When I heard that one of my favorite events, the Starliner show in Wichita, was to be replaced this year by Lead Ain’t Dead, I was both excited and a little sad. The Stray Kat 500 and the Starliner were a great pair of shows, two of my favorites, both about the kustom family first, and the cars second. The Starliner had one of the best host hotel parking lot hang outs of any event that I attend, losing that was definitely something I didn’t want to do.
The Starliner couldn’t be held this year because the McConnell Air Force Base Air show was to be held the same day as the Starliner, and the Kansas Aviation Museum couldn’t have the show on their grounds at the same time. So it was time for a change, and the change would be a kustom show held in Dewey, OK where the Stray Kat 500 is held.
The idea was simple, a show to celebrate kustoms… that’s really it. Two areas of Dewey were sectioned off for the show, one area for kustoms and one area for non-kustoms to park. So if you drove your cool old ride that’s not a kustom you didn’t have to park next to some Toyota Prius in spectator parking, brilliant!
I showed up Thursday evening around 10pm and met up with a couple of my brothers from the Lonely Knights club for a late dinner. Friday morning Mickey lead a group of folks over to visit with Darryl Starbird at his museum about an hour from the host hotel. A few of us decided to hang in Dewey for the day, luckily the rain that was in the area stayed away for the most part, some slight mist and a short shower were all that we had to deal with, while 50 miles to the north streets were flooded and closed.
Friday evening we fired up the Lonely Knights fajita trailer and fed everyone that was within the sound of our voices, and one young fella, the son of our buddy Dustin, downed 11! To put that into perspective, he’s easily ¼ of my size and I made it to 11 as well, well played sir! Friday night we gathered up at the host hotel to hang out and have a BS session that went until late into the night.
Saturday morning was a bit rainy so the normal rush to get to the show was replaced by more of a lazy roll out. We gathered up at the Stray Kat Kustoms hangout spot where the cars had already started piling in. The day was awesome, full of old friends hanging out, doing what all groups of old friends do. By the end of the day a group of about 30 of us all went to dinner and then back to the host hotel for more hanging out and telling stories.
Thank you Mick for knowing when to pull the plug on one event and replacing it with another which worked out so wonderfully. To all of my kustom family that showed up, thank you! You make these shows what they are.
48 Cars In 48 States : The Great American Road Trip – An 18,200 mile 48 States road trip in a 1963 Ford. Along the way I covered 6 events and shot a feature article on 48 different cars and then compiled them all into a book! The first 200 copies of the book sold out in 3 weeks time, you can order a copy of the 2nd edition of the book here! Shipping NOW!
Here are some shots from the event. Click here or on any of them to go to the full gallery.
Slideshow (if the slideshow doesn’t show up in your email inbox click here to see it)
Look for a video to come out soon!
Buy a print (click on the image for the shopping cart) if you like a photo!
See you at a show,
Royboy
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