Hot Rods and Kustom Cars
From Salem, OR down to Penryn, CA is a pretty straight forward drive. It rained on me most of the way down to the Medford area where I stayed for the night. Just hop on the I-5 and haul butt south! The west was certainly beautiful and I wish I could have stayed longer and spent some time on the coast but that wasn’t in the cards.
When I first started planning out this trip my friend TJ Wilson had just moved from Texas to Oregon. At that time he was in the eastern half of the state. Someone said that I HAD to go to the Columbia River Gorge and was bummed to see that my route wouldn’t take me there. But now TJ and family live in Salem, OR and I completely forgot about the suggestion to check out the Gorge until I crested a hill and started to descend into it.
After the monster drive from Salt Lake City up to the Post Falls, ID/Spokane area I was glad to have a short drive over to Spokane of about 15 minutes. My Washington car belongs to John Gunsaulis of Hop Up Magazine. I first saw this sweet right hand drive, banger powered Phaethon at the Hot Rod Hill Climb in 2015 and was immediately drawn to it’s simplicity and cool factor.
After a long drive from Colorado to Utah I woke up early for another long drive up to Post Falls, Idaho. Russ Freund’s Takeout T was my subject for Idaho, a car I’d last seen in person in 2011 at the Starbird show in Tulsa, OK. The car is still as beautiful today as it was then.
My first trip to the Hot Rod Hill Climb a few years ago I saw this beautiful 36 Ford. I was floored that such a beautiful kustom was being thrashed up the mountain! Fast forward to year’s HRHC and I see that Kipp Winward drove it over the OMG Road on the dirt and according to his Throttlers Car Club fellow members, he was sideways around every corner.
The Colorado vehicle for the 48 Cars 48 States trip is the Odd Rod, well technically it’s the recreation of the Odd Rod! My buddy Mike Nicholas (of Nick’s Hot Rod Garage, Hot Rod Hill Climb, and Hot Rod Dirt Drags) was asked by Duane Helms to help bring together Duane’s dream of recreating the Odd Rod a couple of years ago. What you see here is that recreation.
I first saw John & Chelle Binger’s car at the 2016 Hot Rod Hill Climb, then again at the 2017 Hot Rod Dirt Drags and last week at the 2017 Hot Rod Hill Climb. It’s a great, simple hot rod that has style and is fun to drive around in! I drove down from the Billings, MT area to Cheyenne through some beautiful countryside, the Big Horn Mountains and the high plains of Wyoming. I got to Cheyenne just about the time a small rain storm came through so we went over to the Binger’s shop and checked out some of what was there.
After leaving Bismarck, ND I headed straight west on I-94 to Montana. The first couple of hours looked a lot like western KS, big rolling hills and lots of pasture. Then I came across the most beautiful part of the entire trip so far, the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, right at Medora, ND. This is well worth the time if you can stop, I couldn’t as I was racing the sun, so I got to enjoy the beauty at 75 mph as I drove through. Shortly after crossing the border the smoke from the forest fires out west got bad again. I continued the next 3 hours of driving with about 3 miles of visibility, it was actually kind of stressful after a bit. I’m from KS, used to being able to see the horizon, so the close quarters of the smoke really wore me out as I drove.
Tom Huber’s 40 Chevy Convertible is my car for North Dakota. After shooting with the Van Pelt’s in SD Tim & Thom lead me on a short tour through the Black Hills and took me up by Mount Rushmore. I didn’t have time to go in and do all the stuff that I wanted to do but it was still good to get to check it out.
The Galaxie is running great but still doesn’t like city driving. The short stint through Rapid City and then the long climb up to Mount Rushmore combined with a stop along the way meant she got really warm again. Lucky for me we stopped right passed the top and parked for a bit, giving the car a chance to cool back down.
Week 3 of the 48 Cars 48 States trip recap! Including Russ Freund, John Gunsaulis, Brian George and the part 1 of the tale of the burnt valve…
Continue reading “172- 48 Cars 48 States Podcast Recap Week 3”
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The 5th and Final day of the Hot Rod Hill Climb Coverage from me is here! This is one HUGE post, close to 200 images in it in total. I can’t say this strongly enough, if you love traditional hot rods, you need to attend this event. There are 2000 hotel rooms at the various casinos in the area plus Denver is only about an hour away so you can fly in, attend the event and enjoy the city if you don’t want to bring a car.
Thanks to Mike and Amy and Troy and his crew (and anyone else involved) for a great weekend. I had a blast and I hated to leave on Sunday.
The 2017 Hot Rod Hill Climb coverage is brought to you by American National Agent Chris Larson in Canon City, CO. Click here to get ahold of Chris to check the rates on getting Chrome Insurance for your classic ride.
