quick post, as we’re just back from a two-week, five-thousand+ mile trip to there and back: up the coast, across the country and back on route 66. i may get into more details on the trip later, but keeping in mind that i only post cars on this here bloggy, here’s a quick story.
we were driving about three-hundred miles a day sometimes, and i was typically booking a hotel randomly about an hour or two before sunset, depending on how tired we were.
this was last saturday, and as we pull into springfield, missouri, on the main drag, the sun had already set, i thought i heard engines revving. turning onto the road leading up to the hotel, i spy a yellow thirty-four ford hot rod going the other direction. hmm. random, i thought.
passing a few hotel parking lots, i see several classic cars sitting in the dark. wth. then, as we turn into our hotel’s portico, i saw this beauty sitting off to the right of the hotel entrance.
we unloaded the rental car quickly, got checked in. better half settled in to look at pictures on his ipad, that he’d taken earlier in the day. told him i’d walk down the hill with my brother, to pick up some food from the steak ‘n shake i’d seen there. seeing that i’d grabbed my tripod and big camera, i’m sure he didn’t expect to get food any time soon. i was excited to see a bunch of classic cars here at a randomly selected hotel was a total surprise. i haven’t taken any pictures of old cars in months, and i didn’t realize how much i missed it.
i didn’t shoot everything i saw, but also thought they all might just drive away before i got them. a lot of what i initially saw on the way up the street did leave, but many remained. i was in a hurry to get to the food, so didn’t shoot as many as i would have liked.
we did finally get down the hill to the food place, only to find they’d closed the dining room ten minutes earlier. had to head back to the room, to get my better half to drive us down the hill and through the drive-thru for dinner.
after a look around on the internet, i found out it was the aftermath of the mid-america street rod nationals at ozark empire fairgrounds. the two-day show was over, and these were just people too tired to drive home, and had booked up hotels, and were doing some cruising on the main street.
i guess my better half is right, that i can stumble across a car show anywhere. sorry, d.
for those of you interested in a more thoughtful daily post of our random trip, please check out my better half’s blog. i was mostly just along for the ride anyway.