2016 Run To The Pines

Pinetop, Arizona
September 23 – 25, 2016

By Conrad Monroe

Photos by Jerry Schrunk & Conrad Monroe

Every September up here on the mountain we celebrate the change of season with the annual Fall Festival Artisan and Craft show. For the past 33 years, in conjunction with the Arts & Crafts shows has been the Run To The Pines Car Show.  This show is one of the better car shows in Arizona.  As long as I can remember it is generally sold out by the middle of May. This year was no exception with around 600 cars on the Pine Top Country Club driving range.

For this year’s show we only had Steve & Terri Besore, Larry & Teresa Ways and Michelle and I.  Hopefully, club attendance will pick up again in the future.

The show starts on Friday with registration, followed by the Parade from Show Low up to Hon Dah Casino on the White Mountain Apache reservation. The cars start lining up at the LDS Stake on the corner of Clark Road and the Deuce of Clubs around 3:00 PM. The parade starts at 4:00 PM. As a rule there are several hundred cars on line which ends up being a car show of it’s own.

During the parade the car in front of Larry and Teresa either ran out of gas or had a fuel pump problem. Larry pulled in front of him and attached a tow strap to pull him to a parking lot where they could work on the car. The found the problem and solved it, but when the got ready to leave, Larry’s car would not start, due to ignition problems. AAA was called and the car was hauled back to the hotel. On Saturday, Larry’s son drove up from the Valley with a trailer to haul the car and his parents home.

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  • 2016 RTTP Day 1_001_Conrad Monroe

Friday Parade to Hon Dah

The weather on Saturday was perfect! We sometimes have had downpours,  hail storms and very hot weather for the car show. This year the monsoon abated and we had blue skies, mid 70 temps and white puffy clouds.

The nice thing about Run To The Pines is that you can always plan on see at least a few new cars, or at least new to me. This year the standout was a 1937 Chevrolet 1 1/2 Ton heavy truck set up as a car hauler with a matching 1937 Chevrolet pickup truck on the back. Both trucks were well built and well detailed. The owner who was from Tucson picked up a total of 4 awards for his effort! Also, new to me, was a beautiful 1934 Packard convertible coupe. What an outstanding car for it’s day.

My apologies to Steve and Terri Besore, somehow I did not a photo of either of them or their truck… they were parked right behind us, and I must have zoned out… sorry guys, will make up for it in Winslow.

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Saturday Car Show

Sunday was the awards and drawing for the Gas Pump and 50-50. Neither Steve nor I got an award. Steve was in the 1950-1972 Modified Truck class and I was in the 1950-1972 Modified Car class. Both very large with a wide assortment of excellent vehicles. The gas pump was a Shell similar to the one Jerry Elliott won in 2005 or so, we had tickets but no winner. The 50-50 was $1050 and again no joy… Nice day though and I did pick up a few more cars. I like the way the tail lights look in the 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery, will probably do that on my 40.

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Sunday Awards Day

My good friend and neighbor, Jerry Schrunk was on hand at the parade line up and also at the show on Saturday. I have included some of his images from the weekend.

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Jerry’s Take on the Show

Well that about wraps it up for this show. This coming weekend we will be in Winslow for the Still Crusin Car Show.  Looking forward to seeing the new Glenn Frey statue on the corner with Jackson Browne.

Till then… Keep on Keep ON!

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.

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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 2nd 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.

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Rare 37 MG

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56 Ford

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57 Buick High Rider

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American Austin

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Best of Show 54 Olds

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Standing on the 4 Corners

More Durango cars…

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This should give Malcolm a heart attack!

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The Gatling Guns add a nice touch.  The sign below the guns says “Do these tires make my Butt look big?  The tanks are NOS

 

Roger

 

2016 Cruz’n The Rim Car Show

Frontier Field
Show Low, Arizona

June 4th, 2016
by Conrad Monroe
Photo Coverage Thanks to Jerry Schrunk

Michelle and I were not able to attend this year’s car show, we were down in that valley attending the memorial for Ralph Aufrance, Judy Nolte’s dad. The service was really well done and it paid homage to a life well lead by a kind and gentle man that we had the pleasure of knowing for 30 years.

The only club members making the show this year were Frank & Rose Svancara in their 1940 Ford Convertible.

My thanks to my long time friend and neighbor Jerry Schrunk for going to the show and doing a great job of capturing some of the cars and activities.

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  • 0010 Show Low Days Cruise 2016

Still Cruz’n in Show Low

The weather was great for the show. Temps in the high 80s clear skies and moderate winds.  Nice turnout of cars!

Next on the agenda for Michelle and I, will be the cruise the the Gang up to Gunnison, CO for a car show followed by some sightseeing and a ride on the Durango to Silverton train. Hope everyone is having a great summer!

Conrad.

