Greetings Cruisers!For our next Meet’n Eat Luncheon, we’ll be tying on the old feedbag at Jaxson’s On the Lake, in Lake Placid. Jaxson’s is a great little local watering hole with a vintage down-home bar flavor that offers indoor dining, as well as outdoor dining in their screened-in back porch that looks out over Lake Henry.
If you have never been to Jaxson’s, it’s easy to get there. If you are driving south on Rt. 27 (as if you were coming to a Cruisers Show at the American Legion, drive another mile or so, past the Advent Hospital on the right, and turn RIGHT onto Lake June Road, just past the CITCO gas station on the Right.
Also, the Santa Express had been parked at the depot overnight and departed promptly at 12 noon; WHAT’A SIGHT! If you’ve never stood next to a steam locomotive as it is departing, you have been missing a unique experience!
Oh, What Fun!
I have been attending the Lake Placid Christmas Parade since 2017 and we have to say, it doesn’t get more “Small Town Americana” than this, folks! “Oh, what fun!” In 2021 Lake Country Cruisers had eight vehicles in the parade, this year we had 15 street machines in the parade! (let’s make it 30 next year, guys and gals!)
And the Weather Was Perfect!
That is more, the weather was perfect “jacket weather” somewhere around 60-degrees, the sidewalks were packed, and the curbs in the street were lined with happy residents. After the parade, a small group of Cruisers met at the GC Grillhouse for eats.
In closing, the Lake Placid Christmas Parade was the perfect ending to a happy day! Lake Country Cruisers will definitely be back for the 2023 Lake Placid Christmas Parade. For all of the Cruisers that participated in the parade, a BIG THANKS! – Scott, Pete, & Ron
PS – We want to let you in on something, we are already making plans for the 2023 Christmas Cruise-In and it’s going to be big! Details to come.
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Our Christmas Cruise-In Was A HUGE Success! SLIDE SHOW!
Greeting Cruisers! What a PERFECT day we had for a car show. Things started out a wee bit foggy, but by 10 am it was perfect. Although the location was a tad small, by noon we had 57 cars registered. Park Avenue slopes down and we had cars lining both sides of the street, the parking areas to the left of the Historical Society Depot were filled with cars, the grassy lot to the right of the building was stuffed with cars, and cars were parked on the hill and side yards!
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Cars were everywhere and at different levels. It was not your typical “parking lot” car show.
Roddie’s Classic 1931 V-12 Cadillacs: One Phaeton, One Roadster
NOTE: This article was first published in the December 7, 2022 issue of the Highlands News-Sun’s Lake Placid Section. Congratulations to owners Dick & Marilyn Roddie for the completion of the restoration of their two 1931 V-12 Cadillacs! The two 82-year-old classic luxury cars will be the feature cars at the December 10. 2022 Lake Country Cruisers Car & Bike Show, held at the Lake Placid Historical Society Museum Depot from 10 am to 2 pm.
The Lake Country Cruisers Car & Bike Show’s “Feature Cars” will be Placid Lake residents Dick and Marilyn Roddie’s two 1931 V-12 Cadillacs. The Roddies have resided in Lake Placid for over twenty years and still have a working farm in Ohio. Dick is a “farm boy” at heart, having grown up in rural Ohio where farm machines are a part of everyday life. Along the way, Dick developed a deep appreciation for classic cars. Dick and Marilyn also own a black 1958 Corvette.
1930s-Style Top Shelf Auto Luxury
Both Cadillacs have recently been fully restored by Dick, with help from local friends and specialty shops. Restorations are a labor of love and can take years to complete. Dick acquired the 1931 Cadillac Phaeton in 2011 and the 1931 Cadillac Roadster in 2015. The restoration to the point of being roadworthy took around six years.
The two Cadillacs are essentially the same, the Phaeton is a four-door and is number 81-of-120 Phaetons built in 1931. The Roadster, with a rumble seat in the back and no roll-up side windows, is number 27-of-81 such models built in 1931. The Phaeton and the Roadster both ride on the same 140-inch wheelbase chassis.
Cadillac, the Standard of Luxury
The Cadillac Automobile Company was started in 1902 and was bought by General Motors in 1909. Always a high-end luxury car, Cadillac brought out their V-16 452 cubic-inch, 175-horsepower engine in 1930 and their 368 cubic-inch V-12 engine with 135-horsepower in 1931. The V-12 engine is an overhead-valve design, has two carburetors, two ignition coils, one ignition distributor, and a vacuum fuel tank. Cadillac V-16, V-12, and V-8 engines made the Cadillac brand the “Standard of the World”.Continue reading “Dick & Marilyn Roddie’s Fully-Restored 1931 V-12 Cadillacs”→
Greetings Cruisers! The winter months here in south-central Florida are the best time of year. That’s why we have so many snowbirds fly south to escape the cold nasty stuff up north. It’s also a great time for racing and car shows!
