This past weekend, Tom and I took both the Yellow Fish and the Blue Cuda out to Carlisle PA for the annual Chrysler Nationals. If you're a MOPAR fan, this is the place to be. Well over 3,000 cars turned out for the three days of fun, frolic, and possible heat exhaustion - Carlisle is HOT in July!
I'm not going to write a lot, but rather I'll post some photos from the event to give you an idea of what you missed!

 Welcome to Carlisle!

This view is from 'the hill', where the trucks are on display. They've got a great view of all the Dodge and Plymouth "E" body cars, the '70 - '74 'Cudas and Challengers.

The Yellow Fish was parked next to this wonderful 1962 Valiant V-200 two door. There were a couple of Valiant convertibles, but this was the only 'original' (1960-1962) model there.

I'm not into the '50's cars as much as some are, but I certainly appreciate the graceful designs they had. Some of the '57 and '58 cars are truly works of art. 

Cars (and trucks) as far as the eye can see!

I'll take one of these please......

You'll even see a few "K" cars - the car that saved Chrysler (the first time)!

This one's for Billy - a rare Dodge Rampage. Based on the Omni/Horizon, it was a neat little multipurpose vehicle. Don't see many of them anymore.

Each year we see more and more "General Lee" replicas. And you can hear the 'dixie' horns throughout the day!

Sadly, not all of the cars are in great shape. We see way too many like this, classic rides that have been left unloved for too long. We always hope that we'll see ones like this come back a year or two later, restored to reasonable condition.

And  you didn't think I'd let this go without at least one photo of the Yellow Fish, did you? This was late in the day, after Tom and I replaced the front and rear bumpers with new ones. We're getting close to having a really sharp ride. And the little slant six powered car ran like a champ at 65 mph on I-78 both going and coming home!

For those of you who didn't catch the post on Facebook, dinner on Saturday night was at a place Tom found during his trip to Carlisle for Maureen's family reunion, Hamilton Restaurant and Lounge. It's been owned by the same fellow since 1937, and is a real old fashioned luncheonette/soda fountain/coffee shop, doesn't look like much has changed in there since they opened. Real friendly wait staff, very quick service, and great food keeps them going. Here's what we had:

After we told our waitress what we wanted, she said, 'you really have to try the Blockbuster sandwich', why don't you split one? So we did. Fresh baked ham, swiss cheese, onion, fresh local tomato, and lettuce on a soft kaiser roll. We had them hold the mayo, and our first bites were 'dry', and we immediately realized that it didn't need any dressing! The ham was tender and very tasty, the tomato was deep red, fresh, and tasted like a tomato - not like those orange pieces of wax that you get everywhere else! A truly great sandwich!

One of the 'you've gotta try these' that was on the online reviews was for the onion rings. Thick, full, freshly sliced onions, hand breaded in a light crunchy coating and fried perfectly. Very little grease on the plate, good mild onion flavor, and terrific crispiness. Excellent!

Ahh, the star of the show, the "Hotchee" dog! It's a "Kessler" (I think) dog, cooked to almost crispness on the grill, then nestled in the roll on a slice of American cheese (white American - yuck), then smothered with coney style chili sauce and very finely chopped onions. Add a little mustard on top, and wow, what a truly great dog!

And finally, the topper, a 'black and white' shake, hand mixed at the soda fountain. A black and white is made with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup. This one was perfectly balanced, the chocolate flavor came through, but it was also lightly sweetened by the vanilla ice cream. Thick, cold, and delicious, a perfect way to wrap up a long day at Carlisle. Already looking forward to next July 10 - 12!