Main Street Reunion 2019.

I still love this event.  Today, downtown Napa hosted the Main Street Reunion (MSR), 2019.  Once again, this year, diminished in size compared to how it once was, the MSR is still a lot of fun.  I didn't think I'd want to attend this year, but as the date neared I couldn't resist.
I'm getting quite familiar with some of the same exhibitors that show up every year (that I have attended).  And rather than becoming bored with seeing the same cars year after year, I find myself actively seeking out old favourites.  Familiarity does not breed contempt in me, rather the opposite in fact.  I wouldn't ignore an old friend.  Especially one that weighs about 4,000 lbs of vintage American steel.
Look at those flames.  Sizzle, crackle and pop!
Vroom, vroom!

Main Street Reunion 2018.

I may have mentioned this before, so forgive me, but the annual Main Street Reunion (MSR) classic car show, held downtown in the city of Napa, is one of my very favourite yearly events to attend.  Or, should I say, it was.  The MSR is now a shadow of its former self.  The event was greatly diminished last year: this year I felt like I was watching the event in its death throes.
This year, I'd guesstimate that there were only about 50% of the number of cars that used to exhibit.  The cars in attendance were all spectacular, but I missed some of the cars that had over the years become familiar entrants.  There was no draft beer for sale (Vinomaker will not drink out of cans) and there was no food items (well, kettle corn if you can call that food) available to purchase.
Whomever is responsible for the banishment of events in the city of Napa, e.g., the Chef's Market, Food Truck Fridays, is doing a great job.  There is barely anything left that is recognisable in downtown Napa, to a local that is.  Napa has become a huge tourist mecca.  Understandably, how can local politicians look the transient-occupancy-tax-gift horse in the mouth?  I could go on...
Signed,
Disgusted in Napa.
A feeble and, possibly, final:
Vroom, vroom!

Main Street Reunion 2017.

A pleasant afternoon was spent at one of my very favourite annual events, the Main Street Reunion car show (MSR).  I just love it.
This year, at the behest of the new, but not yet open, hoity-toity Archer Hotel the MSR event was moved to Third and Main Streets in downtown Napa.  The Archer did not want the temporary closure of First Street to impact their guests (again, the hotel is not yet open and won't be until November).  The event did not seem quite as intimate as those of years past.  Third Street is rather wide, so the crowd seemed more dispersed and, in some way, less festive.  No matter, it is the pageantry of classic American automotive history that I wanted to see, not the crowd. Of course, I always bump into someone I know.  There were some beautiful cars and trucks being exhibited and I would have happily driven away in any of about a dozen of them.
And today was my and Vinomaker's anniversary to boot (or should I say, to trunk?), so I was determined that I was going to have a good time on whichever pinhead-designated street.
Vroom, vroom!

Main Street Reunion 2016.

This afternoon, my family and I spent quite a bit of our time oohing and aahing (and at one point I think I may have even slobbered a tad) over a fabulous collection of classic American cars.  Yes, the 2016 Main Street Reunion car show was held today in downtown Napa.  I have said it before, and I'll say it again, I love this event; great automobiles, happy people, fabulous music (lots of Johnny Cash and Eddie Cochrane) playing loud.  Love it!
At the conclusion of the event we all lingered in one particular area to watch, and listen, as many of the cars and trucks fired up their engines and rolled out into the greater Napa Valley.  Very impressive.
Vroom, vroom!

Main Street Reunion 2015.

The 2015 Main Street Reunion Car Show was held today.  I love this event. I mean, what is there NOT to love about chrome (lots of it), tailfins, hood ornaments, bench seats and fluffy dice.  Oh yeah!  I wish my English family could have been here this year, but maybe next...
There were quite a few stand out cars for me this year; a Screaming Mimi-red 1957 Ford T-bird, a sky blue 1954 Chevrolet pickup truck and a jet-black 1967 Chevelle SS 396.  All very nice cars.
But my favourite car at this year's event was a 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air that had not, as yet, been restored to its former glory.  This photograph does not do justice to the richness of the patina that the passage of some 60 years have bestowed upon this car - it is uniform and quite lovely.  No doubt with some TLC, and a bucket load of money, this Bel Air will once again be the shiny, eye-catching beauty it was when it first rolled off the production line.  I sort of like it now.
Vroom, vroom!

Main Street Reunion 2014.

Another year, another annual Main Street Reunion Car Show.  This is one of my favourite downtown Napa happenings (I may have mentioned that before), I look forward to it every summer.  Once again my English family joined me in enjoying a very sun-reflecting-off-chrome afternoon. 
This year I saw several cars that made me want to own them, not just admire them from afar.  The list included a 1957 Ford Fairlane, a 1959 Chevrolet Impala and a 1966 Plymouth Barracuda.  The silver-flamed 1940 Ford Coupe in the photograph was just very pretty to look at.  Think I'm bad?  Thud had his eye on a lot more cars than me.
Afterwards we all ate together at the house Thud is renting, over on the westside of the valley, for the rest of his holiday.  Burgers and sausages were washed down with one of Vinomaker's finest syrahs, followed by a delicious tarte Tatin made with pears (instead of apples) from a tree on the property (thank you, Tenbellies).  A quick swim and a cup of tea later, I was snuggled up in bed with visions of tailfins dancing through my head.  A good time was had by all.
Vroom, vroom!

Main Street Reunion 2013.

