Sunday Sunday Sunday
January 22nd. We had 18 cars with 43 people met at the sight of the
"Saint Cloud Thursday Nite Cruise-In" to take a ride to "Big
Daddy, Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing in near by Ocala, Florida.
Well it would be nearly a 180 mile round trip, but that is still near.
Leaving town at 9:20AM would give us plenty of time to make
the journey to Ocala. We were only shy a few cars that promised to join
in. Not to bad for the first outing of the year. Don & Leona Lutz were
going to join us near the "Turkey Lake" service Plaza. The traffic was
quite heavy as we headed North (West) on the "Ronald Regan Parkway" or
"Main Street Florida" or one of the many other names it is known as. We
all managed to keep in good formation, letting the merging cars join our
ranks until they would then pull past us, to maintain a faster speed.
Traveling at 55MPH is not what the normal driver would like to do on
this bit of road but we chose to run that speed as our vehicles ranged
from a '27 Model A Ford Roadster to a new Chevrolet HHR.
As we approached the Turkey Lake Plaza, Tony radioed me
that the Metropolitan, driven by the Lutz's had joined our ranks and was
just ahead of Ron Bozarth's '70 Monte Carlo. After a few minutes I
noticed that our formation was going around this little red car. Tony
called him on the cell phone and Don said that he
must have gotten some bad fuel the night before and it was having a hard
time picking up speed. Linda and I were in the "tail Car" and stayed
behind them for a little while and they could just not get that little
Nash above 40 miles an hour. We all hoped that they would catch us by
the Okahumpa Service Plaza. Tony was on the phone with Ed in the '63
Corvair when Ed said, "Oh S#@t!!!" he latterly meant that, a cattle
hauler had just passed them and Flossie" just had to go! Talk about a
road hazard!
We all managed to keep in the starting formation with Bert
& Ernie as "Leader of the Pack" in their HHR, Ron in his '41 Packard
120, Bob & Dar in the '36 Ford Humpback, Jeff & Tara in a Montana, Ron
in his '70 Monte Carlo, Jim & Norma in the Pro-Street Beretta, Louie &
Philip in his '52 Ford, Philip & Francis in the '86 Z-28, Jim & Peggy in
their '67 GTO, Ron & Renee in the '58 DelRay Sedan Delivery, Ed & Evelyn
in the '63 Corvair Convertible, Tony & Sharon in their '69 Ranchero, Dan
& Liz in the '27 Ford Roadster, Street Rod, Ed, Cheryl & Walter in the
'77 Monte Carlo, Gary & Wanda in their '56 Chevy, Mike & Carol in the
Fabulous '54 Hudson Hornet, Jin & Doug in a '79 Lincoln Town Car and
finally Linda and I in the '61 Corvair Coupe. Once we hit the first toll
the formation changed, it may have been to space out from the smelly
cars! Ed & Evelyn in the Cow Pie Corvair was directly in front of us
now.
We pulled into the Okahumpa Service Plaza for our scheduled
pit stop. It was then we all found out that the gift from the happy
cattle was more on the '27 Ford Roadster and it's driver! Four cars had
some debris from this incident. Dan did all but take a shower in the
rest room. After a whole lot of Windex and paper towels the fleet was
ready for the last leg to the Museum.
The rest of the trip up was without incident except for a
Van trying to make his own lane forcing me and Ed almost off the ramp
when exiting I-75. We all stopped in the normal parking lot as Tony went
in to check on how to get out cars into the grassy area between the
Museum and I-75. Tony had made special arrangements for us to park there
with Don Garlits. In just a few minutes Tony had gotten the information
from Rosalie, we all followed him through the gate to "Special Parking".
Thank You, Don Garlits for the special treatment. We might just make
this an annual event. Next time hope "Mustang Mike" remembers.
After we all got out of the cars it was time for our 11:30
reservation that Tony had made with Jennifer at the "Sonny's" on the
corner. We all walked over and Barb made sure we all were seated and
immediately started to "Take Care of Us". The food and service were
"Outstanding", they made us all feel very welcome. We then gathered back
at the cars for a bit, "Big Daddy" himself was tinkering in his garage
while were out there. He even stopped to talk to Ron Simons for a
minute. Ron was interviewed by him a few years ago.
Now it was time to tour the Museum, well actually 2
Museums. The Museum of Drag Racing and the Museum of Classic Cars. WOW,
is about it. The Drag Racing Museum with all of it's Dragsters, Engines
and other memorabilia right from the beginning of the sport. All of the
"Swamp Rats" and cars from all of the big names of the early days. Then
the Classic Car Museum even has displays of other items from the past,
Appliances, Radios and General Merchandise of days gone by. The Cars, oh
the cars, including "Ike's" '54 Chrysler Imperial. It was good to see
that it also included a Ranchero and Corvairs. Flathead engines, even a
cut away flathead. Mike was pleased to see a twin to his "Twin H" Hudson
engine in a Plexiglas case. These Museums are well worth the admission
price and would recommend it to all car buffs and the general public as
well. Oh, just as we were all about done touring the facility, The
Lutz's arrived, they had to turn back with the Metropolitan, it just
wouldn't clear out the water. So they came back up in Don's '65 Rambler
Ambassador 990 Convertible, this car he ordered in November of '64 and
took delivery of on January 2nd 1965, from Reed AMC in Orlando, has
owned and driven since. Bob Nagro also mentioned, "Where's Trevor? I
miss having him around."
At about 3:30 Cruisers started to head back for the Central
Florida area in groups, the last group. Tony & Sharon, Gary & Wanda,
Mike & Carol and me & Linda were the last to leave. The trip home
included a stop at the Okahumpa Service Plaza for some fruit. We did
find another group that was just leaving. It was a nice ride home.
It was a great day out! With good friends, new and old.
Please join us for our next event, watch "Steve Butler's Cruise-In News"
for the details or stop by
www.cruiseinnews.com or
www.facaca.com.
Thank You to Tony DeBalsio for a job well done on putting
this one together, well orchestrated and detailed. Thank You to "Big
Daddy" Don Garlits for assembling this great roadside attraction and for
having us this weekend.
Here are some photos. (click on any
image for a larger view)
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