How hot was it?

Saturday, a few intrepid cruisers met at Mike’s Diner in Stafford, VA for breakfast and then on to the show at Brandy Station, VA. We had missed that show the last 4 years because of rain or other commitments so we were eager to attend this year!

The show is on grass and part of the 3 day Brandy Station VFD annual fair. The show is managed by the Culpeper Cruisers and whenever they are involved with a show you know it will be done correctly! DJ Ron was the MC & DJ and did his customary exceptional job, no surprises here. The restrooms were porta-potties.. ..but they were freshly cleaned and had hand sanitizer in the units and there were enough of them so that the Princess tells me they were still fine at the end of the day! The food was great with BBQ, hot dogs, hamburgers, French fries, funnel cakes and lemonade.. ..typical county fair fare. Andrew also had some health food, I think it was a corn dog? The Princess made me eat bean sprouts, snap peas and jicama slices.. ..Oh yeah I feel healthier! The only thing the Cruisers couldn’t fix was the heat.. ..The day was gorgeous but it was hot, there was a gentle breeze but it was still hot! Did I mention it was hot?

They had over 150 cars registered with most of them from the 70’s and back but there were some new ones like the new blue Mustang GT500 that the owner picked up in NC and drove it to the show, he also won the longest distance award! The candy red ’52 Ford PU deservedly won best of show and John’s ’39 Ford Vicky with the shotgun motor has a way of stopping the heartbeat! But my pick of the day was the cream colored ’50 Chevy 2dr of Mr. Newman. The car was done so you could tell something different was there but it didn’t shout at you.. ..it felt like an old friend, I love it. Henry brought his new Harley and joined in the fun too. The Prince William Cruisers came with a group of cars as did the Custom Cruisers of NOVA. I’m sure many other clubs were represented but except for the host club those two had the most members present. We got to see Arnolds new purple ’57 Chevy rag top.. ..It’s as nice as anything Arnold drives but I like his ’64 the best! I had a conversation with Steve and Jimmy about the valve cover races at A1 Speed shop. They didn’t know about that so I showed them the racers we had, the two GM racers. I told them it was too bad that there weren’t any blue oval racers that challenged the Princesses Chevy racer.. ..too bad. I got some funny looks from Steve and Jimmy was talking out loud how to beat a Chevy.. ..we’ll see? Hehehehe The awards were given out and the Princess got a top trophy.. ..There will be happiness in Stafford this week! Except for the heat it was a near perfect day spent with friends and cars.. ..It’s like living a dream.

We packed up and headed for A1 Speed Shop and the cruise that evening. As usual when we go to A1, we ate at Steamers across the street. Dan joined us for dinner as he attended another show in Dumfries, VA. The show was mostly a PT Cruiser show with an “open” show in addition (two deals)!? Dan wanted to attend to see what was going on and to support their charity, Fischer House. He told us the show was small, less than 20 cars, but fun. I hope the organizers plan a little differently for their next event as I think there are many that would support their efforts if they made a few changes. When we got back to A1 the valve cover race track was up so I made a few adjustment runs with my new racer. I wanted to test an idea not necessarily be competitive.. ..yeah right. My racer was slow so more work is needed this month. The Princesses racer, that won last month, couldn’t keep up with the Rebel Flyer this month. Dave had converted the Flyer from a 4 wheel racer to a 3 wheel racer! She switched lanes, whined, stomped her feet and frowned but nothing helped.. ..she lost. So I found out how fleeting the effects of her trophy win earlier in the day was going to be. I got the mean bus driver eye squint look and the scud buster laser pointy finger pointed at me with the instructions that the Princess doesn’t like to lose.. ..She didn’t have to tell me that! So I have to invent some cosmic gravity powered diamond smooth wheel bearings for her racer.. ..grin Andrew won the people’s choice award at A1 and we packed up and called it a day. We were ready to go on the cruise Sunday.. ..but surprise.. ..it rained!

Weather guessers=0 Wiper salesmen=500

Friday night and we finally get to go to VA BBQ, we have missed the cruise for the last two weeks. Once because of rain once because of going to another cruise.. ..Tonight we would try again.. ..We got about 5 miles from Stafford and it started to rain.. ..So we make it 3 weeks missing VA BBQ.. ..Maybe next week!

So the weather guessers say we will have a sunny but hot day for the cruise to Purcellville, VA and their 7th Annual Summer Thunder Cruise In at Franklin Park. Last year they had 750 cars, not bad for a “cruise”! We left Stafford around noon with Dan & Ramona, Ron, the Princess and I and we arrived at the cruise at 2PM. The trip was nice through the back roads of Virginia except for some minor construction near Gilbert’s Corner. We got into a little traffic on Rt. 7 outside Leesburg when a Trooper was assisting a motorist with a flat tire, they were causing a traffic jam and the RedRat was heating up.. ..it doesn’t like slow driving in hot weather! There were also a couple Cobra boys from Maryland and one was trying to get me to run him in the traffic I guess.. ..Silly boy, Mustangs are for Chicks!

