Phoenix South Mountain City Park
January 9, 2016
By Conrad Monroe
Photos by Mike Rust, Sharon Burdett and Conrad Monroe
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Hot Rods Meet Star Wars!
Last Saturday, the club met at Star Bucks on Central Ave for a cruise down Central to South Mountain City Park for our what is becoming annual Picnic and Photoshoot. The weather leading up to Saturday was not looking real great for either activities. El Niño had been visiting Arizona with a vengeance leading up to Friday. All week long the forecasters had been predicting a break in the weather for the week end, and for once they were spot on! Saturday came with blue skies, puffy clouds and temperatures in the 70s.
We had a total of 29 club cars show up, Michelle & I decided to take my 4×4 Toyota Tundra since we had just received a foot of snow. ADOT was out early and had the roads clear and mostly dry so our trip to the valley was our usual under 3 hour excursion. Ken & Carol DuBois showed up in Ken’s truck since the battery in their ’37 Chevy was kaput. It took Michelle and I around an 1 hr 45 min to shoot the club cars and occupants. Larry Besore helped with keeping the line full so we didn’t have any gaps waiting for cars.
After lunch we had the down hill coasting drag race which Dave & Anne Bennett won in their 1937 Cadillac. To be noted the Caddy was by far and away the heaviest car in the race. I would bet that Dave replaced the wheel bearing with a set of super low friction ceramic bearings just to get an edge! 😉
Just about the time that the race awards were wrapping up a whole group of cosplay folks arrived at the picnic area next to ours. Of course they were all decked out in Star Wars costumes that were hand made and really looked great! The name of the group is the Shonare Vhekadla Clan Arizona of the Mandalorian Mercs Costume Club. Mike Rust invited them to pose with our cars and they gladly accepted. They are a really great group of people that know how to enjoy themselves!