Local owners of Nova’s and Pontiacs have had this weekend marked on their calendars for many years, owners from all over the world and the fans of these cars have flocked to Old Town for a great show every year and this year would be no exception to that. However the RAIN and COLD would affect just how long they would stay at Old Town. The last several years the numbers grew and the rest of the “Regular” Saturday nite cruisers knew today would be one that could have Old Town bursting at it’s seams. Many would choose not to come out and the influx of the “Snowbirds” would replace their numbers on Trophy Row.

I mentioned RAIN, yes it sure did rain and this morning it didn’t spare Old Town and the hundreds of cars that were in place since early in the morning, 2 large shows taking place. The Wide Track Warriors were in the top 2 blocks and the Nostalgic Novas were in the other 2. Both were scheduled to end at 2:00 and the streets of our Home Town would open to the “Regulars” that make their way out each and every week. Last year this transition went flawlessly thanks to the efforts of our Cruise Staff. This year, instead of most of the cars returning to join in on the days regular event they would leave, I guess it was the hours of being soaked is what did it. I don’t blame them one bit for doing so.

It was shortly after 1:00 when Emil, KJ4GNH would call to say he was in the line up in his ’48 Ford with most of the “Redline Rodders” and it was still raining. He spotted some Pontiac activity and mentioned that the show looked pretty good even in it’s soaked state. Bill A in his ‘63 Pontiac Parisienne would be one of the participants as usual, he always lines his Florida trip up so that he can attend this show, would take first place in his class. I didn’t get to many details on the Nova get together but I did recognizes a few of the Chevy’s from previous years and there were only a few left by the time Emil was able to head to his parking spot.

Linda & I would arrive just before 2:00 and during the egress of the great old “Indians”. After a brief staging by registration, Dave would sign us in and we would head to our parking spot. Charlie would have already picked up Emil for their weekly, early explorations of the local area. After watching many of the cars go around to the “Top” and a short visit with Gary we would venture up to the top of Trophy Row. There weren’t to many cars out yet but the rain stopped! This is a good thing. The Sun even came out for a bit when we were visiting with 2 of the 3 amigos. Graham, G4HFG would check in from Oldham, England over the OTARC repeater for the day. T Rod, KT4ROD would also check in on his way to work and Laura, NO4OO would call to say that she wouldn’t be joining us for dinner at 4:00. Tom & Bunny would arrive just after Emil & Charlie made it back and parked their ‘66 Chevelle next to him. A few of the Novas that had been on Block 4 moved up and it would just be our 3 cars on Block 4 until just before cruise time. Larry, WA3PGL & Linda KA3BRP would also come out to join us. John would take care of the 8 of us, who decided to dine inside this evening. Pablo & Nilda, Bob M and many of the other early birds were also inside with us. It was hard to monitor the progress of the arrivals from inside so we would take our walk back to Block 4 on Trophy Row to see who had arrived. The Repeatles were setting up on stage, I spotted John, Sandy & Dawn in their ‘55 Chevy, Larry was nearby in “ITZA40” and Steve & Carol were out in their latest, a ‘67 Barracuda convertible that they just picked up on this trip down from Canada and of course Bill was their in his Pontiac North of the stage. Darrel’s LTD had been in his favorite place soon after the Pontiacs were moved out. Bert & “Ernie” were in their ‘66 Comet. Shane made an appearance in his ‘57 Chevy and Roger was in is Toyota. Dave D had one of his other cars out, a red ‘65 T-Bird convertible. The “Mothers” tent was set up vending some car care products, Mark’s Nova was next to it. There was a Blue “GT-350” on the corner, Bob had his ‘72 GMC in his favorite spot, right there in the “Looney Bin”.

Once we were back in Block 4, Mike and Carolyn, still in town from Tennessee would stop down for a visit. We would take another walk up to the top with them and Linda & I would stop in at the” Blue Room” and visit a while with Mike Singer, KJ4GNI. The car count wasn’t growing very fast and then I did some math, if all of the Cars from the earlier shows would have stayed like they had in previous years we would have had more than 300 cruisers on the streets of Old Town. There were still plenty of cars to look at for our spectators, of course the cold had kept a bunch of them away. However, we did have the privilege of talking with people from New Zealand, England, Wales, Ireland and Germany during the night. All of them were “First Timers” and had heard about us from friends and after they found us on the internet decided that Old Town was a place they had to visit, none of them were disappointed. Remember I mentioned that our 3 cars were the only ones on Block 4? Well, just after the gates closed, Allan allowed a group of traveling cruisers to join us. There were about a dozen “Old School” Cruisers that joined us from Miami, they had been to the Billetproof car show in Gainesville and were on their way back to Miami. These were all Hot Rods that were older than 1962. Most in Satin finish and many that were lowered and all with Air Ride. There was a ‘49 Caddy a couple of ‘54 Chevy’s a pickup or 2 and a few others. We didn't get much time to visit with them as we would “Hit the Bricks” shortly after they arrived. It was at least another 4 to 6 hours of driving for them and they did that earlier in the day to get to Gainesville. No Trailer Queens in that group. It would have been nice if they would have arrived earlier.

Chrisanne would stop by with the flag winners just after 8:20, the Cruise Staff would direct Lori Altman in her '71 Challenger and Tom Altman in their 71 'Cuda our February 2010 "sweetheart" Cruisers of the Month followed by the rest of the Cruisers out of their parking spots into the line up, Chris  would bring them to Block 4 that becomes the staging area for Old Town's signature event. The rest of the cars from the top 3 Blocks would join in behind them. Mike Singer, KJ4GNI, who had been at the controls of the "Blue Room" all day, playing a mix of nostalgic music, radio "Jingles"  gave the safety announcements, played the National Anthem, Wolfman Jack then proclaimed "It's the Saturday Nite Cruise" for tonight's running of this tradition. The Cruisers made their way to the "Bricks" of "Deac Hundley Avenue", Mike announced the Flag Winners as the rest of the 79 cars in cruise formation cruised past, delighting crowd of cheering spectators along both sides of the Avenue. "Rain or Shine" or even Snow, every Saturday night of the year, there is nothing quite like it for the "Cruisers" and it is always a treat for those watching it from the sidewalks and boulevards.

Thank you Old Town for letting us, the curators of this "Rolling Display of Automotive History", the cars that are the "Stars", to be their guests this evening. Thank you to the Old Town Merchants Association and the Sponsors of this event, "Valvoline", the "General Store", the "A&W",  "Out of this World Embroidery", "Wound 'N Around", Pepsi, Roberts Brothers, the Pearl Factory, the Gold Hut, the "Tropical Breeze", Kool Kats, Tex Mex Express & "Flippers" just to name a few. Thank you to Allan, Ron, Gary,  Lee, Dave, Esther, Vic, Nikki, CJ, Mesha, Chrisanne, Deputy Asa and the entire Cruise Staff and fellow Cruisers for making our Saturday in "Town" a fun and safe one..
 

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See you all "Out There"