Josie Grandfield of the First Settlers Region and Sherry Westfall of the Shenandoah Region teamed up to run a very successful Spring Charity Event at Graves Mountain Lodge on the weekend of April 26–28. Many thanks go to Raif Antar, owner of the Basil Mediterranean Bistro in Charlottesville, for generously donating our excellent Friday dinner. (Tip: This popular restaurant is in the UVa “Corner” area. If you haven’t eaten there, try it this summer when the students are gone and the Corner isn’t crowded.)
PCA Zone 2 Representative Tom Zaffarano brought his dog Portia (pronounced “Porsh-uh”), but Graves Mountain Lodge doesn’t allow Portias in their “Motels”, so the Zaffaranos had to stay in the doghouse, a cabin near the original farmhouse.
Saturday was picture-perfect sunny. After fueling up on a Southern style breakfast (eggs, bacon, biscuits, sausage and gravy,…) we set out in a convoy of 27 Porsches for the driving tour led by Sherry Westfall. Our first stop was at the Rappahannock Food Pantry, where the local Boy Scouts helped us unload 699 pounds of food donations. Then we drove to the historic Mimslyn Inn for lunch. The main afternoon stop was a tour of Luray Caverns plus its Car and Carriage Museum. The evening event was a dinner and a silent auction organized by Josie Grandfield, which raised $6820 for charities.
Sunday started out partly cloudy and gradually became rainy as Sherry led us on more country roads to the Barboursville Vineyards for a tour and wine tasting, where we were joined by Shendandoah members Bill and Jill Sanders, Linda and Iain Fraser, and John Nunley. John drove his shiny new 991 C4S, which he is still breaking in. The final event of the weekend was a fine lunch buffet catered by Gary Hagar of Durty Nelly’s.
