An amazing weekend

[colin_havens]

I just had to share my experiences this past weekend, as this has been one of the most rewarding ones I have had in a long time, and one I will not forget soon. This may be lengthly, and hope it doesnt sound like Im bragging, because Im honestly still in shock. None of this would have even happened without my car club and the knowldge I got from the members on this board. what am I talking about might you ask? This is the story of the maiden voyage of my truck since the rebuild to its first big show, the Relaxed Atmosphere Allstar Event show in Millington, TN this past weekend.

I actually finished the build and worked out all the problems with the 67 about mid July, and since then have been going over through it to see if anything would come up before I took my big trip. A couple of trips around town and a couple of cruise-ins showed a binding throttle, which I fixed, and nothing more. Last week I spent doing some poliching and cleaning, and stayed up till 2 am hand glazing and waxing the old girl until the paint shined better than it had in years. The entire time my wife said I was crazy, since I was leaving in the morning for about a 250 mile drive, and was going to just get the truck dirty. I wnt to bed wore out that night, but with a grin on my face from knowing that the 67 was ready and i was finally getting to put some miles on her, seeign as she had not been more than 10 minutes from the house in 2 years. I was excited to say the least.

I woke up early the next morning, packed my clothes, cleaning supplies, and emergency supplies (tools, airline, unions, ect.) into the truck, and hit the road. It was a beautiful cool morning, so I rolled the windows down and just enjoyed the sun on my face and sound of my exhaust. The first hour or so I was nervous, watching the gauges for any signs of overheating, alternator failure, bag failure, ect. I finally settled in, and just cranked the radio and enjoyed the ride. It felt so good to finally get out and really cruise in my old truck, I just cant explain it. I was greeted with people passing me and waving or giving me a thumbs up, and one old man screamed at me "That truck is awesome!!!" I was proud of what I had built, and finally ariving in Memphis at one of my friends house I got to show James the finished product that he had helped me with during my build.

After we looked over the truck, and I brought my things inside, another friend of ours Jody came over, and we headed over to see Ricky Neal of Possum Killer Garage to check out the recent hotrod project he and his son just finished, and for Ricky to lay some custom striping on Jody's GMC. Wish I had not forgot my camera fat James, cause it was awesome to see the master at work. Here are a couple of pics:







What more could I ask for, a nice cruise on a beautiful day, and hangout out for an afternoon at a read deal hotrod shop. Wait, a cruise in in Southaven to hang out before we headed to the show in the morning was a perfect way to cap off the night. It had been a great day. We parked my 67 and James 48 in his carport, and got some sleep as we had an early morning, meeting up with the car club at 5:20 in the morning.



We got up EARLY in the morning, as we wanted to get to the show early so we had our pic of where to park instead of being put just anywhere. We were literally the first ones there, arriving at 6:15 in the morning. This was not my idea, but hey, why not. After shivering outside of the gates for a little bit, we drove in, filled out out regrestration forms, and parked in a great spot where we set up our tents and chairs, cleaned up our rides, and watched the other show goers start riding in. The show was a great turnout, with a good 450 or so vehicles, most of which were very nice and not shoddy builds. Everything was there, from lifted 4x4s to to ground scraping airbagged trucks, both old and new. Even some muscle cars and true hotrods thrown into the mix. Our club, Perfect Nemisis, had a good showing, bringing about 10 cars and trucks ourselves. This was going to be a good year.







After walking around, I come back to see two guys really going over my truck. About when i go there they asked whos it was, adn I let them know it was mine. I figured they had some questions about the suspension, as thats the most common question. What happened next took me completely by surprise. He was from Crusin the Streets, an online magazine, and wanted to shoot my truck. He had a model set up for the afternoon, and asked if i could meet him about 3 that afternoon. I said sure, and then sat down with my friends wondering if that really just happened. Three o'clock came, and he took pictures of my truck, James's 48 GMC, and Casey's 69 Camaro. He had another photographer there as well from Elite Streets Magazine, another online mag as well. They both shot it for features, while I filled out the tech sheets for the articles. I only had them take shots of the photoshoot, as we didnt want to get in the way of the photographers. I should get some good shots from the photographer in a few weeks, and the feature should run in about 2 or 4 months. I will be sure to share them when I do get them, as they are pretty hot. They Here's what I have I can share:









Ok, back to a PG rating lol. However I did leave out an important thing that happened that morning, and kept me on pins and needlesall day. See that morning, after i cleaned up my truck, I realised after about an hour that I had left my phone in my glovebox. When I went over to it to get it, I found a business card in my front seat. It was from Jason Mulligan, the Feature editor for Street Trucks Magazine. I asked my friends if they had one too, and why it was in my truck. Noone else had one, and then someone said " He probably wants to shoot your truck for the magazine" My truck? NAAAAAAHHH. Theres no was. I subscribe to that mag, and my ole 67 is not to the level of those in the mag. But i called him anyway, and left him a voicemail. And wouldnt you know it, the one day it seems everyone wanted to call me for some reason was this one, so I was having a mild heart attatck every time it rang thinking it was Jason. But he never called. I just thought well if he wanted to shoot it, he would call me, but maybe it was a mistake.

Well little did I know that my little shoot would keep me and a couple friends from going to get dinner with the rest of the club, but allowed us to get to the hotel to see a little photo shoot going on behind the hotel. Being nosey, we wandered over to discover it was Jason! I talked to him, and he did indeed want to shoot it for the magazine! I could not and still dont believe it! We decided to shoot it the following day after the awards, as he had 2 others he was doing as well.

I spent the rest of the evening on cloud nine, having a complete case of perma-grin. I was smiling from ear to ear, and it showed. We went back to the show grounds to watch a few buddies do the drag competition (Trent's Rusty Nail project and Jody's GMC) and then back to the hotel to stay up into the wee hours of the mornign having some adult beverages and talking about trucks, building a few dozen in our minds that night. It was a great way to catch up with some friends I had not seen in about a year or so.

The following day way the second day of the show, where we hung out until the awards ceremony. Some of the guys nursed hangovers, while others took an second look at our favorite rides there and talked some more about hotrods. We went to the awards ceremony, whereI was a recipent of one of the top 50 awards there. Not a bad way to end the first big show the 67 had been to in 2 years. And it was only appropiate that the award had a C-10 on it.




I hung around after the show for about an hour, with a couple of friends staying to watch. To my surprise, my wife and son came over to show some support and watch the exciting event. I an thankful that JAmes and Jody stayed around, as my truck was filthy from all the dust, and without a water hose in sight. They helped me clean it while the kids played, and my wife took photos of the whole thing. It was an amazing experence, and not one I am soon to forget. I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story:





















My friend James with the 48 GMC ended up getting his shot too, as Jason really liked it as well and wanted to take some pictures while he was there. It was an amazing weekend, and not one I will forget anytime soon. I built my truck for me, but it is nice to be reconised like that after almost 2 years of work. For everyone that feels like there is no light at the end of the tunnel, remember that if you put inthe time, the rewards will be great. My weekend ended with a long cruise home, remembering the monments the experences of the weekend. I still have a huge smile on my face. Thank you for reading all of this, as it is long, but i just wanted to share my weekend with everyone here. May you have as much luck with your onw truck build.