The Over The Hill Gang – Phoenix
A "street-rod" or "custom" based organization, limited to 1972 or older hobby cars.
Some of the Over The Hill Gang that made the trek to Sunny Southern California for the 19th Annual Goodguys Show at Del Mar. Michelle and I, love the Del Mar Show, but we had family activities that took precedence…
Another great run to Silver City NM for the 27th Run to the Copper Country Car Show. Making the run from the Valley was Charlie & Danise Clover, Dave & Anne Bennett, Fred & Sue Elston, Chuck & Diane LaVetter, Ken & Dee Schaff, Larry & Teresa Way and Jim & Carol Dalton. Michelle and I headed down US180 from Show Low. Chuck had some issues with his car on the trip over and had it taken to their daughter’s house in Safford. He borrowed on of his daughter’s cars and caught up with us in Silver City.
As usual the club did well with awards. Dave & Anne, Fred & Sue, Charlie & Danise and Jim & Carol made the drive around the gazebo to pick up awards. As usual they had the show wrapped up by 3:00 pm.
Dave & Anne invited everyone over to their campsite for dinner, Anne’s wonderful Tortilla Chicken soup, we all had a great time talking and catching up with everyone. We finally called it a night around 9 pm and head back to the hotel.
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!
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
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!
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!
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!
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…
Up until Goodguys added the spring car show in Scottsdale we were regular attendees of the Goodguys Del Mar show, which are always one to two weeks apart making it very difficult for most club members to schedule. Now that we are no longer the Host Club for the Scottsdale events we can once again make the trip over to the San Diego area.
A good number of members made the trek to Del Mar this year:
Art & Debbie Thompson, Rick & Debbie Aronson, Dave & Anne Bennett, Ron & Carol Boen, John & Leah Carmody, Charlie & Danise Cover, Jim & Carol Dalton, Tom & Jane Harris, Chuck & Diane LeVetter, Conrad & Michelle Monroe, Val & Sandy Muyres, Greg Selvidge & Sherry Hoffler.
Also making the run were two of our new applicants:
Will & Cindy Myers and Roger & Jill Atwood,
along with two visitors:
Eddie & JoAnn Asten and Don & Marcia Mueller.
Many thanks to Charlie Cover for putting the run together and Debbie Aronson for making the hotel arrangements and getting us a really good rate! Also many thanks to the OTHG-San Diego club for providing another great lunch on Saturday. Also my personal thanks to Danise Cover for helping with the photo chores!
All in all the weather was great, there were many great new cars to look at, and as always a great time talking with old and new friends.
Until the next time, Keep On Keeping On! Stay safe and have fun!
Conrad
