We took place in the Illinois Secretary of State Vehicle show again this year, for the third year in a row. That is to say, Kevin entered three vehicles and I drove the Thing there and back plus I mostly sat in a folding chair and attempted to not melt from the heat. Because yes, it was hot, and there was all that blacktop…here we are with Kevin’s friend and fellow 114th Regiment comrade, Derek, who drove the Cadillac. That job had been assigned to Glenn the other years, but Glenn wasn’t available this year and Derek was more than happy to step in. He’s another car-loving guy.
Kevin had bought me a black “Thing” t-shirt and I decided to wear it even though it was black and I figured I’d be a little toasty. I was correct. Randy also participated, with his Fiat, and he took this picture of me in front of this very very cool convertible Cadillac which was nearby.
Kevin won first place again with his BMW motorcycle, but there were only two motorcycles entered this year, and the other one was an American model.
There weren’t nearly as many participants this year, nor as many spectators. Maybe there weren’t so many people looking at cars because of the heat, and maybe there weren’t as many people participating because it didn’t seem quite as organized this year. Kevin never got a confirmation that he’d entered his vehicles, for example. Here are some judges, judging the Caddy. They did seem to have a full complement of judges anyway.
We were there from start to finish, and the guy who started reading the winners didn’t have a good microphone and we could not hear him at all from where we were sitting. Also, they didn’t have a list of the categories this year, so we had no idea which category was called first – and it was Kevin, with his first-place motorcycle!
The only reason we knew he’d won was because Derek who is younger with young, just faintly heard the announcement. Kevin rushed to the presentation area and I only got a picture as he was already leaving.
They got a new microphone and a much louder announcer so we had time to hear that Kevin won third place for the Cadillac. Third place, he was robbed! I bet the Caddy in the picture above got a higher award, and there was at least one other dazzling one there. Oh well.
Time for the Thing – and Kevin won Third Place this time. Dang. Some gold-colored dune buggy won First, and it wasn’t even a proper VW, just some kit car placed on top of a VW motor. But Kevin was glad for this guy, Robert, who won 2nd, who has a VW bug painted like a “Fokker” airplane. Anthony Fokker was a German who had a huge airline company and his military planes were used extensively in WWI.
Not so many photos at this year’s car show – I’ve been trying to encourage Kevin to enter the huge Route 66 show next year. We went to that one a couple of weeks ago and there were more vehicles there than we’d ever remembered. Maybe they did it because of the Route 66 Anniversary.
The great thing about the show, IMO, was that the weather was ideal.
And now it’s already October as the year continues to plunge forward at an alarming speed…
Ok then,
Mrs. Fall Hughes.