Adirondack Nationals 2021

 This past weekend was a pretty busy one...I'm going to get two posts out of it. On Friday, my brother took off from work and we headed up to Lake George for the Adirondack Nationals. As you may recall from previous years, the Nationals are my favorite day of the year. I was pretty depressed thinking I wouldn't actually be going this year...we didn't stay in town, so I figured we would just drive by and I'd get whatever I could out the windows of the car. On the ride up we talked about how the temperature was absolutely perfect, 65 degrees, which is ideal. And of course it would be the year we weren't going to walk around the show. 

Well, I'm sure you've figured out by now that's not exactly what happened. When we got into town, it was the least crowded we had ever seen during the Nationals. You could actually see through the people and see the cars in the show! But, even more, we got a parking spot- even though it required my brother to walk almost a mile to the show after dropping me off (I couldn't do that physically AND do the show). And so, I did get to do the show! Not only that, I ended up doing the entire show, not just a portion. Normally I am not physically capable of walking the entire show before my health gives out but the temperature is usually much hotter, and you all know I've mentioned my troubles in the heat. It was the perfect storm, as they say, and I had a ton of fun at the show! Here's some highlights from the show...certainly not all the photos, considering I took over 1300 that day! 

This was what we saw when we first got into town shortly before noon, and it was quite a surprise as it's usually bumper to bumper cars by this point already.

Looking into the show when at the red light...we decided we'd be fools to pass up this opportunity, so my brother dropped me off and went to park.

I stood watching the cars go by until he came back and that was pretty enjoyable in and of itself..

Although I don't care for the rat rod style this is certainly unique

First El Camino of the day! And it's a 1970, one of my absolute favorite El Caminos.

1972 Ford Ranchero

I pity the fool who doesn't get to go to the Adirondack Nationals

Multiple generations of Mustangs

1960 Impala

This used to be a 1968-72 Chevrolet truck

This year was the Year of the Javelin. Every year there's one kind of car that shows up in large numbers, larger than usual, and this year it was Javelins. I counted 7 of them. The usual number at the show? 2 or less.

Some cars cruise that aren't in great shape. If they are running, they cruise. 

First thing I see when we pay and go into the show itself is a 1964 El Camino! 

I really love old Pontiacs, and this is a 1937.

Instead of trying to get every single car in a single photo like I usually do, I took more group shots this year. I also (generally) didn't wait for people to walk away before I got my picture. Getting car show pictures without people in them is actually quite a challenge, and normally I take efforts to get just the cars. Not this year. 

1931 Packard! Not many Full Classics come to this show, and this one is unrestored.

Cars with the Lake in the background

A Blue Chevelle with the Lake behind it- this photo is posted specifically for my Mom.

A 1959 Edsel wagon! There hasn't been an Edsel at the Nationals since 2016, and there were TWO this year! Yes, the other is upcoming.

I really, really like this photo.

The red paint on this was really nice.

A fitting car for the weekend. (These photos were all taken September 10th)

Clear red hood ornament!

A color change Corvette!

A 1971 Torino in metallic green

1963 Studebaker Avanti

Here's the  second Edsel, which is almost completely factory stock. The only deviation from stock is that the paint was pearl. The color on them originally was solid, I believe. I took multiple pictures of each Edsel. This was my favorite car in the entire show. While I love El Caminos the most, I had already seen every one I saw at the show. This is the first time I had seen either of these Edsels.

An Essex, a rarer brand. This is only the third I've ever seen. And it's possible the first one was this same car, I don't remember. Sadly, I've never seen a stock one.

1972 El Camino. Parks in the same spot every year. I photograph it every year. Love. 

1940 Ford

There were three cars under car covers at the show...first time I've seen that. 

1951 Mercury with a 50s vibe

Noticing a theme here...

1948 Anglia

Big 70s Lincoln, very nicely maintained. (Note the owner cleaning it in the photo)

A 1939 LaSalle. Rare sight. LaSalle was the companion brand to Cadillac, and second most popular of GM's companion brands, but it didn't make it past WWII. I've only seen a handful. In case you are wondering, Pontiac was the most successful brand, in fact it proved so popular it supplanted Oakland, the brand it spun off of, and lasted until 2009. I've never even seen two of GM's companion brands, Marquette and Viking, neither of which survived the 1920s, in person. 

And another El Camino! 

Dave and Charity Kindig from the tv show "Bitchin' Rides" were the guests. I didn't want to wait on the line, but I did take this picture of them. My brother and I were in the background when he got the group shot of everyone waving so we may end up on his TV show anyway! They came in from Utah! 

There are not many bright pink cars on the car show scene.

A Cordoba! My dad was a lifelong mechanic and a Cordoba is one of only a few cars he gave up on and got rid of. 

Love that green

I like the license plate

Nice to see a traditional hot rod rather than a modern trend.

Now in the lower lot, another El Camino! This one is a 1969.

1965 Pontiac Grand Prix

Studebaker truck

I just couldn't bear all this excitement!

1964 Dodge van

1959 Chevrolet Nomad

1990 Ford Bronco II. This was actually not part of the show, as the year cutoff is 1979. This was owned by a vendor, and she said she was getting more comments on her truck than the stuff she was selling! 

77 Pinto wagon. You can go years without seeing a Pinto, yet I've seen two within the past few weeks.

Some of the automobilia for sale. If I had the space....

I sat on a bench while my brother went back to get the car. I took some photos of cars as they went by, but I liked this photo more to represent that part of the trip. 

