Hot Rod Power Tour 2008

Day Six: Moving on South

2008-06-15T22:26:00.002-05:00

Day six was like no other. Everything was going well. That's where the trouble started. I had heard from a friend that Wisconsin had been hit hard by storms the night below. It didn't click that where my families camper and pier are might be in danger. Boy was I wrong.

Until my little epiphany, I cruised along the Mississippi River with a few friends. It was an absolutely amazing day. Sun was out, weather wasn't too hot, and I had a Mopar party to get to.

So the drive south from Rochester was a nice one all the way to the Mopar show. There was no major backups. It did feel good to cross east of the Mississippi again though.

I pulled into Coon Valley, WI to go to the Mopar party at Mega Parts. I thought they did a lot of new parts, I was completely wrong! They had a long barn full of cars and parts. It was a literal treasure trove of parts!

I held myself back though. I enjoyed some beverages and lunch when the MoPower Tour rolled into town. That's when the party really kicked off. Lines of Mopars filled the parking lot across the street from a 69 Charger Daytona to a original (with original rust) Hemi Satellite.

Our group basked in the hospitality of our hosts and was allowed to enter "The Temple of Doom". I got my Indiana Jones hat, and Rob Wolf of Mopar Collector Guide and I made our way back into the barn.

On the one side was stacks of Mopar parts, the other side, a 69 M Code Cuda, 63 Dodge Polara I believe, and buried in the back was a 71 Road Runner! And rare parts wherever you turned.

I eventually made my way back to the front door after crying a bit. And made my way back to the Caprice. The MoPower Tour was getting ready to leave, and JoAnne and her Daytona were going to follow me in the Tour. We both had enough gas, so when the rest of the tour stopped in Coon Valley, we continued on.

We drove for quite a while. Just cruising along, everyone giving the Daytona thumbs up! I actually heard on one of the slow spots on the tour, some people actually got on their hands and knees and began to worship the Daytona!

We got gas outside a little down some valley in Western Wisconsin. The Caprice got gassed up with some 91 as did the Daytona. When we went to get going, the Daytona wouldn't start!

My Father discovered that the battery cable was coming apart and was lose. So we got it temporarily fixed and continued on our way.

On the drive to Madison, we saw some of the flooding that had been occurring homes and cars underwater. Roads completely covered. We were travelling on Hwy 14 and had little to no problem. I-90 though was closed outside of Mauston, WI cause of flooding taking out part of the road.

We went like this for the next hour coming into Madison. JoAnne and I split right outside Madison as she was going to head to the hotel to meet up with someone. And we continued on with the rest of the tour.

It was this time that I began to realize that I really should check up on our place in Wisconsin. That is where I got bad news that the lake had gone up FEET in a few days and that where our pier was, was now under water.

This pushed me into overdrive. I got into the Madison venue and took a whole bunch of pictures, got my Long Hauler sheet stamped and headed out. I wish I could have stayed longer, I really do, but there are more important things in life.

So I flew down to Lakeland Camping Resort where the actual camper was safe and sound, but everything else down by the lake was a mess. The lake was four or five feet higher then normal. Where our pier used to be, the water was now up to my shoulders.

I was able to save the metal framework and 6 of 14 pieces of the pier. But the rest were lost. So I returned to the camper, got some dinner and crashed. I wondered what the long hauler meeting would bring. It was a day I'll never forget!

Ryan
HemiPwr70@aol.com

To view all the pictures, go here!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hemipwr70/sets/72157605637337483/

Day Five: The Road Taken with the Mopars

2008-06-12T22:50:00.003-05:00

The day started with sadness. The storms we had just slept through had killed some Boy Scouts miles away. And it didn't look good for us as the clouds looked very bad.

But we persivered and headed out west to pick up Hwy 69 North. We pulled onto 69 and at that same time our friends were there. The group drove north heading to Jewell, IA with rain sprinkling here and there.

We get about 2 miles outside of Jewell there was a shop with a bunch of Mopars. We drove past fairly quickly and then all of a sudden, came to a stop. Apparently the breakfast in Jewell was such a hit, that they didn't have room for everyone. So the backup just got bigger and bigger.

Our merry band of GM vehicles did a U-Turn and headed another way. Which worked out really well, we were ahead of the backup and cruising along at a steady pace. When 69 had a detour. It had been washed out on the main route so we had to take this LONG detour around.

Went through a whole bunch of little towns and made our way back to 69 north. All went well, we were really making good time and having a blast. The weather started getting better and better.

Then Hwy 18 East loomed ahead. So we turned onto the highway and found the first gas station in over an hour, so the majority of our group had to refill.

