Friday started off early, arriving at Salina’s Oakdale Park about an hour before the show officially opened and finding it to be filling up fast. The crowd shows up early, usually to beat the heat but this year the temps were downright livable in the upper 80’s instead of the 113 that it was a couple of years ago. The cars kept rolling in to the park all day, every time I tried to leave the booth to take photos more were coming in.
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 37th Annual KKOA Leadsled Spectacular weekend started off for me on Tuesday with a trip to Lawrence, KS with my buddy Chris Ryan of Ryan’s Rod & Kustom so that we could see Social Distortion perform. It was a great start to the week! On Wednesday it was set up time for my booth so I took the camper in to town & set up a for the weekend. Thursday the show started filling in with cars and folks from around the country.
The official opening of the show is the Thursday night cruise on Santa Fe Ave in Salina. I went to my favorite watering hole, The Paramount Bar with my buddy Ryno (of Ryno Built in SW MO) and friends Dan & Brooke from Colorado. We had some dinner and then went out to check out the parade, I had my cell phone with me so I snapped some quick photos.
More to come 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!
When I learned that my buddy Travis was not going to be able to attend the 8th annual Meltdown Drags I was more than happy to step up and share some of my photos and thoughts with those of you who regularly check his stuff out. Hope it’s up to snuff!
Once again, the Meltdown Drags exceeded expectations and delivered and incredible experience for all in attendance. Paul Zielsdorf, Eric Koopmeiners and friends managed to draw the best in vintage drag racing to Byron, Illinois to spend a few days racing like they did in the old days. Race cars from 40+ states came to race for the fun of it and spectators from across the country and across the pond came to soak it all in. Eliminate the modern tow vehicles and gadgetry and one would be hard pressed to tell what year it was. As if the racing wasn’t enough, there is also a show area and a nice sized swap to browse.
Make plans now to attend the ’18 Meltdown Drags and enjoy some racing as it was during its golden age.
Click here to order the 48 Cars In 48 States Shirt 1
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!
If you’re looking for something to do next year on Independence Day weekend, you’d better be looking at heading to Des Moines for the Goodguys Heartland Nationals. Enjoy the final day of photos from this year’s coverage!
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!
Buy a print (click on the image for the shopping cart) if you like a photo!
See you at a show,
Royboy
Support Royboy Productions!!!
The easiest way (which costs you nothing) is to share this post! IF you like this post, share it with your car friends using the social media sharing buttons below or just by sending them the link to this page. Every set of eyeballs on the site helps!
The great thing about having a show that’s so big is that if you look enough, you’ll find the exact stuff that you dig. I did a lot of looking and found a lot of traditionally inspired kustoms and hot rods. Some survivors, some new builds, and a whole bunch of nice stuff.
The show has a busy schedule all weekend long as well. Between a poker run on Friday, AutoCross all three days, Fireworks, live bands and oh… the cookies in the vendor building there was plenty to keep you busy. Oh, and I’m out of cookies, please send more.
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!
Buy a print (click on the image for the shopping cart) if you like a photo!
See you at a show,
Royboy
Support Royboy Productions!!!
The easiest way (which costs you nothing) is to share this post! IF you like this post, share it with your car friends using the social media sharing buttons below or just by sending them the link to this page. Every set of eyeballs on the site helps!
First off, this post goes out on Independence Day, I hope that you and yours have a great day celebrating our nation’s birthday.
As we walked through the Iowa State Fairgrounds on Saturday it was apparent to me that this show was popular, not only with the folks bringing their cars but also with spectators. You couldn’t look in any direction at any time without seeing a sea of people and cars of various types. Just as we got to the gate we ran into my buddy Ryno who’s ‘Golden Goddess’ was in the Lizard Skin booth in the vendor building. It was great to have a spot in the booth to sit and talk throughout the day when the crowds got to be too much to handle.
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!
Buy a print (click on the image for the shopping cart) if you like a photo!
See you at a show,
Royboy
Support Royboy Productions!!!
The easiest way (which costs you nothing) is to share this post! IF you like this post, share it with your car friends using the social media sharing buttons below or just by sending them the link to this page. Every set of eyeballs on the site helps!
June 30th through July 2nd the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, IA played host to the GoodGuys Heartland Nationals. This show is MASSIVE, maybe even a touch too big when you’re trying to cover it! Estimates each year are around 4,000 cars, this year I’ve heard 5,000 cars were on site this year. Here’s part 1 of my coverage from my day at the event on Saturday.
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!
At some point during the 2017 Custom Car Revival I climbed up on the roof of Edwards Drive In for a different view. It was fun to see everything from an angle you don’t normally get to see from. Once back on the ground I noticed that there were a lot of different car club plaques so I started documenting as many as I could.
The trip home from Indy was one for the record books, not for good reasons though. I had a heck of a time making the 700 mile return trek, in fact as of this writing the Galaxie is still in KC where I had it towed on Monday afternoon after spending 24 hours broke down in St. Louis then getting back on the road. This week’s podcast should have a full run down of the whole story.
