What a Strange & Twisted Weekend...

I parked next to this Pontiac. It's been for sale for some time. It can be seen on the corner of Highway 35 and Interstate 70 near Richmond, Indiana.

Well, lots happening in Ol' Scruffy's world this weekend. What is it they say about "best laid plans"? Oh well.... sometimes things just don't work out the way we think they will.

We weren't even out of the parking lot, and had already seen some pretty sic vehicles.

I had every intention of making my way down to Daddy Katz in Dayton, Ohio on Friday. Ol' Daddy was having his "Reapers and Rods" event and it sounded like it was going to be a GREAT time. Lots of folks I know from the area were planning to be there. Daddy Katz was having a costume contest (since Friday was Halloween) and all kinds of other stuff.

Hey! It ain't easy getting pictures "centered" when you're just holding the camera up and blindly shooting the shots!

Well, Friday's weather was ABSOLUTELY amazing. Certainly unseasonable for this part of the U.S. Unfortunately, I had other commitments and could not work out a way to get to both. Oh, well, I needed up spending the later evening trick or treating with my 3 youngest kids, so guess it was best. I will definitely put this event on my calendar for next year. I'm hoping that my friends Lynn and Tim from crankshaft clothing took a bunch of great pictures for me!

Last evening, I went over to pick up my older daughters from a youth activity at a friends house. He came out to the car and asked my if I was going to the Wayne County fairgrounds to their annual indoor car show. I have attended the past few years, but had totally forgotten that it is always held on the first weekend of November.

I called up my father when I got home and asked him if he wanted to buzz over to Richmond to check out this year's show, and we decided we could get there. This morning, I had to run to my in-laws house and pick up my oldest son (man....having 6 kids keeps ya busy!), then he and I met my father and headed for Richmond.


Oops...forgot to mention a "bright spot" in my weekend. I had some time to mess around in the garage with Ol' Blue this morning. The last time I had her out, she was running a little rough. I think I've posted a few of my "whoas" over the past month....ie blew the freeze plug out of the front of the block, etc. Well, after the freeze plug incident, I noticed she was running rough, so I decided to change the spark plugs. This didn't seem to help, so I had been looking into buying a new set of spark plug wires and possible a tune up kit. (My thinking was that maybe I had a bad wire or a cracked distributor cap). Anyways, I haven't had a chance to mess with the car for a couple of weeks.


This morning it was SOOO warm, that I decided I'd take the car out and drive her around a "country" block to see how she ran before I decided to do anything else. Well, to my surprise, she ran beautifully. So well, that I enjoyed what will most likely be the "last drive before winter". I can only speculate that when the freeze plug blew, antifreeze some how got into the distributor or something. Maybe sitting for a couple of weeks allowed the car to "dry out". At any rate, at this time, I am very happy that the car seems to be running well.


Now back to the Richmond Car Show....When we got to Richmond, I immediately noticed two things. #1 It was SOOO warm, that many folks had driven their "rides" to the show and there was actually a "mini" show outside in the parking lot and around the front of the building. #2 The show had moved from the Kuhlman Center into a MUCH larger Tom Raper Building.


When I pulled my camera out of my pocket to begin snapping photographs, I immediately noticed something was amiss. The LCD screen on the back of my camera had somehow cracked! The camera itself still seemed to function, but I could not see what I was taking a picture of whenever I aimed the camera. What a strange twist of events!


Well, Ol' Scruffy decided to go ahead and try to take pictures without being able to see what I was aiming at. SOOOO, I certainly apologize for the reduced quality of the photos that I will be posting in the next few days. ALL OF THESE PHOTOS WERE TAKEN 'BLINDLY', that is, without the use of anyway to tell what I was getting until I got home and downloaded them


At any rate, the show was great! Probably the biggest that I can remember. It was great to see a few familiar faces, and a few cars that belong to people I know. "Punk" had a table their giving folks a chance to see his INCREDIBLE magazine: Hometown Hot Rod. (by the way...kudos to Punk for putting out another GREAT edition of HHR this month!) "CWB" was there cranking out the tunes. Eric Culbertson had his rat rod and his beautiful 1956 Chevrolet at the show. I also saw a couple of familiar cars from the Union City, Hagerstown, Winchester area.

A few "blind" shots of Eric's Rat. I've known Eric and his wife, Carrie for several years, and see them at many car shows throughout the summer. One thing I love about this car is that every time I see it, Eric's done just a little more to it. Great car Eric!

Eric also owns a spotless brown and beige 1956 Chevrolet. Both cars draw a lot of attention at area events.


Well, the bottom line is that when I got home, I uploaded all of my photographs (which considering the circumstances didn't come out near as bad as I thought they might), and then got on the HP website to see if I could get my camera fixed. After spending some time in an online chat with an HP techie, and then spending more time on the phone with someone from the "Geek Squad" at our local Best Buy, I've come to the conclusion that I can probably buy a new camera for not much more than it will cost to get my camera fixed.


In the mean time, I'm actually winning an auction on eBay for a camera just like mine for only a few bucks. Maybe I can get out of this one without putting too big of a dent in my wallet. Well....at least the '50 is running well! (and we did win a 12" deluxe pizza for being the first to answer some music trivia at the show!) Guess it ain't all bad!

Keep checking back at Suede and Chrome, as I will be posting more "blind" pictures from the Richmond, Indiana Wayne County Fairgrounds in the coming days.