Red Boiling Springs Fall Meet celebrates 63rd-Anniversary

Last weekend, the Middle Tennessee Region AACA recognized the 63rd-Anniversary of their Fall Meet, which was held on the picturesque grounds Thomas House Hotel in Red Boiling Springs, Tenn. According to my calculator, that means the first one was in 1956. That’s even older than this Chevy Viking 60 Howe-bodied fire truck, which was bought new by Red Boiling Springs Volunteer Fire Department in 1959. Tradition runs deep here. Many of the club members have been attending this event for decades. Even the hotel has been here since 1927. All of this history is great news for show-goers. Organizers have been doing this long enough now that there aren’t too many hitches in the operation. This year, 328 vehicles showed up. That’s a successful effort in anybody’s book.

Buncha' crazies at the Green Hill Church Red, Hot, & Blue Community Celebration and Car Show

It was so hot on Sunday that nobody in their right mind would spend the afternoon outside. And yet, 105 cars and trucks showed up for the Green Hill Church Red, Hot, & Blue Community Celebration and Car Show, and every one of them was brought there by deranged people. In their defense, they did have a nice, shady place with a giant tree and a picnic shelter, and there was a band and grilled hamburgers and stuff to help keep their minds off the weather. Mt. Juliet dignitaries like the fire and police chiefs gave out some plaques, and there were some better-than-average door prizes provided by the show sponsors. Overall, they did a really nice job putting this event together. But the heat—blech!

2018 Lebanon High School Car Show makes good use of their parking space

Lebanon High School held their annual fundraiser for the marching band last weekend, and lots of great cars showed up to do their part. The sun was as bright as the sun could be, but the temperatures were fairly reasonable for Tennessee in July. A high school is a pretty good place to have a car show, because when the students and teachers go home, there’s a huge parking lot that isn’t being used on the weekend. Every empty parking lot should be filled with cool old cars. I have decreed it.

Tom's Cruise reaches boiling point

These guys standing around this ’60 Chevy Biscayne as all the water boils out of the radiator pretty much sums up last week’s Tom’s Cruise-In. It was stinkin’ hot in Germantown; there’s no other way to say it. They had music and karaoke and a few cars showed up, but everyone out there was wishing the parking lot behind the Jimmy Johns was air-conditioned. It obviously wasn’t, but that didn’t stop everyone from having a good time. Luckily for you, I took pictures of everything, so you can enjoy this car cruise sitting inside. Check it out!

Great turnout for the Friday night Hendersonville Cruise-In

Friday night means cruise night in Hendersonville, so we made the trip to the Regal Cinema to see what we could see. The worst part about this event is battling the Friday night traffic to get there, but once you’re in, it all seems worth it. They easily had 200 cars lined up out there. We even managed to enjoy a nice dinner and a movie. It’s like a single stop for everything that you want or need. Of course, out of everything out there, what I want and need the most are cars. It wasn’t hard picking a few to write about. The only hard part was trying to decide which ones not to feature.

Late coverage of the Mt. Juliet Chick-fil-A Cruise

I hate to admit this, but I’m so far behind writing these stories that I’m more than a month in the rears on some of them. Unfortunately, that’s the case with this Mt. Juliet Chick-fil-A Cruise coverage, which was all the way back on October 9. That’s not the cruise’s fault, though. There were lots of great cars, fun people, and tasty chicken sandwiches. But don’t worry. Eventually, I get to everything I take pictures of. So, better late than never, let’s get into last month’s jam-packed cruise with the world’s crabbiest D.J.

So long, Fontanel, until we meet again

I’ve been a little behind on my write-ups here lately, but I’m finally getting around to putting this story together on the final cruise of the year at the Fontanel Mansion. I actually hate it when this one ends. The Fontanel is one of the nicest locations for a car cruise in town. There’s beautiful scenery. There’s plenty of stuff to eat. There’s live music. Even my wife likes going to this cruise. We took the truck out this time, and it turned out to be a great night for it. Unfortunately, my camera finally died forever about half-way through the show, so many of these pictures were taken with my cell phone. You can generally make out car shapes in most of them, so at least they’ll give you an idea.

Hot cars at the Smithville Hot Summer Nights Cruise

So on Friday nights throughout the summer, Smithville has this Hot Summer Nights event where people gather for live music concerts and stuff.  That’s OK, I guess.  But then there’s one week in August where the “and stuff” part of the equation is a huge car cruise.  That event was last Friday.  And as expected, we were there with our camera to capture everything.  The good part for you is that you can see all the cars from Hot Summer Nights, and you don’t actually have to get hot.

Went to Roxanne's for breakfast and a car show broke out

So Saturday we were eating breakfast at Roxanne’s Cafe in Parkville when a bunch of people showed up with Ferrari outfits on.  One guy even had a Ferrari logo on his phone.  It was pretty obvious that there was going to be a bunch of Ferraris parked outside.  So, when we finished eating, we went around the corner, and there they were.  Bam.  Instant car show.

On the anniversary of John DeLorean's death, we look at his most infamous car

Today is the anniversary of the death one of the most famous, and one of the most infamous characters in automotive history. On March 19, 2005, John Z. DeLorean died in a New Jersey hospital from a stroke at the age of 80.

DeLorean had an incredible career in the auto industry. As the chief engineer of Pontiac, DeLorean gets the nod as the father of the GTO in 1964. Then he was promoted to the head of Pontiac, and cars like the Firebird and the Grand Prix were born during this time.