If you want to see the best collection of custom cars at any car show in the country, you need to be at the next Custom Car Revival.
Precision Designs‘ Tom Stark was kind enough to sponsor my coverage of the 2017 Custom Car Revival, Thanks Tom!
The parking lot of Edwards Drive in fills up quickly when you have nearly 200 cars to fit into it! It was amazing to see so many folks from all over the country come to hang out and talk custom cars and show them off.
Precision Designs‘ Tom Stark was kind enough to sponsor my coverage of the 2017 Custom Car Revival, Thanks Tom!
When I first heard of the Custom Car Revival, I was sold. I missed the first one and immediately regretted it, if you follow this site you have read a similar sentence about a few different events over the years, you’d think I’d learn.
Kevin Anderson and Bob Davis started the CCR and sadly Mr. Davis has passed away and now Kevin keeps the show going with the help of some family and friends. Those of us that travel from states away really appreciate the effort!
Precision Designs‘ Tom Stark was kind enough to sponsor my coverage of the 2017 Custom Car Revival, Thanks Tom!
Well, I’m home. It’s 1:30 am Tuesday as I write this, I’m home, the camper is home, the Galaxie is not. More on that on this week’s podcast though.
I missed last year’s Custom Car Revival, but was able to attend the 2015 and 2014 events. The Custom Car Revival is one of the absolute best events of the year. Roughly 200 customs from all over the country gathered up for a weekend of fun in Indianapolis. I’ll tell you more tomorrow, as of right now, I’m beat and I’m just going to let the photos do today’s talking.
Precision Designs‘ Tom Stark was kind enough to sponsor my coverage of the 2017 Custom Car Revival, Thanks Tom!
The 2017 Custom Car Revival coverage will be slightly delayed until I can return home from the trip. My starter went out in the Galaxie and I’m staying with some friends in St. Louis Sunday night. Hopefully we can find a starter locally tomorrow!
Sorry for the delay, your regularly scheduled coverage will resume as soon as I can! Until then, enjoy these photos from the host hotel parking lot on Thursday and Friday nights…
Precision Designs‘ Tom Stark was kind enough to sponsor my coverage of the 2017 Custom Car Revival, Thanks Tom!
For the 4th and Final day of the 2017 Hot Rod Dirt Drags coverage we continue on through the day Saturday.
Racing was from 10am until 4pm and yes Amy jumped high in the air waving the flag for every set of cars until almost the very end. That’s when newlyweds Amy & Mike jumped into the T33 car and Cal Kennedy, the builder/racer of the original T33 took over the flag duties. Cal even managed to get a little air as he flagged the last couple of sets of cars.
Later in the evening the event participants were invited over to the drive in for an awards ceremony & the wedding reception before watching American Graffiti and Cars on the big screen.
After the surprise wedding it was time to clear the track and stack the staging lanes. One lane for bangers, one for flatheads and one for OHV engines, the cars would race the car behind them. This seemed to work pretty smoothly all day long. This year another change was that instead of running a pair of cars down then having them come back, 5 sets were run down the track and brought back together. It meant bursts of racing followed by a sort of parade of the cars returning. Always something to see!
While the racing was going on the Car Show On The Green was just a few feet away. Racers and show cars alike parked on the lawn behind the Best Western Movie Manor, plus vendors, and a band to keep everyone entertained.
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.
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.
The 2016 Hot Rod Dirt Drags were so much fun I just had to come back for a second helping this year. Nick’s Hot Rod Garage puts on the Hot Rod Dirt Drags and the Hot Rod Hill Climb in Colorado each year and they’ve quickly become two of my favorite events in the country. This year the 2017 Hot Rod Dirt Drags had some surprises, but we’ll get to that tomorrow.
The rest of the formula stayed pretty much the same, bring together about 100 amazing mostly traditional hot rods to recreate the drag races of the old days in Colorado when the racers were drag racing on dirt for lack of many concrete tracks, then add in the amazing location of the Best Western Movie Manor in Monte Vista, CO and you have a recipe for an epic weekend.
Thursday evening I was supposed to hook up the Galaxie to the camper and head west, but the passenger side exhaust manifold had other plans. So a couple of quick phone calls later I had a ride lined up to pull the camper the nearly 600 miles out to the San Luis Valley community of Monte Vista. In the 1955 a drive in movie theatre was built on a property adjacent to an old dirt airstrip, it was big enough for 300 or so cars to enjoy a movie. The snack building and projector room were also part of the same structure that the owner’s family lived in. 9 years later a 14 room hotel was added at the back edge of the theatre and built in such a way that the rooms could all see the drive in screen. Later another section of hotel was built bringing the total up to around 60 rooms that were all filled this weekend. A 2nd movie screen was added in 2003 as well.
When Mike “Nick” Nicholas was talking with some of the old guard of the Colorado hot rod world he heard stories of them racing on dirt air strips and came up with the idea to revive Colorado dirt drag racing and the Hot Rod Dirt Drags was born. When researching dirt air strips he found this location and it’s the perfect spot for the event.
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.
