By Joann M. Ringelstetter
Photos in this blog post can be purchased as wall art, paper prints, downloads, phone cases, and keepsakes. Just click on the desired photo and look for the blue “BUY” button.
On September 17, 2016, I finally found the time to attend the Annual Hill and Valley Antique Auto & Americana Show in Cross Plains, Wisconsin, which was in its 33rd year. The day was quite warm and sunny, so the lighting was harsh as soon as the sun came up.
The antique cars and trucks were parked across the grass of the ball field at Baer Park, so photo backgrounds were cluttered. But there were a few vehicles parked outside the ball field, like this beautiful blue 1945 Chevy BT Pickup Truck.
Around 9:30, car owners began to line up their vintage cars in preparation for the Hill & Valley Auto Tour, a 22-mile, one hour drive through the hills and valleys outside Cross Plains. I was still down on the ball field looking at a 1931 Ford Model A Coupe, owned by a man named Rives. He told me that he needed to move his car into the line-up and then he offered to let me ride along in the rumble seat of his car.
That sounded like it would be fun, but I had driven the route earlier that morning and had selected a great spot to photograph all the old cars as they passed by. So I thanked him for the offer and told him to watch for me out on the road.
In the line-up was a 1929 Ford Model A Tudor Sheriff's Car. I had a nice chat with the owners of this car.
Also in the line-up was a 1930 Ford Model A used in the filming of the 2009 Movie "Public Enemies,” starring Johnny Depp as Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger.
I quickly snapped a few photos of the line-up of old cars and then hurried to my car so I could drive out into the countryside and position myself to capture photos of all the cars as they enjoyed their Hill & Valley Tour.
The drivers and riders all seemed to be having a great time, with smiles on their faces as they motored along.
Some of the cars, like this 1919 Ford Model T, were roadsters with the top down, and the people smiled and waved as they drove past me.
Last weekend, I attended the Hill & Valley Antique Auto Show for the second time. Once again, it was a warm and very sunny day.
This year, I wasn’t able to get out in the countryside to photograph the cars on the Hill & Valley Auto Tour, but I did capture some nice shots as they lined up and took off on their drive.
The Hill & Valley Antique Auto & Americana Show takes place every year in mid-September in Cross Plains, Wisconsin. If you get a chance, it’s a fun way to spend the day. And, who knows, maybe someone will offer you a ride in their rumble seat!
To see all the photos from the 2016 show, go to our Hill & Valley Antique Auto Show 2016
gallery on the Shunpiking to Heaven photo galleries website.
To see all the photos from the 2017 show, go to our Hill & Valley Antique Auto Show 2017
gallery on the Shunpiking to Heaven photo galleries website.
Photos in this blog post can be purchased as wall art, paper prints, downloads, phone cases, and keepsakes by clicking on the photo. You will be taken to the gallery website where you will see a big blue "BUY" button. Or to see all photos available, click on the "Browse Galleries" button on the menu at the top of this page. Thank you for your interest!
Happy Shunpiking!
Joann
Shunpiking To Heaven Backroads Blog
Showing posts with label cars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cars. Show all posts
Sunday, September 24, 2017
Thursday, December 1, 2016
It’s an Edsel!
By Ruth A. Ringelstetter
In the back of my mind, I knew that Edsel was a very rare make of car, so when I was doing research for our trips and saw a picture of an old Edsel dealership sign, I knew we had to try and find it.
The first Edsel models were introduced on September 4, 1957 for the model year 1958. The last model year was 1960 when only 2,846 cars were produced. Ford announced the end of the Edsel program on November 19, 1959. In total, only 118,287 Edsels were built. The company lost $350 million, and the Edsel became best known for being a marketing disaster.
Our first opportunity to look for the sign came in 2013 on a trip to Ohio. This was the same trip where I was overly ambitious in planning our stops driving to Ohio. When we look at the collection of photos, it is spectacular, but knowing that I practically wore poor Joann out on the first day of our trip, I know better than to plan that many stops on our travels to and from our chosen photography state. (Or at least I try to keep it lighter. I can’t say I’m always successful, but in my defense, sometimes I say we’ll get a couple of things in town, and Joann is the one who wants to look up more things.)