At this time I got a call from JoAnn from the Chicagoland Mopar Connection club. Someone had told her not to do the detour and she was lost in Iowa. I gave her directions to get to Highway 18. And I also told her about a secret meeting.

The MoPower group was going to meet up at the last place that Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper played at before they died, the Surf Ballroom.

So we all met up there and chatted for a bit, then took off to head to Minnesota.

It was while filling up some of their groups vehicles that we found out that the new directions we were given were bad because of more lane closures caused by the flooding. So we hopped on I-35 North to Minnesota and never looked back.

Now I never grew up in the muscle car era. So all of a sudden to have a 69 Charger Daytona behind me, 70 Challenger R/T Vert in front of me and everything else mopar around me. It was quite incredible.

While my Caprice is made for cruising and is only 20 years old, those 30 year old car never missed a beat and were pushing past me like nothing!

We took I-35 North for quite a while. Time just kinda blurred together on those large highways. It was fun going triple digits with all those Mopars.

We get into Minnesota and then merge onto Highway 14 East. We took that all the way to Rochester, MN. We pulled into the city limits and some of the group needed to fill up since they hadn't the time before. And there just happened to be a Famous Dave's BBQ place next door.

The poor place didn't know what hit it. We took up a good chunk of their back room. The cops were outside, people were building things out of paper towel holders. It was nearly complete chaos.... but was fun.

I was actually told an amazing story by a friend I met on the tour. He owns the blue 69 340 Cuda a few blogs back.

He was driving along when he blew a headgasket on his 340. No big deal he thought, but his girlfriend wanted to head home. He didn't think it was that bad, so he took her to the Little Rock, AR airport for a flight out. Well apparently it was bad and on his way to Ames the head decided to melt down on the side of the road.

Well a farmer helped him get it onto his farm and the farmer was a mopar guy! With a whole bunch of mopars sitting around that we was building or using for parts. The head couldn't be saved so the farmer GAVE him a head off of a 360 he had lying around from a 80's RamCharger. They swapped it over and he was on the road the next day. The farmer didn't even want anything in return. The guy with the Cuda quietly accepted, but will be repaying the kind old man in the future for the assistance he did.

With what I've seen on this tour, gives me some hope in humanity!

The group pulls into the show around 3:45 pm and gets an end spot. And I began to investigate the show.

It was quite a nice show, the weather turned out perfectly and I was there with good people.

I start walking around and what do I spy, a BRAND NEW CHALLENGER. I am of course giddy with excitement and begin asking the guy all these questions about the car. His response was....

"I just bought the car two hours ago, brought it straight here and want $55,000 for it."

I said thanks, snapped a bunch of pictures and continued on my way.

There was quite a stable of cars at this show, a 70 Superbird, cobras and everything in between.

I spent some of my afternoon with some mopar guys I met from the area, chatting with them about mopars and new technology.

I took off a little early to fix the problem with the blog from last night, which took me a while to do. Now I'm tired and getting ready for the last leg of the trip, south to Madison.

Ryan
HemiPwr70@aol.com

To view all the pictures, shoot on over here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hemipwr70/sets/72157605581916828/

Day Four: The "Easy" Road

2008-06-11T22:56:00.004-05:00

Today started with a rumor. That half of Iowa was washed away. So I hopped on the Hot Rod Magazine website and it was correct. They had new directions to follow to go around the washed out portions.

So we get loaded up and head out. With the weather still looking like it is going to pour at any moment, we make way.

We are travelling on the Cornhusker Hwy. When all of a sudden about a dozen Hot Rod Power Tour members come screaming past us in the opposite direction. And the guys in front of us do a U-Turn and follow them.

So I joined them and we grabbed I-80 East. We had a bunch of us going the safe way. We were cruising on the highway around 80 or so. It was a very boring ride though. I loved travelling through small town America, going on a major highway wasn't my idea of fun.

Nothing really happened for the next few hours, the cars in our caravan were just booking it to Ames.

The Caprice pulled into Ames at 1:30 with overcast skies. All day it looked like it was going to rain. Thankfully is stayed away until after our show.

I spent most of my time walking around seeing all the new cars that came in. I met some members from the Forum Freaks at www.carjunkieforums.com and www.dodgecharger.com. It was really cool to see the cars that they had.

There was also an autocross event there. It was really interesting seeing the whole gaunlet of cars going out there. There were wagons, muscle cars, hot rods, street rods, Atoms.

I made my way into the back corner of the show with some friends and just hung out for most of the last few hours of the show. It was until some friends from the night before came over and began chatting.

