Cosmic Charlie's Weekend Report

We got rained out Friday & Saturday… It has been an amazing year, and now we may have two hurricanes coming at us! So Sunday was going to be our day to play with hot rods.

This is the fourth year we have attended the Chrysler of Culpeper, Rappahannock Mopar Club annual show. We like the Mopars so we support the event… and for the last two years the club has given Fisher House Foundation a sizeable donation.  So a couple of our group members from Cruisin For Heroes, set up a booth for Fisher House and enjoyed the event as it unfolded. Last year was bone chilling cold; this year it began overcast and drizzly but the moisture quickly stopped, and by 1PM the sun was peeking through the fluffy clouds. The rain from the last week had left pools of water on the display lot, so some of the folks from the Mopar club helped move the water off the lot - be sure to check the pictures! It was a retired Military team effort, with one guy each from the Navy, Air Force & Marine Corps.

This event is enthusiastically hosted by the Chrysler dealership and especially the owner, Wade Schick. Wade is also an avid Mopar collector who displays some of his collection on show day! The event usually attracts 100-150 cars, but because of the wet morning there were about 65 entrants on Sunday.

It is at a dealership, so one would expect to see a lot of “new” cars, and that expectation was well-founded. But there were also some very nice pre-1980 rides... the orange ’69 Dart, total restoration, was the best I have seen. And I really liked the black ’63 Fury with the 426 Stage 3 Wedge; it was over the top for me! Then there was a green/white Jeep COE/Forward Control that came in on a trailer that was better than brand new. The white ’61 Chrysler 300 with the long cross ram intake manifold was an unusual piece too. The many ‘new’ Challengers, Chargers and others were very impressive too. It just underlines the notion that maybe the American auto industry is still feeding the hunger we have for performance, and Mopar is on the cutting edge of that charge!

Also present at the event was our Culpeper cruise host, Bruster’s Ice Cream, selling ice cream and Nathan’s hot dogs! There was also a BBQ vendor, which folks were happy about. DJ Gary was sharing his great playlist and keeping us updated with needed announcements. The club and the dealership run this show like a Swiss watch, and right on queue the awards were given out and the event was done.  Folks began leaving and we folded up our stuff, then cruised to dinner with friends. Another good day for Fisher House and Cruisin For Heroes.