Mid morning I hopped in B. Scott’s 3 coupe and rode up the mountain with him. Then hopped out at the top and walked back down shooting cars along the way. I also got some video that I’ll be posting up on Motornation when I get the 48Cars48States videos put together.
More of the story tomorrow!
The 2017 Hot Rod Hill Climb coverage is brought to you by American National Agent Chris Larson in Canon City, CO. Click here to get ahold of Chris to check the rates on getting Chrome Insurance for your classic ride.
After the National Anthem was sung and the big USA flag was unfurled over the staging lanes it was time to start the event! The OddRod and T33 recreations started us off then the banger powered cars took to the hill. It was a blast to see so many people grinning from ear to ear driving their hot rods.
More of the story tomorrow.
The 2017 Hot Rod Hill Climb coverage is brought to you by American National Agent Chris Larson in Canon City, CO. Click here to get ahold of Chris to check the rates on getting Chrome Insurance for your classic ride.
After the Friday Reliability Run we headed down the mountain to the pits to see folks and check out the cars. This is one of those events that I can’t miss because of the people and the cars. It’s just a great combination. There were various events going on in the area Friday evening, but I was lucky enough to meet up with some great people and enjoy dinner. We went over to Georgetown to find a place that they’d eaten at a couple of years ago and found it closed. Oh well, it was a great drive over and the food we did find was awesome. Even the 2.5 lb burrito that was almost fully consumed looked great. (that wasn’t me, I couldn’t even try it!)
More of the story of the weekend tomorrow.
The 2017 Hot Rod Hill Climb coverage is brought to you by American National Agent Chris Larson in Canon City, CO. Click here to get ahold of Chris to check the rates on getting Chrome Insurance for your classic ride.
Another stop on my 48 Cars 48 States trip is the Hot Rod Hill Climb in Central City, CO. I left Cheyenne, WY on Thursday morning (you’ll see the Wyoming stop in a few days), and made the 2 hour trip to Central City. The Galaxie had some issue climbing up the mountains, got hot and spewed out some coolant so I sat there in my lawn chair and enjoyed being in the Rockies while it cooled down. I was about ½ mile from my destination though so I was at the Hot Rod Hill Climb pits in short order.
I spent Thursday afternoon hanging out with the crew and helping a little with set up, but Troy Hasting’s crew had it mostly together already. The plan was to shoot my Colorado car that afternoon but timing didn’t work out. As I type this on Sunday morning I’m getting ready to head back over to get it done now! Truthfully I have a bunch of great shots of the vehicle so I can make due with a couple of action shots that I got of it this weekend.
Friday morning started with a quick run over the mountain to Idaho Springs to put out some signs for the Reliability Run since I was going to be up on top of the mountain taking photos. Then I parked myself up there and set up to see how many cars would take the OMG Road way over the mountain. The first photos you see are from that stop.
More of the story tomorrow!
The 2017 Hot Rod Hill Climb coverage is brought to you by American National Agent Chris Larson in Canon City, CO. Click here to get ahold of Chris to check the rates on getting Chrome Insurance for your classic ride.
This week Royboy recaps week 2 of the 48 Cars 48 States trip. With interviews with Mike Behrendt of Wichita, Thom and Tim Van Pelt of Piedmont, SD, Tom Huber of Bismarck, ND and Ryan Mead of Laurel, MT.
Continue reading “171 – 48 Cars 48 States Recap Week 2”
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Well, that didn’t go quite as planned, but I made it to South Dakota late Sunday night. I left the Starliner show and headed north, my route took me within 12 miles of my own home so I stopped again and used my wifi and slept in my own bed, planning to take off at 5:30 am to arrive in Rapid City, SD by 2:30 pm Mountain time. First, I awoke to the shrill alarm at 5am and quickly decided that 6:30 would be a better starting time… then it was 7:30… by 8am I was finally rolling out of Gypsum, KS.
I headed up U.S. 81, since my route took me through Concordia, KS I stopped in to see my friend Dalton for a little bit. As I left Concordia the car died on me, weird. I started it back up and kept going, figuring it was nothing. I made it about 30 miles north and saw a big thunderstorm sitting on top of US 81 a couple of miles ahead. A quick decision took me west on US 36. 30 or so miles later I drove through the small town of Mankato, KS, the home of City Limits Hot Rods owned by my friend PJ Garst. I figured it was Sunday morning and I’d already stopped once, I better keep rolling down the road instead of calling him to say hi.