After getting back in the car, we drove through town once and saw lots more cars...

Including another El Camino! 

You never know what you will see in town...

It was a lot more crowded on the way out...

They had the northbound lanes blocked down to one, which caused a massive traffic jam, as you can see here. 

On the way back, we planned to do one of the Places I've Been rides, covering Route 9 from Lake George to home. However, it was getting too dark, so we only did Lake George to Saratoga. This is in Glens Falls.

Cool Insuring Arena, home of the Adirondack Thunder

It's a good thing we pushed off that adventure for a later time, because it got dark before we got home.

Here the sun had just gone down behind the mountain.

Colorful sky at sunset. 

And that was the best day of the year. The Adirondack Nationals is ALWAYS my favorite day of the year, and this year was no different...and in fact a little better than usual because of the fact that going to it was an actual surprise, and the temperature was perfect! There's been years where it was over 100 degrees, which is just brutal. There was one year where I was totally exhausted after 45 minutes. We got there just after noon and left just after 4 PM. The temperature plays a huge role, and this year's weather was perfect. Granted, it's now Tuesday, and this happened Friday, and I'm still hurting, but it was worth it. 

You can see all my pictures from the show here:  Adirondack Nationals 2021

Thanks for reading! 

Locust Grove Historical House visit

 On Saturday my brother and I visited Locust Grove in Poughkeepsie, NY. This is a house built in 1830 and was home to four families, the most well known being Samuel Morse, the inventor of the Morse Code, who lived there part time from 1847 to his death. However, even though the house is billed as the Morse Estate, the entire contents of the house are from the Young family, who bought the property in 1901 and lived there until 1975. It was created as a museum upon the death of Elizabeth Young as per her will and remains so ever since. It's believed that only one artifact in the house actually belonged to the Morse family, a large floor to ceiling mirror. The rooms are currently set up as the Youngs had it circa 1920.

Unfortunately, photographs are not allowed inside the home or the tiny museum, which has some of Morse's paintings and some artifacts on the telegraph. However, you can take as many photos of the outside of the house and the grounds and garden as you want, so of course, I did. However, I took only 72 photos, which is the lowest on any of the adventures yet!

The entrance to the property, taken from US 9. We didn't take the Edge- tours are only guided and only run at certain times. We were in a rush to get there and took my brother's car, the first adventure his "new" car has been on, although he's had it over a year already. We were the only ones who took the tour at that time, so essentially we got a private tour which normally costs more. We couldn't see one of the floors of the house because of maintenance but still paid full price, which we didn't know it wasn't fully open until the tour guide said that "normally we'd go upstairs next, but...". That's kind of lousy. 

While the house is all Young, the garden is actually Morse. He created it, and the Youngs maintained it. Some of the flowers are descendants of the original flowers from the 1840s.

The gardener's house on the property, not open for viewing.

This is the actual house, which is in the Italianate style. Although it was built originally in 1830, it was expanded several times, most recently in 1901.

A carriage on display in the portico.

The fields are lush and verdant.

In the background you can see the Young's pet cemetery, avid dog lovers.

The carriage house is sometimes open but wasn't that day, probably because it was rainy. Although you can't really tell it is drizzling during all the outside shots.

I put my camera right up to the glass and looked into the Carriage house. There are at least 4 carriages visible, (not all in this photo) as well as several modern lawn mowers.

You can just barely see the Hudson River here. You can walk on trails down to it, but with my health problems I chose not to. My brother has said he would likely do it at some point but because it was rainy chose not to do it then.

The top floor- which is never on the tour- surely has an excellent view of the Hudson, and likely did even more when it was built, before the trees filled in.

When my brother walks down to the River, this is where I'll be. They have benches throughout, which is nice.

A random unmarked statue which looks like Thomas Jefferson to me. It's the only statue we saw. 

some sort of nut growing on that really tall tree

Way too cloudy a day for the sun dial to be any help.

This is a nice touch, on the outside of the visitors center, which tells you the names of the flowers that are currently in bloom. 

Although I've shown the best photos here, there are more flower and outdoor shots on my website, here: Locust Grove

They did have three post cards, which I purchased, but since my scanner is still down you'll have to see them in another post. 

Honestly, even though it's billed as the Morse estate, I found the Youngs much more interesting. They are local, their collecting interests somewhat closely align with mine, and Morse was actually not a very nice person. 

We did enjoy it, and it's not a very long tour, about an hour only. 

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On a card related topic, I was digging around looking for some stuff I promised to give away, and happened to find two boxes of cards I missed during the typing process. I just found them yesterday and have not fully processed them yet, but I know one of them is about 3/4ths NASCAR, and I recognized that most of them are the same ones I typed in as missing when I did them. I will have to double check them to see, but there was also cards for just about every other topic in the boxes as well, the only thing I have not found in them so far is multi-sport or Olympics, but I just did a small handful last night. Luckily, I found them fairly early in the project, having only gone through NASCAR in full and hockey up to 1991-92 Pro Set Platinum, which is a set that's partially missing and WASN'T in those two boxes...which means I missed another somewhere. {audible sigh}. I'll get there eventually. 

Even though I'm going to consider these numbers the correct collection numbers when I'm all done, I already found one mistake by finding a card from 1990-91 Bowman that was in my paper listing but I missed when checking my paper listing vs. my Excel file. I honestly don't know if it's humanly possible to get a truly accurate number, but like I said before...I'm going to treat it as such going forward.