I had originally planned to have the insurance back on the Corvette on April 1 after our usual long, bleak winter but the roads were still such a mess with salt and sand debris and massive potholes to be filled that I changed plans and left the car cover on and battery charger plugged in until May 1. The insurance and the satellite radio subscription were renewed and we were ready for a new season with some big plans.
The first outing of the Capital Corvette Club was to the Northern Car Show in Massena, New York, located on the south bank of the St. Lawrence River, about 140 kms from Ottawa. Massena was first settled by French lumberjacks around 1792 and subsequently named after one of Napoleon's more able commanders, Andre Massena.
A goodly group assembled on this beautiful day at the Tim Horton's off the 416 and we set out together for the border crossing at Ogdensburg. This is one of the less busy ports of entry and we were through pretty quickly. There was a minor incident--I had added a set of red plastic rim protectors to the car and discovered that the adhesive was insufficient to keep them on. One of the other club members had noticed the strip on the left rear tire slapping the ground so while we waited to get through border controls I pulled off the two remaining strips--two had already disappeared. Well, one more thing to add to the list of useless accessories!
From Ogdensburg it was a short drive east to Massena. As we approached the main street and Frenchies' Great Northern New York Car Show we had to navigate around some extraordinarily big potholes. We also noticed that some of the houses we passed were not in the best condition. Looking it up, Massena, with a population of around 10,000, has 30% of its population living below the poverty level, the fifth-highest rate in the state. Major employers such as General Motors and ALCOA have shut down operations in the last decade and the unfortunate effects can be seen.
We pulled into the parking lot of Frenchie's Ford dealership en masse and as we rolled in I heard a bystander say: "It must be nice to have money." Of course, he just had to look around at Frenchie's parking lot to see all the new Ford pickups worth far more than my car...
Anyway, we walked down the main street and registered and were awarded with a nice t-shirt to mark the event. The rest of the day we wandered around and looked at a lot of interesting cars, ranging the whole gamut from muscle cars to custom pickups and drag racers. Here is my photo selection from the day:
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| This gentleman comes to car shows and does pinstriping and graphics freehand. Nice work! |
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| New Roush Mustang for sale at the dealership |
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| The Capital Corvette Club momentarily at rest... |