We get near the end of the show and they tell us that their starter was dead and that they were going to go work on it. And of course we all decided to help them out.

So with everyone gone. Napa was gone, GM Performance rejected us, so we were in the middle of the parking lot with muscle cars circling the near dead Camaro.

The guys came back with the new starter from Napa and a better jack to get the car up. We had a jack and jackstand keeping the car up as we took the old mini-starter out. But the new one was bigger, so the guys had to pull the header to get the new one in.

It was a real pain in the rear, but they got the new starter in and got the Camaro running. The funniest thing was about 30 people stopped by through the two hours we worked on the car. They were saddened that they had missed the show. Even a lady cop came over and was talking with us and taking pictures.

In the end we all had a good time and made new friends. We left there feeling good and headed to our hotels.

Now there are strong thunderstorms going through and I'm wiped out. So to sleep i go, with another adventure awaiting me tomorrow.

Ryan
HemiPwr70@aol.com

Picture upload problem with storm, will upload in AM

To view all of the pictures from fixing a Camaro to flooding on some rivers. Check out the link below.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hemipwr70/sets/72157605564293612/

Day Three: Out of the Mountains we go

2008-06-10T22:27:00.003-05:00

Today was to be a fairly uneventful day. We were heading out of the remainder of the Ozarks and heading into the plains of Nebraska.

We got up a bit later then usual. We were on the road by 9:15 am though. Our hotel was right off the highway, so we actually found a bagel place across from our hotel and grabbed a few for the road.

We hopped on the highway and fell right in with a group of GM cars that looked very familiar. They were the special GM Performance vehicles and their lead vehicle.

I thought I had read that you can't pass the lead vehicle. So I stayed in trail. But they were going 55-60 in a 70 mph zone. And while I am all for trailing a bunch of high performance GM vehicles that put mine to shame. I decided what the hell, I'll go the speed limit.

So I went into the left lane and passed them right by. Glad I did cause I heard that the E-85 Roadster was dead on the side of the road for some time.

So we just cruised for hours on end. It was incredible going through these little towns.The people were lining the streets waiting for us to go by. Just as though there was nothing else to do but watch us go by.

We went through a bunch of little towns, the weather was absolutely amazing and the windows were open and air going through my hair, my father has little to none.

We came into Lincoln and grabbed something to eat at the local USA Steak Buffet.

It was at this time that I recieved a call. The guy says he is from Eaton and asks if I entered a drawing for a Eaton differential of my choice.

I said I had , and he said that I had WON the drawing. That I should come to the trailer when I get a chance and that I can come pick up my packet and winnings!

I of course thought it was one of my car buddies playing around with me. It wasn't until I got to their trailer and my name was up on the board as the winner did it really sink in.

I was so nervous, the guy was a Mopar guy, so we talked about what my
best bet is. I didn't have to pick up at that time though thankfully!
So we chatted for a while. And I thanked the Eaton guys and walked away very slowly.

Still letting it sink in. Now what?

After that high point, I just went and sat down for a bit. The sun started getting to me, so my dad and I just found some friends and chilled by them for a bit.

I walked through the rest of the show, meeting new people and looking at sweet cars. There were so many there, I hope I found them all!

The park was very nice though, it actually had trees and nice bathrooms. I was able to put the Caprice under a tree and it kept the car cool all day.

My dad and I chilled by our friends the rest of the afternoon and people kept parking and just start chatting. We were chatting with random people until 9 pm!

The sun was down when we left. The place was a ghost town but us. We atleast got our group picture with Mr. Coleman.

We retired to our hotels after talking with people in the parking lot about cars up until a little bit ago. So I'm gonna crash in a bit and get a good start for tomorrow morning.

Keep watching this website for new blogs daily from the tour.

Ryan
Hemipwr70@aol.com

To view ALL of the pictures from water towers to women laying on the Cherry Bomb Charger.... check out the link below.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hemipwr70/sets/72157605546044132/

Day Two: On the Road to Topeka!

2008-06-09T21:16:00.005-05:00

My dad and I woke up this morning to RAIN. Lots and lots of rain. We would not be detoured though! The Caprice got loaded up and with some encouragement from some friends in a Burnt Orange Prowler, we were away.

The trip wasn't as bad as the first day. We didn't have the mountains to go through this time. So the cars on the tour had alot easier time. My dad and I decided to leave a bit later to go with more people. And oh boy did we!

Most of the route was just two lane road. So you couldn't pass anyone, so the Tour was miles and miles long, with bumper to bumper traffic. And in the rain, everyone was a little brake happy.

