Even though the car count at the 2015 Goodguys Spring Lonestar Nationals wasn’t what was expected, there were still gems to be found. The 40 Ford above had me drooling. I ran into a few of my North Texas friends and had a great time. The track was wet from rains on Friday and over night so I didn’t see the normal NASCAR Cup cars taking laps with folks in the passenger seat getting the rides of their lives. Later in the day the stretched cup car with 4-5 rows of seats was taking laps. I haven’t done that yet but I will have to try it next time.
I’ve heard it for at least 5 years, “The Des Moines Goodguys is the best GG show that there is, you HAVE to go!” Finally I did. Let’s face it, the GG shows held at racetracks all kind of run into each other. The ones at the Kansas Motor Speedway (2012 coverage here, the show has been killed so that’s the latest coverage) and the ones I’ve attended at the Texas Motor Speedway (2014 coverage here) really are all the same in my memories. Lots of cars, lots of people, but no real atmosphere. So you get to drive your car around the track, okay that part is cool, but other than that the cars are basically just parked as if they are in a parking lot. As a spectator and especially as a photographer, that’s boring.
So this year it was time to finally make the trip up to Des Moines to see if this party still is the best GG party around. Of course due to some poor planning on my part the 6 hour trip northeast started with a 90 minute drive south. It’s a long story, but the short version is we had a long day. First we headed south to Park City, KS to see a small show there, one that we never even got into because traffic was backed up and we didn’t feel like making the day even longer by waiting in line to get in. Along the way we saw a Historical Marker that I’ve driven by for decades and never stopped to look at. It marks the crossing of the Chisholm and Santa Fe Trails. Near here there are a couple of areas where you can still faintly make out where the Santa Fe Trail went thanks to an indention in the ground from the wagon wheels. From there we went east to pick up some newly silk screened coozies from B. Scott Studios and hopped on I-35 towards Des Moines. We pulled onto the turnpike and set the cruise. After some sight seeing stops at the birthplace of Jesse James outside of Kearney, MO, an Amish “Welcome To Iowa” store just across the border we saw the sign for the Covered Bridges of Madison County. Yup the ones from the movie. I’ve never seen the movie, but it seemed a worthy departure from the interstate. Just off of I-35 is St. Charles, IA and one of the bridges. We stopped, read the signs, took a couple of photos and got word that some friends were going to meet for dinner at the Iowa Beef Steakhouse. It had already been suggested that we head there so we changed the GPS destination and got our taste buds ready.
The company was fantastic, the car crowd was filling the joint and the steak was phenomenal. It was pricey for our budget but not overpriced for the experience. With nothing really planned for the evening we settled into our hotel room and tried to catch some shut eye for Saturday. We were warned that at noon on Friday the window placards were already numbering at over 3200 (I’m not sure if they start at 1 and are sequential or not), so we needed to get there early to see all of the rides. Too bad for us a state sized thunderstorm moved into Des Moines before sunup and didn’t clear out until about 10am.
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Loooooove it.Just a row of alligators. I feel bad for all for all of these car owners, breaking down at a show like that. How embarrassing to be seen with your hood up!MMmmmmmm Ardun headed Flattie…I want this kinda setup for my 51 Ford.
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!
Or if there’s something you need to buy from Amazon, click here to go there. Drag that link to your menu bar for quick and easy access. It costs you nothing extra and Royboy earns a small commission.
Don’t forget the Royboy Merch!!!! I have keychains, coozies, stickers & hats for sale. Every piece you buy gets me further down the road to bring more show coverage and podcasts to you.
All Royboy photos on this site are available as prints up to poster sizes. Buying them not only makes your walls cooler it puts gas in the tank to get me to another car show or feature shoot. Please consider buying a print, if you can’t do that, I understand. Or just hit the Store page and buy something or make a donation!
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There’s not much to say about the show, people at the show vs. people I know at the show at the Goodguys events means that I spent more time shooting photos than I did talking with folks. That is usually not the case. At the smaller shows there are a lot more people that I know and I spend so much of my time enjoying great conversations with awesome people that I might miss out on some photos. In the end I’m there to cover the show and the people are a big part of the show so that’s fine with me to miss a few photos in order to spend good times with good people.
Since I was on a shortened timetable anyways I took as many photos I could a short amount time ran back out to my car and got back on the road. I hope you enjoy Part 2 of the 2014 Goodguys Spring LoneStar Nationals from Texas Motor Speedway.
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!