Throughout the day at the Gypsum Pie Festival and Car Show I spent most of my time talking with friends and family both literal family and car family. We were blessed to have so many great folks show up. In addition to the car show we also had some live music, a vendor area that I never quite got to, food vendors, pies for sale, homemade ice cream, BBQ, valve cover races, even an event called the Full Throttle Countdown where a poor tired old Volvo was drained of it’s fluids and started with the engine set to run at 3500rpm until it expired. The final time for the engine was 55 seconds, I kind of expected it to make it a bit longer!
In the couple of days since the event, we’ve had an overwhelmingly positive response to the day and a ton of people who are already planning on returning for next year’s event. A few of the Pie Festival Committee have already started making plans to make next year’s event even better! There are a handful of shirts left, I’ll be getting them up on the Gypsum Pie Festival website as soon as I can.
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!
For years we’ve had a great little event in our little town of Gypsum, KS. It goes down on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend each year. In reality it’s a great excuse to gather up our car families and have a great time hanging out, in practice it’s called the Gypsum Pie Festival & Car Show. It’s a car show where the awards are pies, that works for me!
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!
Once we all got out to the drag strip, which is on one runway of a World War II bomber base located a few miles east of Herington at the Herington Regional Airport, it was time to race. After a pipeline was laid through a nearby area there was a whole bunch of cribbing leftover that needed to be disposed of or used, so it was set up as safety barriers for the roughly ⅛th mile drag strip.
The result is a great little no-prep strip that has some grandstands, and a small pits area. It really works great for this event, I’m always impressed at how many passes people get to make at this event compared to others.
The skies were threatening, we even had lightning closing in, I kept checking the radar to see the path of the thunderstorm, wanting to have a few minutes warning if I had to go stash my camera gear in a car just in case. Some how we lucked out and the storm blew right past, then the sky turned blue and the sun started baking the track and us.
The track didn’t have much traction but that’s part of the appeal of this type of event. Flagman on the starting line, no lasers, no tree, no big egos, this is just about having fun doing some drag racing. The Throttle Jockeys have a great event here and I hope it continues to go on for a long time to come.
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!
When I awoke Saturday morning it was to the sound of my basement sump pump kicking on. Crap. I could hear the rain as well, a quick check of my phone’s radar confirmed that the storm would be awhile. Since I’d been up until 2am working on the new Fitech fuel injection for the Galaxie I took this opportunity to get a bit more rest.
A couple of hours later I’m feeling more human, I worked for a bit more on the Galaxie then headed east to the show. The rain had stayed away for the most part, ironic since the original date for the 2017 show had been moved due to a monsoon-like downpour a month earlier. I was able to get to the show and spend some time walking around talking with folks and checking out cars before they all rolled out for the drags.
more to come 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!
Living in a small town in central Kansas means that I get to enjoy a slower paced life, with easy access to interstates to get myself down the road when the need arises. This weekend I didn’t need an interstate, I just needed K4 highway, the highway that runs through my town, our one paved street. About 30 miles east of us on K4 is Herington, KS. The Throttle Jockeys club have been putting on a fun show in the business district of Herington for a few years, the show has an extra bonus of having some run what ya brung drag races in the afternoon.
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!
I had planned to stay home this weekend and work on the Galaxie and the camper. I had planned to. Then I decided to check out the Bug-O-Rama VW show in Wichita then the Cruise on Douglas. I took along a camera of course and shot some images of both.
Yes, this is a hot rod and custom car focused site, but sometimes I like to look at other types of cars as well. You can scroll down passed the air cooled stuff if you want to, There are a couple of other stops from the day in this post as well.
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!
I decided to change things up and run all of the photos from Saturday in one big post. If you’re still on dial up, sorry!
It’s been a couple of years since I have been able to attend the Pete & Jake’s Open House event at their location in Peculiar, MO. The event has become quite the draw, more and more cars, artists and spectators attend each year. There is a car show on site and a bunch of pinstripers working on pieces that later get auctioned to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF).
This year I was there without a car, catching a ride to and from the event. So I shot as quickly as I could and quite honestly spent a lot of time talking and met some awesome people. I really suggest that if you can make it to this event next year, you should definitely check it out.
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!
Throughout the day I spent time with friends and family from all over the midwest. The only downtime was when we went in to a local place for some food, it took about two hours to get the food and eat. Other than that it was a great day! The live music from Brian Dunning, Julie Majors and TJ Mayes drew me inside again in the afternoon. Lucky for a few of us Brian and TJ played again in the evening. It made for a great way to end Saturday.
Sunday we gathered up again for a few more hours of hanging out before it was time to go. I can’t stress enough how much fun I have at these Stray Kat shows, they are the most laid back events on my schedule. I hope to see you in Dewey 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!
I slept in the camper in the park for the weekend. This worked out just as well in Dewey as it did in Austin. Right up until 6am Saturday when someone with open headers rumbled past and woke me up. Small price to pay for being right there in the thick of it all. The show quickly filled up, the name Stray Kat 500 was a great one when the show began but by 10 am the small town of Dewey, OK had more than 550 cars already in place. They just kept coming in!
More to come 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!