It was the morning of day 2 when we finally hit the town where I thought the Edsel sign was located. The problem is, even if it really was in town, I had no idea in what part of town. We found the downtown and started there. No luck. We went down my list of other locations around town, driving east and west, and north and south down the major roads. Still, no luck. We photographed other things as we stumbled on them.
Whenever Joann got out of the car to photograph something else, she asked anyone on the street if they knew of the sign. No one did.
We ended up back downtown, and Joann was just saying that she thought it was getting too late and that we had to leave without it, when a man mowing lawn across the street from where we were parked turned off his mower. She said she would ask him and if he didn’t know, we’d have to leave town without it.
But he thought he knew! He gave Joann directions, telling her that he apologized if he was sending us on a wild goose chase. But, he was right! We had been one block over from it, driving north on a one way street. Luckily, after Joann took photos of both sides of the sign, we could leave and continue on our way. (And only about three hours behind schedule.)
Now the problem was, we didn’t have an Edsel car to include in the story about finding the sign. Every time we saw old cars, Joann checked for an Edsel. Considering that they were only made for 3 model years, they are very rare and we never found one.
Then, just this fall, as we were driving around Sauk County, Wisconsin, Joann suddenly pulled over. I was looking down at the map, so I hadn’t even seen a photo opportunity. As she got out of the car to get her camera equipment, I asked what I had missed, and she said there was an old blue car, and she was running back to photograph it.
After a few minutes, she came back to the car and excitedly said “Guess what kind of car that was!” I said, “I have no idea,” since I hadn’t even seen a car at all, to which she replied “It’s an Edsel!”
Hopefully, this will be one of those things where, now that we’ve seen one, we’ll see more of them. (One can hope!)
Happy Shunpiking!
Ruth
In the back of my mind, I knew that Edsel was a very rare make of car, so when I was doing research for our trips and saw a picture of an old Edsel dealership sign, I knew we had to try and find it.
The first Edsel models were introduced on September 4, 1957 for the model year 1958. The last model year was 1960 when only 2,846 cars were produced. Ford announced the end of the Edsel program on November 19, 1959. In total, only 118,287 Edsels were built. The company lost $350 million, and the Edsel became best known for being a marketing disaster.
Our first opportunity to look for the sign came in 2013 on a trip to Ohio. This was the same trip where I was overly ambitious in planning our stops driving to Ohio. When we look at the collection of photos, it is spectacular, but knowing that I practically wore poor Joann out on the first day of our trip, I know better than to plan that many stops on our travels to and from our chosen photography state. (Or at least I try to keep it lighter. I can’t say I’m always successful, but in my defense, sometimes I say we’ll get a couple of things in town, and Joann is the one who wants to look up more things.)
It was the morning of day 2 when we finally hit the town where I thought the Edsel sign was located. The problem is, even if it really was in town, I had no idea in what part of town. We found the downtown and started there. No luck. We went down my list of other locations around town, driving east and west, and north and south down the major roads. Still, no luck. We photographed other things as we stumbled on them.
Whenever Joann got out of the car to photograph something else, she asked anyone on the street if they knew of the sign. No one did.
We ended up back downtown, and Joann was just saying that she thought it was getting too late and that we had to leave without it, when a man mowing lawn across the street from where we were parked turned off his mower. She said she would ask him and if he didn’t know, we’d have to leave town without it.
But he thought he knew! He gave Joann directions, telling her that he apologized if he was sending us on a wild goose chase. But, he was right! We had been one block over from it, driving north on a one way street. Luckily, after Joann took photos of both sides of the sign, we could leave and continue on our way. (And only about three hours behind schedule.)
Now the problem was, we didn’t have an Edsel car to include in the story about finding the sign. Every time we saw old cars, Joann checked for an Edsel. Considering that they were only made for 3 model years, they are very rare and we never found one.
Then, just this fall, as we were driving around Sauk County, Wisconsin, Joann suddenly pulled over. I was looking down at the map, so I hadn’t even seen a photo opportunity. As she got out of the car to get her camera equipment, I asked what I had missed, and she said there was an old blue car, and she was running back to photograph it.
After a few minutes, she came back to the car and excitedly said “Guess what kind of car that was!” I said, “I have no idea,” since I hadn’t even seen a car at all, to which she replied “It’s an Edsel!”
Hopefully, this will be one of those things where, now that we’ve seen one, we’ll see more of them. (One can hope!)
