September 22nd - South West Idaho All British Field Meet - Meridian

 

On Saturday Debbie and I drove Earl from Jackson, Wyoming to Boise, Idaho where Lynn and Mary had kindly invited us to stay. The drive of a little less than 400 miles was (fortunately) uneventful, though we were pretty warm by the time we arrived in the late afternoon. The following day was set aside for the 2024 South West Idaho All British Field Meet organized by the Idaho British Car Club of which Lynn is a member. The event was held at The Village at Meridian, a modern shopping center with a large number of up-market stores, which proved to be a great setting for around 100 British cars to be displayed and enjoyed. Members of the Idaho British Car Club had done a lot of preparation to make the event go smoothly, and promptly at 9:00am Lynn and I arrived at our designated spots to park Emmy (Lynn's 1968 Series 1.5 OTS), and Earl. Earl had been given a quick wash down earlier that morning to make him a little more presentable, but still carried some of the bug splatter of 2,600 miles driving if you cared to look more closely. 

Class 6 - a group of E-Types, a Mark 1, and a Cobra. Emmy getting a lot of admiring attention

Earl, of course, received a lot of double takes with his quad headlights and shark's gills louvers in the bonnet. By the end of the day my throat was sore from repeating the story behind his creation and restoration. 

One of the highlights of the show was an even rarer car - the very first TR2 off the production line, which has been beautifully restored:

The very first TR2 - note the unusual rear end and wheel spats

Holding the show in a modern shopping center had the upside of attracting a lot of younger people than the usual bunch of oldies seen at such events! Hopefully some of them will get the bug and start to show an interest in these classics. Mary and Debbie joined us later in the morning and we wandered around the show selecting our favorite cars in each class for the later awards. We then had a pleasant lunch at one of the many restaurants before we were joined by Michael and Denise who had driven over from Jackson earlier in the day. Later in the afternoon we were all entertained by a pipe band with Scottish dancers who paraded around the car display areas.

Scottish pipe band and dancers parading in front of the E-Types

As the show came to a close awards were presented in each of the 12 classes. Earl was flattered to be awarded second in class, but the top honor for the E-Types was justly picked up by Emmy. This was a very enjoyable car show with a lot of friendly folks and interesting car to see without any of the more serious "Concours" atmosphere. 

In the evening we visited a local hostelry where Denise joined a group of local musicians to entertain the patrons:

What an enjoyable and relaxing way to end our Oil Leak trip. Tomorrow we will head home, Debbie by plane, with myself nursing Earl the 800 miles back to Monterey, CA.