We arrived and the parking staff asked me if we wanted to park on asphalt or grass? I guess it’s about choices; spicy or bland, hot or cold, paper or plastic, fast or slow, asphalt or grass! I chose grass and we were directed to a perfect place to park, on a little knoll. The venue is perfect with the rolling grass parking please check out the pictures.
We set up camp and I first noticed Mr. & Mrs. Scottie and their powerful, pretty, purple, pickup.. ..we see them a lot at shows and cruises.. ..if you haven’t yet checked out their truck you need to do that, the attention to detail is impeccable. The blue ’58 Chevy Series 6o truck was very nice and there were a lot of late model Corvettes and Mustangs! I knew there were going to be a lot of cars in attendance so I took more “group” pictures than usual. There were a couple of neat cars with straight 6 cyl motors! The blue ’34 Chevy sedan and the white ’60 Chevy post with scallops. The cruise had a very diverse attendance with race cars, pro streets, stock new & old, antiques.. ..everything! I liked the blacked out ’60-61 Vette, just the right amount of shinny parts. I liked the ‘60’s Chassis Research digger. I’m told it was like a company mule and never raced but just used for display of the company’s products. It is a time warp deal for me! And a black ’32 Chrysler Imperial that was very presumptuous . The yellow Locomobile was a surprise too! And a bug eye Sprite, how many times do you see one of those? Dave brought the Culpeper Cruisers to the cruise and right before we left the Custom Cruisers of NOVA showed up. Scottie found out that there were about 500 registered cruisers.. ..not bad but way short of 750! The restrooms were great and the food was too. There was a live band playing most of the day and they were good too. We will come back next year and hope it doesn’t rain!

So we started to see lightning and hear thunder and many people were leaving.. ..So about 6:30 we packed up and left. It started to rain as we were leaving.. ..so much for sunny and hot! We had a drenching last week and I really didn’t want to get wet again..oh well! The rain started out like a shower but within 15 min it was a full blown storm.. ..with wind stripping leaves off the trees and water blowing horizontal..it was like being in a blizzard. And of course I haven’t fixed the windshield wiper yet! I think it moved up to the top of my "to do" list for next week. As long as it was a little light it was ok but the longer we drove in it the darker it got.. ..my arms were starting to ache because of the death grip I had on the steering wheel. About an hour and a half later we arrived in Stafford and the rain stopped. But as we turned into our driveway it started again and while I was waiting for the Princess to open my side of the garage the rain started to come down like a show drift sliding off the roof onto the RedRat! I couldn’t see into the garage, which was about 2’ from the front of the car! Little flowers from the Crape Myrtles were blowing everywhere, what a mess! I finally got the RedRat up on the Quick Lift and when the Princess chocked the tires I shut down and just sat there.. ..Whew, I survived another one of Mr. Toad’s wild rides! If this keeps up I may have to get a car with two windshield wipers! Let the cleaning begin..

A lazy Saturday by the beach!

Colonial Beach, VA Volunteer Rescue Squad’s 3rd Annual show. This show was not advertised well, we found out about it from a flyer a couple months ago but it was never put up on the net! Even so they had 80 cars, bikes and 6 Big Rig Trucks.. ..Not bad for an out of the way small town show! If they advertise on the net next year it will be better.

This show was held on the “Town Hill” in Colonial Beach, VA which is a hill area in the middle of town adjacent to the Potomac River beach. The venue is great with rolling grass topography to park on, pine trees around the perimeter for shade and one of the main streets in town runs right by the event. It gets a lot of walk through spectators, which I like, and the people running the event make me feel comfortable just being there. The music is only interrupted by important announcements so we got to hear a lot of good music. The restroom facilities were adequate and very clean but if there is a fault other than the advertising it was more restroom facilities need to be provided. This is difficult because you never know how many people you will have attending but I think they should plan for more people next time, if they advertise better. The food was OK for “car shows” but the little bags of condiments with a napkin in the bag that could be used for a trash bag, that was given with the food was a real hit! And the price was very reasonable, $1 hot dogs!