Happy Shunpiking!
Ruth
Sunday, August 26, 2012
H-m-m-m-m-m. Beep! Beep! Toot! Toot!
By James (the Long, Dark, and Handsome Buick)
Hi, I’m James and I thought you might enjoy hearing a little bit about the newest member of Joann’s family. I was hoping Joann might showcase me sooner, but she hasn’t, so I decided to do it myself.
She drove me off the dealership lot right before Christmas and she was eager to take me out for some backroads photography. However, it didn’t snow for several weeks and (I hope I don’t get in trouble for this), but rather than revel in the joy of having a new vehicle, she kept talking about how much she missed Good Car. If you want to understand why, check out all the bragging Good Car did about herself in a previous blog post.
Towards the end of January, there was finally a chance to capture some snowy scenes, so we took off early one Sunday morning and headed towards one of their favorite abandoned churches. About halfway to the church, it began to lightly sleet, so they suggested that I move them along safely, which I did. When we arrived at the church, there was no place to park because the tractor lane where they usually park was plowed in. So Joann parked me on the road and put my flashers on. If you look closely in the photo above, you will see me down the road from the church.
It was sleeting more heavily as Joann finished taking photos of the church, so they decided that they’d better start heading towards home. However, not wanting to go home with just a few photographs, they decided to make two stops on the way home. The first was a chapel designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. When Joann got out to photograph it, she realized (after some flashing on my part) that the entire front of me, including my headlights, was coated in ice.
The final stop was to be Hyde’s Mill, which would be reached by traveling numerous backroads, some of which had steep embankments instead of shoulders. I could tell that Joann was getting a bit nervous, but I showed her that my big Michelin tires were pretty trustworthy and we arrived safely at the mill. Joann quickly took a few photos, hopped back in and said, “Home, James!”
In March, Joann and Ruth began talking about taking a 10-day trip to Ohio and I couldn’t wait to hit the open road. But I had to wait several weeks before we could actually leave. And, in the meantime, you wouldn’t believe all the fuss they were making about how to load me up. What was the big deal, anyway? Okay, so maybe I don’t have all the little compartments and nooks and crannies that Good Car had. But I thought that would prevent them from taking so much junk along. Alas, I thought wrong. For some reason, they think they need all that stuff. But I’m much longer than Good Car was and my cargo compartment can hold way more than she could ever have hoped to carry.
However, that meant that they couldn’t just load the compartment in the same way as they did with Good Car (you know, a place for everything and everything in its place). So, if you can believe this, they actually had a dry run of loading me up with everything the weekend before we left. I was all loaded up with nowhere to go. Sigh.
Finally, we hit the road and then the fun began. Ruth spent an awful lot of time with her nose in her research materials and saying to Joann, “Keep your eyes peeled.” It seems to work for them, but it sounds awfully painful. And speaking of research materials, Good Car was bragging about carrying a 40-lb. bag of research materials in her back seat, but that bag weighs a lot more than 40 pounds. And then, since I have so much more cargo space, Ruth brought along a large box overflowing with two additional stacks of research materials. But I knew I could handle it.
The first day we photographed our way across Illinois. The second day we photographed our way across Indiana. On the third day, we started some really serious photography in Ohio. They had me out on the road for about 14 hours each day. But I don’t mind because I get to see all sorts of great things and we stop for meals at some really nice places, like the covered bridge above.
One morning, we stopped for breakfast by an old church and cemetery. Joann asked Ruth to get breakfast ready while she “hurried” to photograph the cemetery. I now know that she can easily lose track of time in cemeteries and this was no exception. After about an hour had passed, Ruth began talking to herself, or maybe she was asking me, “Is she ever going to come back? We have so much to photograph today.” Finally, out of desperation, Ruth tooted my horn in hopes it would bring Joann running, but she didn’t come. When she eventually returned to the car, Ruth asked her if she had heard the horn and she said she hadn’t. Either she didn’t yet recognize that beautiful sound I can make or she was so engrossed in her photography that she tuned it out.
