Club Event Report: “Drive, they said” in the Shenandoah Valley

Posted on 29. Jun, 2009 by jeffz in Events

Twenty-one Miatas departed Harrisonburg for “Wild, Wonderful West Virginia” on a Sunday afternoon; twenty returned.

By 1 p.m. on the day of the run, 21 Miatas of various colors and vintage - from 1990 to 2001, had assembled on the Waterman Square parking lot. Most had come from Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, but a few hailed from Fairfax, Manassas, Berryville and Strasburg.

Lawrence Yoder of Harrisonburg offered a prayer for safety on the roadways, and we spilled out on to Rt. 33 west for an estimated three-hour trek to Franklin, south on Rt. 220 to Monterey, east on Rt. 250 to Churchville and back to the ‘Burg via Rt. 42.

What a supercharged feeling - top-down Miatas in front of me as far as the eye could see, more Miatas following. It was a hoot to see drivers waiting at intersecting roads along the way, seemingly mesmerized by this brigade of sporty motorcars breezing along the thoroughfare.

Our caravan glided through the beautiful stretch of wooded roadway from Rawley Springs to the base of Shenandoah Mountain and started our ascent when cars ahead of me suddenly hit their brakes.

I came around a blind curve to see a blue Miata sitting in the roadway, smoke rolling from the interior, the front end bashed in, the driver sitting despondently by the wounded vehicle, his head between his knees. Life in the fast lane had come to an abrupt stop.

Jason Saufley, 18, had just graduated from Harrisonburg High School this spring, and owned his 1992 Miata five months. He told us he took the hairpin turn too fast, lost control and hit the mountainside where it meets the road’s edge. The impact spun his car around 180 degrees.

While he had some bruises and was visibly shaken, Jason insisted he would be all right. I am most grateful to Sam and Vi Miller, who offered to stay with Jason until assistance arrived. I told Lawrence Yoder later that either he didn’t pray hard enough, or that his prayer aided divine intervention in preventing more serious injuries. I believe it was the latter.

We pushed the car down the road and off the pavement to an open area where oncoming vehicles could see it. A quick consultation was held; group consensus was to press on.

We stopped at a lookout point at the top of Shenandoah Mountain and prevailed upon an unsuspecting onlooker to snap a group photo with my camera. Just south of Franklin, the entourage pulled into Moe Fatz, a 50’s-style ice cream parlor - my kind of place, with pop culture paraphernalia on the walls, a soda fountain and music of that ebullient era pulsing from speakers. A 1958 Edsel station wagon and a 1959 Buick, both in mint condition, kept silent vigil next to the entrance. The owner, Floyd, thanked us several times for stopping and followed us out on to the parking lot to talk more with group members.

One participant who e-mailed me afterwards, saying how much he enjoyed the trip, echoed my feelings in noting that the accident at the outset of our trip seemed “almost surreal,” like it never really happened. Will we do another cruise? Not right away. But, odds favor planning something again.

Words and Photos by 1997 Miata owner Jim Bishop. He’s the public information officer at Eastern
Mennonite University. He can be contacted at bishopj@emu.edu.

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