 When you attend this show, usually the second week of January, you have a 50-50 chance of really nice weather. In fact, over the past ten years, there was only one really cold weekend, and one rainy one.
The venue is the Silver Springs Park, and if you're old enough to remember, it's where Sea Hunt, starring Lloyd Bridges, was filmed. It's one of those shows that gives you lots to do when you finally get tired of looking at the cars!
This year, we got the double whammy...a cold front coming through on Friday, followed by another on Saturday. And in the middle of the two, a little snow!
That didn't stop the party in the lounge Friday evening, and without going into detail, be sure to ask Cecil about his new neon sign!
The show itself is one of the best all-Ford shows in the country, with about 1000 Ford vehicles filling the show field.
This year, the extreme cold...it was below freezing Saturday morning...kept a lot of the participants at home, and those that DID attend spent much of the day inside their cars, with the engine running!
The Old Guys were fortunate that Sonny brought his Cougar wagon, and that's where we spent most of our time, toughing it out until just after noon, when we finally gave it up, and headed back to the hotel!
There's a BBQ at NPD Saturday evening, and we all attended. Last year, with balmy temps in the upper 60's, everyone spent the evening in NPD's parking lot, enjoying the live classic rock band.
This year, with the temperature hovering around 20*, NPD's lobby was turned into a dining hall, and we ate dinner at the sales counter! The BBQ, by the way, was fabulous. Ribs cooked to perfection, chicken cooked through but still very tender, country-style mashed potatoes, and beans laced with chunks of sausage and onion.
As soon as we finished dinner, and spent an hour walking through the NPD Museum, we headed right back to the hotel's heated rooms!
The show concluded Sunday, but we never made it back out to the show field. Sometime during the night, the main water feed pipe to the hotel burst, and we woke to NO water! Translated, that means no brushing teeth, no showers, no coffee, and worst of all, no toilet flushing!
At that point, with the temperature hovering about ten degrees, the only thing to do was warm up our cars, and head for home.
It's difficult enough to host an event of this size when the weather is nice and sunny, but the day was overcast and extremely cold, and the NPD staff deserves a lot of credit for braving the elements, arriving long before we arrived, and staying long after we left!
And the North Central Florida Mustang Club, who hosted the BBQ, also gets a big round of applause, not only for providing a great band and a fabulous meal, but for pulling it all off without even a hiccup!
And for the band, who played outside in sub-freezing temperatures, and who, in spite of the cold, managed to keep their guitar's in tune, we only hope that next year, Mother Nature cooperates! |