Rogue Valley Street Rods

All during the winter, we received emails advertising this show from Rick Perry, show promoter that made us want to go due to all the features he’d aligned for the event. Due to other commitments, our attendance last year and costs, we decided not to go.
About 2 weeks prior to the show date, pal Ray Dalke called and invited me to accompany him and help show his beautiful ’41 Ford Carson topped convertible. The car comes with a lot of history, originally built by Gene Winfield of LA and the Carson was the first built by Sam Foose in Gene’s shop. It is painted Porche India Red with subtle tan pin-stripping, on air bags, nicely detailed and the leather interior and top is covered with material from the Rolls Royce plant in England.
We were to meet another friend, Larry Kline who I met at Blackie’s show last year, and stay in the host hotel, Embassy Suites (where we stayed last year). I jumped at the offer and packed my bags. We planned to leave on Tuesday the 17th but as the Siskyou Pass was snowed in and chains required through Dunsmuir, Ca. (why would anyone want to live there, either pouring rain, sleeting ice, snowy and chains required to travel??? We put our departure off to the next day. Good decision too.

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RVSR show promo cruise  ’09 Rod & Custom Show All City Cruise

At a previous Comm. Mtg. Troy suggested we get some club members to bring their cars to a pre-arranged site, equip them with magnetic door signs and cruise through the neighboring communities to promote the show. Even
though all attending agreed it was a new idea and worth a try, the weather would be the deciding factor. From the beginning of this week, the outlook was for rain and more rain, so most of us forgot the plan.

Wednesday morning my phone rang and it was Diane  (you remember her, the ‘Guiding Light’ of the ‘Deuce Day Runs’ hosted by her and significant other, Scotty) calling to tell us to get our car out, our jackets on and we’re goin’ cruisin’!!! For the next 2 hours, I prepped the car, loaded it and our dog cage, put their jackets on (cause the top was down and I never raise it un-less it rains) while Charlotte primped and preened, donned her fur coat then red hat and gloves (thin Ca. blood eh?). It was a balmy 62F. not a cloud in the blue azure sky as we drove over to Pilot to fill up. By 2pm, we had 8 cars in the Expo lot ready to run.

Al  brought his ’37 Ford Cab., Don & Jan  in their ’32 Ford sedan, Roy & Katy  in a ’39 Ford coupe, Troy in his ’52 Chev p/u, Dan & Jean  in their ’32 Ford cab., Herb  in his ’40 Ford coupe, Scott & Diane  in their ’48 Ford coupe and Charlotte and I in our ‘46 Ford (top down) conv. Just after 2pm, Scotty lead us over to Central Point and we tooled slowly ( you have to due to several lights and crosswalks) down the main street to Hwy.99. Here we turned left to follow it all the way to the Rogue Valley Mall. We slowly motored around the perimeter lanes, waving at the people we passed and yelled out our mission.

From here, we went over to the Medford Center, did the same circuitous route around all the stores there and headed for downtown Medford. Turning south we again followed old 99 and took a left into the Winco strip mall. All along the way, we were cheered by onlookers with ‘thumbs-up’s, waves, hoots and a lot of toots from passing vehicles. A left on Barnett took us all the way out to the Larson Center for a well deserved ‘Pit-stop’ not only for our crew but also all the pups on board.

From here, we cruised down a back route into Phoenix and turned onto the freeway south. At the last Ashland exit our entourage slowly made a trek through that town with a short stop at a Safeway parking lot. It was a good place for those caught by the lights to catch up. Char and I were met by a local who ran up and was so excited with our ride as it was the same as the 1st car he had ever owned, even the colors were identical. We had a nice chat and then all of us proceeded north through downtown Ashland, up the old 99
2.
to Talent, on to Phoenix, into south Medford and all the way to north Medford to ‘Jaspers Diner’ where owner John was waiting for us. This small roadside burger joint who caters to car guys, serves a great array of Ca. style fare, offers daily specials, uses only quality foods…was ready to give our gang a discounted dinner of ‘Gourmet Burgers’, fries, 16oz. drink, with all the trimming’s at a $5 price. Char and I had Bacon/cheese burgers and they were delicious.
By the time all of us had downed our dinners, it was time to say ‘Ta-Ta’, thank John (one of our major show sponsors) and call it another day in the actions of the RVSR street rodder club.

This month’s newsletter has some very interesting articles. [ View ]