drivetofive

Odometer (Legend):  536,775

Howdy y’all.  See?  It’s only been 48 hours since I made myself a Temporary Texan, but I’ve already assimilated to the language and culture of this region.  The last couple of days have been action-packed with Legendary activities.  We are, quite literally, “sweating to the oldies.”  Old cars, that is.  With lots and lots of Houston humidity thrown in.

Our group took over the Marriott breakfast area on the 10th floor of our hotel, then migrated to ground level and pulled our vehicles around to the west side of the building where they could be staged in preparation for our car show and visit to the neighboring Acura dealership, called John Eagle.  NALM Director TJ Vetrone had arranged with the manager of the dealership to have our cars roll through the Service facility in preparation for a quick photoshoot of each.  He made special considerations for my two ‘twins,’ and we got a photo of them together. John Eagle is the largest-volume Acura dealership in all of Texas.  I believe it.  The facility is gargantuan, and its staff members were most welcoming.

Next up, we received instructions for our NALM “Concours d’ Elegance.”  We just called it a car show; we aren’t that fancy.  Voting forms were passed out which contained 8 categories by which attendees were asked to pick one “best” car for each.  The competition was extremely fierce and emotions ran high.  Alan from FL and Kevin from GA got into an especially heated discussion (all in good jest, of course) over some apparent misrepresentation of who owned which car.  We’ll see how the award recipients end up playing out at tomorrow morning’s NALM Closing Ceremony. Each car owner took the time to explain his vehicle’s story during the show while the judging was conducted.  Here’s Chris giving the lowdown on his 1994 GS.

TJ brought out our catered lunch and served up sandwiches & sodas from the bed of his pickup.  It was great to prop up a camp chair and sit in the shade while conversing over riveting topics like “What’s the Legend’s weight?”  I saw an opportunity to take a special survey during that downtime, so I grabbed a pen & paper and walked along the lineup of Legends in the car show to take note of the mileage reading of each.  Here are the findings:

• 19 Legends being judged
• 18 generation 2; 1 generation 1
• Average miles:  218,292
• Total miles:  4,147,555
• Total trips around the earth:  166

Those are some impressive statistics from our group of long-lived cars!  This evening, my local Houstonian friend Mark came over in a legendary car of his own, a 1995 Subaru SVX.  I hitched a ride with him to dinner in his so-called “spaceship.”  The SVX model design is famous for its 10 windows.  Mark’s car is even more unique because he’s changed out the automatic transmission for a 5-speed manual.  It made a great shuttle ride to our dining destination at Spring Creek Barbeque.

As the sun sets on another fun day with friends and cars, we are nearing the conclusion on this great annual event and people are already starting to talk about where the event may land next year.  Here are the rest of photos and a play-by-play of what went on throughout the day here.

My friend Aaron has a tradition of throwing himself over the hood or roof of my cars whenever I see him.  Today was no exception.  Hey, don’t scratch the paint!

To a non-Legend enthusiast, all this NALM Nonsense is a bit insane.  I had a good laugh at my friend Leif’s comment via text this morning.

There’s no doubt the nerd level among some of us is off the charts.  I realized that fact this evening when I asked my friend and fellow attendee Ben to recite his car’s 17-digit VIN.  He spat out the number just as memorized as if I’d asked him to say the alphabet.

It wouldn’t be a NALM without at least some kind of mechanical need!  I noticed a nail in my front left tire this morning so I promptly replaced it with my full-size spare… which was also flat.  Luckily, Evan came to the rescue with an air compressor and we got it loaded up to 33 psi for the long upcoming trip home.

My friend Humberto and his buddy Vikas stopped by to say hello!  Humberto drives a Milano Red Acura TSX and has been a Drive to Five reader for some time now.  Thanks for the quick visit, guys!

Lunch is served:

Matt showed us the original purchase invoice for his 1994 Acura Legend sedan.  It’s been in the family since brand new.

Matt brought along the youngest member of the Legend fanclub, Gus!

Everyone checking out Larry’s immaculate engine during the car show.

Ed, Alan, and Mike had the right idea with the camp chairs in a shady spot.

Mike’s “Golden Glow Pearl” was stunning in the sunlight!

Chris displayed his window sticker & fact sheet on his 1994 Legend GS.

Ross brought his Cobalt Blue Pearl 1991 sedan out, and included a few notes about what makes it special.

Notice in his summary:  He saved this car from the junkyard and put it back on the road where it belongs!

Spoilers for days.

Car show, engine judging.

TJ presented me with a “LEGEND” customized vanity Nevada license plate.  Thanks, man!

Little preview into some of the car show drama we had!  More on that in an upcoming video.

Figured it was worth a shot to walk just a block down the road from our hotel and get a picture with Chris at the entrance to Houston.

Checking out the undercarriage of Chris’ Legend GS at John Eagle dealership a little later.

Dinner location at Spring Creek BBQ

Group at dinner

And saying a fond farewell to Mark, Misty, and Ian who joined us for tonight’s meal.

Thanks for joining for another day!  The adventure continues tomorrow with a long drive home ahead.

This entry was posted on September 26, 2015 at 7:32 pm and is filed under Legend, NALM. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.