A momentous day!

This was a really spectacular weekend. I got to do something I have dreamed about my entire life, and I set a pretty cool personal record...this post is going to be picture heavy.

My original plan for the weekend was to go to the USS Intrepid Museum in Manhattan, but I didn't think I could do the walking right now- I'm not recovered from the previous trips, some of which I never even got around to writing about. So, we decided to head up to Saratoga for the Saratoga Automobile Museum Car Show, which I had not been to since 2002. It was much smaller then- I didn't anticipate how large this show turned out to be. I ended up doing more walking at the car show then I would have done at the Intrepid- but it was so worth it! I got to go for a ride in a Model T! All my life I've dreamed about being able to ride in a classic car, and I always figured that somehow, some way, I would. But, I never imagined it would be in a 1913 Model T! Previously, the oldest car I've ever been in was a 1948 Ford, and the oldest I had ever ridden in was my mom's 1972 Chevelle in the mid/late 80s, which, in and of itself, is a classic car, but I was too young to appreciate it.
I also saw the oldest car I've ever seen at a car show, a 1901 Oldsmobile! The oldest I had seen before Saturday was a 1903 Oldsmobile. I later saw the 1901 Olds driving, previously the oldest car I'd seen move under it's own power was a 1907 International.

Here's some photos from the car show.

 I love early 50s cars. This is a Plymouth

 Late 50s cars are also favorites of mine, this is a 1957 Buick. The 1950s is my favorite decade for automotive design.

 It wasn't all classics, there were modern supercars, like this 2016 McLaren, as well

A Shelby Series 1! These were extremely limited production cars with only 249 ever built. Revell issued a model of this, which I have, somewhere, but I had never seen one before. This is the 25th built and features Carroll Shelby's signature on the dashboard, which is shown in the album.

 1932 Nash

 My reflection in the Nash's headlight bucket

 I'm really glad to see 80s cars starting to get some love. These are the cars I grew up with, and at the time, I couldn't stand them. Now that they are gone, I miss them and they make me nostalgic. (I used to not be interested in anything post-1972, what a fool I was.)

 Packard! Right near the end of Packard's run, these were fancy, expensive cars when new.

 When was the last time you saw an AMC Eagle at a car show? A 2002 Hummer H1 right beyond it is also a rare sight!

 A Met! These tiny cars- so tiny the early models didn't even have opening trunks- are just cute. You can't not love them.

 A home made, wooden car. In all my years of attending car shows, this is the first one I've ever seen where the registration listed it as "homemade"!

 The metallic green on this customized 1934 Plymouth was a great color.

 Saratoga Spa State Park has some really fancy buildings on it, and as someone who's also an architecture fan, I enjoyed them as well.

 The only El Camino in the show, although there was a 1985 GMC Caballero, which is an El Camino in everything but the name on it.

 This Model T is owned by the Saratoga Automobile Museum.

This is the ride from the back of the 1913 Model T! It's short, but it is one of the greatest moments of my life. I mean that- this is everything I've been dreaming of for 34 years coming true, right here! I can't put into words how much this means to me.

Here's a photo of me in the Model T, and a photo of the Model T, both taken by my brother.

I didn't get a good photo of the T, so I used his.

 Model Ts DID come in colors besides black, although most were black.

 Here is the 1901 Oldsmobile, the oldest car I've seen at a car show! The owner, who I talked with briefly, is in period dress.

Here's a shot of me next to the Olds, showing the scale of it- and how high it rides. Note that it does not have a steering wheel- those had not been invented yet!

 Don't see International Scouts too often!

 They had a really neat display in front of the big fancy building. An Imperial (shown), Cadillac and Lincoln all arranged on the grass. I forgot to take a picture of them together, but I did photograph each one individually. Imperials are pretty rare. You can see them together in the video from the Model T.

 I love classic pickups!

 The cars were parked around the reflecting pool. My brother is in this photo. I was taking the picture of him, which is why the pool is not more centered.

 1963 Impala

 Corvette

 We walked from the show over the Museum proper, and that included walking through some trees.

 In front of the Museum was a SCCA show, which had several race cars on display.

 The 1960s is the current Museum exhibit, highlighted by this 1960 Plymouth XNR Concept car, which is a 1 of 1.

 The Museum wasn't as crowded as it normally is, as several of the cars in the exhibit were on the show field.

 Upstairs has two exhibits, Auto Racing in NY State, and cars with ties to the state.

 The closer car is a 1908 Patterson Motor Buggy, the car in the back is a 1911 Maxwell, which is actually part of the Chrysler Corporation. This blurred a little...guess I'll just have to go back and try again.

