ASRA Midwest Vintage Weekend brought a nice collection of pre-1949 street rods to Riverside

The Midwest Vintage Weekend had a lot of promise. It was sanctioned by the American Street Rod Association, a nationally-recognized organization dedicated to cars 1948 and older. It had its own website and was promoted heavily on the Internet. There were professionally made signs and banners all over the show grounds. And a large staff of guys in matching T-shirts were on hand to take your money and tell you where to park.

But the other thing they had to deal with was an unprecedented Missouri River flood. So while this was supposed to take place in the picturesque E.H. Young Riverfront Park in Riverside, it was moved to the decidedly less picturesque Park Hill High School parking lot.

Certainly, this change in venue had to impact attendance, and in talking with some of the folks that did make it, the turnout was somewhat disappointing. Admittedly, it was not the Goodguys-like crowd I was expecting when I topped the hill to enter the lot.

It wasn't bad, though. There were lots of great cars that I've never seen before, including a large group that came in from Illinois. Pete & Jakes brought the California Kid car and their slick Jake's Coupe.

I am normally not a big fender skirts fan, but my favorite car there was a black-over-red, bagged '36 Ford with full skirts. That car just looked great to me.

And normally I like Deuce Coupes better with fenders, but there was a neat, blue '32 Hi-Boy there with a tri-carb Chevy that changed my mind a little on that front as well.

And as much as I like older, traditional hot rods, there was a yellow '69 Camaro Z/28 in the spectator area that was pretty hard not to love. Black and white houndstooth upholstery, Rally Sport package; insert Tim Allen grunt here.

If you like older model street rods and hot rods, whether done in traditional or modern style, there's bound to be something you like in the slideshow below. So check out the photos of the sun-drenched Midwest Vintage Weekend.