True Tourists

We headed to Navy Pier early.  Not far from our hotel we stopped at Stans Donuts and splurged for breakfast.  I got an apple fritter and an old fashion donut. Darrin treated himself to a Boston cream, a chocolate long John and an old fashion donut. 
We got our 3 day bus pass at Walgreens and climbed on the public transportation bus. It took about 30 minutes to get to Navy Pier. 
We bought our Go Chicago Passes.  We went on the first Architectural Boat Tour.  The tour started at 10 am. The tour took us up the Chicago River and to both the West a South forks.  We learned a lot about the buildings, designers and history of Chicago.
After the boat ride we went back to the hotel to see what our new room looks like.  Wow.
Around 1:30 we headed to Wriggly Field for the Cubs game. When you choose to go to a game and they win you win.  It was a great game but it was very cold.  Cubs vs Angels, two teams that I like.
After the game we went by a bar to enjoy some local flavor.  We stayed for one drink and headed out. 
After returning to the hotel we headed to Steak Knife for a steak. The steak was flavorful but the baked potato was out of this world!

Transition Day

We packed and left Auburn.  Just about a three hour drive.  We arrived in Chicago around 11 am. We dropped our bags at the hotel.  This is when we found out if we were in a good area or not.  This section of town was an high end section.  The upper north side.  Not far from Wrigley Field.
We dropped the rental car at the State Street location.  We did not know we could have dropped the car right around the corner from the hotel.
We wanted to explore Chicago so we headed toward the river.  We we so close to the Chicago Theater and didn't even know it.  We did walk down the river walk to the marina. It was a beautiful mile or so walk.  Darrin enjoys walking around the boats.  After that we walked around Navy Pier to see everything that is offered.  We went inside the crystal garden and enjoyed the area.  We even took a break to just sit and watch people. 
Inside the shopping area we got Ben and Jerry waffle cones.  We talked about what we wanted to do with the Go Chicago Pass
We took a taxi back to our hotel and cleaned up.  We went for a long walk to go to Giodano's Pizza.  We had been told this was the best Chicago pizza.   The waiter warned us that the pizza takes 45 minutes just to bake.  We took our time finding the perfect pizza to order
It took 45 minutes to bake.  When it came out our waiter wanted to do the cheese pull.  He was not very good at it.  I did take pictures.  After eating a piece and letting the pie cool down I was able to do a great cheese pull. 
After dinner we headed back to the hotel and discovered we were in the rainbow section of town.  All kinds of people dressed in crazy outfits started hitting the street.  There was everything from drag queens to every color of hair.  Men and women all out to have a good time.
We headed in for the night in our tiny room with a very noisy air conditioner.

Show Day

Show day brought an early breakfast for judges.  This is where you find out what you judge and who you judge with.  I was assigned to scooters. 
At Grand Nationals there are no cje's so I had time to photograph every car on the show field.  This was a first for me.  381 cars on the show field.  The cars were laid out in age order.  100 plus years I journeyed through the field.  This was an experience to treasure.  I felt like I was in a time machine.
The free time in the morning was a bit unusual and was welcomed before the heat.  I did take time to talk with many of the owners.
10:30 is when Darrin needed to be in admin.  He has not been able to judge at most of the shows we go to so he was invited to help in Admin.  I think every good judge needs to serve in admin at least once.

10:45 came fast.  I met our group for judging.  There are only three categories that you judge on scooters.  Bob and I teamed up to judge engines.  I kept up with the score sheet.  We would look closely at the scooters and make mental notes.  We would walk away and talk together about what we saw.  Together we would decide if the infraction was worth the deduction or if it was so minor that we would not deduct points.  This was an easy job cause the vehicles were the best of the best and they were in factory delivery condition.

Keep in mind that we are judging Grand Nationals.  These vehicles have Junior and Seniored.  These are already the best of the best.  We also judge them the exact same way as we do the very first time they ever entered a show field. What an experience!
Fourteen scooters in awesome condition!  Spending 5 minutes on each seamed like a long time.  Judging all fourteen flew by and we were done.
Turning in our judging sheets went rather quick because we were the first team in.  We went over the sheets and waited for approval from admin before receiving our chips from our team captain.
After getting released I headed out to look at the cars and photograph any late arrivals.  The day kept getting hotter and hotter so I headed back inside.  I waited for Darrin to get done with Admin.
Darrin was finally done and wanted to go see the cars so I stayed inside talking with friends.
We finally headed over to the auction area.  We watched a few come across the block.  It was time to leave the field.  It was a fun little parade of cars.  We then headed to the hotel to rest.
The doors opened at 4 pm and dinner at 5 pm.  We had dinner with Kelly.  Darrin collected David Rooney's First Grand Nationals award and preservation chip and board for him.  We sat with new people and visited with them and cheered when the received their awards.  Many people that I talked with over the weekend came to show us their awards.  It is fun to see the excitement of wining the honor of a Grand Nationals or Senor Grand Nationals award.
We were very tired so we headed to the hotel and hit the hay.

