Seattle to Saratoga Springs Raid to Rendezvous – Day 14

This morning we got up, had some breakfast at the hotel and then went over to the show grounds which are at Lakeside Farms in nearby Ballston Lake. There had to be 70-80 Citroëns on the field.  The first two rows had Dyanes, 2CVs, a Truckette, some Ami and Mehari models on display.  The next row was later cars, the ID, D and DS…then a row of the Citroën Maserati behind which sat a big tent where the vendors all were and then behind them the Traction Avants and one historic Citroën from the 1920s.
 

Want to learn something about Citroëns…this was the place to go…needed parts, take a look under the tent…it seemed like everything was there.  I bought a manual from Dave Burnham, who runs a well know Citroën shop in NY and some accessory parts from Kenji of French Car Service in Seattle who had come east for the event.  I walked around and looked at the cars as the hours just disappeared.  My daughter also went off to look at the cars…and just as much to talk with the people who brought them, especially if they had dogs.
 
In the late afternoon, we went back to our hotel to swim and soak in the hot tub before showering and returning to the barn at the show field for the dinner and for the announcement of the awards for best cars in each class. 
 
Honestly, I don’t know how they can pick just one winner in each class. I was amazed at how many beautiful cars there were on the field and more impressed by the large number that were driven to the event.  We even had one fellow from Australia who came up with a more modern car that he runs Autocross in…very cool.  There were at least a half dozen DS wagons there…impossibly long cars, so impressive.  Dave Burnham came up with one to sell for a customer and it was sold within minutes of being presented.  He had driven it up filled to the brim with magazines and car parts and accessories…and there was room for a lot more.
 
If you had come with the idea of getting a Citroën, there were a number of different models available to you…almost one or two of every model was listed by owners and most of them were terrific looking cars.

 
 
After the dinner and silent auction were finished, the winners of the People’s Choice Awards were announced and the contingent of Canadian owners really cleaned up, especially the guys from Quebec who had the best 2CV…best DS and best CM and Traction Avant.  We teased them that we might have to move the event over the border next year.
 
Returning to the Springs Motel, a lot of folks gathered, broke out the beer and sat exchanging stories about travel in their Citroëns and about the cars themselves…and the characters who owned them.  I ran out of steam around 11pm and left to get some sleep, but the Canadians led a group downtown to a club in Saratoga around midnight and hung out there until 2am…I had one wife confirm that her husband didn’t return home until 2:30am!  Not only did they show up with first class cars, but they were not about to be out partied either…I’m thinking there must be something in the Commonwealth countries background that explains this behavior in both the Australians and Canadians.

I met so many nice people, learned so much about Citroëns and got to take a late afternoon cruise in a Traction Avant…oh my, what a sweet car.

 
 
This was a wonderful close to our weeks on the road coming here. So much to see and learn and so many wonderful people to meet and talk to.  We now had one more leg to go and then our journey would be officially over.  We couldn’t wait…but at the same time we were sad to be leaving our travel family and all the nice people we had met at Rendezvous 2017.