The cars were varied but I remembered that this is the place where the car owners like to decorate with mannequins’! A lot of mannequins’. It does add a certain interest that might not be there otherwise and it does lend a nostalgia ambiance to the cars so I guess its ok..... Check out the pictures and you decide!? I really liked the green ‘57 Caddy that was towing the period correct fiberglass boat, with fins on the boat! There was a ’57 Ford with a finned glass boat too.....that was a real hoot! The boats were made/sold by Herters.. ..My dad and I used to order fishing and hunting stuff from them in the 50’s-60’s. I still have some reloading tools that came from Herters! I saw a water bag like the ones we used in the 50’s when we went from coast to coast traveling especially in the west. There was a very nice silver ’73 Challenger that looked like it was all business, stage 3 Hemi and tubbed.. ..Looks like a wicked ride! Southern Truck and Custom was showing a cool Ford crew cab and a Jeep 4dr. They brought some really meaningful door prizes.. ..Like radios, black lights, tool kits and other expensive/usable things.. ..Not just a pen from a local bank, grin.

Then there were the big rig trucks. I don’t know much about those trucks except they are big! They have inline motors that have enough torque to change the spin on the planet and really big wheels. I also know that when I ask my 3 year old granddaughter what kind of truck does her daddy drive she says very matter-of-factly.. ..A Kenworth! So I guess the KW’s are a good thing!? I liked the yellow Peterbuilt with the graphics. Since my ankle is better I now have time to take more artsy fartsy pictures once in a while so I took advantage of the large, shinny hubcaps on the big rigs to try some reflection shots…take a look.

We must have been enjoying the company under the canopy because before I knew it, I heard the announcer say to start walking up for the awards! It really snuck up on us! Dan & Ramona got a top 30 and the Town Mayor’s pick! Tony & Janice got a top 30 and the Princess got a top 30 too.. ..There will be happiness in the kingdom this week! Hehehehe We were going to run to Orange and the cruise at the BK but I was just too tired (our grandson was helping us paint the homestead this week.. ..almost wore me out!) so we folded up our tents and headed for home. A nice easy show that we will return to next year.

Who's afraid of a little rain?

The Prince William Cruisers, Friday evening cruise near Glory Days Restaurant in Woodbridge, VA had been neglected by us this year so we decided to rectify that shortcoming this week. This cruise is tough for us to get to on Friday night with all the traffic on I95 & Rt. 1. Usually the traffic is going South but tonight it was going North too, so it took us over an hour to go 16 miles! Fun fun fun! We went to the Glory Days parking lot and waited.. ..No one was showing up? So I called someone with PWC and was told the cruise was by Arby’s? So we found Arby’s and there were a bunch of cruisers there! There were about 30 or so cars by the time we left and some we haven’t seen before. The blue GTO was very nice and the yellow ’35 Chevy 5w coupe was new to us. The ’65 Buick brought back some memories for me, I used to be a mechanic in a Buick dealership from ’63-’66 in Riverside, CA. I had worked on quite a few of those little Buicks. There were a lot of Buicks at the cruise, what’s up with that? But the neatest vehicle that came through was the LaFrance fire truck. I didn’t get a chance to talk to the owner but check out the motor! Three cylinders, two pistons per cyl, six spark plugs per cyl, one distributor with twelve plug wires and a magneto with six plug wires! I got to hear the thing run the next day at a show, check out my u-tube page at 502SizeMatters. We talked to Papa John about the show the next day and listened to Steve talk about his busy day that culminated in recovering the club's music trailer that had been towed from the cruise lot by an overzealous towing company, grin. The PW Cruisers always treat us like they are truly glad to see us, it’s a nice cruise with nice people but I don’t think we will fight the traffic every Friday night to go there. Once in a while is ok though and if you are near Potomac Mills in Woodbridge, VA on Friday night and you want to see some cool cars and meet some nice people check out their cruise.. ..Remember it’s real close to Arby’s. hehehe

The Ebenezer Baptist Church in Woodbridge, VA has put on a show every year for seven years and we had a good time when we attended last year so we decided to go back this year. We met at Mike’s Diner in Stafford, VA for breakfast then cruised to the show in Woodbridge. We arrived right on time and was able to get the same parking place as last year and we set up camp and settled in for a day of looking at and talking about cars. The day was hot but not like last year and there was always a breeze which helped. The restrooms are inside the Church activity section. Some of the Church members were having a product sale going on inside and some of the stuff for sale was food.. ..To be precise-----COOKIES! Now most of our friends know how I feel about cookies, especially since they are one of the 7 major food groups. I like to be mindful of my daily consumption of cookies.. ..Just to stay healthy! Grin Anyway the Princess knows that Ron also likes to make sure he has his RDA of cookies too, so she bought all the oatmeal cookies they had for sale! I’m glad Ron doesn’t like spotted owl or something; I bet that would get real expensive! The Princess also bought me some cookies so I wouldn’t get anemic or anything. Hehehee

