Well, I got home and was expecting to see at least SOME mention of the Glen on the Roadster list. Since no one has stepped up to the plate, I guess that I will!
First and foremost, Crawford Griffith deserves a big round of applause for doing a great job of coordinating the Glen meet this year. He not only did the normal stuff, but he also arranged a guide at the Glenn Curtis Museum and secured a non-roadster sponsor!! Kudos Crawford!!
The Roadster vendors pitched in with items for the raffle. I saw items from Stan Chernoff, Dean at Fairlady Products, Ross at Sports Imports and Don at Rising Sun Racing. There may have been other vendors that donated items - I don't recall. I know that folks such as Datsunmike and the Pesky family also donated items. It is always good to see folks willing to participate.
The raffle was a rousing good time, with a lot of net loot going out to the crowd. It must have been Karma as the guy with the dirtiest Roadster got ALL of the cleaning products! I hope that they go to good use. I got a much needed baseball cap and one of the Rising Sun Racing repair manuals.
Now, I am sure that a few of you have figured out that I am in Florida and the Glen is pretty darned far north. A few of those know that I am in the middle of doing maintenance/detailing to my car, so it is not road ready. I took the easy way out and flew to Baltimore. Mark Dent was gracious enough to let me hop a ride with him in his Zetec powered beastie. (Fun car!)
Things were touch and go for me until I actually headed for the airport. Hurricane Ophelia was busy poking around the ocean off of Daytona which is only about 80ish miles south of me) and threatening to come ashore. When I went to bed last Wednesday, I was not sure I would be flying out. When I woke Thursday, the storm had started moving north by northeast, so I was feeling a bit better about things and I decided to go. I flew from Jacksonville to Baltimore and Mark picked me up. We went to his place, loaded the car and we were off! Folks kept calling Mark to give him accounts of the things already going on, and at one point they mentioned that it was raining! (we had NO room for a top, so we were going to be wet!) We had packed to camp, and needless to say, rain was not a welcome bit of news. As we pulled into Corning (which is about 20 minutes south of Watkins Glen) the roads were wet. We had JUST missed the rain shower.
Fortunately, that is the closest we came to rain the entire weekend! As we entered town, Mark and I decided to check to see if there were any vacancy signs. Now, usually the place is overbooked for this event, but due to Katrina and the media induced gas price hikes, there were cancellations!
After a bit of a kabuki dance with a local hotel, we found a room at Chalet Leon just outside of town. Now, Liz (or Lizard as she is also known) is a HOOT!! We had great fun kidding around with her during our stay. We shared local sayings with her and learned a new one ourselves. She was quite the gracious inn keeper, and when I go back, I know that I will be giving her a call for a place to stay!
On Friday, Mark and I joined up with some of the DRONEs to go on a wine tour. Well, the DRONE guys decided not to follow the preplanned tour, but rather to do their own, so we went with them. After some wine tasting, we dropped out of the lineup to get the camera. Then we were off on the two laps of the original circuit. On the first lap, we passed a house out in the country that had some young children in the family. They had set up a lemonade stand in their front yard and were cheering folks on. Mark remembered that he had received a $2 bill in change, so after we passed, he handed me his wallet to dig it out. When we came around again, Mark eased over onto their side of the road and gave the girls the $2. They were tickled pink! I don't think anyone else had stopped. We caught back up with the crowd and finished the laps.
That night was the DRONE sponsored BBQ. Good eats and good conversation was the order of the evening. We even got to work on a car. Not a Roadster, but rather a Mini! After the fun wound down, we headed on back to Leon's place and hit the hay.
On Saturday, the day broke anew with the promise of more Roadster fun. We had a leisurely breakfast visiting with Liz and headed over to the park for the Show and Shine. This is where the only real issue with Crawford's plans came up. The ballots for voting included a selection for the best high windshield 1600. Well, there were NONE in attendance! Of the 15 or so cars, the only 1600s were low windshield cars! Mark's quick thinking solved the problem. At his urging, several folks voted for Kurt Weisner's Silvia Patrol for the best high windshield 1600. I will let someone else chime in on the results as I don't recall all of them.
We then left the park for points west and the Glen Curtiss Museum. After a few folks got lost along the way, we finally regrouped and had lunch. Then it was on to the museum. From the road, it does not look that impressive, but inside the plain green steel warehouse, there was a LOT of neat stuff. Several hours were spent there with some fun toys for the family being purchased on the way out. The crowds then went their separate ways. One group headed back to the Glen to wind down before the raffle. Another went to an Amish market to buy all sorts of goodies. Mark and I were on a mission though.
The last time I went to the Glen (6 years ago), someone told me and my wife about a FANTASTIC winery. Well, I REALLY wanted to go back to get a particular wine. We headed for the winery (Dr. Konstantine Frank in case anyone is interested) and after some back roads driving we finally found the place. Here it was after 4pm on a Saturday and we had to wait outside because they were at capacity for the building!! That should tell you something about the wines. Well, we got in and had a nice chat with Warren the Wino (who drives a 930 Porsche) and then bought our half case of wine.
I was markedly disappointed to find out that the wine that I was after sold out in less than 3 months after being released. In fact, they have a waiting list for next year's offerings. Since Florida has laws against wine being shipped to residences, I lose out again.
After the nice visit to Dr. Franks, we continued around Keuka Lake and headed on to the park again for the raffle. A quick pit stop at the local Pzza Hut provided dinner. The raffle was a hoot, and we again had lots of good conversation and beverages. On the way out, Kurt was gracious enough to give me a ride in his Silvia. I must say that in pictures, the Silvia is OK, but does not get me going. In person, I get it! The Silvia is a neat ride!! His is especially neat being the Silvia Patrol edition. Although it is bizarre sitting on the wrong side of the car... We hung out with Marty Lind and his family at a bonfire on the lake for a while and when called it a night.
On Sunday, we loaded up the Roadster and then spent over an hour chewing the fat with Liz. We were then quickly on our way back towards Baltimore and the daily grind. Our lunch stop chanced a meeting with a Triumph car club which had a 280Z pilot in the club. They all drooled over the green Roadster and the Z guy admitted that he was looking for a 1600. Mark pointed him at one and then we were off. Back at Mark's place, we shifted stuff from the fun car to the SUV and we were off to the airport. In the haste, I forgot my camera, but Mark mailed it to me a couple of days later.
All in all, it was quite a fun and relaxing trip. No arguments, no bickering, no responsibilities, no timeclocks. Just what a vacation should be! The weather could NOT have been more perfect. Next year, Porsche is the spotlighted car. That notwithstanding, I am trying to figure out a way to make it happen again! I may just have to call Mark and Lizard to see what we can figure out. Maybe the Amtrak Autotrain is in my future!!