Today, I got to cruise Main Street, Napa - on foot.  One of my favourite events of the year, the Main Street Reunion car show was held today and it is a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.  Yay!  With about 400 cars on display, this event can keep a person entertained for hours.  I saw a lot of cars that I recognised from years past and some fantastic new entries.  The weather was hot (and unusually humid) and my family was not with me this year (as they have been the past 3 years), but I had a great time anyway.
Vroom, vroom!

Main Street Reunion 2012.

Wild horses be damned: not even a disaster of biblical proportions could keep me from attending one of my favourite annual downtown Napa events.  This is the fifth year in a row that I have enjoyed roaming around the heart of Napa for the Main Street Reunion car show.  A little smaller this year, with only about 380 cars being shown, I simply never tire of looking at the big, shiny-chrome, heavy-metal, mobile hulks of Americana past. And although I love the brilliant hued paint jobs, including the baby blues and powder pinks on the countless Buicks and Chevrolets present, it was this monochromatic, matte finish on a particular 1934 Ford Coupe that really caught my eye.

Afterwards, my family shared food and fun until the setting sun brilliantly illuminated the eastern hills of Napa, with Vinomaker and Thud quaffing quite a bit of Calvados, ensuring a good time was had by all.

Vroom, vroom!

Main Street Reunion 2011.

This afternoon was spent in downtown Napa at the annual Main Street Reunion Car Show. I love this event, I mean, what isn't there to love about old American cars. With 408 cars entered this year it was the largest turn out in the events history.

Back in Vinoland, it was gourmet hot dogs (with wonderful buns from Alexis Baking Company), and wine all round. A good time was had by all.
Vroom, vroom!

Wine is bottled poetry.

"Wine in California is still in the experimental stage; and when you taste a vintage, grave economical questions are involved. The beginning of vine-planting is like the beginning of mining for the precious metals: the wine-grower also "Prospects." One corner of land after another is tried with one kind of grape after another. This is a failure; that is better; a third best. So, bit by bit, they grope about for their Clos Vougeot and Lafite. Those lodes and pockets of earth, more precious than the precious ores, that yield inimitable fragrance and soft fire; those virtuous Bonanzas, where the soil has sublimated under sun and stars to something finer, and the wine is bottled poetry: these still lie undiscovered; chaparral conceals, thicket embowers them; the miner chips the rock and wanders farther, and the grizzly muses undisturbed. But there they bide their hour, awaiting their Columbus; and nature nurses and prepares them. The smack of Californian earth shall linger on the palate of your grandson."
Today, there isn't one square inch remaining of undiscovered land in the 'long green strath' of the Napa Valley where Robert Louis Stevenson once briefly sojourned. In the 1880s, when the above passage was written, wine making pioneers settling in northern California must have indeed seemed much like the gold prospectors of some forty years earlier, who came en masse to seek their very own El Dorado. Even to this day people come to the Napa Valley in pursuit of some hitherto elusive viticultural mother lode, hopefully overlooked by perhaps hundreds of like minded wine-prospectors before them, that will yield up to them alone a wine of mythic proportions - perhaps a new Pétrus, or even a Le Pin. Search on! In the meantime, I'll sit back with a glass of Vinomaker's finest and observe their endeavours from my little, gilded corner of the valley that is Vinoland.

Happy birthday Robert Louis Stevenson.

Main Street Reunion 2010.

It's that time of year again - time to enjoy the Main Street Reunion Car Show which is held on the streets of downtown Napa; lots of classic cars, sun and fun. This was the third year in a row that Vinomaker and I have attended, but this time we had lots of people in tow.
For Vinomaker, this event is like stepping back in time for a day since many of these cars were commonplace to him growing up as an American teenager. For the English contingent, and there were nine of us, it was a crash course in America's love affair with the automobile. Any of these cars, with their copious amounts of shiny chrome, tail-fins, flared fenders and omnipresent hood ornaments, could have been a much drooled over centrefold in a glossy magazine.

The evening was spent celebrating a major family event. Some great wines were quaffed (which I hope to chronicle in future posts), much food was consumed, and those of us with a passion for all things chocolate were thoroughly satisfied. A good time was had by all.
Vroom, vroom!

Main Street Reunion 2009.

The Main Street Reunion Car Show was a hit for five years then it took a five year hiatus. Returning in 2008, the show featured 400 pre-1976 cars, 99.9% of which were in pristine, rebuilt condition. Lots of chrome, lots of leather upholstery, some convertibles, some with over the top paint jobs, all of them with a lot of horsepower under the bonnet. Vroom, vroom! Oh sorry, I suppose I should call it the hood, they are after all American classics.

Vinomaker, my family, and I attended in 2008. We all had such a good time that Vinomaker and I decided it was a must-not miss event this summer. Today, we spent 3 hours admiring individual, moving monuments to the automotive heritage of the USA; the eye for design, the pride of workmanship, the quintessence of pure curb appeal. These are all qualities of a bygone era, pushed aside by the computer generated, mass-produced, indistinguishable, environmentally correct skateboards we are all driving today.

We stayed until the sweet end, when in unison, the current custodians of these vehicles (a rather large slice of Americana), unbridled their ponies and let those big bore cylinders thunder through the usually unhurried streets of downtown Napa.

On a side note: On the front page of the Napa Register today is the headline "Harvest Begins." Mumm Napa Valley and Domaine Chandon received their first Pinot noir, for sparkling wine production, yesterday. Yum! Let the grapes begin!