The Prince William Cruisers assists the members of the church with this show so they were there in force. Many of the people we had seen the night before, we got to see again! There was a very high percentage of Corvettes in mix of the 96 registered entrants. The blue one with much customizing is really cool and the red ‘60 was special to me. The rat rod tub that brought touch up paint looked like fun. There was a new Camaro, Challenger and Mustang.. ..Fun isn’t dead in Detroit yet! The LaFrance fire truck I saw the night before came in and I have a video of it on u-tube. The vehicle is amazing, the noisy engine has to be heard. The Fredericksburg Classic & Muscle Car Club was well represented as was Stafford Classics. DJ Ron was there with his orange roadster. It’s his “road car” since he can’t drive his Camaro on the street anymore! Something about low bridge clearance? Richard brought his beautiful ’60 Chevy out and the green ’55 of his friend was very cool too, I have never seen a ’55 painted that color. We also found a T-Bucket with more brass than JV has on his, looks like fun to take care of? Dan proved once again that he needs further door prize selection training, The Princess and Ramona will work on that at the next show. And Dan was also reminded about the condition of his ’55.. ..something about a Speedo and seat belts? You have to ask him! About 3:00 the awards were given out; Ron, Dan and the Princess won a Top award. I have decided to not participate in award competition anymore. I will register to support the charity but I don’t want my car to be judged. I just want to enjoy the day and take my pictures and leave the competition for awards to others. The Princess, however, has made it quite clear that she expects something for rubbing on them cars all week (not) and for just showing up! I think she is getting a little crazy but hey, she is the Princess! And we only have four more months in the season to hear ME ME ME ME! We packed up and left for the Foster’s cruise in S. Stafford.

We arrived at Foster’s early and Dave was still setting up some of the deal but he had the cones out to sequester the parking lot. We parked and went inside to eat; it’s always good to eat at Foster’s.. ..and I can make sure I have my RDA of cookies too, grin After we ate we set up chairs to wait for more people to come in, there were already ten cars but more came as the night progressed. They were all the usual suspects and as we sat it started to rain! It rained for about ½ hour then the sun came out again! We needed to wipe down the cars anyway, at least that’s what the Princess said. Paul shared some French Baguettes with us, they were verified French baguettes? I don’t know about all that but they smelled and tasted real good! We stayed till about 8PM but decided to leave early because of the long day we had. The fellowship is always good at Foster’s and the food seldom disappoints so if you are near I95 & Rt.17 the second Saturday of the month you need to stop in and say HI.. ..You will meet some nice people and see some cool cars too!

Sunday we met at the WAWA and waited for the thundering herds of people going with us to Sonny’s restaurant near Luray, VA. Jim & Linda and their beautiful blue Corvette came by so we left at 10:05. Then on our way out of Stafford we picked up Dan & Ramona as we passed their road on the west end of Stafford. We traveled to the Sheetz station in Opal to pick up Les & Peggy then on to Culpeper to meet Lou & Arlene. Lou called me to say his car just broke, he was waiting for AAA to take it home! I offered assistance but he said he was good so we continued on toward Sonny’s near Luray, VA. The Princess and I had eaten there during our 44th Anniversary retreat in May and found the service and food to be very good and we wanted to share the experience with our friends. It’s about 97 miles one way, up and over the mountains near Sperryville and Skyline Drive. We had made the trip many times on the Harley but had never taken the hot rods. Today was the day! The sky was cloudy but the weather guessers said no rain so off we went. So when we got near Culpeper it started to rain and we had to stop so Les could put up his top on his Olds, then after we traveled another 3 miles the rain quit and we stopped again for Les to put the top down this time! I’m glad I don’t have to make those kind of decisions, top up or top down or back up then down, I guess it’s the kind of thing you have to deal with when you have a topless car, hehehe I think the on again off again rain was to be a portent of things to come later in the day. We ran up over the mountain and near Luray we stopped at the Liberty station for fuel and potty break then on to Sonny’s. I didn’t know how busy they were so I called ahead and told them eight people and five hot rods were on the way. When we arrived they were set up for us, planning is everything!

