Shenandoah Region hosted a wonderful driving tour on Sunday, October 22. We met at and the tour originated from the Mountainside Grille in Crozet. After some fresh brewed coffee and socializing, Hank Weil conducted the driver’s meeting and we headed to our cars. There were fifteen Shenandoah members’ cars in our tour; Hank lead the tour and I was the “sweeper.”
Thanks to Mark Doherty for coordinating the arrangement, planning the drive, driving it repeatedly, and preparing the route guidance. Sorry that he missed the event, but I’m sure he was enjoying a totally different driving experience in South Africa with his wife, Marquita.
We were blessed with beautiful fall weather \mdash;clear skies and pleasant temperatures. It actually turned into an “Indian Summer” day as the temps warmed into the 70s by noon. There was a “wee” bit of color in the foliage, but I would have liked to have seen more. The dry weather we had experienced in September and early October had moved this year’s peak color time to the second week of November.
Our destination was the Blue Toad Cidery at High View Farm in Roseland, VA; and the event at the cidery was hosted by Greg Shaffer, an SRPCA member and owner of Mid Atlantic Motorwerkes in Harrisonburg. Roseland is located just down the mountain from Wintergreen Resort. Our driving tour took us on some fantastic country roads through southern Albermarle County and into the heart of Nelson County. Some of you who are Virginia natives may recall the devastation that Nelson County experienced in August 1969 when the remains of Hurricane Camille dumped several feet of rain on the county in a 12-hour period.
When we arrived at the cidery, we had time to explore the facility and tasting room before our BBQ lunch. There was a second tour group that left from Harrisonburg and drove to the cidery; they arrived about 45 minutes after we arrived. The second tour group had about ten cars, which brought our total to 25 sports vehicles.
There were some very nice door prizes offered by the cidery to the tour participants. We were each given a prize ticket when we arrived; we then perused the prize offerings and dropped our tickets in a bucket in front of the prize we wanted to win. Full disclosure: I was a “loser”!
After socializing, and a few hearty laughs, lunch was served. We were treated to a catered BBQ buffet that featured several types of BBQ, fresh rolls, coleslaw, baked bea,ns and fresh cookies for desert. I did not leave hungry!
It was a beautiful day, with beautiful cars and wonderful people. Another very successful Shenandoah Region event!!
