I joined our local car club (the High Desert Road Runners) last night at their (our?) monthly cruise-in.

I've been going to their cruises and shows for nearly a year, but I haven't felt well enough to want to lay out the cash to join up, since I don't know how I might feel from day to day. So far I haven't missed a cruise or show, so I decided it was time to contribute to the club.

Then I found out that they had 'rearranged' their membership fee structure. It was $25 a year, but now is $15 a year, and I got prorated for the lost time, so I only paid $7.50 for the remainder of this year.

In order to help fill the club's bank account, I bought $10 worth of raffle tickets (20 of them for $10). Naturally I won...I got a nice hydraulic floor jack, then when the winner of the 1/2-and-1/2 drawing (you win 50% of the raffle ticket sales money) didn't come forward, I also won $86 in cash. Just about enough money to fill my 9-gallon fuel tank!

We ended up having 31 cars show up, some from as far away as Los Angeles (about 130 miles). I took photos of nearly every car there, which I'll post on my website today. The only cars I missed were a 1948 Oldsmobile convertible 'Rat Rod' (all black primer, so the flash on my camera showed nothing at all!) and a 1950 Buick 4-door sedan, also in black primer. The Buick was for sale, but it is all original under that primer - flathead Straight Eight and Hydro Drive transmission - and seemed to be in pretty good condition. I couldn't see enough in the dark to decide to buy it or not. I'm a sucker for the huge boats of the 1950's!

Anyway, we had a good time, and although I was the only Volvo there, I had people all over the car the whole evening. There were two classes of questions: one from people who had never seen a PV before (including the guy who insisted it was the newest PT Cruiser!) and those from people who had owned one, or knew someone who had owned one 'back in the day'.

I made contact with a lady who had a Amazon in her garage - it was her high school car, and she had given it to her son. He fell in love with an old Camaro, so the Volvo has been sitting outdoors for about a year. She was interested in getting a new home for it, so I directed her here to place an ad. I'd like to have it, but I'm totally out of space and I already have more projects going than I'll finish in this lifetime!