Speaking of sounds, I have a lot more I can and do make. At the start of the trip, both Joann and Ruth were annoyed by all the beeping I do. Then Ruth told Joann that it sounded like I was playing a harmonica. Joann couldn’t seem to hear it. Then Ruth said, “Well, maybe it’s more like a tuning fork or a pitch pipe.” Finally Joann said she heard it, too. So I decided to add a few more sounds, like tooting and whistling. And every time I do it, they start giggling. What’s the big deal? They never turn the radio on, so I have to entertain myself.
I’m not really an off-road vehicle, but sometimes they do take me off-road. On the sixth day of the trip, after a long and hard search, they finally found an old abandoned church they were looking for. They had even flagged down the local mail carrier to ask if she could help them. She gave them some directions, but said she wasn’t sure they were correct. They followed her directions and we did find the church. It was set way back from the road, so I took them in a ways until it got muddy and Joann was afraid to go any further.
Our most recent trip was just a week ago, and we left Joann’s house at 4 a.m. Joann said that she wanted to photograph Bethel Chapel in the one season they hadn’t – summer. Around 5:30, we arrived at the church and I carefully backed into the tractor lane. Joann then set up her tripod in the dark and waited for first light. When it got light enough to see my beautiful black body, she took my picture with the church in the background. Don’t I look awesome?! Okay, so it’s a picture of my rear end, but still, don’t I look great?!
They really tired me out that day. We were out for 16 hours, returning to Joann’s house at 8 p.m. They really know how to work a guy! But it was great fun and I can’t wait to hit the road again.
Happy Shunpiking!
James
Hi, I’m James and I thought you might enjoy hearing a little bit about the newest member of Joann’s family. I was hoping Joann might showcase me sooner, but she hasn’t, so I decided to do it myself.
She drove me off the dealership lot right before Christmas and she was eager to take me out for some backroads photography. However, it didn’t snow for several weeks and (I hope I don’t get in trouble for this), but rather than revel in the joy of having a new vehicle, she kept talking about how much she missed Good Car. If you want to understand why, check out all the bragging Good Car did about herself in a previous blog post.
Towards the end of January, there was finally a chance to capture some snowy scenes, so we took off early one Sunday morning and headed towards one of their favorite abandoned churches. About halfway to the church, it began to lightly sleet, so they suggested that I move them along safely, which I did. When we arrived at the church, there was no place to park because the tractor lane where they usually park was plowed in. So Joann parked me on the road and put my flashers on. If you look closely in the photo above, you will see me down the road from the church.
It was sleeting more heavily as Joann finished taking photos of the church, so they decided that they’d better start heading towards home. However, not wanting to go home with just a few photographs, they decided to make two stops on the way home. The first was a chapel designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. When Joann got out to photograph it, she realized (after some flashing on my part) that the entire front of me, including my headlights, was coated in ice.
The final stop was to be Hyde’s Mill, which would be reached by traveling numerous backroads, some of which had steep embankments instead of shoulders. I could tell that Joann was getting a bit nervous, but I showed her that my big Michelin tires were pretty trustworthy and we arrived safely at the mill. Joann quickly took a few photos, hopped back in and said, “Home, James!”
In March, Joann and Ruth began talking about taking a 10-day trip to Ohio and I couldn’t wait to hit the open road. But I had to wait several weeks before we could actually leave. And, in the meantime, you wouldn’t believe all the fuss they were making about how to load me up. What was the big deal, anyway? Okay, so maybe I don’t have all the little compartments and nooks and crannies that Good Car had. But I thought that would prevent them from taking so much junk along. Alas, I thought wrong. For some reason, they think they need all that stuff. But I’m much longer than Good Car was and my cargo compartment can hold way more than she could ever have hoped to carry.
However, that meant that they couldn’t just load the compartment in the same way as they did with Good Car (you know, a place for everything and everything in its place). So, if you can believe this, they actually had a dry run of loading me up with everything the weekend before we left. I was all loaded up with nowhere to go. Sigh.
Finally, we hit the road and then the fun began. Ruth spent an awful lot of time with her nose in her research materials and saying to Joann, “Keep your eyes peeled.” It seems to work for them, but it sounds awfully painful. And speaking of research materials, Good Car was bragging about carrying a 40-lb. bag of research materials in her back seat, but that bag weighs a lot more than 40 pounds. And then, since I have so much more cargo space, Ruth brought along a large box overflowing with two additional stacks of research materials. But I knew I could handle it.