 The Saratoga Automobile Museum is in a vintage bottling plant, the building itself is great, and picturesque.

Cars made in my area. I remember when they tore down the American Fiat plant in Poughkeepsie. After it made the cars, it was converted into a publishing company, and many of the Whitman comic books were made there in the 1960s. It sat abandoned from some time before I was born until circa 1999, when it was torn down to make room for a Home Depot. Back then I was not yet a photography nut so I have no photos of it.

This turned out to be one of the best shows ever. It was well worth the pain I'm feeling now- from the walking, and the sunburn I got.

I was able to get every car on film- most pictures, one of them, the one that is leaving, only visible in the video, but I got them all. You can see all the car show photos on my website HERE. There are 598 images in the album.

Finally, we headed up to Lake George, my favorite place in the world.

 Unfortunately those people walked right into my photo.

 This road is a tough one for me. From 1987 to 2012, we stayed at the motel on the bottom left of the road, but then it was sold to lousy new owners, and we won't go back. I couldn't go down this road our last few trips to LG, and the one time we made a U-Turn in the parking lot for the beach at the end, I kept my eyes closed the whole time. I just can't bear to see what they've done to my "home away from home". We are now staying at a motel on the same road, which is tough for me...but driving down that road just feels "right"...even if we are not going as far as I want to.

 There are several chickens in a pen across the street!

 A helicopter over Glens Falls.

Totally unexpectedly, there were fireworks over the Lake! The town used to do them every Thursday, but we didn't get to see them. We have not stayed in Lake George village since 2012. This was a really great surprise that capped off one of the best days in a very, very long time!

 The Moon over the mountain- and through the clouds- was incredible! Way more impressive in person than in my pictures.

 Hey, I finally figured out how to take night shots with my camera! I've only had it since May 2016.

 42x Optical Zoom! If they were going the other way you could have seen their faces.

 Taken from a moving car, by the way.

 So as we were driving through town, headed home, we spotted the Weinermobile parked at the Tails and Ales convention, which is a dog/beer thing, not something I have much interest in. But the Weinermobile? That was worth doubling back for!

 And they were letting people inside it! I'm always going on about El Caminos and Edsels, but I want one of these!

 LOL @ license plate

 I've seen the 1995, 2004 and current models.

My current Facebook profile picture, thanks to my brother.

 This photo is actually from Saturday night, out of order. I forgot to select it with the first batch of photos. This shows the Northway, with Prospect Mountain directly ahead. This is one of my favorite stretches of road ever...and I've been to the very top of Prospect Mountain, which surprises me. (I don't do well with heights).

 I got a couple of postcards here- will be shown in a postcard-centric post in the future.

 On Saturday, I spotted the gold 1979 El Camino, which I think may be for sale, and there was a green 1969 Oldsmobile 442 between it and the road. Well, I made sure we stopped on Sunday, and the Olds wasn't there (I had actually seen it driving through town, but was not able to get a photo) but this 1970 Chevelle was there, which was not there Saturday. I amply photographed both, which can be seen in the album linked below.

 While going down the Northway, some race cars passed us. Led by a Lamborghini!

 Right outside of Albany, a surprise rainstorm hit us. It was blue skies ahead of us, then all of a sudden, it wasn't....

 or actually, it was, kind of. This is taken through the sunroof, we were on the very edge of the storm.

The sky behind us had turned ominous, which I captured in the rear view mirror here. The storm had an interesting affect on the weather as well. The Edge tells us what it is outside, and during the storm, it dropped from 83 to 72...and then after the storm it shot up to 90, and high humidity! It was so nice before that, but I am thankful it waited-the heat and humidity plays havoc with my health. If it was that hot and humid during the car show the day before I would not have been able to see most of it, and I probably would not have been able to walk to the area where the Model Ts were giving rides.

You could see rays of sun through the clouds- very rare in a mostly blue sky!

And then, at the very end of our trip- I mean that literally, I took this from our driveway after we got home- I got this great shot of an airplane I have almost surely photographed at our local Wings & Wheels car show, which is held at the local airport.

I really hate that the weekend ended. I actually experienced true happiness, something that doesn't actually happen all that often. I'm paying for it now- I can barely climb the stairs in my house- but the memories of this trip are going to make me happy whenever I think about it, and whenever I look at my pictures from the trip.

If you want to see the non-car show pictures, please check them out on my website HERE. There are 189 images in the album.

Sorry there were no cards in this post. I didn't touch a single card on the trip.