Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Clouds and rain can't stop the Downtown Liberty Car Cruise

Last weekend, I hit the trifecta of historic downtown car events around here. Friday night I was at the Smithville Hot Summer Nights car cruise, Saturday we went to the Midwest Camarofest in Downtown Independence, and Saturday night I was off to the Liberty cruise in the historic district of that Missouri town. When it comes to taking pictures of cars encircling an old courthouse, I’m your guy.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Midwest Camaro-Fest draws more Camaros than the rest

I’ve always been a big Camaro fan. I’ve owned several of them over the years, and I miss every one of them after they’re gone. So how is a closet Camaro lover supposed to get his Camaro fix when he doesn’t have one in the driveway?

Well, around here, you can get your fill of Camaros at the annual Midwest Camaro-Fest, which is hosted by the Camaro Club of Kansas City. This is the premiere show in the area for Chevy’s popular Pony Car, and was held this year in the history downtown square of Independence, Mo. I’ve been going to this event for at least the last 11-12 years, and even entered a car or two along the way, so I can tell you firsthand that this club works hard to make this show the big success that it is.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Music and cars at the Smithville Hot Summer Nights Cruise

Smithville, Mo., is a pretty small community, but they have some big events in their historic downtown.  Late in the summer, they host “Hot Summer Nights,” and last Friday night they featured their popular classic car cruise.

I’ve never been to this before, but I’ve been told that they can get as many as 300 cars here.  The threat of rain was in the air this night, but they still probably had around 200 cars and trucks around the square.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Ararat Shriners bring cars to the 44th Annual Parkville Days Riverfest Parade

Walking around a car show and looking at all the cars can be fun, but wouldn’t it be nice if you could just sit in one place and have the cars come to you? Well, that’s how it works when you visit the annual Parkville Days Riverfest Parade, which made its 44th trip down Main Street last Saturday morning.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

The only thing out of control at the Outta' Control Hot Rods Cruise in Platte City was the weather

The Outta’ Control Hot Rods Car Club always holds a nice cruise night on the third Saturday of the month, and in spite of ominous clouds and impending rain, they still enjoyed a strong crowd for the August edition.

This was my last chance to take my 2013 Corvette Grand Sport loaner to an event before General Motors came and took it away forever, so I drove BHo to the land of Sonny Hill with the fiberglass roof panel stored neatly in the rear hatch area. Of course, I hadn’t thought to secure all the flyers that I picked up at the Corvette show earlier in the day, so once we hit 70 on 435, there was a tsunami of car show propaganda blasting all over the cockpit and out in the atmosphere. If I miss your event on the next weekly calendar, this may be the reason.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Slickstock. Where members of the Slick '60s Ford Truck Club get together and eat lots of Pizza Shoppe


As the owner of a 1963 Chevrolet pickup, sometimes it is hard for me to remember that they actually made some other kind of truck in the early-to-mid 1960s. But on our way to dinner Friday night, I stumbled upon a reminder that yes, there really was at least one more brand out there. I think they were called Fords.

Actually, when we saw a bunch of them parked at the Platte Woods Pizza Shoppe, the first thing I thought was, “hey, I didn’t know we had a Ford truck club here in town.” And as it turns out, I thought right. These were members of the Slick ‘60s Club, which is a nationwide group of ’61-’66 Ford F-Series enthusiasts. Every two years these folks meet up for “Slickstock” to catch up on old times, talk trucks, and eat pizza.

Monday, August 20, 2012

A great car show and a great Royals game highlight the Crusin' at the K event

It was Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet Sunday when we fired up the old truck and headed to the Crusin’ at the K event during the Kansas City Royals game at Kauffman Stadium. Well, technically, I had the tacos, and there was no pie involved, but otherwise, it was exactly like the old advertising slogan.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

The only thing better than attending the KCCA Vettes on the Plains Show is doing it in a new Grand Sport

Here’s something that I know you know, but I’m going to restate it anyway.  I love Corvettes.  The new ones are crazy fast, and easy to drive that way.  The old ones are packed full of character and style, and were all great performers in their day.  I love sitting down on the floor.  I love looking out over the hood.  I just can’t think of anything I don’t like about them.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

The Hartman Heritage Center Cruise Night in Independence is really freakin' big

For all the different car shows and cruises I’ve been to in Kansas City, I’ve never been to the one at the Hartman Heritage Center in Independence.  And that was a serious oversight.  Because I can tell you that it probably ranks in the top three of all local cruises based on attendance.  This was hundreds of cars.  And the crazy thing is that they do this every Saturday night throughout the summer.  It’s a wonder there are enough cars left in town for anyone else to hold a cruise night.

Basehor Boys Sonic Cruise is still good, even if you get there late

If you hang out here on occasion, you may know that my dad had a heart valve replacement this week.  I’m happy to report that the surgery went well, and he’s resting semi-comfortably at St. Luke’s hospital.  It’ll obviously take awhile to fully recover from this, but at least he cleared a major hurdle.


Since I’ve been spending a lot of time at the hospital after work this week, it means I haven’t written that many stories for the blog.  I was determined to get to an event Friday night, and even though I was late to the party, I eventually made it to the Basehor Boys Sonic Cruise.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

August Parkville Cruise - Still going strong

You know, the very first car event  I ever wrote a story about was the Parkville Cruise at English Landing Park in Downtown Parkville.  At the time I said it was a really strong event, and four years later, I can report that it still is.

This might have been the first weekend in months that it wasn't 178-degrees in the shade.  Of course, it looked like it was going to rain all day, and there was plenty of humidity.  I got to the event pretty early for a change, and took up residence under the farmer's market canopy.  I figured I would stay dry if it rained that way, and I got to watch most of the cars come in.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Great collection of vintage farm vehicles at the Agricultural Hall of Fame and Museum in Bonner Springs

The other day I went to a car show at the Agricultural Hall of Fame and Museum in Bonner Springs, and I did something I’ve never done before—I actually went inside the Ag Hall of Fame. I’ve only lived in the Kansas City area for 26 years; you’d think I would have been in there by now. But honestly, I never gave it much thought. As it turns out, I had been missing out on a great collection of vintage farm vehicles and equipment.