Picking up where yesterday’s post left off, I was at home Wednesday night so I took advantage of the opportunity to do some laundry and use my own fast wifi. Thursday morning I got a ride back over to pick up the Galaxie, packed my stuff back in my car and headed for Wichita. I knew that I needed to fix the exhaust leak on the passenger side so I called up Rocky Burris and headed to his place figuring that it would be easier to get a set of gaskets for a Ford FE in Wichita than in Salina. Plus if I had to order them in at least I’d be in Wichita with everyone for the Starliner weekend instead of sitting in my house twiddling my thumbs.
After leaving MS I headed up into Memphis, I wanted to swing by Graceland and take a touristy photo of my Galaxie in front of the gate, but the line was way too long and I had a shoot in AR to get to!
After the Garage Krawl we reconvene at the host hotel and the Lonely Knights fire up the fajita trailer and make dinner for everyone. Then more of the parking lot hang out that I love so much.
Saturday it’s time for the show at the Kansas Aviation Museum. The cars are parked amongst the planes and they filled the grounds up pretty well this year. I don’t know a total count but like I said in part 1, it’s about quality over quantity here.
Saturday evening I had to blast up north to my home and wasn’t able to go to dinner with my club friends then go cruise Douglass Ave but it sure looked like a great time. Maybe next year!
48 Cars In 48 States : The Great American Road Trip – A 48 state road trip with a stop in each state to photograph a traditionally styled hot rod, kustom or drag vehicle. Daily updates will be posted here on royboyproductions.com so you can see where I’ve gone, who I’ve met, some of what I’ve seen. At the end of the trip I’ll produce a 200 page full color book of the entire adventure. Business Sponsorship Packages here available as well as you can pre-order the book here!
Friday morning of the Starliner weekend is always time to get registered, get your show shirts and maps for the Friday Garage Krawl. This year we had 4 stops on the Garage Krawl, and I was only able to make one of them, you can see those photos in the 48 Cars 48 States coverage of Kansas in a couple of days. The Krawl is the perfect way to get out and drive around the city, seeing kool kustoms and hot rods running all over town, checking out what folks are working on and generally just enjoying the day without sitting all day at a show.
More of the story tomorrow
48 Cars In 48 States : The Great American Road Trip – A 48 state road trip with a stop in each state to photograph a traditionally styled hot rod, kustom or drag vehicle. Daily updates will be posted here on royboyproductions.com so you can see where I’ve gone, who I’ve met, some of what I’ve seen. At the end of the trip I’ll produce a 200 page full color book of the entire adventure. Business Sponsorship Packages here available as well as you can pre-order the book here!
The Starliner weekend usually starts on Thursday evening with a big group dinner at a local Italian place for about 20 of us. Then back to the hotel so we can sit in the parking lot, have some drinks, tell some stories, and laugh so hard that it hurts. The parking lot part of this show is awesome!
More of the story tomorrow!
48 Cars In 48 States : The Great American Road Trip – A 48 state road trip with a stop in each state to photograph a traditionally styled hot rod, kustom or drag vehicle. Daily updates will be posted here on royboyproductions.com so you can see where I’ve gone, who I’ve met, some of what I’ve seen. At the end of the trip I’ll produce a 200 page full color book of the entire adventure. Business Sponsorship Packages here available as well as you can pre-order the book here!
My annual weekend after Labor Day is spent in Wichita, this year I was on the 48 Cars 48 States trip… and I still made it back to Wichita to hang with my Stray Kat Kustoms and Lonely Knights families. The show is small compared to many of the shows that folks have on their bucket lists, but it’s about the quality of cars and most importantly the quality of the people that attend the event. That’s what makes this simple hang out in Wichita so good. More of the story tomorrow!
48 Cars In 48 States : The Great American Road Trip – A 48 state road trip with a stop in each state to photograph a traditionally styled hot rod, kustom or drag vehicle. Daily updates will be posted here on royboyproductions.com so you can see where I’ve gone, who I’ve met, some of what I’ve seen. At the end of the trip I’ll produce a 200 page full color book of the entire adventure. Business Sponsorship Packages here available as well as you can pre-order the book here!
Day 4 of the #48Cars48States trip I started on the south side of Nashville in Franklin, TN and right after the rain started I shot southwest to Walls, MS. Walls is just south of Memphis, and the shoot was just barely into MS, but barely counts!
There’s not a ton to share from today’s travels so I apologize for the short post. Day 3 I awoke in Lexington, KY and made my way over to the beautiful Paris, KY to meet up with Lee Ingram and his 36 Ford. We found a couple of cool spots that he’d scoped out and shot some photos before going to grab some breakfast and sitting down to record a bit for the podcast.
