August 27th, 2010 @ 6.18 pm
The second annual vintage aircooled VW show in Frederick at Everedy Square and Shab Row was on August 7th, and of course I had my camera with me. In Baltimore myself and eight other aircooled cars (and Whit in his Rabbit GTI) met up and cruised out together. Once again, it was a great time caravaning in a pack of VW’s. A full set of pictures are in the gallery.
May 4th, 2010 @ 6.40 pm
Over the past four or five years I’d been meaning to go to the Volksfest show in Campbelltown, PA, but never did. There was always something going on, rain in the forecast, or I simply balked at how far away it is. This year I finally made it. Unlike many of the big shows, this one has no drag racing, so it’s just a bunch of VW’s hanging out in a field and a swap meet.
From my house it is exactly 100 miles each way, and most of that is straight up I-83. I’m a wimp, and so I didn’t even seriously consider taking my VW. Can it even make it that far without falling apart? What about everyone driving 80mph while I put along at 60mph? Isn’t I-83 always under construction in PA? So, yes we went… but we drove the Jetta, and I don’t regret it at all.
At the show I picked up a used steering damper to replace my worn out one (last replaced in the 80’s, or earlier… it was made in West Germany if that tells you anything). I said hi to one of our clubs members, and missed saying hi but did see another couple in the club. Of course I took a bunch of pictures and posted them in the Gallery. As I have read of past show reviews, the food on site was made by the fire hall and is decently edible (ie, cheap backyard burgers, hot dogs, fries, etc.) and is fairly priced. I fed Beverly and myself for about $9, but we did also bring out own soda’s.
Yes, that’s a dead dog or wolf in the back window. What else would you expect from a guy who drives a barndoor bus (ie, pre- March 1955) that is completely rusty but preserved with a clearcoat of paint?
August 22nd, 2009 @ 10.45 pm
A couple weeks ago my VW club headed west to Frederick for a new show in the downtown area of Everedy Square & Shab Row. A little misunderstanding had two groups in our club meeting at different Park and Rides, but we eventually all met up and had nine aircooled cars cruising out Route 70 at 55-60mph. There were plenty of people slowing down to get a good look at us, and I particularly remember someone pointing a camera lens out the window of their Caravan in my direction to get a picture (if that was you, send me a copy!). You can skip straight to the gallery, or you can keep reading my summary… Read the rest of this entry »
May 26th, 2009 @ 12.47 pm
Sunday Beverly and I joined a group of fellow Slowriders and cruised on down to Manassas, VA for the Bug Out VW show. I still haven’t finished fixing my 1776cc engine, and so drove down with the “spare parts” 1600cc engine that is more or less a stock, 60HP unit. Luckily, it ran great the whole trip and got us there and back. We met about seven other cars at a rest stop just south of Rt 32 on I-95 and then caravaned down to the show. It’s a lot more fun to be riding in a whole string of slow old cars together, and then spending the day with friends just hanging out and talking cars along with whatever else comes up. Coming home Whit followed me in his silver GTI as we went through about four or five rain showers. I tried to not drive the car in the rain, but it will survive. Pictures from the day are in the gallery, enjoy!
October 15th, 2008 @ 5.18 pm
I made it, with breaking down only once. With only about two hours of run time on my parts engine in the car, we headed out for the show. Just as I was going to slow down and merge from the Beltway to Harford Rd, there was a bang and my engine died. So I pulled past my exit by a few feet onto the shoulder, and pulled open the decklid. The bang was the cylinder #1 spark plug flying out of it’s hole. Luckily the engine wasn’t overly hot (in a weird twist of fate…), and I was able to get the socket set out and put the spark plug back in, tighten it down, and refire the engine. After backing up a couple car lengths, we were off again to the show without any more incidents. Read the rest of this entry »
August 24th, 2008 @ 10.44 pm
Well, after an amazing nearly three years of not breaking down and being stranded, the VW finally did it to me again today. Sure, there’s been plenty of problems (mostly oil leaks) along the way, but the car managed to get me wherever I was going every time. This morning we drove to church without a problem in the world – it didn’t even leak oil at all! But as we started the car to leave, it didn’t look good. There was a rubbery whining noise that I couldn’t figure out what it was. However, besides the noise, the engine ran fine, so we started towards home. After passing I-295 on Rt 100, I could smell some burning, and pulled over. Sure enough, the engine was back to it’s usual of throwing oil, this time a bit heavier than I’d seen on this length of drive, and was dripping on the exhaust. So we kept going. Then I could see a little white smoke behind us as we passed I-95, and I pulled over and shut it down. There was twice as much oil in the engine compartment as before. Read the rest of this entry »
Come, have a look around. Take your shoes off. Enjoy. Read through my rantings and ravings, or see the latest photos from last weeks car show/ ultimate tournament.