Fun with aiplanes and cars....part deaux

Saturday, October 23, 6AM….Dan & Ramona, the Princess and I begin our dark and dreary 63 mile cruise from Stafford to the Leesburg Airport in Leesburg, VA. We took I-95 to Rt. 234N to the Mother Road (I-66) then Rt. 15 to Leesburg and the airport. Rt. 15 is a nice rural road to cruise except for the traffic circles. These little heart stoppers do add a level of excitement to the trip. I know the traffic planners think they do a better job with the traffic flow than stop signs….and I know they are in use all over the world….and I know Gordonsville has had one for many years….but I think they are a cruel joke on old people. You can’t read and understand the signage in time to make sensible decisions about what you are going to commit to before you enter the maelstrom of head lights, tail lights, break lights, turn signals, horns and people telling me that they think I’m number 1….? Stop signs or traffic signals take most of the conflict out of intersections. I think traffic circles are a product of some twisted traffic engineer’s desperate attempt at humor….I don’t like traffic circles. You will not find any in the Slacker’s perfect world. After surviving two circles I was more than a little shaken and started to feel lost. I had pre-driven the route on MapQuest and Google Earth during the week to familiarize myself with the surroundings but Saturday morning in the dark all I could see was the road in front of me! I contacted Ramona in the back of the troupe because they always run with a GPS….I hoped she could keep us from ending up in Florida! She told me we were on track and the next turn was 6 miles ahead…. whew. Isn’t technology wonderful?! I had thought about taking a GPS with me in the RedRat but it just wouldn’t work with the “Hot Rod” persona of that car….getting lost is better? It’s a “man” thing.

We arrived early and had to line up on the ramp to wait till all the airplanes were moved so we could drive to our parking spaces among the airplanes. The display was designed to raise awareness of Wounded Warrior Project and add some additional interest to the air show. We were the only “Hot Rods” in the display of exotic cars. It was neat to be in the company of so many special cars. Some of which you only read about but never actually see. There were many Ferrari’s and a couple Lamborghinis with various other “exotic” cars in the mix. The original Mini Cooper was special and the Renault was….as I remembered them. Bob's yellow and blue hand built Jag was off the chart cool but I liked the Porsche racer from iMA Motorsport the best….the Gulf Oil colors made it work for me! I remember the same colors on the Ford GT-40’s but they look better on the Porsche. Wyatt was there with his DeLorean and kept a crowd of spectators around his car all day. It was interesting that when some of the cars were lined up in the morning the RedRat was the tallest of the bunch! It looked weird….but it really stood out.

The spectators were, for the most part, respectful of the cars but some of the other participants were encouraging people to sit in their cars. So when they got to our cars they didn’t understand why we wouldn’t let them crawl onto and into the hot rods. The little ones especially just didn’t understand….so we had to enlighten them about scratches in the paint on the running boards from their shoes and how that is not something we are happy about! The Princess is real good about conveying that message ….being a school bus driver for 26 years!

The day was perfect and as the airshow wound down the spectators surrounded the cars again as they left the venue and we had some lengthy conversations until the crowds started thinning out. This was the first try by Ray and Bruce at one of these display deals and I think they pulled it off just fine. I know the Princess liked the donuts…hint hint! The spectators appreciated the cars being there and I know it added to their enjoyment of the day. I think the cars will be an attraction that needs to be advertised next year to help with the attendance at the airshow. It was also a good day for WWP as they raised $665 and the public awareness up a notch or two.

Dan & Ramona cruised to Winchester and overnighted there then attended the Hoppers show the next day. We cruised home to get ready for the bonsai trip to PA and back the next day to see our newest granddaughter. I kept humming ‘on the road again’ as I drove….