Mecum Kissimmee 2022 Report

 Mecum Kissimmee 2022 Report

We hit the Mecum auction in Kissimmee for the 2nd year in a row, this time with the little people along for the ride. I like this trip so much that I think I'm going to do it again next year. It's one of those rare occasions when everyone seems to have a good time and get to do things they want to do. We rent an apartment somewhere in Orlando - there are plenty - and spend the week alternating between going to Disney and other parks and going to the auction. Branelle and I can both still work, the kids love traveling anywhere and they love going to the parks, and I get to go to one of the largest car auctions around. 

The key is that I don't have to actually be AT the auction all the time. The Mecum app for buying cars is fantastic, so as long as I can go for a day and just inspect everything I might be interested in ahead of time, I can bid from anywhere. 

The reality is that this is a terrible auction for bidding in the arena anyway. It's just not easy to move in and out as the cars are coming, and I don't like to just sit there all day anyway. We watched a few cars from time to time, but most of our efforts at the fairgrounds were spent walking the vast tents inspecting cars.

Well, most of MY efforts anyway. Samantha and Brooks like to eat, and Nel accommodates them. 

"How about this one Daddy?"

Actually, for a short period of time, they're fun to walk around the grounds with. Brooks went through a phase where he would go up to a car, usually a blue one, and say "what about this one Daddy?" Their attention span doesn't allow for my desire to spend hours in and under every car I might want to take home. Nel is a trooper though, and Kissimmee has plenty of areas where they can just chill and snack while I wander.

Things We Didn't Buy:

1987 Lamborghini Countach

I wasn't really in any danger of going home with this poster car from the 80's. For one thing, I don't fit, as illustrated in the short video below of me trying to extract myself gracefully from the thing. For another, it had only around 2K miles on the odometer, and that drove the price north of half a million.

1995 Rolls Royce Corniche S Convertible

I like the old Corniche drop tops - used to have one - but I thought I was looking at a $60K to $70K car here. It ended up being some special model I wasn't familiar with that had never actually been titled, and didn't sell at $325K!

1987 AMC Eagle Limited Wagon

I was SURE I was coming home with this car. I liked it. Nel liked it. The kids liked it. It ticked a bunch of boxes of being rare and quirky and it was in great shape. Most importantly, it just seemed like a car that would put a smile on your face. I was ready to overpay for this rather cheap forgotten product of the 80's. Unfortunately, others seemed to share my interest and it set what I have to believe was a record for an AMC Eagle by selling north of $35K. There was just no way I could justify to myself paying $35K for a car that should have been in the low teens. 

 

1968 Pontiac Firebird Convertible

OK - So our daughter has been advocating for a pink car for years. She's finally starting to understand that there just aren't a lot of options in her color of choice when it comes to vehicles and has just asked me to buy something "bright and fun, but not red" (because we have too many red cars already). When we came across this pink Firebird though, I thought we might have a winner. There wasn't anything particularly special about it other than the fact that it was a factory painted special order color. I was cool with this one and decided I'd bid up to about $45K or so for it, which I thought might actually bring it home. I was wrong. It sold for over $60K and Samantha started to tear up! It was both sad and hilarious at the same time. One of these days I'll get her a pink car, but it wasn't in the stars this time.

Things We DID Buy:

1993 Porsche 968 Cabriolet

It wasn't something I went looking for, but this very low mileage Porsche is what we came home with. It was part of a collection of German sports cars that was being auctioned off by the late owners' estate. The kids were excited....or just hopped up on cotton candy and popcorn. 

As I've mentioned before, I don't love the actual auction arena set up in Kissimmee, so I pretty much stuck to on-line bidding this week. It also made it better for the kids because we could take them to Disney, etc., and I could still bid on cars I'd previously inspected. I bought this car while eating lunch at the Rainforest Café in Disney Springs!

To sum it up, we had a great week + of car shopping and park hopping, etc. Nel and I even got some work done while we were there. We're going to do it again in 2023 and see if this is going to be a recurring winner or if it was just a fluke. 

