In Arizona – The Over The Hill Gang

2019 Run to the Pines

PINETOP, AZ September 27, 2019

By Conrad Monroe

Once again we missed out on being drawn for the Run to the Pines car show at the Pinetop Country Club. We had some family business to take care of Saturday AM so we didn’t get to the show until later in the afternoon. Steve and Terri Besore were at the show as was Terry and Barb Scott. Also in attendance as spectators were former club members Rod and Nancy Downs who were driving a late model Corvette.

We wandered around a bit and talked with folks we hadn’t seen for awhile, then head down to Lakeside for an early supper.

Next up Just Cruisin – Winslow, Az

Cruzin The Rim

Show Low, Az

June 1, 2019

By Conrad Monroe

1st weekend of June and we are on Frontier Fields in Show Low for our annual car show. This tradition goes back to 2003 with the car show a major part of the Show Low Days town celebration, which includes an Arts and Craft Show, The Derby Down the Deuce gravity car race, stick pony races and our Wiener Dog race. We also have the Show Low Main Street Farmers Market at the down town Festival Market Place Park.

In recent years all of the activities have grown larger so the decision was made to have the event span two weekends, with the Car Show taking the first weekend and the Derby gravity car races and other events the following weekend.

Cruzin the Rim Car Show

In past years the Show Low Days Car Show was very well supported by the club, however in recent years club attendance has been down. Bob Bailey drove his 40 Ford Coupe, Dave and Ann Bennett in their 1937 Cadillac Sedan, Steve and Terry Besore drove their 50 Chevy Pick Up in from their Ranch in White Mountain Lakes and Michelle & I drove our 56 Dodge wagon down the street to Frontier. Also attending was Charlie and Danise Cover who drove their daily driver over from Heber.

2019 Hot Rods & Hogs

Woodland Park, Pinetop, Az

25 May 2019

By Conrad Monroe

The 2nd Annual Hot Rods & Hogs Car Show is in the books. This year we saw an increase of 50 entries over last year, getting this new show up to a total of 105. The show is in honor of our Veterans who have served our country, and it benefits the Love Kitchen of Pinetop, which supports our in need citizens of the White Mountains.

The show is open to all motor vehicles and is more of a car enthusiast get together than car show.

Other than the usual winds for this time of year, the weather was nice, puffy clouds and temps in the mid 60’s to low 70’s.

Next week we have the Cruzin the Rim Car Show in Show Low and the following week we have Show Low Days and the Derby Down the Deuce, gravity car races…

The USA that I grew up in during the 1950’s is alive and well in the White Mountains of Arizona.

Conrad

2018 Goodguy’s Southwest Nationals

Westworld – Scottsdale
November 16-18, 2018

This had to be one of the largest Goodguys shows at Westworld. On Friday the Polo field was 3/4 full as were all of the places on the asphalt around the Big Tent. On Saturday everything was full! This maybe due in part to the fact that Goodguys raised the age of the cars up to and including 1987, a move not well supported by some of our club members. The Swap Meet was by far and away the largest one yet. Bob Kerkle sold out all of the original 500 spaces, found an additional 50 and sold them out as well…

2018 Southwest Nationals Swap Meet

There also was a record number of vendors in the Big Tent and down on asphalt lot below the Big Tent. I didn’t have a chance to go through the vendor area down on the asphalt, but did spend good deal of time inside the tent looking at the displays and chatting with the folks working the booths. Allways had a display of four 1937 Fords that were owned by one customer. The beige 5 window coupe was extraordinary. Powered by a Ford Coyote 5.0, it took a lot of careful design work to put that wide engine into the narrow engine compartment of a 37! Rumor had it that over $400k was spent on the build…

Vendor Displays

For Saturday the club met at registration, at 6:15 AM and we all went in together so that we could park together. We parked midway down the field and close to the Swap Meet. Paul, Bob and Greg had spaces in the Swap Meet and all three did quite well selling most all of what the had brought in.

Dan Burdett brought coffee and donuts for Saturday morning, unfortunately the Scottsdale Police came by and told us that it was against the rules to bring in any kind of potluck, BBQ, cans or bottles. All food and drink was to be purchased at one of the food vendors. Everyone had brought in food for the pot luck lunch which we had surreptitiously so as not to call the attention of the considerable number of Scottsdale Police Officers.

Club Cars Attending the Show…
Sorry Steve Besore I did not see your Chevy Truck!

That about sums it for this time. With all of the negative changes that have been made to this show I am beginning to question the value of these shows to the folks with prewar hotrods and customs.

