Welcome to our 50th Anniversary road trip....

We had another awesome breakfast at out Inn and thanked the Inn Keeper for another great stay at their establishment as we left.  We loaded up the KIA, pointed it south and cruised 58 miles to Maricopa, AZ.  In 2007 I visited our local Lowes lumber yard in Stafford, VA one day and I drove my hot rod, the RedRat.  My hot rod was my dream car….an exceptionally well built 1934 Ford Pro Street with a 502 BBC & Richmond Gear 5 speed….it had the biggest rear tires made by Mickey Thompson tucked under the fenders….it was a beast.  I liked to drive it whenever I could so that day I parked it waaay out in the parking lot at Lowes.  Almost before I got out of my car, this big red Dodge diesel crew cab longer than a school bus, swung into the space next to me!  I thought, oh great….I park out in the hinterlands to keep away from daily drivers and this guy with a truck big enough to blot out the sun slides in next to me.  As I extricate myself from the RedRat this jovial white haired guy with an American flag shirt holds his hand out to me and says “Hi, I’m Ron, can I look at your car?”  When you drive a hot rod, this kind of thing happens a lot but this guy was different.  We struck up a conversation and I found out that he was expecting his hot rod, a 1928 Dodge Sedan, to arrive in a week or so.  I invited him to the local cruise in and gave him my email address & phone number so he could stay in contact with me.  That friendship has matured; Ron & his lovely wife Jean have become best friends with us.  We have attended shows, cruises and other “car” centric deals together over the years.  Ron is one of the 7 founding members of our group, Cruisin For Heroes.  We put on events to raise money & awareness for Fisher House Foundation by using our hot rods as display items, check us out here;  http://www.cruisinforheroes.com/   Sometime in late 2013 Ron & Jean moved to AZ so Jean’s health could improve.  We had communicated by email & phone since they moved away from us and now we wanted to visit them while we were in their neighborhood. 

Our GPS led us to Ron & Jean’s driveway where they welcomed us with open arms.  They showed us their home while we visited and shared our journey’s adventures so far.   They invited us to stay with them for a couple days while they shared some interesting things with us in their corner of AZ.  Linda & I took a lot of pictures, Linda took most of them (this will be a problem in a couple days).  Ron had made reservations to a restaurant we always visit when we are near the Phoenix area….Pinnacle Peak Patio Cowboy Steakhouse.  There was a Pinnacle Peak close to our home in Highgrove, CA….it was actually just a few miles away.  Pinnacle Peak is the place that if you wear a tie the first thing the waitresses do is cut it off!  Then they pin it and your business card on a wall or rafter of the building somewhere.  And they had the best steaks anywhere.  We all piled into Ron’s Chrysler 300 and he chauffeured us to dinner.  Although the food & service was great, it was also a little sad because we discovered that they were closing the restaurant to make way for more houses to be built….so this would be the last time we would dine at that restaurant.  When we returned to their home we visited some more then turned in….Ron had a busy day planned for the next day!