"On The Road" Car Show

I ran into an old friend on Thursday night while up in Saint Louis, and he mentioned going to a car show over in Illinois, in the town of Worden, just up I-55 a bit. He was taking his Foose Mustang, and after mocking me for so much road dust on my car, suggested I bring it over to his place the next day, and we'd clean it up for the show the next morning. I figured, "well, I know I can probably get the trophy for who came the farthest" so I agreed to meet him and drive over to this small Illinois town for it's car show.

We stopped along the way and visited a buddy, who has the neatest garage I've ever seen. Behind two of those door panels in that work bench area are a compressor and a a hot and cold water hookup with hose for washing his cars. Jim Smith has a fifth generation Corvette, but wasn't going to the show. He said nice things about my sixth generation Grand Sport, and spotted me two diet Dr. Peppers for my other buddy Jim's cooler. We then all grabbed breakfast at Hardees in town, after which Jim VanNest and I set off for Worden, Illinois.

Worden isn't much of a town, but the local people make up for it in personality. Wonderful mid-American values and hospitality, and the site was a year old town park where they had food, drink, and local merchant donated raffle goods. I spent about five bucks on food, another five for a chance to win a quilt (benefitting a recently deceased firefighter's family), and five more for six chances to win Cardinal baseball tickets for the last night I'll be in Missouri. The drawing comes after the town fireworks tonight, but if my cell phone rings, Smitty can pick them up, take them to Jim at Boeing, and Jim can bring them to me in plenty of time for my wife, Caitlin, son-in-law Matt, and me to use them. And spending less than $20 bucks while my wife and daughter were out shopping for baby stuff in Missouri beat going along and watching them spend more. After all, it was a Saturday in the park and everything went for good causes. Oh, yes, you can click on any picture to enlarge them too.

Let me talk about Jim's Foose Mustang - it's one of 252, before they stopped making them (something about the company personnel going to jail on another project). It was designed by Chip Foose, who is known to car nuts everywhere, and has his own cable shows. Jim got a great deal on the car, only made in model year 2007, and this one had been untitled until 2010 because the original dealer wanted over retail and it sat unsold. When the dealer died, his son marked it down for sale and my friend lucked into seeing it before somebody else could grab it. Anyway, it's the only one of the 250 some with that specific paint and stripe color combination, and it wins awards at most shows where it's entered. Jim won first place in his class again, and since I had a Corvette and was in a separate class, I also won a similar sized trophy to his. However, the trophy in the picture was the "Chief of Police's Choice" and the largest awarded - they gave it to me, much to my surprise. I don't know if it was because I had come the farthest to participate, or just that the Chief wanted a Corvette Grand Sport of his own. I can imagine his chasing speeders on nearby I-55 in that car, and he'd get away with exceeding the 19th century Illinois speed limit of 65 in doing so.

I also shot several other winning car pictures, those who won special mention as the Mayor's Choice, and the Fire Chief's choice, and best paint. You'll see a husband and wife entered 1934 Ford Truck and 1937 Ford Sedan in matching blue, a purple 1040 Mercury, and of course the ubiquitous 1957 Chevy. It was small town America at it's finest, with great American cars from the 1940's to my 2011 Chevy - not a single "rice burner" showed up, but in rural Illinois you'd probably be sent packing if you drove a Nissan or Honda into town. Maybe that's why I got the Police Chief's choice trophy - he lusted after something fast and furious that could show foreign cars that Detroit Iron still rules in "flyover country" USA. Well, thanks Chief for your vote of confidence - and thank you to all the great people I met and enjoyed spending time alongside as we swapped stories about the cars that we hold precious.