SUNDAY 6/20/2004 - Father’s Day - it's Sunday and we didn’t start out too early. Back onto 80 East, outside of Winnemucca, Nevada we noticed all these big crickets crossing the road, miles and miles of them. As we came into Wendover, Nevada to have lunch, we saw a car show that was going on at the Rainbow Casino’s parking lot. Checked out some of the cars, had lunch and headed into Wendover, Utah, just across the street, and into Mountain Time. Just outside of the city limits, east on 80, the salt flats start. Miles and miles of white! Now we had Streetrods running with us, and passing us, all the way to Salt Lake City, Utah. We dropped off of 80 East onto a small road that cut southeast, across the Salt Lake Basin to 15 South; the speed limit is 75mph here for everyone! We are starting to see some mountains again. At 50/70 we went east again. At Salina, Utah we got a room at the Super 8 for the night. At 10pm it still warm outside and there are lots of people walking around and using their cell phones! So was I! 572 miles today

MONDAY 6/21/2004 - We started out at 7am, but the sun is well up. We headed east on 50/70; the highway has big signs to tell you to watch out for Deer and Elk. Now that the forest and the mountains have started again, we have seen deer along the road and even saw some elk in a meadow with a heard of buffalo. The highway goes thru the Fishlake National Forest. The cliffs have red rock structures slicing sideway then up and down. The formations are the results of Mother Nature pushing and pulling the earths crust! The rain started with big drops as we entered the Coal Cliffs Plateau. It wasn’t hard, just steady. You can see the black coal running thru them. In-between Green River, UT and Grand Junction, CO, the plateaus are a beautiful red and at Moab, UT, there is the Arches National Park. The park is on a side road that loops off, and back, onto highway 50/70. There are many large national parks here in Utah. The Green River and the Colorado Rivers formed the Canyonlands National Park, as well as, The Orange Cliffs and Cataract Canyon, which, is the start of Lake Powell. This is also a great place to see dinosaur fosses, 10 miles west of Grand Junction, CO in the small town of Fruita; there is the Dinosaur Journey Museum. I’ve been there before and stopped again. They have animated dinosaur, skeletons and a display of how earthquakes happen, with pictures of damaged buildings; boy was I surprised to see pictures of some of Watsonville’s damage from the last quake. Great gift shop too! I bought a local cookbook, “The Headless Chicken, Mike,” now that’s another story! On to Grand Junction, the elevation is 4,497 ft. Highway 50 and 70 split here, 50 goes southeast and this is the one we took. The next big town is Montrose, who’s elevation is 5,806 ft. and it’s really uphill now into the Rocky Mountains, in 30 miles, at Gunnison, it’s 7,703 ft. and in 37 miles, at Monarch Pass, it’s 11,312 ft. then it’s down and down to Pueblo’s 4695 ft. It was raining going over the pass and it snowed there over night. Glad we had already gone over. The highway from Salida to the Royal Gorge follows the Arkansas River, and they have raft rides over the rapids here. The Arkansas River flows into Lake Pueblo, were the NSRA kick off party is held. It stopped raining by the time we got to out hotel. 572 miles today

TUESDAY 6/22/2004 - It’s warmer than yesterday’s 50 but still overcast. Our friends, Tony Armijo and Jim Plese both, call this morning and met Al for breakfast. After we went to check out Tony’s new Street Rod shop, this one is in old town. He combined his artwork and his street rod customizing into one location. The old town area, like lots of towns now days, is being renovated and made into a tourist area. The river walk along the Arkansas River is very nice and just a block from the shop it’s on a corner, and has good access from the front, both sides and an alley in the back. His artwork is in the front on one side and the rest is for the cars. We took a drive to Colorado Springs to So-Cal Speed Shop. As we were leaving, we saw a Hudson, setting along side a body shop. Just had to take some pictures of it to send to Steve! Then back to Pueblo to do some shopping and rest!