Or if there’s something you need to buy from Amazon, click here to go there. Drag that link to your menu bar for quick and easy access. It costs you nothing extra and Royboy earns a small commission.
Don’t forget the Royboy Merch!!!! I have keychains, coozies, stickers & hats for sale. Every piece you buy gets me further down the road to bring more show coverage and podcasts to you.
All Royboy photos on this site are available as prints up to poster sizes. Buying them not only makes your walls cooler it puts gas in the tank to get me to another car show or feature shoot. Please consider buying a print, if you can’t do that, I understand. Or just hit the Store page and buy something or make a donation!
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After much fretting and flip flopping on what to do with a forecast of 90% chance of rain I went from my hotel in Ardmore, OK to Fort Worth, TX for the 2014 GoodGuys Spring Lonestar Nationals at the Texas Motor Speedway. I’m glad I did. Lots of kool cars, many of them out of my normal style but nicely done.
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!
Or if there’s something you need to buy from Amazon, click here to go there. Drag that link to your menu bar for quick and easy access. It costs you nothing extra and Royboy earns a small commission.
Don’t forget the Royboy Merch!!!! I have keychains, coozies, stickers & hats for sale. Every piece you buy gets me further down the road to bring more show coverage and podcasts to you.
All Royboy photos on this site are available as prints up to poster sizes. Buying them not only makes your walls cooler it puts gas in the tank to get me to another car show or feature shoot. Please consider buying a print, if you can’t do that, I understand. Or just hit the Store page and buy something or make a donation!
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As I type this, it’s 10:45 on Thursday night, less than 12 hours until this post goes live. About 8 hours until I have to be at my day job… and I as started this post I honestly had no idea what I should write. Today, Thursday Jan. 23, 2014 is the largest traffic day that this blog has ever had. After a slow winter where I struggled to find you good fresh content, finally I got to get out to my first show of 2014 and I can see that you appreciate the fresh content. Over 700 views today with a previous record of 560 for the blog, what did I do to deserve that? Thanks folks, when I see that you dig what I’m doing enough to check it out that much, it’s all worth it.
The Future
Here we are at the end of January, before I know it I’ll be up to my eyeballs in car shows and I won’t remember how boring this winter was. February has 3 events that I’m planning on attending, should be putting about 1100 miles on the car. I am hoping to spend an afternoon with a family I know in Wichita that is full of gearheads with a killer collection of rides. The following weekend the plan is to head down and check out the Model A Club Swap Meet. I typically don’t buy much but there’s always that one thing that you see someone else got that you need and had the cash for. So I go… and I never seem to find it in time.
After that it’s a big windshield time weekend. First heading to Bartle Hall in KC to cover the World of Wheels Autorama for you. Later that afternoon I make the trip from KC to Tulsa to an old buddy’s spare room. Sunday early I’ll head to the Quiktrip Center and the Darryl Starbird Car Show. This is the 50th edition of the show and it promises to be a good one. Finally we have a weekend where I don’t have anything planned…yet. Either it will get filled with a couple of shop visits or shooting some features, either way the weekend will be used to create some fresh content for you folks to enjoy.
For the month of March I should be at about 1400 miles, it adds up quickly! Magazine articles can help offset the travel costs but those don’t pay until month and months later, if at all. Another way to offset that is for get paid by you folks to shoot your rides when I’m on the road. If you have a car that you’d like me to shoot, let me know here and we’ll figure out a time and place, I’m very affordable. 🙂
The first weekend of March I’ll be off for another double header weekend. First up will be the Texas Thaw drags and car show held at the Northstar Dragway in Denton, TX. That evening I’ll make my way up to Wichita to catch a hotel for the night. Sunday morning will be off to the Chill in Park City before returning home to edit photos and get them up on the site. Then there’s an open weekend that I hope to head to KC and catch up with some friends and shoot their shop and hopefully feature a couple of their cars.
After that it’s off to Texas again for the Goodguys Spring Lonestar Nationals at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. A 12 hour drive for a 5 or 6 hour stay at the show. Hopefully I find something that I can shoot a feature on for the site while I’m there. The two following weeks are open as of now but I will be looking for cars to shoot those weekends. That’s a basic rundown of what’s going on between now and when I leave for the Lonestar Roundup at the begin of April.
Why?
