Not him, me as President of the MMC. Yesterday the Masters Miata Club participated in the Ridge Peach Festival Parade. This is a copy of my write up about the event for the Club’s web page. I wanted to get up on my soapbox and whine about the small participation, but thought it would be better to do that here, so I’ve included it at the end of the quoted post.
We had 7 cars parked out front of the Airport Grill for breakfast. The 12 of us did as usual and made ourselves at home by rearranging the furniture to line up about 4 tables in a row to eat at. Our orders were taken in the semi-random order of our arrival and the food was delivered in a different semi-random order which was in no relation to when the orders were placed. But, as always, this is not a problem for the Club because the conversation and flowing coffee kept us entertained. The inexpensive and delicious food, plus the capability of the folks there to put up with us, places the Airport Grill at the top of the Masters Miata Club’s Mom & Pop Breakfast spots. Glen and the Garners had other commitments, so they did not join us after breakfast for the drive or the parade.
Stacey had plotted out a different loop for this year’s pre-parade drive and at first it seemed like we were just heading straight to the parade start, only to pass right through the cute little town of Trenton and head east and who knows what other direction to zip around among the local peach orchards. Even though I’m familiar to a lot of roads in the area there were at least a few times I though we turned the wrong way. The Vandermaases probably knew where there were the whole time because at one point we drove right by their house. He ended our drive at the usual Ebenezer Church so we could find out our place in the parade line up. At this point, Sarah parted ways with us to head back home.
Even though Stacey was in communication with the organizers, when he asked our line up number we weren’t on the list. It was determined that they would just add us to the end of the parade. They did have mercy on us though as they vowed to put us at least in front of the horses… Even though we caught a break with the weather, it was only in the 80’s as opposed to the typical 90’s, Donna and I ran our A/C along the 9/10 of a mile route. For all you statistic junkies out there it took us just less than an hour to drive the parade, so our average speed was pretty close 1.0 MPH. During the trip we never left 1st gear, I depressed the clutch pedal roughly 3.8 millions times and we tossed 8 pounds of candy to an adoring crowd.
Afterwards we all found a place to park and headed into the fray of people, port-a-potties, speakers, bands, food vendors and craft booths.
I have discussed this before with the Club and have tried mightily to get across the fact that anything less than 6 cars is not a parade entry, but nothing more than a couple people with the same car randomly happening to be driving together. I’ve had little success. This year we had 4 cars out of 31, or 13% of the Club, line up for the parade participation.
Because they were a few “floats” ahead of us, I know the roughly 50 member Augusta Corvette Club Pride Riders had practically 40% of their club show up because I counted 20 ‘Vettes when they eased by. Also, even though I didn’t see them because we were so far back in the line-up, I would be willing to bet the Shadetree A’s had a better turnout with their 90-year old cars than we did.
Next year if the MMC commits to be in the parade, Donna and I will join them for breakfast and for the drive, but we are bringing lawn chairs and will watch the parade go by from a shady spot.