Labor Day was a swelteringly hot and humid day. I was meeting Melony and her hubby, Doug, in Clifton to take photos of the Car Show. It was already packed when I got there and after a few texts, Melony and gave up trying to find each other, planning instead to meet up for lunch.
A lovely lovely Mack truck was a perfect vehicle to see as I entered the village. The streets were thankfully closed to traffic. We'd parked at a local school and been shuttled down. But there were so many people that it was difficult to get good looks at the cars, and I'm sure the humidity was raised by at least 20% with so many sweating bodies in such close proximity. The sun blazed down relentlessly, glaring off the highly polished chrome and painted metal. The owners of the vehicles were slumped under umbrellas or awnings and mostly looking pretty miserable.
Some folks had great senses of humor with carefully placed fluffy characters on their cars.
I walked around the parking areas feeling the hot tarmac burning through my sandals, so I didn't want to stand still too long, and ended up snapping a lot of shots, documenting rather than being creative. I was also pretty annoyed that I couldn't take my usual low level photos which would have created some awesome angles with these cars, but my knee wouldn't allow that.
The cars weren't placed in a specific order or group. I noticed some Mustangs and Corvettes were in pairs or trios but others were scattered around the village. I prefer the older vehicles to the newer ones but I did like this Mustang.
This GTO was my favorite of the day. I'm sure the color had a lot to do with my choice but I love the shape, it reminded me a bit of the old UK Ford Cortina MKIII.
I also loved this old Fairlane. Beautiful paint job, and it had 50's music blaring out from its sound system.
Not a huge Corvette fan but I had to admire the artwork underneath the hood.
I found this Caddy in a corner of a parking lot and loved it.I probably looked to be very enthusiastic to the owner as I stood a while looking at it, but really I was so enjoying the shade.
I met Melony here at the Main Street Pub. We timed it well, choosing to have lunch about 11:20. We didn't have to wait long for a table and were immensely grateful to be in the AC, although it wasn't as cool as we would have liked. We just couldn't get rid of that incessant sticky sensation. But a Fat Tire beer cheered me up no end and I had a delicious egg salad BLT. The queue to get in the restaurant was long when we left, and all three of us walking to the door slowly, not wanting to go back outside.
The heat almost knocked me back as we stepped down onto the street. I didn't think I wanted to be here too much longer, an opinion we all shared.
I think I managed to walk around for maybe another 20 minutes or so. I had really lost all interest in taking photos, the heat and humidity were just way too intimidating.
Some cool interiors. Cool as in interesting and amazing. If they'd been cool in the temperature sense I'm pretty sure there would have been some serious skirmishes as folks battled to sit inside.
These two chaps had got it right, being pushed around with a canopy to protect them from the sun's scorching rays, while being fed cold liquids and ice cream.
There were some interesting hood ornaments ans details to the cars but I just couldn't muster up any energy to look too hard or get creative with my photography.
In the end I just had to say bollocks to it all and admit defeat but as I was leaving I got waylaid by an outrageous pair of suspenders holding up a man with a railway hat on and I just had to investigate further. This guy is known as the Blind Mechanic and the car here was built by him, plus a number of others at the show. This particular vehicle he'd slung together over the winter. He admitted he needed some help with the electrics but for the most part it was all down to him. For the first time during the day I forgot about the heat and was spellbound, listening to him speak and leaning under the hood with him as his nimble fingers ran back and forth over the engine, showing me the things he'd done and how he made adjustments. What an amazing guy.
I think my face must have held an expression similar to this cow's as I finally made my way back to Stuart. Incredulous at meeting such an interesting man, and then incredibly thankful, as I finally got home where I could flake out on the cool floor and at last be out of that darn sun. Whew!
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