The SVRA SpeedTour will be coming to Sebring International Raceway on February 23-26, 2023. Tickets are $50, and available ONLY by phone. Call Toni Strollo at 863-698-8620 to buy your tickets. The ticket price is $50 for ONE car and TWO people.
ATTENTION CRUISERS!!! You can get $20 off the price of your ticket by mentioning Lake Country Cruisers when you call Toni Strollo.
The discount offer is good till the end of December, ONLY.
A “Fly’s Eye” tour of an AMAZING place for car lovers.
Greetings Cruisers! It seems that whenever Car Guys & Gals get together at shows, the name “Rick Hendrick” always pops up. Hendrick has not just an extraordinary collection of cars, but his racing facility is world-class.
This video is cool because it’s a flying drone tour. I’m sure it was as much fun to record as it is to watch, although it is rather speedy.
That’s why I’m including another video that is more of a walk-and-talk.
The Car & Bike Show will run from 10 am to 2 pm.The $5.00 entry fee will be donated to the Lake Placid Historical Society Train Depot.
This will be quite a day, as the U.S. Sugar Express Santa Train will be coming to town, the Farmer’s Market will be open for business, and that evening the Annual Lake Placid Christmas Parade will deliver miles and miles of smiles and good cheer! The parade starts at 7:00 pm.
Lake Country Cruisers will be IN THE PARADE again! If you’d like to be in the parade with up, it’s not too late to sign up! E-mail Scott at…lightoak@comcast.net. For details and maps, CLICK HERE!
It’s going to be a big day for Lake Placid. The U.S. Sugar Express is scheduled to pull into the depot at 12 noon, right in the middle of our Car & Bike Show, and while the Farmer’s Market will be taking place at the Journal Plaza.
For the Car & Bike Show, we will also have two very special Feature Cars for the Car & Bike Show, to be announced!
Last year we had a handful of cars and trucks at the Christmas Parade and we were invited back this year. The Lake Placid Christmas Parade is as Small Town Americana as it gets! If you have never been “in” a parade, it’s a hoot! Kids cheer, you’ll get lots of “Thumbs Up’s”, and probably be asked to “Light’m up!”. (no burnouts, please, but you already knew that)Continue reading “Calling All Cruisers for the Lake Placid Christmas Parade!”→
Here’s the Story of the Restored U.S. Sugar Express Train!
Greetings Cruisers and Happy Thanksgiving!
Last Sunday we told you about our December 10 Car & Bike Show that will take place, only for December, at the Lake Placid Historical Society Depot, located at 12 Park, Avenue in downtown Lake Placid, Florida.
Our Special Guest Star for the show isn’t an automobile, but it does have wheels (14 of them) and can move people and big things from here to there. U.S. Sugar Express Train No. 148 is a local historical artifact. Instead of the 102-year-old “static” display piece, this slice of history still works and sells rides!
“No. 148 was the eighth member of ten 4-6-2 Light Pacific class 141 steam locomotives built by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) of Richmond, Virginia in April 1920 for the Florida East Coast Railway (FEC).
It was assigned to haul passenger and freight trains on the FEC’s Overseas Railroad between Miami and Key West, Florida until 1935 when the Labor Day Hurricane destroyed many of the route’s long bridges and the FEC permanently closed it down due to the Great Depression.
During that time, the FEC began to retire most of their older 4-6-2 locomotives for scrap or selling them to other railroads in order to recoup their financial losses.[4][5] No. 148 remained in service with the FEC until June 1952, when it was sold to U.S. Sugar Corporation (USSC) in Clewiston, Florida, where it worked alongside its sister locomotives Nos. 98, 113, and 153 to haul sugarcane trains from the harvest field to USSC’s sugarcane mills.”
To be part of the day’s festivities, the Lake Placid Historical Society & Depot Museum invited the Cruisers to have our December Car & Bike Show at the museum. Here’s what’s going on in downtown Lake Placid that day.
The fully restored U.S. “Santa” Sugar Express will be arriving at 12:00 Noon and departing for the south later in the day. If you have never seen a steam locomotive before, this will be a treat! These giant machines “breath” and sound like beasts “resting”.
Our December show will be in the Historical Society’s parking lot and side yard. And while you are at the show, the U.S. “Santa” Sugar Express will be coming into the Lake Placid Train Depot/Historical Society Museum!
