A Gathering Of The Clan
Cars, Coffee, Friends and A Fritter
My birthday, this year, dawned clear and warm.
I had a full day planned, but at the last minute Sue said she wanted to do something before I left for the day. I was anxious to get on with the day, but she was asking, and I couldn't say no. We went to a Danish-style bakery near the house. It's one of those places you pass by for years, but never stop, saying ...
We gotta stop there one of these days.
This was one of those days.
Everything in the counter looked great. It reminded me of a bakery we had in my home town. I wanted one of everything, but I settled for one of their Apple Fritters, and a cup of coffee. The coffee was fine, but the Fritter had to be the best Apple Fritter I'd ever eaten, and I've eaten a lot of Apple Fritters.
The day was getting off to a good start.
I dropped Sue off at the house and headed north. On the first Saturday of each month there's a spotrscar meet at a strip mall in Lafayette called "Coffee and Cars". A bunch of car enthusiasts started getting together for a few hours to have a coffee, and talk cars, and shit with the fellow enthusiasts. It started small, just a few locals, but in the years since they started, the meet's grown to over 200 hundred cars from all over the metro each month.
And this was my first time.
Car meets are not all that rare around here. Car clubs do it all the time, having little car meets/shows at drive-ins, auto parts stores, or any place they can find space and a willing manager. It's usually just a bunch of people, hangin' out with their cars, opened up so others can see what's under the hood, in the cockpit, or in the trunk. They're not very organized, as a rule, but they're still a lot of fun.
May's Coffee and Cars promised to be the same. I pulled into the lot and their were sportscars everywhere. I don't know how many, but there was a lot of cars. Just trying to find a parking spot a saw 'Vettes, Porsches, Ferraris, Masteratis and more. I pulled into a slot between a late-model, Elise and a '58 356. Pretty decent company. I got out and started walking around. The lot was full and there were people everywhere and that's what makes these kinds of meets so special. I stopped in front of an old Citroen SM - the one with a Maserati V6 in it - looking at the engine under the open hood, talking with three other guys.
I've never seen one of these.Me either, but I remember Burt Reynolds getting busted while driving one in the Longest Yard.
Yeah, that WAS an SM, wasn't it?
Cool.
I walked a little bit further, and came up on what turned out to be a Race Me Red, '58 Caddie of some sort or another. Two other guys, and I talked about how good a shape the interior was in while trying to figure out if the paint was original.
Not far from the Caddie was a early-'60s Alfa with a Colorado Grand entry number sticker.
Show off!
There was a BMW Z1 in attendance. You don't see too many of those around either.
I saw a familiar Sunbeam Tiger across the lot. It looked like a car belonging to a friend. A short time later, I ran into him. Small world. Sort of.
Then I ran into a group of friends from the Miata club. With them was Tom, The Guy With The V8 Miata. Yes, car buffs, he shoe-horned an LS Corvette engine into a Miata. That's around 400hp in a car weighing 2300 pounds. Yes, it's really fast.
More coffee, more convo and, off course, more cars.
How fast do ya s'pose that Stradale is?
Dunno, but those Ferrari guys drive like your sister.
My sister's pretty fast.
Your other sister.
And...
How about that Morgan trike?Cool! I like the Harley engine.
It's not a Harley Davidson. It's made by S&S.
Huh?
S&S. They're in Wisconsin, just like Harley Davidson, so you're close.
Oh. Okay......
God it was fun. Spending a morning with a couple hundred Car Guys is kinda cool.
People started leaving around lunch time. I walked around the lot watching the cars pulling out and thought about the morning - the coffee, the cars, the convo. I'll do it agin. I was tempted to pick a favorite, but with all the cars, a clear choice was impossible. If I had to choose it would still be a toss-up between the 356 I was parked next to and a Dino parked down the lane a bit.
I was getting a bit peckish, so I left to find lunch, but the day wasn't over yet. More adventures awaited.
And that will be a story or two for next time.
