easy, local cruise to start the season. Thanks again to all who attended.
Officers e-mail: web site: wpmc@westpennmiataclub.com http://www.westpennmiataclub.com Founder: Paul Fronko President: Larry Pietropaoli Vice President: Mike Butler (724) 869-9405 (412) 498-0962 West Penn Club Legalese The FUN N THE SUN TIMES is published as a service by the West Penn Miata Club, Inc. a non-profit corporation. Treasurer: Vera DeMatteis Secretary: Bob Coon Events Chair: Linda Zimliki Past President: Bill Willis (724) 962-2217 (412) 366-0261 (724)327-1762 (724) 226-3461 Editor - In - Chief: Steve Lapp Send all editorial contributions to: WEST PENN MIATA c/o Steve Lapp 105 Gadshill Place Pittsburgh, PA 15237 e-mail: slapp@westpennmiataclub.com The WEST PENN MIATA assumes no liability for any information contained herein; or injury or damage resulting from the use of this information. The ideas, maintenance, opinions, or modification tips expressed are to be used at the readers discretion. Individual contributors and/or editors express no approval, authentication, or endorsement. WEST PENN MIATA c/o Bob Coon 111 Kinross Lane Pittsburgh, PA 15237 West Penn Address goes here Club leave room for mail bar code to go here