We worked out way through a whole bunch of small towns. Where the tour was slowed down to next to nothing. It was so much fun to see the people lining the sides of the street in the rain cheering us on.

The rain continued to come down through most of the little drive up to Topeka. My dad thought that we were heading to Ames already, and when he saw that we were heading to Kansas he was worried that we were heading the wrong direction. I told him that if thats true, then the 50 cars ahead and behind us were in trouble.

Coming into Topeka the highways speed limit is 70 mph. So alot of the Tour cars are going much slower then that, so I get over in the left lane and start passing the cars. I began to notice that the cars ahead of me were the GM Performance vehicles. I then looked ahead and saw that the Power Tour lead vehicle was just up ahead! You aren't suppose to pass the lead vehicle. So I slowed down and tucked back into the tour.

The Tour pulled into the Heartland Raceway with no rain and just overcast skies. It was a bit cooler then the day before as well. It was going to be a great show.

I got the Caprice near the vendors booth again, unloaded a few odds and ends and began the walk of the show.

With the sounds of cars drag racing just over the hill we walked up and down the rows. Just down the row from the Caprice was a sweet 68 Coronet with a 426 with a distributorless iginition system that he designed himself! It had a Chevy transmission, Ford iginition system and Dodge Neon coils. It was an incredible machine, and got 18 mpg on the way to the track.

The show was great, with the weather turning out to be so great, the cars showed up in droves. I saw a bit of everything there from Studebaker to Rolls Royce.

I made my way to the Year One trailer where Kenny Wayne Sheppard in his Duster just pulled up. So I chatted with him for a bit about the Duster. Then we walked over to his new 72 Charger where a seal had popped out in the rear and they were replacing it right there next to the trailer. It was really cool, these two cars where heavily modified. They were both amazing and wish I could afford them.

I found JoAnn from Chicagoland Mopar Connection with her 69 Daytona at the show and it was nice to talk with her, she decided to do the tour on her own! Not only is she driving an incredible machine worth more then my life, she is doing it alone. I was amazed.

Next I found the Mopar Collectors Guide group called "MoPower Tour". They were an amazing group of people. We were chatting Mopar for probably an hour, going over the incredible vehicles they had arrived in.

We were talking and I found out that a Mopar part supplier, MegaParts of Wisconsin is having a party for anyone on Friday for the Tour group when they come through the area. They are in Coon Valley, WI. So come on out.

I was talking to people so long that I completely lost track of time and by the time I got back to the Caprice it was after 5 and the drawings at the main stage were being done with.

So my dad and I just found some friends, sat down and waited for the Tour to funnel out. We were there talking until 7:50 pm when they kicked us out!

It was an absolutely amazing day and I can't wait to do it again tomorrow.

Ryan
Hemipwr70@aol.com

To view all the pictures, go to this album.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hemipwr70/sets/72157605532998015/

Day One: The Drive North

2008-06-08T20:02:00.008-05:00

The beginning of a new adventure. I was about to embark on my first Hot Rod Power Tour.

My father and I were up by 7 am planning on hitting up the drivers meeting. I decided to skip that and get a jump on the driving.

We got all packed up, and shot out of Little Rock around 8 am and headed north.

We weren't the only ones who had the same idea. Heading up I-40 we were in a group of about a dozen Power Tour guys and gals. We all were cruising along at the speed limit. We passed a bunch of people though, my dad and I could hear that they had some steep gears and were trying to keep the RPM's down. We felt bad for them as we passed by.

Today was an absolutely amazing trip. Going through he Ozarks was absolutely beautiful. There were hills and mountains. Living in Illinois you grow to appreciate un-level ground!

The Caprice had no major problems on the route. I was I had gone through the tranny and done a few more upgrades. But I can only do so much in one week. She ran cool, didn't hesitate going up and down those hills.

We decided to take our time though, we stopped along the way at a fruit stand in the mountains for some fresh apples and peaches. Watched the classic cars go by. We jumped back on the route and headed back down the mountain.

This is where it became truly sad when we passed through the area that had recently been levelled by a tornado just a few weeks earlier. The destruction was incredible. Everything was levelled. There was no homes or trees, just some sort of silo that was laying on its side. I was saddened to see that, I had seen some horrible things in the past year, and this just made the list.

Next we went through Branson, MO which I heard is where famous people from the past go in the twilight years of their career. We decided not to indulge our curiosity of who was there and continued on our way.

We were cruising with a bunch of Corvettes for a while and a Nomad. We pulled into Springfield, MO around noon and got into line to get into the park. We were a bit ahead of the rest of the group, we got a spot right in the middle of the vendors area.

