God I hate crowds, and even though cold and rain kept yesterday’s attendance down, it was still too crowded for me: this huge collector car auction (is it the hugest?) is like Disneyland for geezers.
I drove this year, chauffeuring my friends Chip and Ed, along with Ed’s visiting sister Davida. By taking advantage of valet parking, we were able to drive right up to the main auction tent. Once inside, we grabbed lunch. Unfortunately I also grabbed a nasty cold from the coughing lady in front of me in the food line. It didn’t hit until the drive home. I prayed it was merely a sore throat from talking too much, but this morning had to face the truth: it’s a full-fledged winter cold, and I am now on Dr. Oz’s Sudafed & Kleenex diet.
After lunch, we split up to pursue our own interests. Chip, like me, loves to photograph cars. We started at opposite ends of the auction grounds and later met up in the middle. Ed and Davida were mostly there to look. And so much to look at: not just collector cars but new cars too, and airplanes and motorcycles and speedboats and garage accessories. There seemed to be more football field-sized display tents than in past years; so many that I didn’t have time to visit them all.
My interests run toward classic cars of the 1950s and earlier, and as you can see I have a special place in my heart for microcars.
It was difficult to get a clear field of view on an entire car: the crowds were such that someone was nearly always between my camera and the car I wanted to photograph. I was able to get a few, but most of my photos were detail shots, like this:
The photos here are a teaser, meant to entice you into visiting my Barrett-Jackson 2017 photo album on Flickr. I hope you enjoy it.
I’ve said this before: I may skip Barrett-Jackson next year. I’m not agoraphobic, but I do get terribly antsy when I’m packed in a tent, no matter how big is it, with thousands of other people. Next weekend I’ll ride my motorcycle down to the resort town of Tubac, where there’s an annual classic car show on the golf course. I honestly enjoy that show more … being out in the open makes all the difference.