The food and service at Sonny’s is as we remembered.. ..Perfect! The menu is diverse and the portions are more than ample. The potatoe beer soup was great as was the loaded nachos. If you are looking for little finger in the air yuppie food you might want to take a look at the salad. But if you are looking for enough man’s food to make you feel like a tick that has been hanging on someone for a week, then order the brisket platter with the potatoe beer soup.. ..Bon Appétit! Peggy needs to work with Les on his lack of appreciation of food presentation.. ..the little trees and green leaves are to make it look pretty Les.. ..I thought you had a little more culture than that since you drive a car that doesn’t have a metal top!.. ..grin So with our bellies full we decided to start the return adventure to Stafford. But Peggy wanted to take some pictures of all our cars together in front of Sonny’s.. ..since Dan didn’t want to park with us earlier. She had to organize us so she could get “the picture” she wanted? HUH So she organized us like a pile up of crashing cars! I so don’t understand artsy fartsy photographers? With the picture taken we ventured back down the mountain. I took a 6 min video of the trip down the mountian, check it out on my u-tube 502SizeMatters. You can get an idea what it's like riding in the RedRat! Just remember I still have to drive with one hand so the camera shakes a little, hehe When we arrived in Sperryville, Les & Peggy peeled off on Rt. 211 and headed home a shorter way for them. On the way to Culpeper Dan decided we needed to go by Carl’s for ice cream so we pressed on through Culpeper and Rt. 3 towards Fredericksburg. We got to the place on Rt. 3 where it opens up to four lanes and it started to rain! It rained a little but the road spray was too much, the cars were turning into a mess! I decided to take the shorter way to Carl’s on River Rd. but it was messed up with rain and spray too. Oh well that gives us retired people something to do during the week..hehehehe The rain quit and we were just dealing with puddles and run off when we arrived at Carl’s but I think the humidity changed to about 200% when we got out of the cars, I think it would be drier if it was raining. After as suitable amount of frozen milk fat was consumed we left for Stafford.

A fun filled day of 225 miles, running the roads in Virginia, giving people something to wave/honk/yell at while we just knowingly smiled and waved back.. ..I guess it's just me but I really don’t understand why people would rather stay home and mow their lawn? And now the anticipation of next weekend starts.. ..

Fourth of July

The Heritage Festival, in Fredericksburg Virginia, is an all day gathering of activities, food and crafts that begins with a 5 mile run then a parade and ends in a fireworks display on the Rappahannock River. The Festival began in 1972 by the Rotary Club in Fredericksburg and has grown to over 150 vendors in attendance during the day. There are over 10,000 people that walk through Fredericksburg on that day and view the vendors and displays. We are one of the displays and this year we decided to have American pickups as the theme. We started planning this year’s event during the event last year. We call our part of the event the American Automobile Heritage Invitational. We start inviting people as soon as the current year’s event is over! This year we overbooked a little in anticipation of people having to cancel at the last minute because of sickness or vehicle trouble and we had a couple do just that.. ..But this year we had 16 people that said they would attend but then decided to just not show up! That makes it tough to fill an event and it’s a waste of awards and other support items we purchased that will have to be thrown away.

Anyway the people that did attend had a great time. You can hear some of their comments and hear their neat trucks running on.. .. “youtube.com/user/502SizeMatters”. You can also see how many Chevy guys it takes to fold up one table! Hehehehe The weather was perfect, the spectators were plentiful, and the vendors were in abundance, the event manager, Roberta, knows how to run a show! The Princess and our daughter Michelle tried to wear the numbers off one of our credit cards so I know the vendors were happy. I pretty much stayed at our event to assist our staff and the attendees if needed. We provided Gatorade & water to all the attendees for free. And we presented appreciation awards to all the attendees. Our sponsor, VA Paving, provided the funds to put on a first class event and they picked out one of the trucks that they liked and presented them with a special trophy! It was Larry’s green ’37 Chevy! VA Paving is a great company that contributes back to the communities they work in. If you are in a position to need a first rate paving vendor you may want to consider them. This year we partnered with Susan Caldwell and Skills USA for our awards. We saved a few $’s on the awards by doing that and supported a local High School in the process, a real win/win deal! And we had the support of our car club, Stafford Classics, in the form of Brent, Andrew, Dan and the Princess. Andrew’s friend, Jose`, and Dan’s brother, Byron, were drafted to help too! That will teach Byron to not try to visit his brother and expect a relaxing weekend..grin. One of Brent’s duties was to provide the background music for the event but with the music from Mike’s Harley truck, then Steve’s calliope music from his stake body truck, Brent turned off his music. He couldn’t compete with the “battle of the bands” deal going on between those two! grin Because of our partnership with Skills USA we were able to give our Charity, Wounded Warrior Project, more money this year.. ..In fact we were able to give them a check for $1000. This coupled with the $751 donations that were deposited in the jar near Ray & Terry’s WWP race car brought the total to $1751 for the day! This will go a long way in helping our wounded men & women coming back from the war zone. It matters not what your view on the war is.. ..These men & women answered the call of duty and paid a price none of us would have paid in civilian life to do a “job”. Our military personnel are special.. ..They deserve special treatment.. ..Please consider them when you give.

