Sunday, June 23, 2013

Kodak Cruise

Friday, Tony & Janice joined the Princess and me on our cruise to Ashland, VA and the weekly Chick-fil-a cruise.  This cruise keeps getting bigger each time we visit, this Friday there were over 130 cars in the dedicated lot and some in adjoining lots.  We arrived a little early and unintentionally took the DJ’s spot….won’t do that again!  FreRay Sounds always plays the music for this cruise and a welcome bonus is that they have a great play list to listen to.

It was the first time Tony & Janice had visited the cruise and I think they enjoyed the volume and quality of the vehicles.  Chick-fil-a gives all the drivers a discount on their food, which is a nice perk since we had cruised 62 miles to get there from home.  I was enjoying the fellowship and the time slipped away from me before I started taking pictures.  That seems to be happening to me more lately….I have to think about how to spend my time at the events.
I really liked the red/cream ’52 Chevy woodie from Hawaii….the visor and other custom touches made the car stand out for me.  I also liked the way loud black, open wheel ’32 Ford Sedan Delivery with the blown BBC….and zoomies.  Zoomies always make the car for me….grin!  We left around 8PM as we had a 1 ½ hour cruise back to Stafford, VA….the night was cool…..it was a very nice cruise home.
Saturday the Princess and I met Bill & Linda, Fred & Debie, Dan & Ramona and Jim & Linda at the WAWA in Stafford, VA and launched on our first ‘Kodak Cruise’.
I am always soliciting new places to cruise and earlier this year, someone had mentioned a Calendar Cruise where we go to scenic places and take pictures of our cars and use them for a calendar.  I thought about the concept and liked it!  But our cruise would be to scenic places but the pictures could be used for anything, including a calendar.   Lucky for us Virginia has many scenic places to visit and we experienced most of them while we were riding the Harley.  Unluckily for us it was going to be difficult choosing where to go but I eventually decided on Skyline Drive.  It is a Nationally known drive that many have used to experience our beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains.  http://www.visitskylinedrive.org/Home.aspx  Now our mountains are not like the Rockies out west, the highest elevation on the Drive is only 3680 feet….but the beauty they share is just as breathtaking as driving Yellowstone. 
We left Stafford and cruised 56 miles to Rediviva, VA and our pit stop.  After filling the tanks and emptying the bladders we were joined by Nick, Bill & Linda’s Grandson, for our adventure of the day.  I wanted to make sure everyone had full tanks because fuel on Skyline Drive would be scarce and pricey.  We all saddled up and cruised 11 miles to the Thornton Gap Entrance Station to Skyline Drive.  The youngsters (under 62) had to pay $15 to go on the drive for 6 days….us old folks got to pay $10 for a lifetime National Park pass….what a deal!
We took the south route and within a few minutes we came to our first of many ‘turn outs’ on the Drive.  These turn outs are made for Kodak moments….if the weather is nice, the views are magnificent.  We had Chamber of Commerce postcard weather….blue skies, white puffy clouds, moderate temperature of high 70’s and just a little breeze….it couldn’t get any better!  You need to check out the photos I took to get a flavor of what we did for the next 3 hours or so….it was fun.
On one of the stops there was a large pile of rocks….which are meant to be climbed on and have your picture taken….right.  Someone said watch out for snakes but the Princess said they were going to be making a lot of girl noises so that would scare the snakes away….I didn’t want to tell her that snakes don’t have ears…..that would open up a whole other place that I didn’t want to go.  In one of Fred’s videos he took of them climbing around you can hear the Princess in the background saying….”Look, look at these big rocks in the wall, they have shinny stuff in them, I want a rock with shinny stuff”….it really doesn’t take much.  I was waiting for something like ‘what do you mean I can’t take any rocks, we have a truck’.   Lucky for me something else shinny caught her attention and the rocks were forgotten….usually if I can outlast her for a couple minutes the focus changes….grin
We cruised and stopped for pictures for the next 33 miles till we came to Swift Run Gap Entrance where we left the Drive.  We traveled East on Rt. 33 for 15 miles to Ruckersville and the Blue Ridge Café for our late lunch.  After we ate we decided to attend the weekly cruise at the BK in Manassas, VA….it was on the way home….kinda.
So we cruised 65 miles to the BK and arrived about 4:30 to a parking lot that was about ½ full already!  This is an active cruise and some people cruise in, stay for a while, then cruise somewhere else.  So it’s impossible to accurately determine how many vehicles visit on any given evening.  My guess is that about 200-230 every week.  This Saturday must have been Hot Tub night….the big rowdy motor, big tire people brought their rides in for us to view….some very nice cars.  The white Barracuda and the red Nova were two of the many examples….as was Tom’s maroon Camaro.  This is a video I took of them arriving;  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBS3RclOp1Y&feature=c4-overview&list=UU5dBPYR_fVjKQxNVckvpRpg    I had the opportunity to put a real live person with another one of my “Electronic” friends on Facebook, I met Jim and his very nice red Dodge.  Jim told me of a Mustang that was at the cruise and that I needed to make sure to see it.  It was a blue 66 Shelby Mustang GT convertible.  The car’s owner, Rich, is the original owner and it is one of 16 cars made like that!  The only things that are new on the car are the battery, tires and carburetor and 7000 miles!  WOW….
Most of our group ate some ice cream then it had been a very long day so we cruised 35 miles home.  At home the Princess and I had to get the day’s bugs and dirt off the truck so we could attend the PWC, Good Ol Days event the next day.  We work in the show so we do not enter our truck but we like to park it with the club cars and a bug splattered dirty truck just won’t do….grin   But….it rained Sunday morning till about 11 am….so we didn’t get to take the truck out again anyway!  So it rests….waiting for next weekend’s adventures.


 

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