Yesterday I told you part of the story of the Hot Rod Dirt Drags, today I’ll start with the story of my weekend. As you saw yesterday I wasn’t able to take the Galaxie to Monte Vista, CO. That was a bit of a bummer but all in all it was still a great trip.
I took of late Thursday evening and drove out to Garden City, KS. The plan was to stay there for the night, but there are feedlots near there and well, the wind was dragging the tell tale smell over the side of town that I was parked in. So I got back in the truck and drove further until I got tired, I ended up in a Walmart parking lot in Lamar, CO. Traveling with the camper means you just park, hop in the camper and go to bed. That is a lot easier than checking in to a hotel for a few hours, and a lot cheaper. After a few hours sleep I got up, spent some cash in the Walmart picking up some groceries and then headed west to Monte Vista.
After arriving and getting the camper set up for the weekend, I walked the parking lot and reconnected with a bunch of friends that I hadn’t seen in awhile. I ended up helping the crew put up a banquet tent in the drive in and then went over to the registration booth so I could hang out and watch the cars roll in. I ended up helping try to expedite the registration process but let’s face it, Mike “Nick” Nicholas was in the booth and everyone wanted to talk to him!
Later in the evening we were treated to some photo ops via some night racing of about 20 select cars. I posted the shots yesterday, make sure you go look at them if you haven’t seen them yet. I went back later in the night and did some long exposure night shots that were also posted yesterday.
Then Saturday morning it was time for the main event! After lining all of the cars up on the drag strip some noticed some odd things going on before the drivers meeting. Some of the crew were wearing flowers on their shirts, they each had a boutonnière. Plus there was a small stage on the track with flowers on it. I’m sure that many didn’t notice, but some were giving me quizzical looks.
The driver’s meeting went on like normal, “don’t forget that this is dirt, not concrete, so your car will act different than you’re used to,” etc. The point here is to have a good time, not be so competitive that it’s dangerous. The standard kind of things that need to be said at a driver’s meeting. After the meeting Nick told the story of how Amy came to be a big part of his life and how he had proposed to her at the 2015 Hot Rod Hill Climb.
Then he dropped the bomb, since we’re all here, and we’re all family…
Then Nick and Amy got married, with the entire show as the audience and the entire field on the track and some beautiful mountains behind them as a backdrop. Lots of tough hot rodders had watery eyes, I was one of them.
Congrats you two!
More on the story in tomorrow’s post, if you’re reading this on the website you can subscribe and get all of the car show coverage updates delivered right to your email inbox.