In an effort to help you better appreciate the pictures we posted, the Princess collected some information on the participants and what truck they brought. Bob and his yellow ’04 Chevy SSR, Claude & Paula and their blue & silver ’88 Chevy, Richard and his red ’60 Chevy, Pete and his green/white ‘72 Chevy, John and his yellow ’05 Dodge Rumble Bee, Stuart and his blue ‘’63 Ford, Skip & Barbara and their red/white ’86 Ford, Tony and his red ‘61 Ford Econoline, Bobby & Nina and their purple ’79 Ford, Bill and his tangelo ’70 Chevy, Steve and his black/green ’30 Ford Stake body, Bill & Julie and their black ’46 Chevy, Jim and his peach ’46 Ford, Don and his red ’51 Ford, Scott and his purple ’32 Ford, Jim & Suzan and their black/green ’31 Ford, John and his black ’23 Ford, Dallas & Carol’s brown ’31 “ALL FORD”, Ford, Larry and his green ’37 Chevy and last but not even close to least is Mike’s Darth Vader Black ’04 Harley Davidson Ford with all the body/chassis/electronic modifications. All these pickups are winners in their own right but together they made the event memorable for thousands of spectators this Fourth of July! Thank you all!

A wild and crazy weekend

Friday night and the cars cruised into VA BBQ in Fredericksburg, VA. The weather guessers said to expect rain, maybe! The first vehicle I looked at was Stuart’s blue ’63 PU, Tom and the guys at Pro Truck added some bling bling to the engine, looks nice! And the Willys Gasser PU was nice too as was the ’39 Rolls, the all aluminum one! The ’52 brown/cream MG TD was new to me and nicely done, I think it won ‘people’s choice’ later in the evening. The blue ’62 Pontiac Safari wagon was outstanding and unique. We kept checking the weather and it looked like it was going to the north AND south but not where we were. But about 8PM we saw some lightning in the distance and JV jumped in his T-Bucket and was history! We waited another ½ hour before the lightning started getting closer and then we decided to call it a night. About 9 miles into our 15 mile trip home a massive lightning strike lit up the road ahead of me for about ¼ of a mile. I could see the road ahead was covered with water and a “fog” was hanging on the road, it was rain! Not just a little sprinkle or shower. Not just your run of the mill thunderstorm but a hideous non-stop lightning strike, instantaneous thunder clap storm of Biblical strength! It was like driving with bombs going off all around us while we tried to pick our way home through the rain. And me with a non-working windshield wiper! Fun Fun Fun I picked out a large pickup truck and followed him in the rain, I was fixated on the red taillights and was hoping he stayed on the road! Near the end of our trip the truck turned left and I turned right, but I thought we would be ok because we were close to home, on a narrow country road, with new tires, and the interior of the windshield was fogging up and the Princess yelling at me over the walkie talkie that her windshield wiper worked ok but she was fogging up inside too (I wonder why she just didn’t turn on her A/C?) Then a fire truck started coming at us from the opposite direction with all the lights blinking and siren going and me not being able to tell where the edge of the road was because of all the glare from the lights from the fire truck I grabbed the steering wheel so tight I think the leather was oozing out between my fingers and I tried to remember where we were on the road and if I had enough room before the asphalt disappeared into the drainage ditch on the edge. But I puckered real good till the fire truck passed, Whew When we got home I opened the Princess’s side of the garage with a remote door opener but my side doesn’t have one so I waited for her to shut down her car and open my side. Meanwhile started to hear the tink tink tink of hail! Rain is not good for the coupes but hail is really bad! Up went my door and I drove up the ramps and out of the hail! No hail damage but I found out the windshield rubber has shrunk a little which allowed my left foot to get wet! Wow that was an intense 5 mile ride! We wiped down the exterior and took everything out of the inside and left the doors, trunks and hoods open with the shop fan running all night! And now I get to clean underneath both cars!

Since we had to do some “home work” on Saturday we decided that we would only go to a cruise close by in the evening. The Bruster’s Ice Cream cruise is about 2 miles away so we chose it for the night. We had been pestering our neighbor, Dwayne, to take his survivor ’75 Olds to a cruise with us but he always had an excuse..So the Princess embarrassed him in to going tonight! We hadn’t been to that cruise all year so we were looking forward to the experience and to see some old friends that don’t drive as much as we do. We got there about 4:30 and 15 cars were already there! Al brought out his precious dreamsicle ’55 Chevy that looks like the deer never hit him last year! And Richard’s beautiful blue/white ’60 is always nice to see. There were many cars that we see a lot but some that were new to us too, check out the pictures! I love the “Chevy Repair Tool” in the back seat of one of the cars. The Princess won a people’s choice plaque so she thought the cruise was very special too, that always helps, grin. That evening the cruise was raising money for a family that had a small child dealing with cancer and needed some help. Rick was giving people who donated to the cause, rides on his ’37 Chevy Fire truck, what a neat deal. Ron and Gary were minding the music and announcements all night and near the end Ron auctioned off some donations from 610 Pawn to help with the cause. There were about 80 cars that cruised in for the evening, a very nice turn out! This cruise is every Saturday from 4-9 and Ron and Gary usually have something “special” set up for each week, if you are near Stafford on Saturday evening check it out!

