Well its getting close for the Hot Orama Car Show in Anderson, CA.  We are leaving Thursday morn, taking the 40.  See you there.

PS, go to the events calendar and the web site for this event is there   4/27-30, 06

Update    6/14/06

At organizer Joe’s request while showing his ’36 Plymouth sedan delivery at our RVSR Rod &Custom Show last Feb. we were encouraged to attend his fairly new (3rd year) event in Anderson, Ca. at the end of April. While attending the Kool April Nites Show in Redding, Ca. we drove down the I 5 and scouted out Anderson. It has a really old, small down town area consisting of buildings erected from the turn of the century that have obviously endured many business changes over the years and elapsed into a myriad of thrift shops, 2nd hand outlets, feed stores, (it is generally a farming community) handi-marts and boarded up places. On the south end is a new strip mall with several Outlet Stores making up most if the tenancy, a couple of fast food shops and a ‘Scrap-booking Store’!!! Needless to say, we had to visit it, I had time enough to visit all the other places while Charlotte examined every aisle and filled 2 baskets of ‘must-have’ items. Just across the street and adjacent to the south end freeway off ramp, we registered rooms for the Hot-Orama dates at a new Ameri-Host hotel. It is a new building, nice large bright rooms, a large pool and spa in front and lots of parking next to our rooms in back.
On the north end, the huge fairgrounds dominate the area west of the freeway and the railway tracks that like a lot of old American towns, runs right through the middle of the city. Along with several open pole buildings, horse stalls, an administration building and a dirt oval race track there are 3 or4 large steel clad buildings surrounded by paved parking lots and separated by nice grassy open spaces. For such a small community, it is a very nice and well laid out facility that appears to get a lot of use.


We arrived on Thursday, April 28th and went straight to the site. After a short wait while they checked out our entry, we were shown where our inside space was located in the 1st building. Due to all the wire fencing gates being locked, we had to unload the car in the parking lot ad drive it around several buildings to get to the back entrance of the one we wanted. We also had to unload all the display material into the truck to get it to the back door of the same building. It was not as convenient as some of the other shows we’ve attended and I was thankful for the new hand truck I brought with me. I was appreciative for Butch Steele’s help. Since the recent changes to our display and having assembled it a few times now, it all went together in a couple of hours. We did a quick clean-up of the car and headed for the hotel to check-in.

This show was well attended and boasted over 250 vehicles of all description including mostly rods and customs, vintage, rat rods, bikes, boats, tractors and 10 ton trucks!!! The Volkswagon Club, the PT Cruiser Club, the Corvette Club and several local area car clubs filled the grounds for the weekend and the special interest vehicles and displays were located in the 3 indoor buildings. Other attractions included bands, a swap meet, burn-outs, a show’n glow and a pancake breakfast. There was also a nice cross section of vendors lining the entrance to the main show..we were able to get some custom Ford pins made up of our cars and also bought a swell all purpose wax and detail kit at a reasonable rate from another vendor.

Friday evening, we picked up some take-out and found a shady place to park while we watched all the participants cruising through Anderson. Unlike Redding where rain was pre-dominent most of that weekend, the temperature here was in the 90′s all day, every day. On Saturday evening, we visited with Kent and Terri Bruce at their home then joined the Pini’s, the Steele’s and 3 or 4 other couples at the RV site to share Dan’s birthday cake. The spectator attendance was heavy both days and many sought the shade and coolness indoors so again we met some old friends and made new ones as well.

About 2pm, class and award winners were lined up at the east end of the far building and paraded past the spectator stands along one side. A good number of 1st 2nd and 3rd place trophies were doled out to every class as the recipients drove down the red carpeted aisle to the cheers of a large crowd. From our observations, it appeared the show was a successful venture for the organizers and the Anderson community and we enjoyed most of the show, the friendship and the beautiful weather. Our only concerns at this event were the inability to park closer to our space for both loading and unloading, the judged awarding of so many trophies to the same vehicle for some features they didn’t have and the lack of any thank you or appreciation for our attendance. But new events go through growing pains and hopefully the organizers will continue to make this show better in the future.