Fall Color in Shannondale, WV

I often get asked why I travel so far to work each day. The answer is very simple.  I love where I live. Shannondale is a fairly quiet community positioned between the Appalachian Trail and the Shenandoah River. The roads aren’t very good and you pretty much have to drive 15 minutes to the nearby city of Charles Town if you need anything. But, what it does have is natural beauty. The couple weeks of color during Fall are one of my most favorite times of the year.

Look Up In the Sky – Orionid Meteor Shower

Halley’s Comet left us a present. As the earth moves through the debris left by the comet each year at the end of October we often get a spectacular display of shooting stars. The Orionid Meteor Shower, or Orionids for short, gets its name from the fact that if you trace the paths from shooting stars they seem to originate from the constellation Orion. But, the shooting stars appear all over the sky! Peg and I took the time to hang-out under the stars after the moon set and watch the fireworks. We didn’t catch any of the large shooting stars on camera (only smaller ones) but we did see several. Sometimes you have to loose a little sleep to catch something magical. Trust us, it’s worth it.

Frederick, MD – 5th Annual Worldwide Photo Walk

How do you get to know area photographers? One great way is to attend a photo walk. One of the largest is Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photo Walk. Now in its 5th year, this walk was held in more than 1300 cities worldwide this year. Peg and I decided to try the one in Frederick, Maryland. We had a fabulous time with the walk that our leader, P. Thomas Lambert organized. We met several interesting people and shared a couple hours taking photos with them. Afterwards, we all gathered at the Green Turtle Sports Bar for a sort of post shoot scavenger hunt. Peg and I won a screen protector and a beer! Truly a great day. Thanks Paul!

We have a few more photos from the walk over on our photo site.  http://photos.bgcustoms.com

Hunting for Treasure at Fall Carlisle

Sometimes Bubba’s Garage just goes to the Fall Carlisle Collector Car Swap Meet & Corral just to look. Currently, we don’t have any projects in the garage that require parts. So that meant that we could enjoy just being out. You can walk for hours and be shopping for nothing. In my opinion, these are the best kind of outings. Still, I force everyone to get up early to watch the sun come up and to get a parking space close to the gates just in case.

We were at the gates at 7am sharp when the Carlisle Events opened. Unfortunately, we beat most of the vendors so we had a little time to kill. That’s not hard to do and we made a beeline over to the main building to pick up a good hot breakfast. Inside, a number of high quality collectible vendors were selling a wide variety of car related merchandise.

Outside it was cold and wet. But you know what they say, “You can’t have rainbows without a little rain.”  Peg did her best to convince me to bring home another little car. She liked the 1963 Mini Cooper but really wanted the 1960 Morris Minor Traveler. No Sale.

We wandered up and down most of the 150 acres that make up the Carlisle Fairgrounds. There were many open spots left for this years gathering. The number of vendors at many of the shows we go to is still down. Heck, even we don’t sell at shows much anymore because not many people are buying. Still we had fun rummaging and we did manage to pick up a few decorations for the garage including a runway light (don’t ask).

Get off the couch and do something this weekend!

The Rodders Journal Revival 2012 Car Show

The Rodder’s Journal held its first ever car show at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland over the weekend. To be a little different they called it a “Vintage Speed & Custom Car Revival” instead of a car show. But, what ever you call it most car nuts just called it “Great!”

The first car to catch your eye as you emerged from the tunnel leading to the infield was Dan Webb’s So-Cal Streamliner Replica. Craig Naff hand formed the sleek body out of 3003 H14 aluminum. There is a really good write-up about the car over at The Jalopy Journal.

Do you like Gassers? There were a number of Willys Gassers on Saturday parked together. Here are a couple of photos of Tom Venezia’s 1941 Willys and Mario Colasuonno’s 1940 Willys. Both are sporting 392 Hemis with 6-71 blowers.

If race cars aren’t your thing there were some real nice hot rods parked on the Pimlico infield. Peg and I both wondered how Melvin Carter Jr. was able to navigate the crappy streets of Baltimore with his down in the weeds 1928 Essex. Lewis Stanley’s 1930 Ford Model A is much more to my liking.

The Rodder’s Journal did a great job selecting bands to play all weekend. A little Rock-a-Billy goes a long way to keep you energized as you are snapping off hundreds of photos of these great cars and trucks. Does anyone know the name of the first band that played on Saturday? I know they are out of southern Maryland but I failed to write their name down.

If you have the word “Custom” in your show name there had better be a few on hand. TRJ Revival did not disappoint. You had your choice of subdued customs like Jesse Hallett’s 1950 Mercury or the in-your-face customs like Stiff Richardz Hot Rods’ 1931 Shop Rod.

Classics? Sure, there were a few of those around as well. Do you like fins? How about Jason Stilling’s 1961 Cadillac? Phil Mead was representing the trucks well with his 1941 Dodge Pickup.

For a first time show, we were extremely impressed with The Rodder’s Journal. The quality of cars here was second to none. Hopefully, Vintage Speed & Custom Revival continues to grow and becomes a must do event for all East Coast rodders.

Be sure to head over to our photo website for a bunch more photos of the show. http://photos.bgcustoms.biz