Sunday we met at Mike’s Diner for breakfast then cruised to Occoquan, VA and the Prince William Cruisers annual Good Ol’ Days Car Show at Occoquan Regional Park. We had attended last year and were determined that we would attend again this year. We were driving up I95 to Occoquan and I noticed a small blue dot in the mirror behind our last car. We were traveling the speed limit, 60mph, but the blue dot kept getting bigger! Finally I could make out what/who the blue dot was.. .. ..It was Pop’s from Fredericksburg Classic and Muscle Car Club in his little Baja Bug! And the RedRat was purring along and I couldn’t get the song about the Nash Rambler out of my head every time I looked back at Pop and his VW. chuckle

We arrived and 25 cars were already parked and more cars kept coming in. The venue is perfect for a car show, please check out the pictures. The variety of the cars was amazing from traditional hot rods, lowriders, 2009 cars, street rods, customs and everything in between! I was especially happy to see the Individuals Car Club and their lowriders. That is a car discipline we seldom see around here and it is refreshing. The PW Cruisers always attract a large percentage of hot rods/street rods of the below 1960 variety. The “muscle cars” were well represented too. The Prince William Cruisers run a show like a machine; they started judging as soon as you had your car set up! Everyone had their job to contribute to the whole deal and it worked like usual. They had some canopies set up for the participants to use which helped during the rain. The rain? Yes it rained during the show, not bad, just a little one hour shower. The Princess does not like to get wet, Dan gave her his umbrella so she would quit whining about the rain. She also made us eat more “good food” instead of junk food. But what was she eating in the rain? She says she is just looking out for Dan and me to make sure we don’t eat something we shouldn’t? After it quit raining we dried the cars and by the time the show was over the ground was dry, and now clean! There was a live band, Rt. 66, which sounded great, you couldn’t tell if the songs were tape or live! They were that good! There were more vendors than last year and the Wounded Warrior Project race car was present with Ray & Terry sharing the mission of WWP with anyone that would ask. Most of the established shows run well around here, the clubs have done many shows before and know what it takes to make the show run well and be easy for the participants. There were so many nice cars and I did not envy Steve’s job of judging over 200 cars! The award ceremony moves fast because they plan everything out. The Princess won a top 40 trophy so she will be happy till the next time. Arnold won best engine with his orange Camaro and the yellow flamed ’37 Ford with the blue top won best graphics. The Best of Show was won by Jerry and his black/green ’41 Willys, the car is drop dead gorgeous and perfect.. ..I cannot take pictures that do it justice; you just have to see it! This show just gets better every year and I’m sure next year will be no exception; you must attend this show if you are close to Woodbridge, VA in late June. You have a year to plan hehehe.

Another busy weekend.

Goochland? I usually don’t find humor in the name of a town.. ..But Goochland? I was born in a little town outside of Bloomington, Ill Called.. ..Normal!!!! The Princess says that I am far from Normal? I think she means that we live way far away in Virginia? Anyway I saw a car show flyer for Goochland and knew we had to go, just to say we had been to Goochland, VA.

During breakfast we discussed the forecasted rain for the day, it was supposed to be severe where we live in Stafford and some places south but we thought we would be ok at least getting to the show. So after we had breakfast at County Fare we headed south.. ..Way south from Stafford, VA. We ran I95 for a few miles to Thornburg and took Rt. 606 to Rt. 208 to Rt. 522S. We had five cars in the group and about half way there the Princess began whining for a potty break so we made one pit stop along the way and it still took us about two hours to make the 83 mile trip. Taking a trip through the Virginia countryside in hot rods while giving people something to wave at was time well spent. Driving the hot rods instead of dragging them around in a white box behind a pickup is what we are about.. ..It’s the trip.. ..Not just the destination.

When we arrived at the show we were immediately directed to a nice corner of the lot. The lot was about half gravel and half grass. The gravel was #57 stone so it didn’t make dust but it was really difficult to drive in the canopy spikes.. ..At least so says the Princess, she said the spike was already bent? We set up the cars then registered and sat back to talk about how hot it was. Andrew and Ron had weather programs on their phones so they were tracking the storms to the North and West. Where we started in the morning was getting hammered with severe storms but we had nothing but heat in Goochland. The organizers of the show were very helpful and courteous. The clean restrooms were in a large air conditioned building like a community center that one could escape to if it got too hot. The Princess made a lot of potty calls but she said she didn’t mind the heat? The food was very good and reasonably priced. The event only had 25 cars but they were varied and nicely done. The “modified lawnmower” was .. .. ..Different! The Fox bodied Mustang with a very large Motown Chevy Big block was neat as a pin and sounded ready to chase the space shuttle. The blue “Farm Use” Ford PU was special, and the motor was the perfect choice for a farm truck.. ..hehehehe The little Triumph TR was cool too with the door tops so close to the ground! Three pickups came in late and appeared to be the same year, just different colors.. ..Black, blue and yellow. The host group judged the cars and decided to close the show a little early because of the threat of rain. Fred & Debie, Dale & Gaye, Andrew, The Princess and I won a 1st place in our respective classes. Ron and his ’28 Dodge won Best of Show! Way to go Ron! So we found out Goochland was a real place that had nice people who liked cars.. ..Sounds normal to me?

