What could be more perfect on a beautiful late summer Sunday than a delicious lunch, a ride in the Shenandoah Valley in a fine German automobile, and a fascinating tour of an art form you had no idea existed in this area? Well, on August 25th that is exactly what we did! The Shenandoah Region PCA met in the Wharf Historical district parking lot in front of Byers Street Bistro in Staunton, Virginia at 1:00 p.m. and, after some preliminary banter, had lunch at the Bistro in a room that they had prepared especially for our group. The lunch was quite tasty and if you have never tried a Lobster Bloody Mary, you should!

After lunch the president, Sherry Westfall, provided the group with detailed route instructions for the ride that was to follow. The instructions even noted where there were loose gravel patches in the road! There were 27 people at the event and ten vehicles on the drive: it made for an impressive collection of Porsches. Sherry and her husband were in the lead car and they took us through some interesting back roads and some lovely farms.

The ride concluded at the Taylor and Boody Organ Builders facility, which is located in an old brick school house outside of Staunton. And even though the facility is actually only about 3 miles from Staunton, Sherry found a way to make the trip there very enjoyable and 27 miles longer! Good job Sherry!

The staff and owners were having an open house and provided their visitors with an interesting and educational display of the various aspects of building an organ from start to finish.  They even make their own organ pipes from raw materials using a smelter. Taylor and Boody have only built 70 organs in their 30 years of business, which shows just how labor-intensive and hand-crafted their organs can be. It was interesting to note that several of their organs have been built for the Japanese market. They had a demonstration of how their newest organ sounded and it was lovely.