Once again I’m gonna say it…If you didn’t go to
Ft Smith for the All Truck Round-Up you missed one heck of a good time!
We had 11old pieces of iron (even though 2 of them were
on trailers) causing a traffic jam almost all the way to Ft Smith. This is
up from only 5 last year and 3 the year before. We had a total of 15
members and families on this year’s run. If we keep up the trend, next
year we could have 30 or more!!! Unfortunately, though the drive up wasn’t
uneventful. Just 15 miles out McKinney, the "Pink Thing" (for
those who don’t know, is Archie’s 57 4x4 SUV) had an alternator
bracket come loose and burned some of his wires on the header. This
resulted in a unexpected stop at Mike’s Hot Rods in Sherman for repairs.
This wasn’t so bad, we got to check out Augie’s 51 Chevy Coupe that is
being built there. After getting Archie back in good working order, we all
fired up to head out…all but Billy’s panel that is! It wouldn’t
crank back up. So more repairs were in order. Luckily, Alex had an extra
battery that we stuffed in the panel and once again we were on our way.
The remainder of the cruise to Ft Smith was uneventful...but fun. Thanks
in part to Bill Elloitt for providing us with radios that allowed us to
communicate while we drove, but unfortunately there were a few time we had
to listen to Patrick singing.
We arrived in Ft Smith around 5:00 Friday afternoon. We
all checked in the hotel, freshened up and met up with our old friend
Roger Whitaker who had moved from Dallas to Kansas a few years back, but
is still a member of the club. We all headed to the park to register for
the show. Remember when I said the remainder of the trip was uneventful…getting
to Ft Smith was. But, while pulling back into the hotel parking lot, after
registering, the "Pink Thing" starts making a horrific noise. So
like the bunch of gearheads that we are, we all made a beeline to Archie’s
truck. This time the A/C bracket bolts had broken off in the head and his
A/C compressor was dangling. After much cussin’ and discussin’, we
decided to wait till morning and take the compressor off and get a shorter
serpentine belt. Believe it or not that plan worked!
We got up Satrurday and headed to the show, all but
Archie that is! We got him taken care of and he eventually made it as
well. As we were leaving the hotel we passed by another hotel down the
street and noticed a beautiful teal and white 59 (that had been in our
parking lot on Friday) up on jack stands being worked on. I’ll get back
to the 59 in a minute. It was a perfect day for the show, cool (about 85)
and sunny. Until early afternoon that is, when the rain came. Fortunately,
it didn’t last long…just long enough for William to fall asleep in a
chair holding his umbrella. Now, being the kind hearted souls that we are,
we let him sleep in peace…NOT!!! Just ask him about it or ask someone to
show you the pictures.
As we were leaving, just as we got out of the park we
once again saw that beautiful 59. You guessed it, again it was up on jack
stands. With a few heads poking in the hood and Howard Blanski (the owner)
under it. Not being able to pass up someone in distress twice in one day,
we all pulled in to lend a hand… or butt in, however you want to look at
it. As it turns out the 59 was overheating. We all made our shade tree
diagnosis on it and determined it was the thermostat. So I got on my
mobile phone and called Archie at the hotel and had him get us a
thermostat and some antifreeze. He was the best choice since he already
knew where the local parts stores were. Archie arrived with the parts and
the 59 was on the road again and we had made a few new friends.
Saturday night they held a concert with 4 or 5 bands
playing. Unfortunately the only really good one was the last to play. By
that time most everyone had headed back to the hotel. They should have
stayed, if for no other reason than to watch Patrick sleep. Too back I
didn’t have my video camera. We laughed so hard, my jaws hurt!
Sunday morning we headed to the show again. Everyone
got their truck cleaned and we sat around wondering where Howard was. Just
then, Paul (Howard’s friend) pulled up in his Suburban and let us know
that Howard was DOA on the road into the park. So, a few of us gearheads
went to see if we could lend a hand. This time Howard’s fuel pressure
regular had give up the ghost and the engine was flooding. We made some
temporary repairs and go him into the show. Luckily, we found a parts
store open on Sunday and Howard was once again running. We had a great
time with our new comrades from Oklahoma. In fact Howard and his wife
ended up joining the club! I don’t know that if it was because he genuinely liked us, or he felt
guilty cause we helped him! Either way we welcomed him to our band of
renegades.
They had a lot of games at the show. Everyone’s
favorite was the Jalapeno eating contest. Alex’s son was the only one
from the club who had enough guts (pardon the pun) to enter and he’s
only 5 or 6 years old. He didn’t win, but he gave all he had, maybe even
more that he bargained for. Needless to say he was on fire after it was
over. The call for awards came at about one o’clock. Along with the
awards, they gave out a ton of door prizes. Jimmy (Mr. Lucky) Thomson won
a set of custom wheels. The club members pretty much swept the classes
they were in. Here’s the breakdown (I hope I got everyone right);
