Mike and Bob’s Excellent Auto Tour - April 22 -23, 2023
Well, another M-BEAT is in the books, and we really had another great time. The group began arriving at Denny’s restaurant on the Carefree Highway and I-17 at around 7:00 a.m. It was sure great to see folks arriving for this event as we had 28 participants in total. It was a magical cadre of members including folks we haven’t seen in a while to folks coming in from out of state, a new member and his wife participating for the first time as well as a possible new Mercedes enthusiast kicking the club’s tires for the first time. Of course, there was a group of folks that are regular attendees of clubs functions that made the new members and out of towners feel special. The M-BEAT tour leader explained the history of the M-BEAT and how this driving event was honoring both Mike Goodwin original founder of the BEAT and Bob Yoder who carried BEAT tradition on as the M-BEAT. After breakfast which was graciously paid for by Mark Miller who was doing double duty as an event co-planner and group photographer, we started our pilgrimage toward Coffinger Park in Wickenburg. This first stop is designed to be a bathroom break, a place for folks that might be coming from other cities to catch up as well as a place where we could get a group picture. Once the group picture was taken and the non-Mercedes Benz cars properly christened for the event the group proceeded toward our next destination which was The Palace Restaurant and Saloon in Prescott. Amazingly, the group was able to make the 11:00 reservation within a window of +/-10 minutes. The Palace seated the group in a private separate area and assigned two top drawer servers who brough us a great lunch. After lunch, the group broke up. Folks proceed to Little American in Flagstaff through a variety of different routes. Some up to Ashfork and over to Williams, some over Mingus Mountain, through Jerome and Sedona and a few over to Montezuma’s Castle to view this attraction before heading to the hotel.
Everyone made it to Little America Hotel, and those that wanted a picture with their car had those taken by our photographer. As you might guess, all ended up at the bar for happy hour and lively camaraderie prior to dinner. In fact, at dinner the last of our group made it to the hotel as they had come up from Tucson representing the Chaparral’s which is the club’s other Arizona section that serves members in Southern Arizona. They used the well detailed driving directions and caught up with the main group at dinner. They were very impressed with the detail put into the directions and ran the route with no problems. Credit for these detailed directions goes to John Hutchison who has honed this into an art. The group took every high-top table in the bar except for one before breaking for dinner. Little America’s bar and dinner wait staff where simply outstanding! The food was great and of course the accommodations were enjoyed by everyone in attendance. At dinner Rich Leamon asked the group for a moment of silence honoring both Mike Goodwin and Bob Yoder. With that dinner was ordered and served. As you might imagine dinner turned in to a wonderful social event. May new acquaintances were made; many old acquaintances were re-kindled and clubs’ members having “fun with their friends and benz”. The last group of the dinner party found itself in the lobby of the hotel sharing wine and stories that were fun, interesting and didn’t end until around midnight.
The next morning folks began meeting at the restaurant at around 8 for breakfast. Before 9 more than half of the group was in attendance with more arriving as others began to depart for the trip back to their homes. Again, Little America graced us with a fabulous server and excellent breakfast. Lots of discussion and laughter was had by all. By 10 a.m. the author of this write up and his wife had departed towards Phoenix. I know several members were going to use the St. Mary’s Road route and head towards Payson for lunch. Some of the group left for Sedona and lunch among the red rocks, and some headed directly back to Phoenix. It sure seemed that a great time was had by all. I do want to thank both Mark Miller and John Hutchison for helping plan this year’s event. I sincerely appreciate all attendees for making this a blast and just plain easy.