In which Sid and Doris live the new Gilded Age before leaving in search of the previous one.
For much of the trip Nereus ran at the same pace as the prevailing wind and so the exhaust hung with us. This is the ‘after’ picture, docked at home, when Betka and the whole crew had been scrubbing the boat from mast to waterline with bathroom cleaner for two mornings. It does look good and it smelled even better, as did Sid and Doris after a busy session by the pool.
From the rough to the smooth. The nearby town of St Michaels is having a Coffee and Cars to raise money for a small 1950’s garage museum, to act as a charming gate guardian for their very pretty town centre.
Doris passed her driving test in a VW camper. Here we have Sid nervously at the wheel of a 1965, 1500cc, 21 window Transporter. It is on the button and as good as it ever was and possibly better. Note the opening front window. The fire extinguisher was not needed.
Loyal readers will recall the Jolly Green Giant, our 1959 Ford Country Squire. Joe has a 1974 edition. At the meet we find this 1952 Ford Country Squire Woody, the last actually to have real wood. Note the sun visor that prevents the driver looking up to see the traffic lights which in the US are suspended from wires overhead…
… and here below is the solution, the Fulton Traffic Light Finder. That prism in front of the steering wheel shows the driver the lights. What will they think of next, self driving cars?
It is well known that no Bonkers’ adventure is complete without a ferry crossing. Here we are waiting at Bellevue for the justly famous Oxford (MD) ferry, the oldest in the States and serving the nation since 1683. They have had a new boat since the early traffic was mostly horse drawn.
And there we are on the boat with a hep cat shirt to match.
No less cool is Intermezzo, the Venetian water taxi, seen here on an important mission to The Highland Creamery in Oxford (MD), with Joe channeling his inner Nereus, two ice cream-bound Nereids (beautiful daughters of Nereus and Doris) and Sid (not).
The Oxford (MD) Committee For The Proper Presentation of Porch Furniture has been hard at work in Main Street Oxford (MD), helpfully constructing this Exemplar for other people to copy. “What happens if you don’t have the right amount of Porch Furniture?” Doris asks Joe. “They come round at night and deliver more”, Joe replies, darkly.
While our reader pauses to reflect on the luxurious nature of Nereus and Intermezzo, not to mention the Oxford (MD) porch furniture and the key part it plays in the consumption of ice cream, Joe is reminded of his duties as a committee member of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum so we go there to support a talk from Roger Barnes, who is very famous in his circle for books on coastal dinghy cruising.
In coastal dinghy cruising you sail for as many hours as you can bear (questions from the audience establish that this is probably 4-6 hours) and then camp in a sea-going dinghy. Two of you, with all equipment for sailing, rowing, cooking, eating, sleeping, baling and er pooping, and be warned that the same bucket can fulfil multiple functions. It’s all at www.rogerbarnes.org, and the talk was illustrated with a series of pictures each featuring a wife and then a different and unexplained girlfriend for a single trip only. So far we have not convinced Joe and Betka to embrace it. All the while Joe presses Sid and Doris with the delights of navigating 6,000 miles of the Great Loop in a smallish craft. More on which subject later.
To reach our lecture on roughing it in a small uncomfortable bucket-equipped and marriage-endangering dinghy, Joe proposes a modest re-run of the Le Mans rivalry of Porsche and Ferrari. In the absence of the Porsche 962 Joe has a Cayman GT4 R/S while Sid, in lieu of the Ferrari P4 he secretly hankers after, nervously drives the 458 (which is truly a vairy nice car and only unsuitable for Wiltshire’s pothole-laden roads because of the ground clearance). The road to St Michaels is quite uneventful, so (for any of our reader(s) who do not know their 412 from their 458 – and why should you?) here is an Evo picture of the 458 in its proper setting.
There are further arduous duties for the Doughty Duo when we all attend the Pre-Party Party at the CBMM. Each year they hold a fund raising party. The pre-party raises funds to put on the real party so that all the takings from the party (and indeed much of them from the pre-party, I hope you are following this) are profit. The patrons, already probably generous donors, are asked to bid for the pleasure of sponsoring the wine, beer, ice cream, Portapotties and the like.
American philanthropy is on a different scale to what we see in the UK, or maybe Sid and Doris don’t mix in those circles. Even the raffle tickets are $60 each. As we are being plied with drink and canapés we can’t not raffle although fortunately we do not win the handbuilt wooden canoe prize – alas oversize and overweight for airline luggage. The generous drinks before bidding are not coincidental, as one of the party committee cheerfully admits while reaching for a well-hidden tray containing soft drinks.
As the citizens prepare to party Sid quietly finds a small but perfectly named powerboat.
The crowd is called to order on the little gilt chairs and the auction begins. Recall your last charity auction. Maybe a local restaurant puts up an evening meal for you and your guests. Bidding runs out at around the crowd’s estimate of its commercial worth, perhaps £250-£400.
Here in St Michaels the prize may be to have your name as the wine sponsor. Bids are encouraged with rapid-fire patter in true Grundy Auction fashion. The wily auctioneer then says to the under-bidder “with your permission you, madam, have sponsored the white wine, and you, sir, have sponsored the red”. And they cheerfully acquiesce to this wicked ruse.
The auction raises rather more than $330,000 towards the party. And this is not unusual for American philanthropy, where every small town museum and restored building has a list of donors proudly displayed outside.
Our stay finishes on a tranquil note as the duo prepare for a short grand tour. Really grand.