Not enthused when I told her this car was a coffin.

Europe 2021: Barcelona

Europe 2021:

Barcelona

After our quick excursion to Andorra, we drove back to Barcelona for a few days to end our trip. Branelle and I spent a week in Barcelona at the start of our honeymoon over a decade ago, but hadn't been back since. I think it's a great place to visit, with lots of interesting architecture - mostly by Gaudi - and plenty of good food and entertainment. 

I won't bore you with info on this one, just some parting pictures and to comment that we really enjoyed our rather immersive Spain and Portugal trip. They're great countries to visit and offer a lot of diverse activities and landscapes. The only downside on this trip were the mask requirements from time to time, but that shouldn't be an issue going forward.

Europe 2021: Andorra

Europe 2021:

Andorra

I was adamant that we make it to Andorra on this trip, even though it was quite out of the way, for one reason:  Andorra was the final check box on our European Microstate Bingo quest! We had previously visited Monaco, Malta, Luxemburg, Liechtenstein, San Marino, and the Vatican. 

To make that happen, we flew from Malaga up the coast to Barcelona where we rented a car and drove the two or three hours to Andorra for an overnight stay. 

I could write an entire post on parking in Europe. If we thought our Volkswagen Caddy was big, we were in for some real fun parking our 7-Series BMW for the rest of the trip! It's hard to describe how small European hotel underground parking can be at times, and how odd. It's like they just find a void under the building and start drawing parking spaces facing every which way. We were fortunate in Andorra that a guy was helping us and realized quickly it was going to be a nightmare getting it into the bowels of the garage, so he angled us into a spot reserved for deliveries usually.

Back home, this 7-Series wouldn't even make the top 5 for largest vehicle at our house, but over here it might as well have been a semi!

Nel had to climb behind our car to get the bags out.

  

I didn't know what to expect from Andorra, but I really liked it! It was like a ski town deep in the mountains. It was clean and charming, and there were some interesting recreational things to do if we had been here at the right time of year.

One interesting and incredibly surprising thing about Andorra is that it seems to have an overabundance of specialty toy shops. I'm not sure why, but there were all kinds of shops dedicated to model trains, diecast cars, Legos, etc. It was awesome!

They also have one of those massive Caldea Spa places there, which Nel and I visited in the evening. It was interesting, but I'm not sure I'm the "spa with 100 people" type. 

Otherwise, we just spent a single night here and some of a couple of days. It's a charming place and I wouldn't mind going back some time. Mostly we ate and I worked late at night as was my usual for this trip.

Europe 2021: Malaga

Europe 2021:

Malaga

I get yelled at on occasion by the three people that read this blog for not finishing these travel series in a timely manner, so I'm going to glide through the last few stops on our Spain, etc. trip from last fall with mostly just pictures.

We spent nearly a week in Malaga near the tail end of our trip. We got a place on the beach and mostly hung out there or in the area near the condo. It was relaxing to just chill for the most part.

The condo was good. There was a restaurant connected to the building that was open very late, and we found that we actually enjoyed the beachside dining instead of venturing out every night (although we did that too).    

Side note - the beach we were on did turn out to be a nude beach. That's not uncommon in Europe at all, and it sounds like a fun time, but my limited experience has been that the folks you wouldn't mind being nude are never nude, and the ones you really would prefer not be, are.

As I mentioned, the Malibu Bar (I think that's what it was called) was a place we frequented due to it's proximity (literally down the stairs) and decent food. 

They had real-live condiments - on the table!

The Costa del Sol is famous for an abundance of great golf courses, and we found the time to play. 

I didn't get a lot of birdies, but some almost got me.

One evening we decided to charter a sailboat. We called around and ended up taking a really nice 50 foot boat out for an evening cruise. The sunset was awesome and the captain and mate kept us drinking and eating. The captain spoke no English, but the mate was entertaining and we had a great time.

After a week of recharging on the coast, we headed north on the final legs of our adventure.