The vendors were still setting up when we parked. We grabbed our Power Tour passes and began going through and seeing what Springfield had for us.

There were some crazy cars at this stop. It turned out to be a absolutely beautiful day and the turnout was great. All of the parking lots and fields that I saw were full of cars.

I am Mopar bias, but tried to grab a variety of pictures. I walked the entire thing and then went back and just chilled with some of my friends for a few hours, watching the cars come in.

The show started winding down after the drawing at 6, so our group waited for the traffic to start to thin before we headed out.

I had the craving for Sonic, I hadn't had a Sonic burger in years since my time at Western Illinois University and desperately wanted one, so that's where we went for dinner and no one was disappointed. Nothing better then a Sonic Burger on a hungry stomach.

After getting Sonic I just happened to find a Frozen Custard place, so we stopped by there real quick. It looked like a classic ice cream drive in. It was good too.

We parted company for the night and my dad and I headed back to our hotel where I met up with some more gearheads and we began talking and were talking up until a few minutes ago.

Tomorrow looks to be another amazing day, but there is a possibility of rain. So it should be interesting.

To see all of the pictures, please go here. Thanks

Ryan
HemiPwr70@aol.com

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hemipwr70/sets/72157605508255353/

Power Tour Day 0.... getting there is half the battle!

2008-06-07T20:36:00.004-05:00

Well the adventure began today! At 4 am I got up and finished loading everything up in the Caprice. After working on her the past few days she was ready to go.

I went and picked my father up and we headed out at 5 am. Leaving Chicago was quite interesting with fog and the sun just coming up. We hopped up to I-57 and headed south west. I didn't get much sleep the night before so I took a quick nap en route.

After an hour it got bad. The rain started coming down hard, the windshield wipers could barely keep up. We went from cruising at 75 mph down to 40 mph. that lasted for about half an hour until we drove through it.

We needed gas and so we pulled into a gas station off of I-57. It was almost completely under water. There were a few stalls still open and not under water. So we pulled into the good stall. Of course a semi had to drive next to our stall and send a nice wave right at up. We quickly moved out of the way and continued on our way.

Not much happened after that. We ran into a few Power Tour participants en route. Some joined out little caravan, others we just passed by.

The car had no problems. It was nice cruising without the air on until about 2 pm when the humidity became a real killer. So the windows were closed and the air came on, and no problems.

Once we got onto I-55 there was nothing much going on. We pulled over and had lunch somewhere on I-55.

It was nice drive, but I was thankful to get it over with. 10 hours straight was enough for me. We pulled in with a group of about a dozen cars and made our way into the fair grounds.

Made our way into the fair grounds and checked in at the hot rod trailer. After you sign in you go and park the car anywhere in the show area. We actually ran into a group of friends from Chicago that had left even earlier then us.

We all parked together and began hitting up the different vendors and getting free schwag. We I get to the GM Performance booth and I lose my pass to get free stuff.

At least Linda Vaughn was there.

The weather was HOT. We were sweating all over the place and I was without sunscreen. I really regret it now.

The park started closing up around 5:30 pm so my father and I made our way to the hotel where we just crashed (figuratively). And here I sit completely wiped out and barely able to move. But I'm ready for another day!

Here's the link to ALL of the Day 0 pictures.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hemipwr70/sets/72157605494646885/

Ryan

In the Beginning

2008-06-01T21:34:00.002-05:00

In the beginning I had grandiose ideas about getting my 71 Challenger going for the Hot Rod Power Tour. That is all I could think about for weeks and weeks as my graduation neared, I was going to have time on weekends to work on the old girl. Well that fell apart real quick.

As my graduation present my parents were going to pay for the gas and the hotel accommodations for the entire tour, I just had to get a vehicle ready to go and I wanted my Challenger among all others. I had my 88 Caprice Classic Brougham in storage that could be readied fairly quickly as a backup.

As the weeks passed by, it became apparent that I couldn't get the Challenger done in time. So I pulled the Caprice out of storage last Wednesday and began to get her ready for the Tour.

First thing first was a fresh tank of gas, air up the tires and take her for a little drive. Which lead me to the first problem, time for new tires.

My father has a friend whom he gets his tires from, and has been getting tires from for 40 years. The old Goodyear Eagle GA's were good, but I was able to get some nice BFGoodrich Radial T/A's for the old girl. Same as on my Challenger.

This week I will do a tune up, and a buff and wax on her. Then Friday we leave for the tour.

The old project... which I hope to complete this summer.

Ryan
HemiPwr70@aol.com