Part II - Saturday
Sorry, I needed a nap and something to eat! The story continues thus...
After dinner Friday night, most of Dave's crew, myself, Mike and a newly acquired member who showed up late in the day - nbb350 - Nick, from Minnesota, were hovering around the camper customarily telling stories and lies. I happened to look down over the campsite area (the camper was actually on the hill where the car trailers were stored, and has a great view of the fairgrounds) and saw a red Sterling parked by an enclosed trailer. It hadn't made it onto the field that day, so Nick, Mike and I trooped down to see who it was. Who it was had the name of Will, and isn't part of the forum just yet. Will had purchased Steve's (yessongs) car from long Island last month, and had made the trip up from North Carolina with his family to be at the show. He had no knowledge of the Sterling club other than what Steve had mentioned to him, and he was quickly welcomed into the Sterling community. It was getting late at that point, so we bid each other a good night and headed off to our respective beds, promising to catch up in the morning.
Morning came to the sound of some a**hat revving his engine at 6:30A next to my trailer. It was cold, cloudy and breezy, and I was really warm where I was. I made my way to the food concessions, grabbed a lousy cup of coffee and hit the swaps again to see if I had missed anything. I hadn't, so I crawled my way back up the hill to Dave's trailer to grab some breakfast that was cooking on the grill.
By 9:30 or so, the club tent was abuzz with three cars and the promise of a few more. Fuzz (fuzz) called me and said that he and Warren (farfegnubbin) were at the gate registering. They had brought two of Warren's rides - the turbo rotary Sterling and his silver Cimbria. Dave had already brought his car to the tent, deciding not to set up his vendor spot, so by the time Fuzz and Warren arrived, six cars were parked together. Will, sleeping in apparently, was the last to arrive to the party.
James (mud4fun) and his wife in the tent, Bob relaxing after a bite of lunch at Dave's trailer and a few other select shots above reveal the layout. A newly acquired friend showed up, Rick Rickert, the webmaster from the old Sterling Central site, showed up to meet and greet with everyone and Warren, since Warren had taken over the site some years ago. Rick is a very interesting world traveler and has landed back on US soil for a little while. He vows to get another Sterling when his world gets a little more stable. This was good incentive, for sure!
As mentioned previously, the kit side of the show gets far smaller every year. The Porsche Speedster club is always the largest part, the Avenger/Valkyrie club usually show at least five or six; this year only three came. And only one other oddball VW based kit showed, this unusual "Vision III" vehicle of which I had never seen before outside of some old kit ads. It was striking, with a love it or hate it rear treatment (but still way better than a Bradley). Two beautiful Diablo replicas were there along with a Factory Five GTM, and the dune buggy club was half a field away, a home built 917 and an off-the-chart Auburn replica showed on Friday; the 917 was there on Saturday, and that's all there was to the kit field.
I won't bore with details of conversations and minutia. Suffice to say that those who attended I think had a great time meeting folks you only talk to on a forum and putting faces to the names. Will was certainly one of the most gregariously enthusiastic owners there and vowed to be active in all the club activities in the future.
By 2:00 the skies had darkened considerably, and true to 80% of the Carlisle shows, the skies started to open by 2:30. All the fields, including the imports, fled the show grounds, leaving only a few die-hard fans to fend for themselves. Dave and Mike had gone to their trailers, James had his car loaded and ready for the trip back to Georgia, Warren and Fuzz had left an hour previous and Will's car was under the tent next to mine. As the rain eased a bit, I fetched my trailer and packed up for the weekend - the Sunday forecast was worse, and knowing that, there would be nobody on the grounds at all. Trailer packed and parked, Dave notified me that they were heading out... Mike would have to take over the cookout.
Unfortunately, nobody told Mike. He called just as I had gotten off the phone with Dave and panicked slightly - his grill wasn't large enough. But he was parked near Will who had a grill as well. And it was only going to be the seven of us plus Will's young kids, and between Mike and Will, a gracious and welcome bbq chicken dinner was prepared at Mike's motorhome with his wife, Will, his wife and kids, Nick and his wife and myself. And I'll apologize here - my memory sucks for names, and I never wrote down anyone's spouses' names. For that, I am truly sorry. The hospitality that Mike and Will showed on Saturday night after Dave bailed out was unsurpassed, and it was a wonderful way to wind up the day, even if it was a bit damp.
Next year... warmer and dryer weather, please!
Just never needed nor wanted one. I've got a high horsepower desktop and a 28" monitor I work with. I tried working with a buddies Dell laptop and just couldn't handle the smaller keypad and the finger mouse thing..
