(Editor's Note: If this issue seems overly heavy on the Jag stuff, it's so my parents in Oklahoma can enjoy the rally along with us. They used to love taking both of the Jaguars they've passed down to us on rallies.)
Saturday we went on the "Spring Thing" rally. Actually, since it was sponsored by Jaguar of Tacoma their insurance underwriters wanted it made crystal clear it was not a rally and it was not a speed event. It was a drive and nothing more. The Northwest Jag club gathered at the Jaguar dealer and shared mumbo-jumbo Jaggie types like. This is the lobby of the Jaguar dealer, a far cry from the waiting area of Bubba Leonard's Speedy Auto Fix.
Everything was engraved with the Jaguar logo including this protective glass screen.
Beautiful chrome-looking jaguars wait at the entrance of the lot to pounce on customers and empty their pockets of money.
Another jaguar is pouncing from the roof as you enter the dealership in case the first jaguar missed your pockets.
Jaguar of Tacoma provided us with breakfast before we took off for the rally. I was expecting a bagel in a cellophane wrapper or maybe a donut and coffee. Imagine my surprise when I found a full catered breakfast with fruit, thick slices of grilled ham and the thickest, tastiest bacon I have ever had. This bacon was actually more like bacon-shaped pork chops.
The coffee machine was awesome. It ground your choice of four different kinds of fresh beans for each cup and added flavors, creams, whip, steam accordingly as the amateur button pusher directed. There were about a million choices on the control panel and the line was long as each of us scratched our heads in amazement of this thing called a coffee machine.
After breakfast and complimentary Jaguar gifts, we lined up to start the the rally er, drive.
The winner of the drawing was supposed to be for a chance to take the new F-Type on the rally drive but Jaguar of Tacoma's F-type hadn't arrived yet. That mean the winner only got to drive a new XK on the 100 mile rally drive.
Sadly we didn't get to run the rally drive with the top down since it started to rain part way through the trip. Our pit stop was at Wally's Drive-in in Buckley. Wally's was voted KING 5 "Best of Western Washington" Best Greasy Spoon although Yelp and Urban Spoon didn't think as much of it. We didn't get a chance to take their "famous" burgers for a spin because we were on the clock to get to our destination. The Jaguars passing through didn't really fit in here since we didn't have a muddy lifted truck with chew splatters down the sides.
Speaking of destinations, ours was PowellsWood, A Northwest Garden. It was a beautiful private garden and home built on an old dumping area in Federal Way. The Powells still live on the property and rent out their beautiful house and grounds for special events. I can just see Kyanne sitting up on this window seat reading in their library, ignoring the party below. The Powells also host a storytelling workshop and festival each July which is, from what I hear outstanding. One of the tellers this year will be Syd Lieberman. I enjoy his tales of growing up jewish and Donald Davis' stories of growing up in North Carolina and his later travels.
It's still early for the plants to be at their best, but it was very tranquil here in the gardens.
...especially in the rain.
We didn't place in the rally drive, but that wasn't the point of the event to us. All we cared was that we didn't arrive at PowellsWoods in second place. Second place is absolutely out of the picture because whoever places second is responsible for planning the next rally drive. Ironically, the man that had to plan the last two because the second-place winners didn't follow through...came in second this year. Although Ray complained loudly, he had a big smile on his face so the rally drive will be a reality next year.
Due to unexpected nice weather, growing grass, towed car, and other items requiring Bob's attention, RestoCat didn't get to help Bob much on the Jag this week. What did happen was the final sanding and *surprise* nothing worth photographing happens as fractional layers of primer are veery slooowly removed.
Stayed tuned next week!
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