Why the hell do I do this? After putting in more than 50 hours a week at a day job why do I spend all of my extra money traveling all over the midwest to shoot car show coverage, edit it, pay to host it online and then just give it all away to you for free? I’m nuts. Well that’s what most think. I’m hoping that I can create enough kool content to keep you coming back every day, and maybe kool enough that you’ll share it with your friends and they’ll come check it out too. If we get enough viewers here then maybe the future sponsors can cover all of that gas money, all of the hotel money, all of the show entry fees, all of the website costs. That would be a dream come true. Well, that would be partly a dream come true.
The real dream, the one that haunts me at my day job, the one that keeps me from concentrating on much of anything else is doing this full time. Selling my house and everything that won’t fit in an RV which is big enough to pull my Galaxie in a trailer. Spending each week traveling from one show to the next, stopping at pro and private shops along the way, shooting shop visits, tech articles, and features as much as possible to keep you folks full up on the best content possible. Maybe I am nuts. Or maybe that’s how this thing goes to the next level.
It’s going to be a busy couple of months but when you folks pull me aside to tell me thanks for all of the effort, it’s worth it. When I see a Royboy hat or beanie or shirt from across a show, and I have no idea who it is that’s wearing it. It’s worth it. When someone attends a show for the first time or gets their car done so they can get to a certain show that I’ve featured and they tell me that it’s my coverage that made them do it. It’s worth it.
For those that saw me at the Starbird-Devlin show that I’ve been covering all week long and wanted to know where to get one of my Model A Hot Rod Stencil Shirts I put up a new page here for you to order them. There are a few sizes in stock now from my last order, for those that are not in stock put your order in now to get one. I can’t afford to have a bunch printed and just sit in my trunk for 8 months so if you want one, you’d better get one ordered.
Stay tuned next week for some news on the Royboy New Blood Award that I’ll be giving away at the KKOA Leadsled Spectacular this summer.
For those that don’t know you can catch all kinda good links from my Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ and a bunch of kool stuff on Tumblr and Instagram.
As this is posted I’m finishing up my 3 hour stint a the day job on Saturday morning. From here I catch a ride with my Dad and my 3 & 5 year old nephews down to Wichita’s Century II where the Starbird-Devlin show is in full swing. The boys and I will check the show out today then they will come home and then my cameras will come out and I’ll get you some photos of the show. Look for those photos to start showing up here tomorrow Sunday the 19th. Here’s what I posted this week so far:
I’m excited to finally get the 2014 car show season underway! Next weekend I’ll be heading to Ryno Built’s shop to check in on a Merc project that he’s building for a buddy of mine. While we’re there we’ll also build a new transmission crossmember for my Galaxie so that the car can be dropped a couple more inches. So look for a tech article on that, plus the shop visit post from Ryno’s place. From there I’m hoping to hit 2 shops on the way home, 1 private where they’re doing a big time chop and another a pro upholstery shop. Stay tuned for those visits as well. The goal for 2014 is to start doing a lot more car features, more videos, and more of the same coverage that has been viewed over 11.5 million times so far. Buckle up, it’s bound to be a heck of a ride!
The middle of March usually is a slow time for car shows in Kansas, so I had South to Fort Worth Texas to the Texas motor Speedway for the Good Guys Spring Lonestar Nationals.
You can see the photos from my 2013 trip if you click here..
This car was for sale, and for a reasonable price. Click the photo to go to the full gallery where you should also find the list of details on the car if you are interested.
Bare bones. nothing extra added… at all.. I mean…damn boys!
I’m kinda getting to where I dig these body style trucks more and more.
This gives you some idea of the crowd alllllll day long. It was difficult to take photos because of the crowd, but that’s a good thing. A big crowd means more people that might be inspired to go home and build something of their own.
We had a great location for watching the vehicles coming and going.
Loved this kool 36
Fantastic flames
I need one
and one of these.
Who wants to buy 200,000 shirts so I can get a new mobile home like this?
Last time I was at this show I shot a couple of photos of this car, before I got home it had suffered some intense damage in an accident on the freeway. It’s good to see it back to life and looking good.
Too much patina?
On my wishlist
$8500 is not a horrible price for this almost there hotrod.
Great looking business coupe
Nice work by Hatfield Restorations
More to come tomorrow! Click any of the photos to go to the entire gallery.
Well, it’s been a whole week since I’ve been to Texas so it’s about time to head back. This time it’s a trip down to Texas Motor Speedway for the Goodguys 3rd Spring Lone Star Nationals. The show goes down March 15-17 so get yourself out there and check it out. Here are some photos from my last trip down to this show two years ago for the first one.
My buddy Jeff’s ride, shooting it soon for a feature.
Check out the entire gallery as a slide show below or click on any of the photos above to see the entire set.
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