Monday, October 8, 2012

Small Town Day

Friday we cruised to Family Diner in Fredericksburg, VA for dinner then on to VA BBQ and the weekly cruise.  Most of the other cruisers were regulars with one exception, the maroon 30 Ford sedan.  This car was recently completed by its owner and is something to behold….a cool ride indeed.  The evenings are getting colder so the cruises are getting shorter….we left around 8PM.

Saturday, Fred & Debie and the Princess & I cruised 62 miles to Montross, VA and the annual Fall Festival and car show.  This is the first time we have attended this event and it worked out to be a fun day.  I don’t browse the “crafts” much so the car show was it for me.  The show was well attended for the venue….with quite a few cars from Colonial Beach Cruisers and the four from Stafford in attendance.  Yeah four, Denny showed up around 9AM and Ron overslept (he is newly retired so that’s ok) and didn’t arrive till around 10AM!  It’s refreshing to know Ron has been reading the “Retired Guys Handbook”….on page 43 we are to respond to questions like….”And just what do you do now?”  response>  Not much of anything and I usually don’t start that till Noon!  I think he will assimilate just fine….now Lou on the other hand is still struggling with that concept….hang in there Lou!
By the time everyone was in place there were 43 vehicles….which is a good showing for a small show.  I really liked the maroon ’60 Pontiac Tri-Power, 4 Spd.  That car was a real mean street machine back in the day.  Few people would expect a big heavy Tin Indian run like they did!  I also liked the black ’57 Chevy post with the 283, 2 4bbl….another fine representative from days gone by.  I think the center of the show was the blue ’70 VW with the trick paint and the many custom modifications.  The sound system would vibrate the ground and the engine sounded like it had been cleverly massaged too.  
But….the show ended at noon and at 2PM the parade began.  Now I have never been to a small town parade like this….it was something you might read about in an old ‘Life’ magazine.  I actually thought about that while we watched the parade from our chairs on the top of the berm in the show lot.  There were marching bands representing communities around Montross as well as Fire & Rescue squads across the area.  In fact we could hear the Fire trucks coming about a ¼ mile away and they were loud then.  But when they passed in front of us they were cranking out about a million decibels of ear bleeding sound!  My ears rang the rest of the day.  I have a lot of experience with that, years ago when I was a competitive pistol shooter few people used ear protection.  After the first few shots my ears would go mostly deaf and would ring the rest of the day….it’s how we did it!  That and loud engine noise is probably why I have to say “huh” a lot now….ya think?  They had floats and walking groups for various community organizations.  When the American Legion passed by with the colors most people didn’t stand up and show respect for our flag….that was sad.  The old people did but the young ones kept talking…. 
Since Debie was one of the crafty vendors we were going to wait till her day was done to leave….but around 3:30 the rain clouds started rolling in so the event coordinators were allowing the vendors to call it a day early.
The cruise back was uneventful and dry after we were about 20 miles from Montross….  Another day driving around the countryside of Virginia giving people something to wave at….I love this hobby.



 

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