2016 Route 666 Blast From The Past

Alpine Arizona

May 28, 2016

by Conrad Monroe

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  • 2016 Rt 666 Blast From The Past - 001 - Conrad Monroe

8th Annual Car Show

Steve & Terri Besore in their 1950 Chevy Pickup joined Michelle and I in our 1939 Ford Sedan for the drive over to Alpine for the Blast From The Past Car Show. The weather was great mid 70s in the morning warming up to 82 in the afternoon. This year is the 8th time that they have put the show on and they had probably the best turnout ever. I am guessing about 100 cars made the at least one hour plus drive to a town at 8500′ out in the middle of absolutely nowhere.

Some really nice cars showed this year. Steve Wing had his new 1955 Chevy gasser out. He built it for the Drag and Drive series his 1st time out was at the recent Tucson Nostalgia Drags. Car looks great! Also there was a 1955 I think Mack Semi Tractor that I would love to own.

The show is very well organized and really a lot of fun.  Both Steve and I won runner up trophies, which are always unique at this show. This year they were small gumball machines with the show info placed on them…

Several of our friends from the White Mountain Cruisers won a number of the trophies as well.  We enjoyed a nice drive back to Show Low with Steve & Terri.  It’s nice to have club friends living up here now!

Till next time!

C.

2016 Tucson Rodders Days

by Conrad Monroe
April 29-30, 2016

42nd Annual Tucson Rodders Days
4th Ave, Tucson, Arizona
Presented by the Tucson Street Rod Association

We had a large group traveling to Tucson this year. The Thursday group met at the Slab and took the backroads through Florence to Lupe’s in Oracle Junction where Michelle and I met them for lunch. We came down through Winkleman on 77 to avoid the blasting and construction on US60. The group consisted  of Bob Bailey with out Miss Betty,  Dave & Anne Bennett, Larry & Brenda Besore, Charlie & Danise Cover, Jim & Carol Dalton, Ron & Jan Olmstead,  Ken Schaaf & Dee Guintoli, Larry & Theresa Way and Michelle and I. Thursday evening we all went for dinner at the Pinnacle Peak Patio which was set up by Tony & Jeanine Cruze. Unfortunately Tony was not feeling well and he stayed home. I highly recommend the ribs! which were exceptional.

On Friday Page & Linda Barnes, Steve & Cindy Bryant, Paul & Judy Nolte, Larry & Sandie Wiebeto and club friends Manfred & Connie Wagner and Greg Selvidge & Sherry Hoffler drove down and met us at the hotel.

On Friday, the Thursday group went on the cruise up to Mt Lemon for the annual Burger Burn. The weather was sunny but cool so most of the group was bundled up and sitting in their cars… just sayin…

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  • 2016 Run to Mount Lemon - 001 - Conrad Monroe

Mt Lemon Burger Burn

On Friday evening there was a dinner and auction which Michelle and I did not attend. We met some of our off road racing friends for dinner, so I do not have much to report…

This year we were back on 4th Ave, which IMO is one of the better car show venues. The shops are quite eclectic and provide something for the participants that want to do more than sit behind their ride, with a duster in their hand. The show was moved to the U of A Mall for a couple of years while the light rail train tracks were being laid. Sad to say the old street cars have been replaced by new high tech trains.  For some reason they had a SUV leading the way for the train all day, I guess the idea was that it would prevent distracted walkers from getting ran over.

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The Over the Hill Gang Phoenix at the Show

 

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Everybody Else at the Show

The weather was typical for a show at this time of the year, mostly nice all day, then a bit of a rain shower in mid afternoon to provide just enough water to create water spots.  The Awards were given out at the Saturday Night Dinner, which was a good change.

The club received the award for best represented car club.  Dave & Anne Bennett, Steve & Cindy Bryant, Larry & Teresa Way,  and Manfred & Connie Wagner all received awards.

All in all another very well organized and run show.  Our thanks to the Tucson Street Rod Association for all of the planning and hard work that it takes to put a show of this caliber on.

Bis Später…
Conrad

2016 Northern New Mexico Street Rodders

Farmington, New Mexico

by Conrad Monroe
April 23-25, 2016

I am generally on the look out for new car shows to attend, since for me the fun of it for me is the going and coming, seeing new places, having new cars to photograph and meeting new friends.  Back in early March my friend Bob Horvath who goes to our gym mentioned that he and a few other folks from the mountain were heading up to Farmington, NM for the 34th Annual Northern New Mexico Street Rodders Car Show in April. It sounded good to me so I passed the word around to most of the usual suspects which like to go on the longer runs. Frank and Rose Svancara decided to join us for the trip.

The group from the White Mountains included Rick & Kim Fernau, Bob & Ona Horvath, Joe & Glenda Bailey and Al & BJ Mercer. The White Mountain folks left Show Low at 8:00 AM. Frank and I met at Sanders, AZ at 10:30 and headed to Gallup for lunch. We headed up 491 toward Ship Rock, and took BIA 5 over the 371 and on to Farmington. For the most part both 491 & 371 were very rough and 491 was under construction for 22 miles. They are widening it to 4 lanes which should be a good deal in the future, but a PITA now.

