Sat 8 Jun - Manchester, VT

It's show time!

THE Manchester, VT event of the year, the 27th annual Manchester Antique and Classic Car Show is on today at Dorr"s Farm, and we will be there. No need to rush, it's on both Saturday and Sunday and it is only a 5 minutes drive from Casablanca Motel where we are staying, so we don't leave our cabin until after 10am. Rain is hanging in the air, but it is holding off so far. Dorr is Donald D Dorr, a local identity who owns a variety of businesses such as Dorr's Oil and a number of residential rental properties in the area.

First, we made a quick visit to the Manchester Forest Ranger station to get some local hiking information. Unfortunately, they are closed on weekends (when we thought that people need their services the most?) but they had the foresight to have outside cabinets with lots of hiking pamphlets. We collected a handful to choose a hike for tomorrow.

Then off to see cars, tractors, trucks and whatever else they can come up with at the Manchester Car Show. The entrance is easy to find, just look for the barn.

The similarity to Woodstock made us dub this "Carstock". Plenty of mud, but we were prepared wearing our hiking boots.

Quite a lot of vehicles were on display, and according to the car show blurb they sometimes get 1,000 cars here, but probably not today. The weather and occasional rain spits had these owners doing Karate Kid "wax on/wax off" to wipe off little spots.

 

An overview photo of Manchester Car Show - in the background are low clouds covering the Green Mountains.

American Graffiti - sorry no Harrison Ford, just this guy...

Di's favourite vehicle of the show. It was still in use up to 1995. "I wanted to be a firewoman when I was little...".

This may be the reason she liked it best...the owner liked her enthusiasm and gave her a helmet and the driver's seat (or maybe he just knew she likes to be in charge). She better behave this time as the Chief is in the backseat of the fire engine...

Hans' favourite. Yes, it really does drive that low to the ground, it had not sunk into the grass.

An amazing amount of work and detail has gone into this Packard. Fantastic vehicle and color.

We both liked the "Willy" in the photo below - like a jeep but as the manufacturer was Willy. The owner said it had been in active service but he was not sure which war. He personally had been on a tour of duty in Vietnam and mentioned being stationed near Aussies whilst there. He gave us each a badge and talked about the VFW's (Veterans of Foreign Wars) work in ensuring "No Veteran Left Behind".

The owner had also tried to make the vehicle look how it might have when in service. Very realistic...

How rude! But we laughed hard.

Di could not help singing "holiday road - o-o-o" from National Lampoons Vacation. We are perhaps traveling a little bit differently than the Griswolds. O-o-o...

A moment of nostalgia for Hans. When we was growing up this Saab model was common on the streets of Stockholm.

Same for Di - the Datsun 280z - remembered fondly...

The Volvo 343 was nostalgic for Hans in other ways. "Pieces of sh*t" was his summary of the Volvo / DAF models.

On display was this beautiful Rolls Royce from the 1920's - made in Springfield MA. What? Aren't they British? Apparently during this era RR did not do much apart from engines. They shipped it to you, got it mounted on the appropriate chassis, and then your "carriage builder" custom made the body.

 

The winged lady mascot is turned sideways - why? So when you open the bonnet she does not scratch the paint. Very thoughtful.

Aargh, what happened here... Perhaps a typical gangster car from the past.

Old tractors were also lined up on one side of the field but a closer inspection made us realize it was actually a tractor graveyard as many clearly had not been driven for a very long time.

They were offering tractor rides on more modern versions.

And we just had to try it out.

Our tractor.

On the way, past the tractor graveyard.

A flea market was also part of the show and we had to investigate. On the way, wade through the mud - yep Carstock was the right name for this.

Lots of old car stuff including antique number plates dating back at least 50 years. OK, not everything over 50 years of age is antique...

And if you still have your horse you may want to buy these great hitching posts and mount next to your house.

Time passed quickly and by 1.30pm we were looking for lunch. Di had seen good TripAdvisor reviews for lunch at the local Thai restaurant called Thai Basil so we went to find it.

Good news - Thai Basil lived up to the hype. Hans ordered Green Chicken Curry (not among the lunch specials but available) and loved it. Good heat and flavour. Di kept stealing bits - her lunch of soup and dumplings was also nice but the curry was better.

Perhaps the most tasteful decor we have ever seen in a Thai restaurant for a long time.

On the other side of the street from Thai Basil, these teenagers were busking - unsuccessfully we thought - as we did not see many passing pedestrians and when we stepped out of the restaurant and could hear them we realized they were pretty awful. Sorry guys, nothing from us either.

Unfortunately, Hans' ended up with what looked like leftover curry on this brand new hiking pants. The brown curry smudge was on his chair before he sat down and he didn't see it then. So, after lunch it was back to the ranch for a wash out to ensure no staining.

The rain then settled in so further exploration was shelved. What a shame for the Manchester Car Show, as they were finishing off today's activities by having a parade from 4pm. We didn't particularly fancy standing in the drizzle to watch cars so we decided to give that a miss. After all, we've seen most of the cars already.

We are then relaxing with drinks and popcorn just before beer o'clock and we feel very comfortable in our little cabin.

Dinner, home made sludge, is consumed under cover just outside our cabin. It is indeed very nice to sit there with a glass of wine and relax. We were also doing a bit of planning for the Central European leg of our trip October through to December / January and again realize that it doesn't matter how much time you have up your sleeve, it never seems to be enough for what you would like to do. Oh well, one should not complain.

Good night from us as dark settles over Vermont.

Posted with Blogsy