2018 Snowflake Pioneer Days

Fredrickson Park, Taylor AZ

July 21st, 2018

by Conrad Monroe

This year the show was moved from the golf course to Fredrickson Park in Taylor. The park was a bit smaller for car parking, but offered a fair amount of shade. Also a plus was the playground and some activities for the kids, and this area has a lot of Kids!

Pioneer Days!

The only club members at the show were Steve & Terri Bessie with Steve’s 1950 Chevy pickup that received a 1st place award in the modified pickup class. Michelle and I brought the wagon and our two favorite redheads, Zoe and Satori.

A nice feature of this show is that they open it to diesel truck tractors. Each year the participation has grown. Most had been modified /customized and all looked great.

Of special interest was a restored 1932 Studebaker Cabriolet. I had honesty forgotten how beautiful the pre Depression Studebakers were. Also worthy of motion was a beautiful 1967 427 Malibu in a wonderful dark metallic blue.

This year we are back in a normal monsoon weather pattern and by 2:30 the clouds started building in and the award ceremony came to an end. We made it home in time to miss most of the rain.

Keep safe and enjoy what is left of summer!

Conrad

2018 Cruzin The Rim

Fontier Fields

Show Low, Az

June 2, 2018

by Conrad Monroe

Yet Another Windy Car Show

This weekend we attended the Cruizn The Rim Car Show put on by the Rim Country Crusiers Car Club. The event is held for the benefit of several of our local charities and it runs in conjunction with the Show Low Days arts and crafts show.

Club members attending this year were Tom & Val Altgilbers, Bob & Betty Bailey, Larry & Brenda Besore, Steve Besore, Steve & Pam Graves, Paul & Judy Nolte and former members Frank & Rose Svancara.

As per usual the winds started around 10 AM and by the afternoon they were gusting up to 40 mph, thankfully the temperatures stayed in the low 80s.

The awards went very well. The RCC staff have come up with a pretty decent system that eliminates a lot hard feelings that generally come with the usual “class” system. They hand out ballots to all spectators entering before 10 AM. The spectators vote on the 5 vehicles that they like best, which forms the basis for the Spectator’s Favorite 5 Awards.

Similarly each entrant receives a ballot where they can vote on up to 10 vehicles of their choice, for the Participant’s Top 10 Awards.

The show committee chooses local automotive folks to judge and award trophies for Best Ford, Best GM, Paint, Interior etc along with the Best in Show Award. The club did well with the Altgilbers getting 2, Baileys getting 2 and Larry & Brenda Besore claimed 1. Former club members Frank & Rose picked up an award as well.

Another former OTHG-Phoenix member, Tom Noble who now lives in Show Low attended the show with his purple 40 Chevy Sedan that he has owned for 27 yrs.

This show makes solid improvements each year and is now gathering a rather solid following. As near as I could tell, we had around 180-185 entries, which may be a record…

i hope everyone is having a great summer! Michelle and I are staying close to home until the rains come… hopefully we will be having a strong monsoon this year. We are in the middle of the worst drought in recent history. Hoping our summer visitors will heed all of the fire safety warnings!

Until next time stay safe and keep on keeping on!

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.

2017 Goodguys Southwest Nationals

West World, Scottsdale, Az

By Conrad Monroe

Photos by Danise Clover & Conrad Monroe

This year’s Goodguys Show at West World in Scottsdale marks a major milestone for the club. After almost 20 years of hosting the show which has grown each year, and picking up a spring show a few years ago, the club voted that enough was enough and that it was was time to move on. In honor of our service the Goodguys organization gave club members free admission and preferred parking for the event. By all measures this was a huge event. The field was full by 10 AM on Saturday, the Swap Meet was sold out by noon on Friday and the Vendor Semitruck parking area was filled as well. Dan Burnett garnered the Best Ford in a Ford with his totally correct Model A banger.

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OTHG – Phoenix enjoying not having to work the GG Show!

It will be interesting to observe how things will progress in the future. Goodguys are making a lot of changes for 2018; The maximum year of the cars that are allowed onto the field is moving from 1972 to 1987 and here after will increase by a year. Goodguys are clearly intent upon attracting the 40 to 50 year olds into the hobby by accepting the cars of their youth. Goodguys are still restricting imports which may run counter to their goal, since it was during the 1990s that computer controlled fuel injected engines became the norm and the Tuner movement began. The offsetting factor here is that there are a number of younger folks (30 – 50 yr olds) that have fallen in love with the original Traditional Hot Rods and Customs who are very adamant on keeping Old School alive…

