Costa Mesa pictures

[YLO BRD]

For those of you that went on the Thunder on 66 cruise, the VTCI web site has some great pictures of your stop in Costa Mesa. Joy, I picked you out 3 times and found Helen once. What did you win the award for?

[brdman2]

I'm not Joy, but I was there for part of 66 & all of Costa Mesa and hung around with Joy & Helen, among others. Saw the Costa Mesa pictures - thanks! My car was JUST out of the frame in 3 or 4 pictures of the late-model cars - there was a black & silver '90 anniversary Supercoupe, then a pearl white '96 or '97 (sorry, Tony - I forgot which!) with ground effects (trunk open in one picture), then a Silver Anniversary '80 that I helped jump-start for his judging, then my Plum '92 in the row, but not the pictures - drat! In the picture of Joy on-stage, she was reading the list of winners in one of the categories, not getting an award. Speaking for myself, the whole vacation was awesome, including the side trips in Costa Mesa & especially the Petersen Auto Museum in L.A. Got to see Thelma & Louise's '66 T-Bird, Elvira's '58, a blue '57 that had just driven back from a show (I believe) and was part of a classic drive-in scene, a blown baby bird that had been raced a bit, and 1 or 2 wild custom Birds. If the regular museum was the creme of the crop, the vault in the basement (for those few of us who were lucky enough to have been invited down [sorry, Joy & Bruce!]) was as interesting, if not more so, with cars in progress, cars going to the main displays or having been on display - just jam-packed together with no guard ropes! See it if you get a chance.

[Joybird]

I can NEVER be accused of having a 'good' picture taken of me. And Dennis is just a guy we picked up on the way. Smiling :);)

[YLO BRD]

Joy, your pictures look great? Where were your other sidekicks? Dennis, thanks for the update, I felt so bad when the group left us at Wixom and went on their way to a wonderful adventure. We really enjoyed having Joy, Helen, Gene, Karen, and Bernie here. Some of them are coming this way next June for the Ford Centennial, you should think about joining the group, we'd love to have you.

[Joybird]

Oh, they were around somewhere.... It was a crazy time. I really missed you there and it was tough leaving you guys. You would have loved all the u-turns , oopps I mean photo ops, and beautiful scenery.
We've got to get our dates straight. Just refresh my date book. the Ford Centennial and the Cruise. Joy

[YLO BRD]

What would I do without my calendar?
Ford Centennial-June 12-16
Woodward Dream Cruise - August 16, 2003

[brdman2]

Joy, once you picked me up, I pretty much stuck like glue to you all, except when you and Helen hit xxx MPH on old CA 66! After all, my Bird has 10 years and 240K+ miles on yours, and I didn't want to blow the engine or suspension in the middle of nowhere!

YLO BRD, I thought the pics came out OK, too. In fact, I am even in one of them! In the left-hand picture, 12th row down, cocktail hour on the patio. Joy is on the left, I am the tall guy with glasses, beard and black shirt with orange design on one side slightly to the right of Joy (as you look at the picture). I saved that shirt for the awards banquet, as it has a typical old drive-in design on the front - "Eat", with neon arrow and carhop. On the back, though, is 30's roadster and a slightly custom '59 Thunderbird! I'm not sure if that short guy in front of me was Bruce or not - though they didn't go to the awards banquet, they came to the cocktail party before. They were all sure a fun group of people, and I wish I could have met more of them, and you, too! We'll have to see about next year. Family is going to be travelling for some of our daughter's functions this year and next, so may be pretty tuckered out. Sounds like a blast, however.

Dennis