Seattle Trip #2 and Gayle's Jetta

Yes, you are reading this right. I drove up to Seattle Thursday, back to the Portland area Friday, and then up to Seattle again on Saturday- this time to partake in what is probably the largest VW/Audi car show on the west coast, Waterwagens (www.waterwagens.com). Being fairly active in the VW community in the Pacific Northwest, this is a great time to catch up with friends and really let my geek hang out talking about cars. This was the 5th year for the show, and the first time I didn't show a car. Instead, I judged the Golf/Jetta V classes. I have to admit, it was kinda nice to kick back and not stress about cleaning the same car for three days straight before the show. We did roll in true VW style though, taking my girlfriend Gayle's MKV TDI Jetta. This was so much better than rocking a crappy rental car- I could actually enjoy driving in style. Gayle is an awesome chick, and has definitely built a fantastic car- R32 front end, lowered on coilovers, Votex rear valence, LED tails, REVO software, and for this show we added my 19" Maybach 62 wheels for good measure :) The car is hot, but there were a few drawbacks:

- Because it's a TDI and gets 600 miles to the tank, bathroom breaks are significantly farther apart
- It makes me miss my TDI :(
- There were too many people that said my wheels look better on her car :)

So Saturday night we head up to our friend Meister's house for a little pre-show party, which was highly entertaining. But the downside is rolling into bed at 3am and having to be up at 5am to get to the show (judges and volunteers have to show up WAY early). As you might have guessed, I hit the snooze button and promptly fell back asleep- waking up with 15 minutes to get ready before we had to leave! I kicked Gayle out of bed and told her to get in the shower while I headed out the front door to wash her car (old habits die hard I guess).

The show was awesome, except for the sudden downpour that soaked me as judging started. (It rained so hard my socks were squishy all day). I saw a TON of old friends and had a great time catching up and checking out some sweet cars. As far as my judging duties went, I have to say that I was very disappointed with the MKV category as a whole this year. Evidently no one really knows how to show a car. Most cars were filthy, and two of them even had people in them while I was judging (for future reference- that's bad!). It made it very hard to see so many cars that people obviously care about and take points away because they just didn't know how to properly prepare their cars. Hopefully they will learn and be ready to rock at the next show.

I also feel kinda bad about how I carried myself at the show as well. Towards the end of the day, I was exhausted and cranky, and really didn't respond very well to some people that were curious about my wheels. Mostly questions about how much I paid for them. That question really gets old, and frankly I find it a bit rude to ask. I gave them smart ass responses, or tried to spread rumors that they were fake or from a different car. I'm usually not like that...and I hope I didn't piss too many people off. Don't hold it against me, OK?

But all in all, the show was a smashing success. The day after I picked up a rental since Gayle had to head back down to PDX for work before I did. I'll continue that in it's own post...so many stories to share :)