I would love to be able to say that Goodguys is trying to make the car hobby tent larger and more inclusive, but… next year the Big Tent will be gone and the entire field will be laid out differently… the inside vendors will move to large building, the Vendor semis will move to where the RV Parking is now and the RVs will move to where the Swap Meet was, the Swap Meet is headed toward where the Big Tent was… the Times They Are A Changing!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and we look forward to seeing everyone at the upcoming Christmas Party!Conrad

2017 Cruzin The Rim

Show Low, Arizona

June 3, 2017
by Conrad Monroe
Photos by Danise Cover & Conrad Monroe

Last weekend we attended the 2017 Edition of Cruzin The Rim presented by the Rim Country Cruisers to benefit a number of local charities. Joining Michelle and I were Tom & Val Altgilbers, Steve & Terry Besore, Charlie & Danise Cover and Paul & Judy Nolte who drove over from Pine Saturday morning. Also in attendance was former members Frank & Rose Svancara who drove down from Greer, AZ. All in all, I was disappointed in the low turnout by the club for a show that used to be one of our main events. I cannot believe that everyone prefered staying in the valley instead of enjoying our 70-80 degree weather.

Friday evening there was a cruise around the Show Low area that ended up at Hatch Toyota in the Show Low Auto Mall for the annual Burger Burn which was catered by Grumpy Jakes who went all in this year. The burgers were a good 1/3 of a pound and came with all of the fixings plus chips and drinks. I have to say that this was perhaps the best car show burger burn that I have ever attended.

On Saturday morning we headed over to the Soccer Field on 9th St, making sure we left home in time to miss the closing of the Deuce of Clubs for the Derby Down the Deuce race which is held in addition to the Arts & Crafts Show at the Baseball field, the Farmers Market and the Cruizin the Rim Car Show which are all part of what has now become Show Low Days weekend. Danise walked over to the Arts & Crafts Show and was able to grab a few shots of the Derby Races. She was expecting that the cars would be driven by children and was surprised to find out that they were piloted by grown men. 😎 The Derby Race was started a few years ago and has grown into quite an event with a growing list of participants.

The turnout for the car show was well in excess of 125 entries, so the lack of participation from our club was not really noticed…

One good thing that has been instituted at the Cruizin The Rim show is that they have eliminated all the class judging and replaced it with a Top 5 People’s pick that was compiled from the voting of the 1st 250 spectators. They also had a Top 20 Pick based upon the voting of all of the entrants, and to top it off they had very nicely engraved beer mugs for Best GM, Ford, MOPAR, Studebaker, Orphan, Import and Special Interest vehicles along with Best Paint, Best Interior and Best Engine. Basing the awards this way eliminates all of the problems with class voting at small car shows… IMO, GOOD JOB!

Frank & Rose picked up a Top 20 Award for their 1940 Ford Convertible and Michelle and I also got a Top 20 for our 1956 Dodge Wagon. Frank and Rose also garnered the Best Convertible award over stiff competition from a newly completed 1949 Chevy Town & Country Convertible which went on to win Best in Show.

Saturday Evening Michelle hosted our mostly annual After the Car Show Party with her usual array of fine cooking. In addition to our club members we had invited a fair number of local car enthusiasts and other friends for a nice mix of party goers. All in all I have to say that my wonderful wife knocked another one out of the park!

Cruzin The Rim 2017

My sincere apologies to Tom & Val Altgilbers for not having a photo of their Suburban. I had gone over to where they were parked to take the photo and the truck was surrounded by people, so I said to myself, I will just continue on, and come back when the crowd is down… yup, that didn’t happen. Sorry guys!

Also, please note that all of the photos are in reverse order… I have screwed with this all day and finally gave up. No matter what I tried, WordPress decided that it wanted my photos in this particular order, why? I have no clue… nor do I know why WordPress takes all the jpegs shot with Danise’s Iphone and turned them all upside down… sigh.

2017 Blast From the Past

Alpine Arizona

May 27, 2017
by Conrad Monroe

On Saturday, Steve & Terri Besore in their 50 Chevy PU, friends of the club Rick & Kim Fernau in their 79 Corvette and former club members Frank & Rose Svancara in their 40 Ford Convertible joined Michelle & I for the drive over to Alpine AZ. for the 9th Annual Blast From The Past Car Show. The weather was great, running in the mid 70s with gentle breezes keeping the temps even in the sun down in the moderate range. I am guessing that the show drew a bit more than a hundred entries. Frank & Rose picked up a 1st place in the Convertible Class and Rick & Kim had a third place in the 1949 and newer Production Car Class. Michelle & I were very pleased to receive the 1st Place award for the 1949 and Newer Modified Car class.

Larry & Brenda Besore and Dave & Ann Bennett were scheduled to make the run up from the valley but car problems kept them both home.