I am on Facebook more than I should be,
maintaining our ‘No Class Cruisers’ page; https://www.facebook.com/groups/331539540273153/. And in the process I ‘meet’ new people that
share our passion for special cars. The
cruises and events we attend allow us to put a live person with the electronic
being we have been communicating with…. The
‘electronic people’ are a whole other deal….read the book; ‘Alone Together’ by
Sherry Turkle….we are ‘there’! Anyway a
few weeks ago I met Bill and his very cool brown ’57 Chevy and Friday I got to
meet his friend Jo-Ann. I have also been
‘talking’ to a yellow Camaro owner, Kandy, and Friday we got to meet her too….neat
deal!
We were treated to Hoppy’s over the top red/white
’55 Ford glass top, Crown Vic…..this car has to have every available factory option
for a 1955 Ford! And….and….Hoppy brought
his matching red/white ’55 Ford golf cart….just too cool! Mark’s drop dead gorgeous orange ’73 Camaro
looks like the paint is at least 18 feet deep….I think he knows something about
paint…..grin. The thing that made me
laugh was the juxtaposition of the super low, suede black, 30’s traditional hot
rod sedan that was parked on the handicapped spot….just makes me giggle every
time I look at the picture. Then there
was the vehicle that was at the top of the “I don’t think so” list….the Boss
Hog that is powered by the 502 BBC with Nitrous….I don’t even want to think
about twisting the tail of that scoot.
Soon after I completed taking all my pictures we saddled up and cruised
home….
Saturday six vehicles launched from the WAWA
at 7AM and cruised 20 miles to Fredericksburg where we picked up Bill and his
Valiant. We all cruised the remaining 45
miles to Tappahannock, VA and the 11th Annual RivahFest.
We had attended this event two years ago and
enjoyed the day there. But it is
scheduled the same weekend as the NHRA Hot Rod Reunion in Bowling Green, KY….since
we cannot attend both events every year, we alternate and this year
Tappahannock won! The event is sponsored
by the Tappahannock-Essex Chamber of Commerce and is a “typical” town supported
event. There were over 70 vendor booths
with crafts and antiques for every taste.
And food vendors fit for a Princess….she says that her favorite, the
crab cake sandwiches, must be getting popular because the waiting line was
about 60 miles long….she had to discover some new munchies….so she found a
hamburger….at a nautical riverside event that specializes in seafood….a
hamburger? I also found crab racing,
drag racing style, which was fun. It
must have been an ‘old’ guy that made the sign for the crab racing; it was a
front engine car, not a modern rear engine one….interesting.
And of course there was a car show, what’s
not to like? About 125 vehicles attended
the deal and varied from original antiques, muscle cars, off road vehicles, a
tractor, a fire truck, a few snarling pro streets and a whole bunch of hot
rods! I liked the way kool orange ’56 Merc,
the green with real flames ’33 Ford coupe, the cream/champagne ’70 Chrysler 300
Hurst and Kirk’s always intimidating orange/purple ’67 Chevy PU. Wyatt brought his silver (what else?)
DeLorean to wow the crowd. He sets it up
like it’s from “Back To The Future" complete with a stuffed Einstein and the
flux capacitor. It is always a crowd
pleaser. There was even a yellow ’72 AMC
Gremlin, we seldom see them at events. Maybe there is a reason for that? There was a nice dark green ’69 Camaro with the
cross ram intake….I could never get those carbs to run right! The most unusual vehicle was the black ’06 Holden
UTE….you have to check it out!
Since we arrived early we got some primo
parking spots….most of us. We were under
some trees that lined the grass field and would be in the shade till about 3pm,
which was when we were going to be leaving.
When we came in Dan & Ramona was the last of our convoy and had to
park in the sun. Wyatt knows that the
Princess and Ramona like to talk during the day so he gave up his parking spot,
in the shade, to Dan. Dan reciprocated
by erecting his canopy for Wyatt and Dennis so they would have some shade
too. After the switch Wyatt realized he
was parked about 20 feet from a generator that was running continually and
producing about 6 million decibels of ear bleeding mind numbing noise for 6 hours….I
think he lost his voice from yelling answers to questions about his car over
the generator noise all day. The
Princess asked why Wyatt didn’t turn on his flux capacitor and make the noise stop?….you
have no idea. And Wyatt traveled about
120 miles from Annapolis, MD to the event….I think we ‘owe’ Wyatt.
We also got to meet a young aspiring artist
by the name of Jackson. He is 13 years
old and does pencil drawings of cars that are really good….he just kneels down
on the ground and draws! No special easel
of other equipment….just a pencil, some paper and talent!
About 3PM the sun started to get on the
Princesses parts so she began the whining to leave….so we all packed up and
cruised home. Some of us visited the
weekly cruise at Family Diner when we got to Fredericksburg and visited with
some other hot rodders there. We found
out that Bill won best of show at RivahFest with his red ’51 Ford panel…..a
good end to a great day playing with our hot rods and enjoying old friends and
meeting new ones. I love this hobby.
No comments:
Post a Comment