November 11th

Hello everyone, I apologize for not getting in a full report last week. Last Friday was not my day when it came to automobiles. My PT Cruiser had a relapse of the transmission flu and the relapse was worse than the initial case. Emma called me to tell me that PT had jumped out of gear and was on the side of Poinciana Boulevard and would not move again. She then asked if I would come and get her. I got dressed and jumped into Dippy to pick her up. As I traveled north onto Poinciana Blvd. near 1792, the traffic was all backed up to the McLane warehouse. As soon as I got up to the grassy area on the side of Poinciana I decided to pull off the road to the right and drive down as far as I could to get close to PT. The grass was wet and I was afraid of getting Dippy stuck in the wet grass so I didn't stop until I got to a dry area next to the road. I checked PT out and found that the transmission was not engaging as it should. I told Emma we would go back to the house and get the tow dolly and bring PT to the dealer. We got into Dippy and I chose that instead of driving in the wet grass again I would stay close to the road until I got to the intersection across from McLane and get back on the road there. In theory it seemed like a good plan. On the side of Poinciana in the grass there were at one time light posts to light the roadway. The lights are gone, the bolts and concrete foundations that held them in place are not. I backed over one of them and got Dippy stuck on one of them. To make a long story short, I damaged the rocker panel and the floor boards of Dippy and had to get a tow truck to get her unstuck. The tow truck also took PT to Napleton Chrysler to see what was up with her. As a side note, some tow truck drivers don't have the sense God gave a (fill in the blank). Anyway ask the driver what he is going to do to get you out of your situation, and if it doesn't sound reasonable, it is your car and you can object to his cure. I did and the damage to Dippy was inflicted by me, and as bad as it is, it was not fatal. The tow truck driver wanted to hook the winch cable to the front of Dippy and pull it off the concrete which would have torn the floor boards worse than they are as well as tear the rear end off the car. I drove Dippy away after the driver did as I instructed to remove her from her perch.

After spending 1900 dollars at Napleton to rebuilt the tranny she seems to be okay again. I still don't understand how a car with 60,000 miles could need a transmission rebuilt. The dealer says the transmission fluid needs to be changed at 30,000 miles as indicated in the owners manual. I checked my manual after getting the car back and it says in schedule B (for cars in rough service which I thought was for taxi and police service) to change the fluid at 48,000 miles. In schedule A there is no provision for transmission service. I guess that I was supposed to see the correct schedule in the clouds or something. Needless to say I'm not happy.

This week the weather was wonderful and 105 other cruisers must have thought the same because we had that many registered cruisers for the event. We again had a total of four checker flag winners.
The first flag was awarded to Miguel Ortiz with his yellow 1973 Mazda RX-2 coupe.
The second flag went to Felix Santana with his red 1978 Volkswagen Scorpion kit car. The third flag was taken home by Pedro Mattei with his gray 2003 Mitsubishi Galant.
The fourth flag went to Amanda Miller and her blue 2000 Chevy S-10 pickup.

Ken and Wanda Tiggleman returned this week with their 1978 Corvette after a three week hiatis. They were having the interior replaced and it sure does look good.

I would like to comment on Old Town, our cars, and our relationships. I think most of us would agree that we were originally attracted to Old Town because of the lure of the car cruise, others came to see all these great cars in one place, some others came because of the shops and the amusements, and a few others came because it is an inexpensive night out with the family. Any one of these things brought us to Old Town, maybe it took a few of these things. The only problem is that after a few weeks, months, or even a year or two, the allure of all of these things wear off and they are boring. So why do we continue to go to Old Town and the other weekly car gatherings week after week. It must be all those perfect cars lined up side by side every week. No, I don't think that is it. After all not one of these cars is perfect. Not even your car. There is a scratch somewhere, a dent, faded trim, a stain in the carpet. Everyone of them has something wrong and if you don't see it ask the owner and he can point it out. Maybe it is all those cars we have never seen before. No I don't think it is that either because at any given weekly event, at least 75 percent of the cars in attendance are there just about every week. The same "boring" cars each week. (no insult intended) So if it isn't the cars, and it isn't the venue or location, why do we continue to go week after week? The answer must be the people. We all develop relationships and friendships with our fellow cruisers and this is why we continue to go to the same places week after week. As people though we are very much like the cars we drive each week to the cruise. Not one of us is perfect, we all have a different path that bring us to where we are and it gives us character. Because we are not perfect, we must look past our faults and not take ourselves too seriously. Their should be no judgment for trivial things. When these things occur, our evening out becomes some old boring cars, some old stores, some old amusement rides we have seen hundreds of times before and it just isn't much fun. When we judge our friends over trivial things, we then decide we can't be a friend to this one or that one, soon their will be someone else with an unbearable fault, and then someone else, and before long, we no longer have our old friends and going out to our weekly venue isn't worthwhile any longer. So to all my friends, is the bickering or the judgment's worthwhile? I really don't think they are and they make our events difficult to enjoy. Lighten up and enjoy the cars, the stores, the rides, and especially the people. Until next week cruise safely and have fun.