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A Saturday at Katie's can be an amazing time. Lots of interesting cars, lots of interesting people. Today, a friend of mine brought his daughter out in his Caterham Seven. We had a couple of really nice older Ferraris, and a third one that was... different. The driver pulled up late, and parked on a crowded corner, next to a fire hydrant. A couple of us suggested he not park there, but he was apparently too important to listen. (He did finally move...)
It's a growing trend at Katie's to bring a dog. That's OK - I like dogs, and most people do. However, it's the owner's responsibility to keep the dogs under control. A couple of years ago, we had a dog attack another dog, and nip at the other dog's owner. The misbehaving dog was picked up by Animal Control. I'm hoping the owner was fined. Today's dog mishap is in the last picture. Really, people - take some responsibility. After quite a while, a guy came out (I'm pretty sure it was not the dog owner), and cleaned the mess up.
We have really great people at Katie's, as a rule - only a tiny amount of people cause problems: loud engine revving, acceleration runs down Georgetown Pike, autonomously moving your Tesla in and out of parking spaces, etc. If we make sure that people are politely informed that what they are doing is not acceptable, we can keep coming to Katie's.
Recently at Katie's, when we have a high volume of cars, some people have started parking down the sides of the entry road, between the post office and the BBT Bank. The picture below shows the first few who decided to park in the entry road - the Porsche, the Audi, and the NSX. By the time I left, cars lined both sides of the road. This makes it impossible to have cars exiting while other cars enter, since there isn't room for two-way traffic in the middle of the road. Personally, I can't imagine parking along the sides of the entryway, just because of the risk of having my car sideswiped. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that we have some people who don't care that they are blocking the street.
If you know people doing this - please ask that they find a less problematic place to park. Sooner or later, this is going to cause a problem. I, along with several of my friends, have been coming to Katie's since 2009. I have seen us lose a cars & coffee venue (Fair Lakes) because of bad actors. We need to nip bad behavior in the bud.
At Katie's today, a guy we know - ZR-1 driver Phil, collapsed inside Katie's. The Great Falls Emergency Squad (luckily, right across the street) came right over. Seems like a heart incident. He was conscious and coherent when he left - a good sign - and they took him to a local hospital. Two good things accompanied this frightening event -
1.) Fellow Corvette guys talked to Phil before he left, and volunteered to get his car home and safe. I know that took one of his worries away.
2.) I was VERY happy to see that no one was parked along the sides of the entrance road to Katie's from Georgetown Pike. People had been parking their cars on both sides of this road in recent weeks, and it makes it difficult to get traffic in & out. Thankfully, the ambulance and fire truck had a clear shot in to pick up Phil, and get him to the hospital.
Katie's update: Phil, who was taken away from Katie's in an ambulance on Saturday, is home and OK. He did yard work all day Friday, without drinking enough water.
His problem was being dehydrated, and he's taking care of that. He said he'd be back at Katie's soon.
A good turnout at Katie's today. I just wish people had the sense to NOT park along Georgetown Pike, and along the entry road, next to the Post Office. A suggestion - if you can't get to Katie's before 7:00AM, don't bother coming until 8:30 or 9:00AM. You will likely find a decent parking space, for the 'second shift'. I am pretty much always gone before 8:30AM.
I posted this picture yesterday, but wanted to clarify the credit - my friend Mike Swiek took this picture, with my camera. It's a nice image of Chuck Brownstein's Porsche, and Mike deserves the credit for the picture. Thanks, Mike!
(Feel free to share this with your layabout friends, and peripheral-car-guy acquaintances.)
I hope you enjoy some pictures of cars and friends we don’t see much anymore, as well as people who still attend Katie’s.
As a longtime Katie’s regular, I have the advantage of perspective. I first came to this venue on Halloween, 2009, and parking was not a problem. The first ‘official’ Katie’s Cars & Coffee was held on April 3rd, 2010. At that point, and throughout 2010, you could get a parking spot on the ‘front’ lot, even after 8:00AM. Katie’s didn’t start serving until 7:00AM.
The first picture is from October 31st, 2009, my first visit ever to Katie’s. The second picture was taken March 6th, 2010 – still before the official start of the formal C & C, but you can see it’s getting busy. The third snapshot is from April 3rd, 2010 – the first-ever, official Katie’s Cars & Coffee.
The final shot was taken today, at 7:40AM, and shows a line of people, vainly trying to find a parking space somewhere near Katie’s. Lately, we have had sporadic problems with late-comers parking along the sides of the Katie’s entrance, across the street from the fire department. We also see people parking along Georgetown Pike. Neither of these areas is safe to park. Also, locals will eventually instruct the police to start ticketing, and cracking down on local traffic.
If (like a lot of people), you just cannot get up at ‘Oh-Dark-Thirty’, I would suggest that, rather than wandering through the lot, you not arrive until about 8:30AM. You will find that many of us early-arrivals leave before 8:30AM, opening up the good parking spaces you want. I have not stayed until 8:30AM yet this year.
More proof that Katie's continues to attract new people and cars - these two amazing low riders. Beautiful workmanship on everything, especially the paint jobs. They did all this work - paint jobs included - in their garage! The hydraulic pumps are from old airplane landing gear hardware, run by 8 car batteries in the trunk.
05-04-2019, 09:50 AM