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34th Annual Indoor & Outdoor Car Show

The venue for the show was McGee Park Convention Center. Participants had the option of parking inside a very large building (wish we had one like it in Show Low!) or outside which had a very large covered pavilion. If you parked inside your car was there for the duration of the show, so all of us opted for the pavilion which was a good choice. I think I heard that there were over 300 cars on the grounds with a wide variety of types and styles from hot rods, to customs, street rods, stock, modified, trucks and they even had a half dozen Tuners.

The weather was what you would expect up on the high plains in the spring. High winds, some clouds, some sun and temps in the 70s. Having more than half of the cars inside was a good deal since it gave us a chance to get out of the wind and sun for awhile.  Another nice part of the show was that they had some decent live entertainment on stage for much of the time.  By 3:00 PM on Saturday the winds had picked up, dust was flying and the clouds looked pretty ominous so we high tailed it to the hotel. Fortunately, it blew through rather quickly and we were treated to a nice evening.

The awards were handed out on Sunday in a very nicely organized way with the winners walking up a ramp to the stage for the presentation and photos. Frank & Rose picked up an award in the Pre 1959 Custom & Modified Class and more importantly the Long Distance Award which included picking up the cost of their hotel room for both nights! Michele & I were shocked to learn that we got an award for Street Rod Sedan class, our old driver rarely gets a nod.  Al & BJ received an award in the pre 1970 Muscle Car class, Phil and Linda were awarded a trophy in the pre 1970 Stock class.  Bob & Ona’s 1938 Ford was the Goodguys Rep Pick and they also received the Horsepower Ranch Pick (one of the larger hot rod shops in Farmington). The owner’s comment was that Bob built the car like he would.

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The Awards

In my opinion this was a very well organized and run show. Everyone was very courteous and helpful and all four of us yellow shirts had numerous people come up to us and thank us for making the trek up to Farmington and they all really appreciate the time and effort that the club puts in at Scottsdale Goodguys which is their favorite big shows to attend. For those of you in the club that are looking for shows to attend outside of California, you should give this one a try!

Oh, by the way the food that they had on offer was excellent! The breakfast burrito is outstanding as is their burgers, and unlike Goodguys, reasonably priced!

 

 

2016 Visit to the Peterson Museum

Los Angles, California

January 29, 2016

by Conrad Monroe
Photos by Spike Cover

I had really wanted to attend this years Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona, CA this year mainly because they had organized a tour of the Petersen Publishing Museum in Los Angles. On Monday of that week, Michelle had her final reconstructive surgery and would not have been up for the long ride to LA plus all of the walking around.

Thanks to Charley Cover’s brother Spike, we now have some great photos of some of the Petersen Collection!

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The Peterson Collection – Part I

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The Peterson Collection – Part II

Thanks again to Spike, Charley and Danise for the great photos!

See y’all soon.

Conrad.

2016 January Laughlin

Cruising on the River
Laughlin, NV

January 15-17, 2016

by Larry Besore

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The Cousins on the River

Most years for the last several, Nick- Deb  Bacon, Jeff – Vic Bacon, Brenda and I have made the run to Laughlin for cruising on  the river show.

Sometimes it’s cold and windy, sometime pleasant. This year it was pretty nice. They get 200 hundred or so cars for this show. Bill and Nancy Wilkins have been to every show both Jan and sept versions.

We had a non -eventful run up to the river on Thursday, spent some time in the Casino before calling it  day. Friday’s show and shine was good weather again and the cars were coming in steady all day.

The lot was pretty much full by 3PM. We saved our places and went back to our casino. The show is at the Riverside, but we prefer to stay at the Tropicana.

Had a great Birthday dinner my belated, and Nicks Jan B-day, then hit the Casino for a while.

Saturdays show was packed, they sure need more room for cars. The Sept show used to be twice as big but the Jan show is gaining on it.

Always see some unusual rides here, this year we had a Graham Hollywood, a sectioned 51 Chevy, and a nice 49 Willy’s panel jeep, along with many other nice but typical cars.

All in all a great weekend and some quality fam-time.

 

2016 OTHG-Phoenix Photoshoot

Phoenix South Mountain City Park

January 9, 2016

By Conrad Monroe

This is a slideshow of the members that made it to this years photoshoot. Good participation this year! Note: Michelle is standing next to my Tundra 4×4 pick up since the snow was around a foot deep  in front of our shop. I guess one of the days I will need to build a 4×4 COE truck with a Dodge Turbo Cummings engine so we can get out in the winter in a proper ride!

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  • Michelle Monroe

2016 OTHG-Phoenix Members and Their Rides

2016 OTHG-Phoenix Picnic and Photoshoot

Phoenix South Mountain City Park

January 9, 2016

By Conrad Monroe
Photos by Mike Rust, Sharon Burdett and Conrad Monroe

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  • 2016 OTHG & Shonare Vhekadla Clan - 001 - Mike Rust

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!