Zenith Awards and More

After breakfast we met David Rooney and Wally Latham at The Auburn, Cord, Duesenburg Museum.  As a group with Marion and Mark Alpine, Fred Trusty and Ralph Towner we all toured the museum.  The museum is three stories full of beautiful cars with floor two full of historical literature and books.  The collection included many rare vehicles and a few you could climb in and get your photo taken.
The Auburn Automobile Company administration building is part of the campus where cars were hand-assembled, rather than mass-produced. The showroom and administrative buildings were designed by architect Alvin M. Strauss in Art Deco style and were built in 1930. The facility's showroom and administrative buildings, the service and new parts building, and the L-29 building were together declared a National Historic Landmark in 2005. The museum is organized into seven galleries that display over 120 cars and related exhibits such as restored Auburn Automobile company offices. Some exhibits have interactive kiosks that allow a visitor to hear the sounds the car makes and to see related videos and photographs that show details of what is under the hood of the car.
After the museum we all headed out for lunch at Mad Anthony.  They seated us right away and served us some great food.  We all enjoyed the atmosphere and the food.
We headed back to the auction.  Darrin stayed at the auction and I went around and talked to more vendors about coming to the Mobile show.  Darin saw a car he wanted and it took everything he had to hold his arm down.  He has kicked himself ever since.

The last of the Zenith cats arrived before 9 am and judging started.  Judging took most of the day. In the afternoon Steve Moskowitz explained the process of judging the cars to Wes Peterson and I. The judges are broke into two sets of five.  They were easy to spot in their blue shirts.  Every team looked at every car for several hours inside, outside and underneath.  Each team would score each car sometimes looking at the car over and over.  When they were finished they all met in a meeting room to go over the scores and decide what is the best and what is second best.  Steve was appointed to be the Chief Judge of the Zenith cars and his job was to oversee that the judges did their job correctly.  He explained to We and I that the cars would come down to 1 or less points between them and he explained how to tie break.  The conversation was not only interesting it was intriguing.

The Zenith awards were given out in the auction area.  One by one the owners were called up to get their trophy for being a Zenith car.  Every car invited to display at the event got a trophy. I had spent a good amount of time talking with Russel and Teresa Huval during the three days we were there.  They had brought their 1958 Chevrolet Bel Air to the March 2018 show in Mobile.  As Steve Moskowitz announced the field of Zenith winners the Huvals were not called.  My nerves were getting the best of me.  Could the 1958 Chevy be the Zenith Winner?  They were the very last owner called up before the announcement of the runner ups and winner were called.  Excitement and heartbreak.  How cool it would have been for a Mobile car to win the Zenith top honor.

Evening brought us a free concert in the Auction area.  The band was a 50s and 60s cover band with "Elivs" making an appearance.  During the entertainment all the drinks were free.  The band played for two hours and the crowd loved it.


 

First Day in Auburn

After getting in late to Fort Wayne, IN we got up early.  First thing we did was to go to breakfast.
While at breakfast we talked with David Anspach about AACA. David was concerned about issues with the AACA Museum. After two years it is still a hot topic.  The split from AACA was not nice.
We also talked to another group about our show in Mobile.  They were from Michigan.
Darrin and I headed early to the auction.  Today was all memorabilia.  All that stuff that went for to much money. R&M Auctions does a great job setting the stage to sell for a lot of money.  The cars are in the staging area with red carpet.  The stage is decorated to stand out with a regal feel.  The best of the best neon signs and metal signs lined the stage area.  The constant bidding of the auctioneers got you all excited about the item up for bid.

I enjoyed walking around the swap meet area talking to every one.  Darrin bought an old plastic oil can display for his garage. Later in the afternoon he bought a cabinet.  I bought a match box size pedal car.
I talked to many people about the Mobile show.  Inviting many vendors to our Mobile show.  We will see how many people show up.
The Zenith cars were arriving.  It was a great chance to get to talk with each of the owners and invite them to Mobile.  These cars are amazing.  The best of the best.  The top two of each Nationals is selected to participate in the completion.
Early afternoon Kelly Adams arrived.  We headed over to the Early Ford V8 Museum. The new wing had just opened.  The addition represented the World's Fair Rotunda on the outside.  Inside was a 1936 dealership showroom.  Every model of the 1936 was well represented.  They were still working out the final placement of memorabilia.  The grand for the museum opening was on May 10.
One of the things that I love about AACA is the many friends from all over the US. Darrin and I were invited to dinner with the "wives" of the Board of directors.  Dinner was at Casa Grille an Italian restaurant. We all enjoyed so of the best Italian food in the region. Thirty of us all took up one section of the restaurant.  We all had a great time reconnecting. Darrin spent time talking with Ralph Towner of the Suwannee River Region.  We plan to make a trip to see his shop very soon and move forward on Darrin's patent.

