Saturday afternoon some JAGM members headed to Kalamazoo to participate in the Mad Dogs and Englishmen Car Show, at the Gilmore Car Museum early Sunday morning.
For those making the trek over on Saturday, we planned dinner at The Players Grill and a play “Anything Goes” playing at the Barn Theatre School, a very short distance from the restaurant. We also had rooms booked at the Fairfield Inn & Suites in Kalamazoo. Saturday afternoon, depending on where you started your journey Mother Nature might have presented your windscreen with a bit of excess humidity. But it wasn’t enough to upset our plans. That stiff upper lip, and carry (motor) on philosophy prevailing. Sixteen people met up at The Players Grill for dinner at 5:30 PM. Our young server gave our large group her best effort to get our drink and dinner orders together and see us through. After we enjoyed our dinner we had a short 1.5-mile drive to The Barn Theatre. For those who have yet to see a play there, it is truly a converted barn. Most of our group was seated in the first or second row immediately in front of the orchestra pit and stage. From that seating location, we were able to see the occasional perspiration from the more energetic performers. Judging from the comments being made, we all enjoyed this whimsical, funny, and entertaining musical.
Sunday morning, the JAGM members participating this year (we lost count somewhere around the mid-twenties) made their way to the Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners. Cars arrived and checked in with the registration tent as the grassy midway filled up with lots of interesting cars. I did hear some comments about excess humidity hitting windscreens for some members on Sunday early morning, but it was not enough to spoil their day. In total, 440 British cars were displayed at this year's show. While I don’t think anyone got around to counting the number of Jaguars on display, it was an unusually large number based on my experience. We had a full five rows that ran the full length of our grass area. We did run into some members of the Jaguar Group of Ohio (Cleveland). Of course, we had to extend them a personal invitation to our 55th Concours in September. We also handed out a couple of dozen Concours Flyers to the other Jaguar owners and flew our new JAGM Feather Banner. Most of our group did not stay for the awards announcements, but after the show, we heard that Loran and Margaret’s XK150 won 2nd place in its class!
At about 3:30 PM eight JAGM members headed toward Marshall, MI driving back roads. In Marshall, we enjoyed dinner at Schuler’s Restaurant. Others whose route home took them in a different direction, or who chose to get home quicker, departed individually. A bloke named Ryan Gertner was striving to take pictures of all the cars displayed with a closed hood. He asked several Jaguar owners to accommodate him - and they did. I understand that you can view Ryan’s pictures at https://flickr.com/ photos/ryangertner/albums. You will have to look for the title containing Mad Dogs and the date of the event, which was July 9, 2023. I did look at his albums before he had time to include his latest work and he does have a substantial number of car shows in his albums.
Phil Crutchfield