Gallery of Past Club Events
Drive Your MGA Day 2011
May 2, 2011
Submitted by Alana Adams
May 7, 2011, Drive Your MG Day, was a perfect spring morning with temperature and sun ideal for a top-down ride through the countryside. Ten members of our NAMGAR-Mid Atlantic Chapter assembled about mid-morning at Carderock Park in Maryland. Larry Newman appreciated the start on the Maryland side of the Potomac, since he and Diana had only a 10-minute commute to that starting point. Traveling from the Virginia side of the beltway were Jim Makin and his daughter Ally, a student at Radford University, Butch and Judy Smith, Bill and Karen Marshall and Charlie and Alana Adams.
The caravan of vintage MGs snaked along miles of winding country roads, beneath lush leafy canopies that stood as great sentinels along the road sides. The group explored beautiful neighborhoods in Potomac, Md., replete with storybook mansions surrounded by wrought iron fences. Stately neighborhoods were juxtaposed to bucolic country properties with horses grazing in fields of bright yellow blooming buttercups. Competing traffic was hard to find on this drive, although we did encounter more than a few bicycle riders pedaling along the narrow roads, which required careful maneuvering as we passed them.
We arrived in Poolesville well before noon and parked our cars behind Bassett’s Restaurant. We dined outside on a covered patio surrounded with hanging baskets of flowers. The most popular item on the luncheon menu by far was the tuna melt, which was the big winner among our group. The waitress was attentive and accommodating and all agreed we had excellent food and service.
After a satisfying meal, we assembled the cars for a group photo in front of the classic-looking Poolesville Bank. The Virginians then said adieu to the Marylanders as we revved our motors and departed Poolesville. Charlie, however, had one last surprise gem to end the day’s outing. The group had to cross the Potomac to enter Leesburg, Va., and we went in style boarding the historic White’s Ferry which took us leisurely across the river. Our ride was a picture-perfect end to the day.
