We've just returned from the 54th Annual ACD Club Reunion in Auburn. 10231 S was there, was judged, and was in the parade.

I am absolutely thrilled that we won a 2nd in class award for the car - not bad for it's first time out!

The judging consisted of two major parts - the first being 'In Motion' where I had to pull up to the judging stand and then:

• Turn off the car
• Work the parking brake
• Turn on/off the lights
• Apply the brake
• Honk the horn
• Start the car (this was a great part - the car runs so quietly, one judge asked me twice to start the motor!)
• Put the car into first, pull away, then shift into second.

The second part was the actual interior/exterior/mechanical judging. Generally the judges don't like the owners hanging around, so I looked at the other amazing cars in Eckhart Park.

This is me trying to sound like I know anything about Auburns to my sister and brother-in-law (Katy and Mark Cripe of Columbus, Ohio)

I thought I saw at least 22 Auburn Speedsters of the 16 made...

Here's the car (and me) on the Friday night before the judging - one of the great 'unofficial' parts of the Reunion is to take the cars down to 9th and Jackson, park them and walk around downtown Auburn. Once you come up 9th, anything goes, car-wise. Street-rods, classics, muscle-cars, you name it - it's there. I don't think it broke up until after 2am this year. I, however, left around 9 pm to take the car and polish it back at the shop.

Here's Mark figuring out why I was so glad to have him and his family stay at our house over the weekend. It's probably about midnight when this was taken, and I'm polishing the fence on the driver side. Once we polished the car, even at night it simply glowed.

Here's the whole family, after the judging and before the parade. Given the company around me, I hoped they wouldn't ask me to leave the park! There were some truly beautiful cars there.

I was especially glad to see Pat and Joe's Cadet Gray Westchester there. When I first met them, I saw 'the Gray car' and right then knew that they were far crazier than me! However, the Westchester looks great and it is a real testament to the Leahy's ability with these cars.

This last one is the man himself, Pat Leahy, and me after the car won a 2nd in class. Pat is truly gifted when it comes to working on and understanding what makes these cars go. I'm holding the award, but it really belongs to him.