A few of the hardier cruisers (or is it that we just don't have a life?) decided to go to the monthly Orange, VA Burger King cruise since we were so close, about 50 miles of more country roads, and since we hadn’t been there yet this year. So Andrew, The Princess and I blasted off for Orange.

After we set up at Orange BK we were told by DJ Ron that they had rain a few hours before we got there but the ground/road was dry now? And the rain kept many away from the cruise since they sometimes have in excess of 200 cars! That night it looked like somewhere between 60-90.. ..Still not bad. There was a blue 40-41 Buick with a history with President Eisenhower.. ..I’ll have to find out more about it next time. And Camaros-A-Plenty! I think there were about 15 Camaros.. ..Including Tom’s trick Maroon one with the mile long Lenco trans, grin A nicely done dark purple ’66 Chevy II, nothing too radical, just nice. The BK manager picked the red ’56 T-Bird and the very special green 40’s Chevy Pickup for and award and since the Princess didn’t win she said it was time to go and she didn’t like her hamburger anyway and she wanted to park in the front of BK, by the front door next time! So we cruised back home and ended a 180 mile day. And about 20 min after the hot rods were put to bed.. ..It rained! Someone was watching out for us that day!

Sunday morning we left Bob Evans in Stafford, VA around 8 and met T-Bucket John at Fast Mart on Rt1.. ..He had a “new” way to take us to Rt 3 and then on to Colonial Beach and the 3rd Annual Fathers Day Classic Car Show. I think John uses that route a lot, there were many law enforcement officers along the way, waiting to ruin someone’s day.. ..I don’t think I’ll go that way much, grin. I shot a short video clip of John on the way to the show, check it out at; youtube.com/user/502SizeMatters About half way to the show a deer ran out on the road.. ..between the first car, John’s T-Bucket and the second car, Dan & Ramona’s ’55! It happened so quick that no one reacted much except for looking to the left to see if more were coming.. ..And we were going 55mph.. ..It would have been a mess.. ..Someone was watching out for us again!

We arrived at the show site and because of the rain the day before some of the field was not usable so we parked on a little hill and set up the cars. The sky was very dark and the wind was gusting to 35kts! We knew a storm was just across the Potomac River from us and heading our way! I hurried around and took my pictures quickly to beat the rain.. ..When I was finished and sat down the clouds disappeared and the wind died down.. ..It turned into a Picture Postcard Perfect day! The venue is near the shore of the Potomac River as is most of Colonial Beach and it lends a certain ambiance to the event. The food vendor was OK and the porta potties were usually kept clean but as this event grows the organizers need to furnish more restroom facilities.. ..Remember the demographics of us hot rodders, clean restrooms are much appreciated by ladies. There were over 80 cars and many of them were ones I had not seen like the Hudson Hornet that was just too cool and what looked like a Meyers Manx dune buggy, these were all the rage when we lived in Riverside, CA in the early 70’s but you don’t see many anymore. The black chopped & tubbed 40’s Chevy sedan with the big block was very sinister looking! And this show had more mannequins than I’ve ever seen at a car show.. ..I wonder if the car owners are having a hard time finding girl friends? I guess they don’t know that chicks dig hot rods, don’t ask how I know.. ..Hehehehe Ford retractables.. ..You rarely see one at a show but here there were two! A black ’59 and a red/white ’57.. ..WOW There were many other nice cars that were new to us but the nicest vehicle at the show was the green ’37 Chevy PU, it deservedly won the Best of Show! Please check out the pictures even though they don’t do the truck justice. Dan & Ramona won the Best Chevy trophy and the Princess didn’t win.. ..Thanks a lot guys, it only cost me $60 at the Happy Clam restaurant to make her forget your oversight. She says it’s so unfair? And since there was another “Princess” at the show in a blue Vette, The real Princess had to whine a lot more than usual.. ..It’s going to be a long week. chuckle One of the neat things about being in Colonial Beach is the plethora of eating establishments.. ..Pretty much whatever your taste buds crave can be satisfied here! We all liked the show and thanks to the Colonial Beach Chamber of Commerce and Westmoreland Farm Bureau on a job well done.. ..Try to make this show next year, you will like it.