Country Roads

A small contingent of Stafford Classics met at the Bob Evans on Sat morning at 6AM! Tony, Kevin, Andrew, Tom, Linda & Chuck.We ate breakfast, formed up and drove to the Sheriff's show in Culpeper, on the way we picked up Dan & Ramona (the Queen says if you don't eat breakfast you can sleep one hour more?). The show was held at Culpeper HS on asphalt, a good thing after all the rain we have had. When we arrived Dallas & Carol and John were there from Custom Cruisers. As the show began unfolding, there were many cars that were new to us and a large group of Culpeper Cruisers with their beautiful cars. There was a red 56 T-bird with a puzzle in front of it, really neat deal. The music was perfect and the food was OK....other vendor activities kept things moving. My sister-in-law brought my Mom to visit....I gave Mom a ride in the RedRat, she didn't understand why it made so much noise! I just said because it can! I thought it was a neat ride since my Dad had a 34 when they were very young and she said she remembered riding in his. The award ceremony went very well....over 1/2 of the top 50 went to vetts and the best of show....another vette? Anyway a lot of other nice cars got recognition especially the blue and yellow 51 Chevy PU....you have to see that one! Of the five Stafford Classics cars that were there we got 5 of the top 50 trophies!....not bad?

After the show we all packed up and headed for the monthly cruise in Orange, VA. Steve and his son got to the Culpepper show late but went with us in his Mustang to Orange. It wasn't far from Culpeper so we thought what the heck, why not go and see what the deal is all about. The cruise 'officially' started at 5PM and we got there at 4 PM so we had the pick of most of the parking lot. We chose a long line with grass and trees behind the cars and with a good view of one of the entrances. I think we must have parked in some of the 'regulars' spots because we were looked at very intently by some as they drove in! This is a very neat cruise, I think it's nicer than the BK in Manassas because in Orange they have music....good music! All oldies you could remember, very cool and the DJ was "filling in" for the regular DJ, DJ Ron, who was attending a major show/cruise on the Right coast with his Camaro. Almost all the cars were new to us! That's a pretty big deal because we have been going to shows for almost 4 years now and thought we have seen just about every car around, boy were we wrong! I have never seen so many tubbed cars at one time. The cars ranged from rat rods to bonified show cars to street racers brought in on trailers! Trailered cars are kinda weird for a drive in cruise but it was neat. There was a silver Chevette....a Chevette, I owned one of those anemic puppies in 1976 and thought they had all died off and gone the way of the Yugo. But in true Hot Rod fashion someone decided that their Chevette needed to live a little longer and go a little faster, what a deal. The tubbed green 47 Ford was nice, the orange 37 Chevy conv PU was....different....but the workmanship and detail was pure show quality. The dark blue and silver Chevelle was very cool looking. There was a restored 1945 Army jeep which was very nice too. We talked to some of the locals and they said attendance was off? There were easily over 150 cars there that night and most that we talked to said there were always over 250 to sometime 300! They thought that the threat of rain was keeping them away. We will have to go back next month and check it out again. I would highly recommend that you attend this cruise when you get a chance, you won't be disappointed! You have to check out the pictures. And don't forget to check out Dan's pics....he was in the back of the parade and was able to get some moving images....hehehe A long fun day ended up driving in the rain, a little, not too much....didn't even have to use the wiper!....grin And the sunset was magnificent in the rear view mirror....123 miles of fun!

Sunday found us back at Bob Evans for 6AM breakfast again....we struggled with the rain forecast which was not good. We decided to go to the Harry's Tire show in Orange and see what the weather would do. The trip to Harry's was uneventful but when we arrived they wouldn't let us park on the grass because of all the recent rain and the forecasted rain for that day! Dan's 55 doesn't have a parking brake so they moved away from us to leveler ground....so we were separated and the Princess had to go sit with the Queen and I stayed with our cars most of the time. After we arrived Tony and his wife Janice arrived with their Charger then Ed came in in his 39 and parked with us....a good deal. Later on Paul and Evelyn came in their white Caddy, I bet it's comfortable to ride in that car! The Good Times Cruisers put on a great show, it's well organized and they provide things for the kids to do and they have a very complete silent/Chinese auction. Most of the cars that attended we have seen but like always there are some that are new to us! And it was curious that not more of them would be the same ones we saw at the cruise the night before? How many times do you get to see a bug eyed Sprite? Or a Corvair convertible? Or an early Falcon Ranchero? The other nice thing about this show is that it is for driven cars....only one car showed up in a trailer, the rest were driven to and from the show....which is the way it should be. It sprinkled off and on all day, we dried the cars a lot, if fact we ran out of dry diapers for our cars! But the hard rain held off....for a while! The Princess missed an opportunity to meet a new friend....you will have to ask her about it!
Dan/Bob/Robert/Animal and Ramona got a top 25 plaque and also Best Paint award, Ed got a top 25 and peoples choice, no surprise here! Tony got a top 25 and accepted the club participation award! We need a place to start accumulating our club awards so Ed said he would find a place for our clubhouse, so we could store our awards and work on them cars....hehehe Something with a nice view Ed and a large parking lot and no close neighbors and real cheap and a lift and compressor and nice bathrooms and maybe a paint booth....why haven't you found it yet Ed? The Princess and chuck got a top 25 award too, I knew I would get an award because I had my magic socks on!.... Sooooo, we had 6 Stafford Classics cars at the show and we took 8 awards....I like the math! The show was cut short a little by the rain as it started in earnest when we were leaving. It really started to rain the closer we got to Culpeper and continued all the way to right outside Stafford. It was just sprinkling when we got home so we washed the cars and dried them before putting them away. WE drove 98 miles for the day! Next week I'll have to live under them cars again to clean the road film off....fun fun fun.

Driving around the beautiful Virginia countryside all weekend with friends in cool cars....can you spell nirvana? Drive them cars....don't drag them around in a white box!

Next weekend....we have other commitments on Sat but then back to Culpeper on Sunday for the Culpeper Cruisers show and Goldvein for the Fire Department show on Memorial Day. Be sure to thank a Veteran on Monday (and every other day too) for his/her service, they are the ones that make it possible for us to enjoy our hobby.