Me in the pilot's seat. We drove down in my van, called Chevy Van Ugly by my daughter. In fairness, it was ugly [Van Ugly is no longer with us]- a 1979 Chevy, one of the early Southern Comfort conversion vans, a band of paint around the middle had horribly faded and oxidized, and looked awful, and the air conditioning had sprung a leak, and so was not working. This day was a typical Alabama 90/90 day (90 degrees, 90% humidity), and the travel was kinda warm.

These guys from Canadian Classics magazine came along from Vancouver, BC, Canada, in this righteous Nova.

Gas stops could be a real hassle, with cars spread out over about 100 miles...

You can't really read it here, but the bottom line on this roadside sign says "Panama City Beach - 104". After 2 hours in non-air-conditioned Van Ugly, it looked good to us. The object on the front of the van is my beater bicycle. The women were not going to the rod run, and I took the bike along for my own transportation, so the women could have the van for their running around. Turned out to be A Good Thing; Front Beach Road was jammed, what with the usual summer traffic plus the hot rod melee. I traveled faster than the cars...

Destination at last! Van Ugly in the hotel parking lot on arrival.

Here it is, folks. The coast. PC Beach. The Sugar Sands. The Redneck Riviera. I took this looking east, across the street from the park where the Tour set up. I rode to the park Friday evening to see what was going on. The stage was being set up, along with the vendors and sponsors.

Sunsets like this almost make it all worthwhile...

Saturday morning, my daughter wanted one more walk on the beach, and then:













On to the show!