Slacker, no more.

Well, I had the best intentions to keep uo with this blog this summer, but life has gotten in the way. I'll promise to try to do better. (Notice, I said try!)

Last Weekend, Mudbone, Jr. and I went to Carlisle and had a great time. He drove most of the way up and all the way home. About halfway home, he remarked "This car is SOOO fun to drive." He really wants a 4th-gen of his own, now. (We'll see.)

We both were amazed at the number of 5th-gens at Carlisle. They were everywhere, with some unique models to enjoy as well. Tom Henry Racing had a great display tent setup, with quite a lot of traffic. My fave was the Cyber Grey one with the light blue accents, stripes and blue bow tie -- very cool. We ran into Scott, Cheryl and John at the Camaro display and chatted briefly after checking out the static (no-touching) displays, plus the open-to-the-public models. The LS7 car was pretty mean looking

I am not exactly sure how many cars there were, but if there were 2000 cars registered, 800 to 1000 of them were Camaros. The American Camaro Association does a great job with Carlisle and this year was no exception. Our first year going was in 2007, and we did not enter the 30th in the judged class back then (I had no idea what to expect). There were at least a half-dozen 30th Anniversary cars in the field, and I was certain my car could be competitive. We decided to give judging a shot this year, but there were only two cars in the class this time. My car is a driver and now has about 13K on the speedo. The other car in the class was a trailered hardtop that the drive admitted to "never driving". I thought we had a chance, but in the end, he took the top prize. It would have been more satisfying if more cars were competing.

We did meet up with LovSSin and his girlfriend (by total coincidence they were parked right across the travelway from us). We spent some good times together at dinner and other scheduled events -- by far, the funniest being the ACA Charity Auction. Scott and John pitched in to provide the auctioneering. John was great, but Scott was in league of his own. As I remarked in the PodCast, Scott could sell heifers in Kansas City should Mr. Obama give him the axe Louie, be sure to post a picture of the "Super-Big-Gulp-Armrest" once you get it installed We can't wait until next year to go back. Maybe then we can drive two Camaros and we won't look like Jed and Granny trying to cram all our stuff into the tiny little convertible.

This weekend was the local 4th of July Car Show in my hometown of Culpeper, VA. My youngest son (Mudbone III ?) went along and there were a few really nice specimens. I was parked right next to a chopped school bus "Shortcut High" that had been featured on Monster Garage. With all that to distract folks, I don't think many even noticed 'lil ol me and Peyton. We did win a Top 40 plaque, which is always fun for my boy. Probably the nicesr looking car was a 1957 Fuelie Corvette, that was primo. Over the top for that one, was the two models posing in the car all day. The guy was dressed in his best fifties regalia, complete with rolled sleeves t-shirt and slicked hair. The girl was dressed in a Mailyn Monroe white halter top dress, and looked lovely. I thought it was a nice touch and they siad they did enjoy talking with all the people that stopped to chat. There were lots of Camaros here as well, my favorite being a survivor D80 Z28 (blue with white stripes). I love seeing these cars being driven, but the guy did say the 302 was a handful to drive in traffic. There was a very nice '71 Z28 split-bumper, painted pearl orange with white stripes. I'm a sucker for an orange car. When I dump my camera after a car show, there's always a lot of orange cars!

Tune in next week. I think we've got another road trip in mind.