Orleans Hotel and Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada
April 19 – 22, 2018
by Conrad Monroe
This was our second year at the Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend. This was the 21st edition of what has become a great fun weekend of traditional hot rods and custom cars, pin up girls and rockabilly music. Making the trip this year was Paul & Judy Nolte, Greg Selvidge and Sherry Hofler and Michelle and I. We met at the Cracker Barrel in Kingman for lunch and the drive up 93 to Vegas. Just outside of Boulder Dam, Paul’s trailer acquired a flat which did some damage to the trailer which we had to take care of before traveling on, compared to some of our tire problems in Mexico years ago this was no big deal!
This was our second trip and frankly we are getting hooked! Fun weekend, everyone smiling and happy, no Grumpy Guses complaining about not getting an award for their checkbook car. Great music all day with live performances by Duane Eddy, Jerry Lee Lewis (yes he is still performing at 82 yrs old) and the Stray Cats who haven’t lost a beat!
Thursday April 19, 2018
Most of the spectators show up on Saturday for all of the Rockabilly music and attractions, so Friday is typically a good day for checking out the cars and chatting with folks.
As you can see, this is in no way like a GoodGuys Show… the cars are definitely different!
Walk About Candids…
I had shot a movie of the Stray Cats performing, but it was too large to upload to WordPress and it really needed a tripod… movies just are not my thing!
On Sunday we headed down I40 for the trip back home. As our custom, we stopped at Beaver Street Brewery in Flagstaff for lunch. Michelle took the wheel for the rest of the trip home, unfortunately as she was coming into Winslow the Wagon lost another damn wheel bearing… I have finally come to the conclusion that my Dodge at 5200 lbs plus going down the road at 80 plus MPH is too much of a load for the small bearings that the 1967 Cougar rear axle that I have under it. Earlier this week we ordered a heavy duty Currie 9 inch with 31 spline axles, large bearings and a Detroit TrueTrac positraction. Really big bucks but it should solve this recurring problem… I hope…