WEDNESDAY 6/23/2004 - Today was the time to clean the truck, trailer and the Vicky. The sun was shining and it was a nice day. We unloaded the Vicky and drove it to Tony's shop. I took some pictures of the building to make business cards for him. Then, we drove over to Jim’s house, to put the Vicky in his garage. He lives on the way to the fairgrounds, so it will be easier to get there. We cleaned some more or I should say Al did, getting ready for a cruise-in. The Saturn Dealership held an open house cruise-in for street rods and had a BBQ, radio station and a raffle. After that we went to Tony’s house and visited for a while. Now it’s time to head back and get ready for tomorrow.
 

THURSDAY 6/24/2004 - Today we checked over the Vicky so we can put it thru the NSRA Safety inspection tomorrow or the next. Registration started today at the Pueblo Convention Center. The Convention Center is only a few blocks from Tony’s shop, so we went by they’re first, then over and got our packet. The Pueblo Chamber of Commerce had a kickoff party and dinner, at Lake Pueblo State Park at the Rock Canyon Swim Beach. The drive out to the lake doesn’t take very long and it’s well worth the trip! The background for taking pictures is so different. After walking around the parking lot, looking at the cars, we went in and had dinner and listened to the band and visited with friends we haven’t seen for a year. Ben West, who sold us our Champion Luggage Trailer, in Okalahoma City at the NSRA show was at the party, setting with a couple we had just meet at Tony’s shop earlier in the day, what a coincidence! They were just walking around old town and saw the street rods setting outside, and came in to look and they had on t-shirts from the Frog Follies Rod Run, and I started talking to them. Till today, they didn’t know any of us. After the party we went back to Jim’s for a while and then over to the Marriott Hotel to look at the cars and visit. There were 5 or 6 roadsters parked in front, from Florida, and they were on the way back home, from the LA Roadster Show! And, they were driving them!! The weather held out for us today, 82, mostly clear, just a few clouds. You could see some dark clouds in the west, but it didn’t rain on any of us today like forecasted. Tomorrow should be the same.

FRIDAY 6/25/2004 - The fairgrounds opened today for the show. Took the Vicky to the Safety Inspection first thing, this morning, and the high beam lights didn't work. We had checked all the lights yesterday, in every combination we could and they all worked. After we spent the day at the show we went back to the garage and found the dimmer switch was bad. The parts house didn’t have one just like ours, but we made it work. There are lots of really nice cars here. Everyone sure likes the color on the Vicky. And they all want to know, “What color is it?” The dance at the fairgrounds had a good band playing and it was a nice evening after the rain shower this afternoon. Tonight was the last night for the B Street block party, which is just two blocks from Tony’s shop, on D Street and Union. All the restaurants have outside seating and you can see, or at least hear the performers. You got in free with your street rod buttons. After dark there was a fireworks display that you could see from all over town.

SATURDAY 6/26/2004 - The fairgrounds were very full today. As we drove around to find a place we could park, we saw the UPS truck display, and they were weighting cars, so we pulled in and the Vicky weighted 3,580lb. I was taking pictures or the Vicky next to the UPS truck and they told us we could park there if we liked. I got some real good pictures of the Flamed truck and the Vicky. The House of Colors rep came by and talked to us, he said Jerry did a great job on the paint, and he couldn’t believe it was his first time painting that kind of paint. It clouded up and rained just as we put the Vicky up for the night, then it dried up and all the rods came back out. We have three parties to go to tonight, Tony had one at his house, Jim had one, and one at the fairgrounds. I couldn’t believe how many cars and people were at the fairgrounds. It didn’t make any difference that it was wet and cool, not cold, just cool. They cruised the fairgrounds till after 11pm.

A very special THANK YOU goes out to Mary for taking the time to send us this journal of their trip.  We love "riding" along and seeing the country with them.  Can't wait for the next one!  To "ride" along on some of their previous trips click here.