Nothing but cruisin

Friday evening and we try to get to the first cruise of the year at VA BBQ in Fredericksburg, VA. I say “try” because it’s 16 miles from home but sometimes it takes a while to get there because of Friday night traffic on Interstate 95. Some of that traffic boils over onto Rt. 1 then gridlocks the traffic everywhere. It was worse than usual tonight because of the Easter weekend and people are traveling. The Princess didn’t get home till 5:30 so we got a late start. In spite of that we slithered out of Stafford to travel about 25 miles on meandering less traveled back roads and arrived at the cruise about 6:30. Some friends told us of taking over 3 hours to make the trip on the main roads….

As the night unfolded it was becoming obvious that we were going to have overflow attendance tonight! There were about 90+ cars visiting throughout the evening. The youngest visitor was in a purple car of unknown manufacture with a questionable roll bar….she looked a little distracted but was nevertheless enjoying her cruise. There was a nice blue ’49 Chevy panel truck with a nifty graphic on the rear door and Allen brought his green Corvair convertible with the old California tag to share with us. Larry drove his Ford Model T tub with the Model T 4 cyl engine that has been hot rodded! Check out the pictures of this, I will be doing an individual article on this car sometime soon so look for it on my blog; http://autoessentials.blogspot.com/ I also liked the black ’38 Chevy flat bed truck and the green ’69 Roadrunner but my favorite was the green ’52 Hudson Commodore. It was the last year for the big luxurious Hudsons….after that they just built the Hornet, Wasp and Jet. We cruised home around the traffic that was still gridlocked at 9:30; I hope this is not a portent of things to come with the traffic on Friday.

Saturday we left the Stafford WAWA at 2PM sharp and headed to Manassas, VA and the cruise at BK on Rt. 28 by the airport. We arrived about 2:45 and the place was filling up! A year ago at the same time there might be 10 cars there, now people start coming earlier and earlier….if this trend keeps up it may turn into an all day deal?! The parking filled up and overflowed to the grass behind the parking lot on two sides! I have seen more cars there but I estimate when we left there were at least 160 cars, and we left at 5:30! I guess the warm weather brings everyone out.

There was a very nice blue & white ’55 Chevy big block, just neat as a pin along with the green & white ‘52 Buick that looked just right. There were three Willys, Bill’s Orange one with the blown early Hemi, Jason’s brown one with the blown Chevy big block and the green one with the 2-4V Chevy big block. I also liked the red ’41 Chevy PU, it too was near perfect….but the coolest car for me was the red ’69 Camaro with the dark blue flames….the big block & engine bay was very trick, you have to check it out!

We left BK about 5:30 with Steve, Jimmy, Dan, Dale, The Princess & me and headed back to Stafford for the weekly Bruster’s cruise in progress. When we arrived there were about 60-70 cars parked with Gary announcing and playing music. We unpacked and set up under the awning of the emergency care place (closed) and settled in to complete our evening of fun with hot rods….but Steve was hungry! Now Steve is usually a nice guy but since he has been on that tofu, bean sprout and cooked yard bird diet he sometimes gets a little cranky when it’s time for him to eat! So Jimmy and I thought it would be better for all the people attending the event if we just took Steve to Sam’s for dinner….real quick….we had to quell the demons in Steve’s tummy. After we ate Steve was a happy camper again and the world was once again in balance. I didn’t begin taking pictures till it was almost too late….so I only got about ½ of the cars recorded….next time bring the flash & monopod!

There was the black ’59 Ford retractable from Colonial Beach and JV, our friend who drives a car with no doors, T-Bucket! Al drove his black ’62 409 post to remind us what SS cars looked and sounded like back in the day. The red ’54 Ford with the 5.4 motor was really special but my favorite was the two tone green ’64 Plymouth….one of the cars I wouldn’t mind cruising in!

Gary Sullivan recognized Ron Phillips for his hard work and dedication to this cruise for the last many years. Ron is the reason the cruise enjoys the success that it does and attracts people from miles around. He is diligent every week ensuring sponsorship and setup for the event. Thanks Ron, for providing a place for vehicle enthusiasts around Stafford to hang out and enjoy our cars. The event closed down around 9:30 but a few of us hung around and talked till 11:30! It’s what we old people do since we have no life and we are not supervised well enough! Hehehehe -3=93