Hello All:

Wendy, the girls, "Virginia" and I made the trip up to Bear Mountain for their "Cruise Night" last night. All I can say is - WHAT A BLAST. There must have been over 300 cars there and one of the first I saw upon pulling in was a '72 or '73 1800ES. Although I did not care for the wire wheels it was in great shape.

We arrived around 7:30PM. I was shocked by the terrific organization; $2.00 per car to get in, then a guy flagged us into the show car area. As we drove by row after row of vintage Corvettes, Mustangs, '32 Ford coupes and every piece of American iron ever created Wendy said "oh man, we do not belong in here, these cars are in incredible shape." Upon closer inspection there were plenty of older cars of less import marque-wise as well as worse condition than "Virginia" so we pulled into a space as directed and took a lay of the land.

Other than the aforementioned 1800ES I did not see another Volvo. In fact, "Virginia" drew quite a bit of interest which surprised me considering the dearth of foreign iron. There was a beautiful '60s Lancia, a Triumph TR6, a very recent Ferrari F355 and a Benz or two but there were probably fewer than a dozen imports out of the whole show car lot. Of course the "civilian" car lot was full of them, but that is another story.

I was approached by the owner of the 1800ES, a guy named Michael Rosa who lives in Westchester. He has an outfit called RVVR that specializes in 1800's and 122's. Has anyone on here dealt with him?

We walked around a bit and it was a pleasure to find out that Wendy has a taste for '58-'60 Corvettes, my favorite car growing up. I guess there is one in our future - like 2045.

Wendy put the gate down, the hatch up and set up a picnic in the back with the girls. This actually drew quite a crowd and some picture taking since it would be impossible to tell what year the photo would have been taken. The sun went down and an enormous full yellow moon rose over Bear Mountain as the 300+ cars (and did I mention 400+ motorcycles?) revved up and drove off. On the way out we got an incredible amount of attention and one guy on a Harley yelled out "What a beauty! Light 'em up!" Explaining to Wendy what that meant made her laugh for three minutes.

We drove up to the event on the Palisades Parkway but drove across the Bear Mountain Bridge on the way home and man, what a great road leading south toward the Taconic. US1 in California has nothing on the six or seven miles of road there.

It was a magical night and I would love to coordinate another one in late August or early September. Any New York-area bricks who wish to participate should let me know so I can e-mail them in advance (instead of putting it on the board five days in advance like this time). I have a plan whereby we could all park together.

Cheers,

Jeff Pucillo