Being a follower of the late great P. T. Barnum who said his Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus was “The greatest show on earth”, I read the hype for the Pacific Coast Dream Machine event and here it is directly from their website. “For a remarkable and singular experience, there’s nothing that matches up to the Pacific Coast Dream Machines Show —Half Moon Bay’s massive celebration of mechanical ingenuity, power and style known as the Coolest Show on earth. It’s a whimsical, fascinating, amusing, curious and absolutely unique show-and-tell spectacle featuring 2,000 magnificent driving, flying and working machines from the 20th and 21st centuries. The world’s coolest cars of every era and style, Model-T fire engines, vintage busses, custom motorcycles, tricked-out trucks, sleek streamliners, one-of-a-kind antique engines, tractors. and historic military aircraft were among the mesmerizing displays.”
We arrived at the airport and parked within spitting distance of the ski crane helicopter that salvaged the sailboat off the Farallon Islands that killed those people during a sailboat race a couple weeks ago. Sailboats can be as dangerous as other modes of transportation. The event more than lived up to its hype, without P.T.’s influence. Pacific Coast Dream Machines was a two-day affair running from 10am-4pm on Saturday and Sunday. The weather was beautiful in spite of the constant 15-25 mph winds. There were cars, airplanes, motorcycles, bicycles, steam-powered vehicles, a Rolls Royce towing an Arlen Ness bike, and a P-51 Mustang (powered by Rolls Royce long before BMW bought it). It was a great show with lots to see and do.