Well gang, here we are at the second weekend in July, and for all the MOPAR nuts on the eastern side of the Mississippi that can only mean one thing - Chryslers At Carlisle! Time for us to polish up our rides and head down to that sleepy little town in Pennsylvania for a couple of days of drooling over some of the coolest cars ever made, shaking our heads at some of the silliest, and fondly remembering some of our own prior cars. Here's what it looked like last year:
I think they had approximately 2,800 cars on display; down a little from the last few years, when it reached over 3,000, but still a LOT of cars. And as a very inclusive show, Carlisle allows a lot of Chrysler related brands, some of which haven't been made for many years (DeSoto, Plymouth), others that were at one time owned by Chrysler (American Motors), and now, of course, FIAT, which is actually the majority owner of Chrysler. So there's plenty of cars to see, kind of 'something for everyone'. Like this little Dodge Rampage, an odd little half truck based on the old Omni/Horizon. Billy was looking at one of these a few years ago.
Of course, for us 'older' guys, nothing brings back the memories like the cars we lusted after when we were kids. Like this 'Cuda.
Yeah, that's the ticket! And you can see where the 'strobe stripes' that I have on my car got started. Chrysler always had the coolest graphic packages back in the day!
One of the fun parts of going to the show is taking the old cars. There are some guys who put them up on a trailer, and pull 'em along behind a Ram truck, while others have them shipped in via an enclosed car carrier. Those are the nicest, most expensive cars you'll see there, and I suppose if I had a 'Cuda worth a quarter of a million dollars, I might be tempted to trailer it. Then again, maybe I wouldn't! Because to me, these cars were made to be driven. And the only way we truly preserve their special nature is by driving them. If you don't drive them, then they aren't cars any more, they're museum pieces. So, on Friday morning, Tommy will hop in my 'Bluecuda' and I'll crank up the 'Yellow Fish', and off we'll go.
It does take a certain amount of blind faith to make a journey like this in an old car. You never really can tell what might go wrong along the way. Especially with the crazy column shifter in this car. It has a nasty habit of getting jammed in first gear at the worst possible times, forcing you to pull over, pop the hood, and fiddle around with the linkage until you free the shifter. Loads of fun on the side of I-78 with traffic flying past at 75+ mph! But we had a lot of work done on the car this past winter, and it's running really well just now. So we'll say a few words to the god of acceleration, buckle the old lap belts, and hope that it isn't too terribly hot on the road.
I'll post up some photos of the place after we get back, and hopefully have some good tales about places we ate, cars we saw, and people we met.
This one is definitely a case of 'taking one for the team'! Over the July 4th weekend, Karen and I went to North Carolina to visit her son and his family. As with any road trip we take, we try hard to avoid restaurants that we have here in NY. So, no MacDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, even Arby's is on that list now that they've opened a place in Wantagh and at Broadway Mall. So bearing that in mind, and with the knowledge that even though we don't have places like Chick-Fil-A, Captain D's Seafood, and Hardees in our area, we occasionally see a commercial for them on a national network or cable channel (like TBS).
On Saturday, we took a ride to the farmer's market in Elizabeth City. Picked up some amazing blueberries which had been picked less than 24 hours earlier at a local farm. Huge, sweet, wonderful. Got a couple of deep red, ripe heirloom tomatoes (I sense a BLT happening soon!), a pound of farm cured bacon, and a ring of bratwurst for the cookout we had on July 4th evening. Donated to the local VFW, and got a bag of fresh roasted peanuts as a thank you. All in all, a small, but very nice market.
Off to lunch we went. Dennis and Maggie have 4 kids, and as those of you who are parents know, if the kids aren't happy, pretty much nobody's happy. We know that all of the kids like Chick-Fil-A, so we went there. As usual, great food and very nice, friendly service. I've written up their food previously, so if you're really curious, page back through these posts and you'll find it.
Sunday we decided to leave for home right after breakfast, which we had at a local place called Southland. They do a breakfast buffet that is really good, all the usual breakfast items, plus a great fresh fruit bar. We had a good meal, and got on the road.
Around 1 pm, we decided we would stop and get lunch, rather than try to get home and have dinner. As we drove up route 113 through Maryland and into Delaware, we had a lot of options to choose from; but, I'd been joking about this ridiculous burger that Hardee's has been advertising, called the "Most American Thickburger". Now, Hardees is unashamedly politically incorrect, both in their advertising, and their food, which, of course, places it high on my list of places to stop. Hardees pays tribute to their rather humble beginnings with nice art throughout the restaurant, such as this one.
Their burgers aren't skinny little things on a flat, floppy bun, topped with a piece of orange wax masquerading as a tomato; no, they're big, thick, patties, topped with fresh red tomatoes, crisp deep green lettuce, and all sorts of silly things, like six or eight slices of bacon. Or the bbq burger, with sauteed onions, onion rings, bbq sauce and cheddar cheese. They're just big, juicy, tasty burgers that are overloaded with toppings. The patties come in 1/4, 1/3, and 1/2 pound sizes, and you can get up to three patties on your burger.
The "Most American" thickburger, however, is a major step forward in culinary craziness. It's your choice of beef patty, with cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickle, and onion; topped with potato chips, and a hot dog! Yes, you read that right, the whole burger is topped with a hot dog! And some ketchup and mustard to dress it up. Here's the burger as it arrived at our table.
Looks innocent enough, right? If you look closely at the bun by the fries, you can just see the tip of the hot dog poking out from under the bun. And here, in all it's uncovered glory, is the entire mess.
The patty is a 1/4 lb burger, but not like you'd get at MacDonald's in their 'quarter pounder', it's thick (hence, 'Thickburger'); the dog, not a small one, but a full size dog, split and grilled to a nice crust. Smoky, spicy, not the usual bologna dog like you'd get at a typical fast food place, but one with real character. And, not surprisingly, the dog actually overwhelms the burger. The potato chips are underneath the burger, nestled in below the pickles, lettuce and tomato. Unfortunately, the fresh tomato juice rendered most of the chips soggy, but the ones that remained dry added a nice crunch to the whole mess.
Now, truth be told, I didn't eat the entire thing; Karen took a bite. But I DID eat all that was left after she had her taste, and I'm almost ashamed to say the damn thing was really good! I don't think I'd order it again, as it's just too ridiculous, even for me. But, after seeing the commercials multiple times, and saying to myself 'they must be kidding', I'm glad I had the chance to try it. It's a limited time offering, so who knows if it'll ever show up again. And if it doesn't, at least I can say that I had one. And, most surprisingly, no nasty after effects from it! I guess once in a while, taking one for the team isn't a bad thing!