Dateline: 8-25-22 – This is just too charming to not share with our fellow Motorheads!
Big THANKS to our buddy, Jack Murphy for passing this to me.
If any of you come across any fun, car YouTube videos that you’d like to share, send me the link via e-mail at ” lightoak@comcast.net “, and I’ll get right back to you and share it on the site.
The only “trouble” with the Car Hotel is that you’ll have to go to Germany to enjoy it!
All the reasons to build a “Car Hotel” in Sebring. It could be cool! Enjoy the video. – Scott
PS – Just a reminder that Lake Country Cruisers will be having a Car & Bike Show on the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend, September 3, 2022.American Legion, 10 am to 2 pm. The Legion Mess Hall and Bar are open for lunch, and hard-drinks-to-soft-drinks, beer, and water too! Party with the Cruisers!
Special Labor Day Weekend Summer Event, Lake Placid American Legion, September 3, 2022
Dateline: 8.15.22 – We got some interesting questions at the Caladium Festival Car & Bike Show, as well as several of our breakfast and Meet’n Eat luncheons. Basically this, “When is the next Lake Country Cruisers Car & Bike Show?”. And we answered, “Well, on October 8.” Then we hear, “Oh, no shows until then?”
So, we got to thinking.
Last year we had two summer special events at the Plaza Journal, one on Independence Day Weekend and the other on Labor Day Weekend. The grassy courtyard next to Wet Dogs Brewing is torn up and under construction. After a new building is up, the courtyard will be restored.
Since we had a Father’s Day Show and the Caladium Show Car & Bike Show, let’s do a Labor Day Show at the American Legion! The American Legion management agreed and asked us to remind everyone that the Legion’s kitchen Mess Hall and Bar will be Open For Business!
So, here’s the deal! The “Lake Country Cruisers Show’n Shine Labor Day Car & Bike Show” will be at the Lake Placid American Legion, on Rt. 27, on Saturday, September 3rd, 2022, from 10 am to 2 pm. We will announce Door Prizes around 12-noon and announce the 50/50 Winner at 1:30 pm. And don’t forget, there will be a sweet 50/50 Runnerup Winner!
Admission will be $5 at the Sign-In table; Door Prizes will be given, and very generous 50/50 tickets will be available under the tent. 50/50 tickets are 10-tickets for $10 and 40-tickets for $20. Our 50/50 ticket payouts have been growing, so be sure to get some!
So shine up your ride, and bring your cooler and tent! It’s a Labor Day Car Show Party! – Scott, Pete, & Ron
PS – Bring your flags to the car show!
PSS – Our next Cruisers Meet’n Eat is this Thursday, August 19that Dock 633, on Lake June Rd., in Lake Placid. Bring your appetite, the foods is GOOD! See map below.PSS
Great Steaks, Lunch Specials, Entries, & Service at one of Sebring’s Premier Restaurants
Dateline: 7-22-22 – Well, the hungry Cruisers descended upon Cowpoke’s Watering Hole to tie on the ‘ol feed bag! It was a hot, sunny summer Florida day, but cool in the Watering Hole’s private back room. With twenty Cruisers in attendance, we filled half of the room.
A very good time was had by all; lots of laughs, joking, story-telling, and comradely. That’s what our monthly Meet’n Eat luncheons are all about.
And a special “Thanks” to Cowpoke’s Watering Hole. Our waitress was excellent, the food was perfect, and everyone felt welcome. We’ll definitely do it again!
Cowpoke’s Watering Hole has a lot to offer. The outside Tiki bar is a delight, the inside air-conditioned dining rooms was relaxing, and the restaurant can accommodate special events, such as Lake Country Cruiser’s Meet’n Eat luncheons! – Scott, Pete, & Ron
PS – Our next Meet’n Eat Luncheon will be at Dock 633, the date to be announced.
Dateline: 7.7.22 – Lake Country Cruisers has reservations for the back room at Cowpoke’s Watering Hole for Thursday, July 21, 2022, from 2 pm to 4 pm. The Watering Hole is well known for its steaks and sandwiches. Their international Cuban sandwich is amazing.
If you have never been to Jaxson’s, it’s easy to get there. If you are driving south on Rt. 27 (as if you were coming to a Cruisers Show at the American Legion, drive another mile or so, past the Advent Hospital on the right, and turn RIGHT onto Lake June Road, just past the CITCO gas station on the Right.
The road winds and twists, and you’ll drive about one mile. Jaxson’s is on the RIGHT, there’s a sign, you can’t miss it! Continue reading “Meet’n Eat at Jaxson’s Feb 16, 2-to-4 PM” 
