September 16, 2021 Time to shift gears, literally. From bucolic scenery to the car scene…. Arriving in Maryland at our other home was so nice, after the long drive. We had some trees trimmed and taken out near the front of the house, and it looked so much better! (Isn’t it interesting how our Maryland house is just a little similar in style to 34 Sheep Road?) Anyhoo, as I carried stuff in, there was this chicken. I thought we were DONE with the chickens… but this one would not leave me alone! I tried to chase it away, with no luck (turn up the sound to truly understand how annoying chickens can be! 🙂
Bob was on work calls and during a break he came out to help me…. it was like it was trying to attack us! Well, we finally figured out why……
What the heck? Well, we didn’t really want baby chicks by the front door, so I gathered up the eggs, washed them and popped them in the fridge for a tasty omelet the next morning! I felt a tiny bit sorry for the mom, but eventually she wandered back to our neighbors to lay another egg for another day.
While we were mostly gone, the wildlife have also moved in! The twin fawns are very cute, but are eating all the fawn-height leaves, so the woods look artificially trimmed! And I was not too pleased to find a woodchuck living under the deck!
On to the fun stuff, driving a Porsche or two. I came back specifically because of the Chesapeake Region annual Crabfeast, which Bob and I co-chair with our friends Ron and Linda Gordon. We’ve been organizing this sellout event at the same park for 17 years now, and I can tell you that Marylanders are VERY serious about their Blue Crabs. We pick up 7 full bushels of crabs and 80 lbs of jumbo Old Bay steamed shrimp for 120 of our hungry Porsche friends. Everyone brings a side or dessert, and we sit around the tables for hours cracking and picking crabs, and talking cars…. we also have an informal car show, with prizes for joke categories like most insects on your bumper and other stupid pet tricks. 🙂 Takes a lot of crabs to make a meal y’all, and that’s the fun of it. It’s a great tradition!!
Time to drive the 356 Speedster down Big Woods Road….. and here is Scarlett with her own Porsche steering wheel (rattle)… take a listen to her dad Josh training her to be the fastest female driver ever at the Indianapolis 500! (baby content, yeah!)
A few days for me to catch up, and we are off to Ocean City, New Jersey to meet with the city planners and hotel banquet manager for the upcoming Porsche Boardwalk Reunion in October. We have meetings Thursday and Friday, and take time to meet with our local volunteers – big shout out to Andrew and Jessica Bechtold, and John Pohl – who keep us under control. 🙂 We do manage to bike the boards on our vintage Schwinns, do a little shopping, and sample some favorite foods. Bob is a huge fan of Tuckahoe Cheesecake, but he does NOT like CATS. I couldn’t resist this photo. Neither of us are big fans of corndogs, but “only in Jersey” would you ever see this! Ocean City has an interesting arrangement with a local raptor center. Why, you ask? Because strolling the boardwalk with a bird of prey keeps the seagulls away!
On to the next adventure. Home for a few days, then loaded up Audrey, our 1980 911 SC, on our way to Indianapolis for a family visit and two Porsche events. We stayed in Carmel, IN with Bob’s cousin Marian and husband Tom, but each evening Aunt Mary Jane cooked dinner for the family at her house in Zionsville – she is a great Italian cook and baker, and made this Baked Alaska just for Bob (he did try to eat the whole thing, but we got some too!) Friday was the event called Luftgekuhlt, a unique event staged in industrial settings with an artistic vibe, and some pretty rare and interesting Porsches. It sells out extremely quickly (like 7 minutes), and we were lucky to score a “corral” parking spot, where Audrey’s unusual Byzantine Gold paint got a lot of attention. Usually staged in LA, this year was the first time in downtown Indianapolis’ historic Bottleworks District.
Saturday, we headed out at o-dark-thirty to the famous racetrack, Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS), not as a mere spectator, but to actually drive “parade laps” on the road course! Years ago, we had done a few fairly slow laps in a big train of Porsches at another event, where Bob drove Lanu. This time it was my turn to drive, and hoo boy was I the lucky one! We had pace cars, but the group was big – 50 cars I think, and the track is really big, and we quickly became spread out… When the pace car’s away, the Porsches will play! 🙂 Bob was busy bracing himself on the corners and filming with his phone while I rocketed around the track for 30 minutes in a 1980 Porsche with original shocks and suspension and tires of a certain vintage, shall we say. We were not expecting to do laps at 110 (!), but Audrey was Awesome (Check it out here!) and I had a blast! By 9 AM we were back in the PCA paddock at the SportsCar Together Festival, and felt like we already got more than our money’s worth. Bob LOVES this track and loves coming here, so this day was a treat. We watched racing, met drivers, chatted with friends and Audrey got judged by the PCA Junior judging team (we came in 3rd!). We walked the pits between races and got to stand on the famous bricks at the Start/Finish line. Fun times, we are so very lucky. And grateful.
But we’re not done! After driving back the 10 hours on Sunday, I woke up VERY early on Monday to drive 2.5 hours to New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville, NJ for a Porsche Experience event. Sponsored by Porsche Cherry Hill (our Boardwalk Reunion sponsor), I was invited by PCH’s owner Amanda DiMattia to this women’s only track event. I got to drive the latest (and most expensive) models on the track in a “lead-follow” format (following the Porsche Experience professional instructors – I admit to hanging back a little bit to get my ya-ya’s out :-). (That’s called sandbagging, lol) The EV Taycan was completely kickass on the autocross course, SO fast. Fun times, but I was seriously tired when I got home….
After a whirlwind couple of weeks, I was set to drive back to NH. Sydney was staying with Bob this time… goodbye girl! You have elevated the concept of a nap to a whole new level! See you soon…
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