20 Years Later

I love to celebrate.  I love a get together.  I love family. I love friends.  But most of all I live my husband Darrin
For years I have told him we need to celebrate 20 years of marriage.  So that is what we are doing this week. 
First we fly out of the Downtown Mobile airport to Chicago.  We will then head to Auburn, IN for the Grand National.
This will be my first time to get to judge a Grand National.  I am excited to move up in the ranks of judging.  I have worked hard to be able to attend enough shows to reach this status.
The flight to Chicago was just short of two hours.  It was mostly a bumpy ride but wasn't to bad.  We landed on time and made our way to the rental car via a shuttle bus.
We picked up a car and headed to Auburn.  Ten minutes in we turned around and took the car back.  It did not want to run. It went into limp mode.
The new car runs just fine.  Traffic was backed up all the way through Chicago.  Darrin navigated to I-90 like a pro.  We are now settled in for a two and a half hour drive.  It did not get dark until 9:30. Most of the ride was in daylight. 
This 20 Year celebration is starting off with adventure and a lesson in going with the flow.  We arrived at our hotel to find that our rooms had been canceled. 
They found us a room and it was very tiny. Who care when all you will do is sleep.  But it was very tiny.

Saturday

 

 It is not often that a major historical event effects your life as much as Easter does.  As a Christian this is an event that changed my life to life.  At the age of 28 I accepted Christ as my savoir and gave my life to Him.
     At the time I did not understand all that would come to mean.  Most of us know the story.  Jesus was born to the virgin Mary. God's son. In a town called Bethlehem. In a manger among the commoners.
    Jesus grew up and began his ministry with the most unexpected people.  Fisherman, but more than fishermen, they were common men with the same tendency to sin as us.  Drink to much, stay out to late, do the minimum they could.  And like us they could not follow every rule correctly to try to gain the favor of God.
     Jesus walked "the world" with the disciples teaching all that would listen.  For three years he gave us examples and miracles to learn from for the ages to come.  Every story and parable breathes truth into our lives.  This new way to look at life was so popular to the general public.  This became a problem for the religion of the day.
     The powers to be at the time began to plot the end of this new religion.  It is amazing how on one Saturday you can feel the high of life and enjoy each moment and the very next Saturday life is so overwhelming that you can not breath.
    Jesus last week here on earth mirror this. On what we call Palm Sunday Jesus entered his home town with a hero's welcome.  The week turned to prayer, long talks at dinner and more prayer.  Soon betrayal entered the picture and the events became more gruesome than we can imagine.  Jesus was beaten beyond recognition and hung on a cross on Friday. Dyeing that day. Burred in a borrowed grave.
    I often wonder what God thought of all these event.  He knew they needed to happen. He knew only Jesus could suffer the consequences for sin for all.  Only His blood could wash each and everyone of us clean.  On a cross, on a hill, among robbers and a thiefs Jesus died for us.
    It is hard to tell my story of a week that went incredibly wrong.  The week started with anticipation of the events to come.  Easter weekend with the celebration of trading baskets filled with items to please.  A large family gathering around the dinner table to feast on way to much food.
    Friday morning all three kids were off school and I had to go to work.  The day started out just fine.  By mid morning life stood still.  The phone call at work was different and I knew something was terribly wrong.
    "Bear has been in a motorcycle accident.  He is at Huntsville Hospital."  I went numb not sure what to do.  I headed into Huntsville an hour drive away.  Bear was my middle child.  A strong willed 17 year old with a great future ahead of him.
    It was a
 long day at the hospital as we waited to hear what was happening.  Before the afternoon was over Bear was gone.  I didn't know what to do but wail.  One of the hardest moments in my life.  The next days would prove to be overwhelming.
   This year as I think of the meaning of Easter I think more about Saturday.  Those that have lost a loved one knows the pain of Friday.  The shock, the confusion, the absence of that person in your life.
    We as Christians understand Friday and what the blood of Christ did for us.  We also understand Sunday and what it means to have a risen Christ.  But do we understand what Saturday is.
     Put yourself back in the moment in time when Jesus died for us.  The disciples and the many followers seen with Jesus were in hiding fearing for their lives.  The many followers tried to go back to there daily life, confused.  They ran the memory of many events of the past few years through their heads.  Trying to understand how someone that claimed to be the Son of God could die.
     I draw from my personal pain of loosing a son on Good Friday in the year 2000.  Friday was a day of numbness.  But Saturday.  Saturday was full of so many emotions and decisions.  A day of unknown.  What to do? How to do?  Unable to do the simple things like eat or breath.
    The women of the day tried to get back to living life.  The men went to do their work. All motions of habit.  The world they had came to know and understand changed for ever.  They must have felt betrayed like how I felt that these event happen to people on TV not to me.
    All I was left with was my faith in Christ.  This tested me just like they were tested back then on that Saturday.  I could not do anything even though I knew I needed to.  I knew there were two children counting on me to show them the way and all I could do was remind myself to breath in and breath out.
    All I was left with was my faith in Christ.  All they were left with was their faith in Christ.  Nothing else made any sense.  Nothing else seamed to mattered.  God reached down and grabbed my hand and walked me through the day.
    Even though we face a lot of Saturdays in our lives we have one thing that will get us through.  Jesus.  Sunday came and Jesus Christ was not in that grave.  He is risen and He is our life.
   For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  John 3:16