8
January - February 2022
The View From My Office
With Kat Monteiro
It is with a heavy heart that I sit down to write this ar cle. On January 11, 2022, we lost another Mopar Master and dear friend, Mike Gerber. Mike became ill and went into the hospital on Christmas and never made it back home. He will be missed so much by so many. But especially by his wife Sherrie, who he was married to for the past 34 years. There was never a doubt about how much they loved each other. What I remember about Mike is that he had this way about him. He was quiet, and calm, always had a li le smirk of a smile on his face and could make friends easily. One of my favorite of memories of Mike is when we all converged on Park City, Utah for a Performance Group mee ng. Rick and some of the other guys went to play golf (No surprise there! And yes Marvin Windham, Dan Hu on, Allen Yancey - you and some others all tagged along with him!!) The rest of us headed to Sherrie’s Mom and Dad’s house in Midway. It was so nice, we had some tea and snacks, then walked around their beau ful yard. Then it was “Road Trip” me! My favorite thing. We loaded up the rental mini vans - I think Mike was driving a Toyota and Paul Allred was driving a Caravan. I was in the Caravan with Paul, Barbara, and Charlsee & John Gilbert. In the other vehicle, Mike had all the girls! Sherrie, Laura, Wanda, Jamie and Sharon Olsen! Well we ended up going up this dirt road - no big deal because Paul’s Garmin GPS said the main road was just up ahead. So, on and on we went. Things were ge ng pre y bumpy and sketchy. Should we turn around? Heck no! The main road is just ahead! There was a point when there were more rocks in the road and that made us stop to deliberate about if we should go on or turn around. It was such a beau ful view from up there. Well, I voted we should just keep going and I guess I won because that is what we did. There was one point that Mike let all the girls out of his van so he could make it up this li le hill. I will let you know the Caravan made it up fine! (Even though I was encouraging Paul to go go go!!) There was one point we were going along and the road became not so much of a road any more as it was a large trail. We encountered these guys out riding their dirt bike motorcycles who rode up to us and asked us what the hell we were doing all the way out here! Well Paul just told them we were out for a drive and looking for the main road! They just shook their heads, and seemed like they were thinking, “those crazy tourists in their rented vans”! Continued on Page 9
Mopar Masters Guild Magazine
