Tune In With Your Time Machine

We’re in the long front-stretch of the horsepower season.  There are automotive gatherings everywhere.  Racing action is underway in NASCAR, IMSA, Formula 1 and so many other formats.  Even the original form of horsepower – the horse itself – regains the racing spotlight this weekend at the Kentucky Derby.  

May means spring.  It’s also known as the joyous landing point of “April showers bring May flowers.”  While April was generally a dry month, we faced showers for a majority of the Saturday mornings in the month.  The early, in-season road for Hunt Valley Horsepower has been a wet one.  We’re also currently on the eastern, rainy end of an omega block.  [There are so many meteorological terms and so little time.]  That’s a fancy term for “It’s gonna rain.”  Thank you to Ollie Williams from ‘The Family Guy’ for the perfect reference.  Don’t fret.  The sun does exist.

It’s the rainy days that drive me to the tunes that work with the road.  It’s about taking that music with you on a day with some sun and just the right bit of warmth and breeze in the air.  You feel it in your bones.  You feel it in your everlasting grin.  It’s the music, it’s your ride, it’s the weather and it’s that feeling.

It’s no surprise that some of the best road music resides in the same decade that brought us some of the best cars to take to the road.  That’s the 60s.  OK, the 70s may have brought us the best road tunes but most of the decade brought us an era of cars that were stunted by gas conservation and a general lack of ‘horsepowerism’.  Not fair… so let’s focus on the late 60s and the early 70s and the rise of the muscle car and the prime of rock and roll.  That’s the sweet spot.  The Rolling Stones.  The GTO.  Jimi Hendrix.  The Chevelle.  Led Zeppelin. The Shelby Cobra.  Maybe we get AC/DC since they started in ’73.  The Road Runner.  The Eagles.  The Charger.  So many options.

We don’t have to say, “Bring it back.”  The cars and the music live on.  Sure, we’re all a bit older but the right ride on the right road with the right tunes – and maybe with the right company – doesn’t get old.  Welcome to the time machine.  Feel it in your bones.  Feel it in your everlasting grin.  What a time it is!  Relive it.  Your time is now.  Make time for a cruise.  See you down the road!