Saturday, May 27th started out with sky full of broken clouds – not bad weather for the start of the 2017 Antique Automobile Club of America (AACA) 2017 South Eastern National Meet. Approximately 180 vehicles had registered for the event. Unfortunately, thunderstorms were predicted for the afternoon. Not a good sign for those who brought vehicles some of which might not have seen more than a damp sponge-down in the entirety of their restored afterlife.
My day began with attendance at the Judges Breakfast in our host hotel where a couple of hundred of us judges congregated to receive our judging assignments and last minute meet instructions. I generally volunteer to judge chassis, as unfortunately many of the judges have difficulty getting down on one knee to inspect the vehicles’ undercarriages – actually it’s the getting-up part that challenges them. While I was at the Judge’s Breakfast, m ’lady prepared herself for the day which included having a light breakfast in the hotel dining room.
At around 9:45am we drove over to the show field; stopping on the way to pick up the new voltage regulator at the local NAPA auto parts store which had arranged to have one brought down early that morning from a NAPA store in a neighboring city. Nicely done.
The charging circuit was performing reasonably well during the 6 mile drive to the show field, so we just packed the new regulator away for a replacement decision at a later time. Do you leave something alone if it is behaving reasonably well at the moment – or replace what you believe to be the problem and possibly “wake the sleeping giant” hundreds of miles from your next destination?
The AACA National meet when very smoothly. Lots of very impressive vehicles; many of which closely met the judging criteria of being exactly as they would have been when leaving the original dealer’s showroom floor. I assisted with judging by inspecting chassis on our team’s assignment of eight 1950’s passenger cars.
Due to the less than pristine condition (not even close) of our Jeep and the fact that we have upgraded safety features, we traditionally enter our wagon in the Driver Participation Class (DPC). It is the least prestigious of the classes, but does give us an opportunity to rub elbows with the big guys and entertain folks who attend the meets. Thankfully, the anticipated afternoon showers never materialized, making for a more relaxed show field.
Late Saturday afternoon Jean and I attended Mass (something that she does religiously) at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Huntington. It is a nicely appointed moderate sized Church with impressive roof trusses (something that I traditionally study when not pondering a Jeep malfunction.)
May 27, 2017: St. Joseph Catholic Church, Huntington, WV
Saturday evening we attended the Awards Banquet where pleasantries were exchanged among the meet organizers and participants, appreciation for hard work was expressed, and awards were handed out. We were pleased to receive a National DPC medallion – the ninth in our collection. The Banquet broke up around 9:45pm and Jean and I retired to our room to prepare for the coming days’ travels north to Michigan.