Keep Calm it is Show Day

  The morning started before the sun came up.  We started to unload the cars. Zeno and Jim made their way over early.  Jim loved getting in each car and driving them to the staging area before taking the cars to the field.  I left my camera with Zeno.  I know Darrin would not have time to get any photos.

I walked down to the civic center and waited for everybody to show up.  It was closer to 8 am before breakfast started.  I will ask next time to show up so I can play with the cars too.

Breakfast came and I sat with my team for Judging.  Ken was the team captain.  Joe White the guy with the blue pick up was teamed with me and we judged the Driver Participation Class.

There isn't much to the rules on this class.  The cars are not point judged.  They are a pass or fail.  you would fail for things like fire extinguisher, paint wrong color for period, wrong engine or hot rod.

After breakfast and before the Certified Judges Education (CJE)  I went over to check on the guys.  They had all the cars on the field and were finishing the polishing.  I checked the handles and cleaned the 51 Victoria.  It was a mess.  I saw it when Jim drove it around the parking lot earlier in the morning.

I made it back for the CJE but I went to the wrong place.  I wanted to take the Brass Era class but ended up with the Model A class.  We talked about some of the cars from the Brass Era anyway.

After judging school I had a few minutes so I checked in with the guys.

I went to judging and we spent a few minutes on each car.  There was one car that the fire extinguisher was in the empty zone.  When Joe told the owner that he would have to disqualify the car the man had the look of horror on his face.  Joe gave him time to go buy a new one just up the street at the hardware store.

We continued down the street to judge other cars and came back when we saw that the replacement extinguisher was under the tire.

After judging all the cars we had to run the judge sheet to the host hotel.  We put the sheets in order and then Ken took them in to the score keepers.  But before we could finish there were several cars that moved into our class.  They needed to be judged.

Finally we were done and I went and hung out with the guys.  They were drinking smoothies and I was hungry.  We went over the the breakfast place Baker's Kitchen and had lunch.

We waited for a half hour for a seat.  Kaye and Joey met us for lunch.  Joey was so hot he was soaking wet.  We ate but Joey did not want to sit he wanted to be with the cars.

After lunch we went back to where the cars were and hung out until they came around and released the cars.

It was so hot that I didn't go and take a picture of every car or at least most of them like I have in previous shows.  I did walk around and look at most of them.

We loaded the cars up and all headed to get cleaned up for the award banquet. It was so hot.  I just wanted to sit in the motor home and cool off.

We arrived at dinner early and we had hors d'oevers of fruit and cheese.

Darrin and I choose a table that was right up front.  I wanted to be close to take pictures of the trophies. 

We had the best filet minion that I have ever had.  Jim had salmon and he rally enjoyed it.  There was way to much food.

We sat and talked with Tom Cox from the Appraisers and next AACA President.  He is also on the newsletter committee and remembers reading our newsletter.  Kaye and Joey sat with us as well. We also saved a seat for Joe and his wife owner of the Hawthorne green metallic 51 Ford Custom.

When it came close to time for awards to be given out.  I passed out a card to each person with the cars and their classes on it as well as a note that one car is in Travis name.  When they start reading the names and cars it goes so fast you forget what class a car is in.

Finally they got to our cars.  Jim proudly went up and claimed his awards.  Senior First Place for the 1926 Ford Cabriolet, 1st Preservation for the 1962 Impala and a repeat preservation for the 1951 Ford Victoria.  We gathered all our awards and headed out.

Morning and a 14 hr drive were going to come early.  On our trip back we stopped at Auburn to see Mallory and Trip.  Mallory was only one week into college and was looking a little homesick.

We arrived home around 9 pm.  A long day of travel.