Image – The Over The Hill Gang

2018 Hogs & Hot Rods – Pinetop, AZ

Woodland Park, Pinetop, Arizona

May 26, 2018

By Conrad Monroe

Hogs & Hot Rods

We normally head over to Alpine, Az for their Rte 666 car show, however this year we attended a new show in Pinetop. The show is part of their Spring Festival at Woodland. The proceeds of the charity car show go to the Love Kitchen which helps to feed low income children and seniors on the mountain.

Pat Bell used the show to help introduce his new business, Arizona Suspension Specialist located on the Deuce of Clubs in Show Low. All though the car and bike show had the typical 1st year low attendance it did see a high number of spectators who supported all of the vendors and businesses at the show.

On the way home from Viva Las Vegas the Wagon ate yet another rear axle bearing. I finally tossed in the towel and ordered a new 9″ Currie with 31 spline axles and large bearings. The small bearings in the 1967 Cougar axle are just not up to handling the weight, power and speeds that I drive in the Dodge. Unfortunately, Currie failed to inform me when I placed the order that they and their suppliers were super backed up with orders… it took almost 6 weeks for the new axle to ship. We put a new bearing in the old axle so that we could at least go to the local shows. After Show Low this coming weekend we will swap in the Currie… hopefully my problems will be solved!

As part of the Car Show, the organizers had a Lil Miss Pin Up show. Mel dressed our girls up in period correct dresses and make up and both the girls had a great time showing off on stage.

The class set up that they had come up with was pretty different. They tried to cover both old and new cars and bikes… hence with had a Pre 1980 Stock, Modified and Custom Car, Truck and Bike classes which made judging interesting… As luck would have it we had two great 1966 Novas in the Pre 1980 Modified Class… and a stock 1970 Mark Donohue Edition Javelin which the owner had entered in the Custom Class. It really is a very nice, rare car and I was very happy to see it at such a small show!

It is a shame we had two competing shows this weekend, it would have been nice if they could have been on different days. Maybe next year!

Next weekend we have Crusizn the Rim in Show Low. Hope to see a good turn out!

Conrad.

May 2018 Breakfast Putt

Thank you to Danise Cover for suppling the photos of the putt!

Our May Breakfast/Lunch Putt was on Saturday, May 19, 2018; Roadmasters were Steve and Pam Graves, and the restaurant was Anthem Grille at Poston Butte Golf Course.

The Gang met at The Slab, 1945 E. Baseline, Gilbert, AZ 85234(parking lot of McDonald’s, intersection of Gilbert & Baseline) promptly at 9:45 am for the restaurant (with a gas and “go” at the Frys station/McDonalds in the parking lot).

After brunch, the Gang headed over to the Graves place for a little dessert .

Breakfast Putt to the Anthem Grill

We all have trips that went like this one…

I think that if you participate in this hobby enough, and travel enough that sooner or latter you will have a trip like this one that was related by Roger Sevison who is with the White Mountain Cruizers, a non club much akin to the Phoenix 40s…

The Durango Fiasco or two tales of one trip…
by Roger Sevision
16-19 June, 2016

So much happened on this trip that I will have to break it into 2 emails.

Since we were threatened with evacuation, ten of us decided to evacuate to Durango Thursday morning ( Dan & Elaine Carr, Phil and Sandi Terry, Gene & Val Stirling, Al Mercer and BJ plus Pat & I). Everything seemed fine until we got near 4 Corners about 80 miles from the nearest town. It was déjà vu all over again when the Mustang fuel pump quit pumping and the engine stopped just like Moab last year. At least it wasn’t on fire this time. Al loaded it in his trailer and we continued on with me driving Al’s GTO. Then Gene’s truck refused to start each time we stopped. It would finally go but it got harder every time. Then as we got close to Durango, Dan’s new Firebird started smoking badly. He never found the cause but it went away. Lastly, as we headed down the hill into Durango, Phil’s Caddy got a piece of gasket stuck in the secondary’s causing the throttle to stick open. Phil and Sandi had an exciting ride into town with both feet on the brakes. Once at the hotel Phil also discovered that a big bump on the Navajo road connecting 77 to 191 had ripped the right front shock mounting out of the “A” frame causing the tire to completely wear out. By then we were afraid what would happen when we got on the train to Silverton Friday morning.

Friday was a whole new day. I had a new fuel pump installed and Gene got a new starter for the truck. Phil got his problem’s fixed and all was well. The train ride to Silverton was fun with spectacular scenery. The train wound along the Animus River with lots of rapids, sheer cliffs and waterfalls We only had time for lunch and a quick look around before the train started the 3-1/2 hour trip back to Durango. We got back in time to check in for the show Saturday before heading back to the hotel. We thought the jinx was over until we met up with Bob and Claudia Thomas. The 39 Studebaker started blowing fuses that ran the transmission and fuel pump near Gallup. They would have been stranded but Joe and Megan Blendowski came to rescue with their trailer to tow the Stude on to Durango. Problems were not quite over yet as Bob’s thumb got crushed in Joe’s truck door. In Durango, Bob got the Stude into Al’s trailer to work on it but was unsuccessful finding the problem.

Saturday morning we headed to the show early. Bob Thomas’s bad luck continued as his Studebaker would not run and was not able to get the car to the show. Plus Bob had to make a trip to Urgent Care for his thumb that was smashed on Friday. The rest of us got prime parking and the DeRosier’s arrived a few minutes parking near the group. Durango is a great show with lots of very nice and some very unusual vehicles. The day went by quickly. We parked in front of a Chinese restaurant that had amazing lunch specials for just $6.95 that were very good and so big that no one cleaned their plate. I’m sure Steve Wing is envious! 😉

Our group did well at the awards considering the tough competition. The De Rosier’s took 2^nd in the Foreign Car class, Phil Terry’s 54 Caddy took second in his class plus the Host Club’s Choice award. Joe Blendowski won the Open Street Rod class, Al Mercer’s GTO won Muscle Class and our Mustang won its class.

Back to Bob and Claudia’s adventure, while stopped for gas in New Mexico, Bob was talking to a guy there and discovered that this guy knew Bob’s brother in law in Durango. When Bob mentioned that he did not know how he would get the car back to Pinetop. This guy responded with an offer to come from Farmington to Durango Sunday morning to pick up the car and bring it to Pinetop. What an unexpected blessing! The guy and his wife showed up at the hotel at 7 AM Sunday to load the car and caravan back with us. Claudia was concerned that this guy was a serial killer but that proved not to be true. The trip home was uneventful. We did make a quick stop at 4 Corners so we could claim we covered four states on the trip. 😉

While a lot of bad things happened, overall the trip was a fun and we experienced a lot of blessings that got us all through.