With many thanks to the leaders of Mog South, the weekend events have gone smoothly and without noticeable hitches. Our major activity today was to get to the Lake Mirror Classic Auto Festival in Lakeland, FL, about a 20 mile drive from Winter Haven.
We were charmed by the greeting in the breakfast area this morning at the Hampton Inn, Winter Haven, who's staff was extremely pleasant and helpful. The centerpiece of the room was this Lego made door man. Lego land is just two miles down the road from this hotel.
A shower greeted us as we queued up for a caravan drive to the show.
The Buckly's car shows the water in puddles the bonnet. Nice belt work too I might add.
The caravan was successful and we were soon on the grassy show grounds surrounding Lake Mirror. Hundreds of cars, showing in dozens of categories, with Morgan the Featured Marque this year. We showed our support with 27 Morgan's on display, a huge turnout for a little brand of car.
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My car is a Morgan V6 Roadster and I was joined by two other V6 Roadsters, from left to right
Buckley's, Frazee's and Kneisley's
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| The show organizers prepared a display plaque for each car. Very nice car-show touch. |
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| Some Morgan V8 Plus 8's. and a look across the grassy display area for the Morgan cars. |
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| Rick and Sam Frazee suited up to display their other car, a 1936 Morgan 3 Wheeler. |
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| The Featured Car corral with the old 3 wheelers lined up in the center. |
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This view along the shoreline of Mirror Lake with the show center tents and cars
and the thousands of spectators who came to see the huge display of classic cars.
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| The Mirror Lake area is normally a large municipal park, and includes a very colorful garden with many varieties of plants and shrubs. Some interesting garden art too. |
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| In addition to the cars there were some classic wood boats on display. |
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| The Frazee team mascot. |
This was the 17th annual Mirror Lake Classic, inspired, developed and hosted by Ford Heacock, owner of the Heacock Classic Car Insurance Company, based here in Lakeland. Ford has sold the company and is passing on the car show to a long time supporter, Mid Florida Financial Services.
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| Ford Heacock passing the gavel to the new head of the show. |
Car show awards were presented by Mog South and the first place in class winners were invited to receive their trophies on the Red Carpet.
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| Rick and Sam Frazee won the Classic 3 wheeler class. |
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| Judy and Gary Heck won the Plus 4 drophead coupe class. |
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| Lance and Connie Lipscomb won with their lovely Plus 8 |
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| Brian and Rosie Miller took top in their class with this Aero 8 |
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| Judy and Pat Buckley were winners in the V6 Roadster class |
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Graeme Addie won with this 2012
Morgan 3 wheeler. |
After a long day looking at very nice cars in a very pleasant setting, we returned to the hotel for some rest and some freshening. The evening festivities were scheduled at the Harborside Restaurant, not far from our hotel.
The restaurant had reserved a lake side room with fantastic views for our private party dinner. We received friendly service and good food, though a bit slow as is often the case with large groups. Meanwhile we enjoyed lengthy conversation with some new friends and renewed acquaintances.
Tomorrow, we begin the "GatorMog" portion of our experience, and seven days of Florida experiences.
What a neat show! Though I thought it could have benefited from a waterski show with that beautiful lake!
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