The first day we photographed our way across Illinois. The second day we photographed our way across Indiana. On the third day, we started some really serious photography in Ohio. They had me out on the road for about 14 hours each day. But I don’t mind because I get to see all sorts of great things and we stop for meals at some really nice places, like the covered bridge above.
One morning, we stopped for breakfast by an old church and cemetery. Joann asked Ruth to get breakfast ready while she “hurried” to photograph the cemetery. I now know that she can easily lose track of time in cemeteries and this was no exception. After about an hour had passed, Ruth began talking to herself, or maybe she was asking me, “Is she ever going to come back? We have so much to photograph today.” Finally, out of desperation, Ruth tooted my horn in hopes it would bring Joann running, but she didn’t come. When she eventually returned to the car, Ruth asked her if she had heard the horn and she said she hadn’t. Either she didn’t yet recognize that beautiful sound I can make or she was so engrossed in her photography that she tuned it out.
Speaking of sounds, I have a lot more I can and do make. At the start of the trip, both Joann and Ruth were annoyed by all the beeping I do. Then Ruth told Joann that it sounded like I was playing a harmonica. Joann couldn’t seem to hear it. Then Ruth said, “Well, maybe it’s more like a tuning fork or a pitch pipe.” Finally Joann said she heard it, too. So I decided to add a few more sounds, like tooting and whistling. And every time I do it, they start giggling. What’s the big deal? They never turn the radio on, so I have to entertain myself.
I’m not really an off-road vehicle, but sometimes they do take me off-road. On the sixth day of the trip, after a long and hard search, they finally found an old abandoned church they were looking for. They had even flagged down the local mail carrier to ask if she could help them. She gave them some directions, but said she wasn’t sure they were correct. They followed her directions and we did find the church. It was set way back from the road, so I took them in a ways until it got muddy and Joann was afraid to go any further.
Our most recent trip was just a week ago, and we left Joann’s house at 4 a.m. Joann said that she wanted to photograph Bethel Chapel in the one season they hadn’t – summer. Around 5:30, we arrived at the church and I carefully backed into the tractor lane. Joann then set up her tripod in the dark and waited for first light. When it got light enough to see my beautiful black body, she took my picture with the church in the background. Don’t I look awesome?! Okay, so it’s a picture of my rear end, but still, don’t I look great?!
They really tired me out that day. We were out for 16 hours, returning to Joann’s house at 8 p.m. They really know how to work a guy! But it was great fun and I can’t wait to hit the road again.
Happy Shunpiking!
James
Sunday, March 27, 2011
You Might Be a Redneck
By Ruth A. Ringelstetter
Sometimes, when Joann and I finally make it to our motel during our photography trips, we look for something relaxing to watch on TV while we make our dinner and unload the day’s photos. Sometimes we’re lucky and we stumble on the Blue Collar Comedy Tour shows with Jeff Foxworthy. His “You Might Be a Redneck” jokes always make us laugh. Sometimes we remember something from our past or maybe something a relative has done comes to mind. And often we’re reminded of scenes we’ve seen along the backroads.
Here are a few of our favorites:
You might be a redneck if grass is growing in the floor boards of your car.
You might be a redneck if Friday night is “sneak into the drive-in night.”
You might be a redneck if you finally mow your front lawn and you find the pickup truck that you thought was stolen.
You might be a redneck if your bathroom is 50 feet away from your house.
You might be a redneck if taking your wife on a cruise means circling the Dairy Queen.
We often see humorous things along the way as we travel the backroads, so we’ve made up a few redneck jokes ourselves. Here they are:
You might be a redneck if you have to be told not to park on the sidewalk.
You might be a redneck if you need help aiming when you relieve yourself by the side of the road.
You might be a redneck if there’s a sign on your car that says “Honk if anything falls off.”
We often joke with our brother-in-law about being a redneck. Maybe he invites it by wearing shirts that say things like “PETA – People for the Eating of Tasty Animals.” Whatever the case, we always get a laugh out of it and he laughs right along with us.
Laughter is good for the soul, so when you’re out on the backroads, watch for those funny moments and scenes and laugh out loud.
Happy Shunpiking!
Ruth
Sometimes, when Joann and I finally make it to our motel during our photography trips, we look for something relaxing to watch on TV while we make our dinner and unload the day’s photos. Sometimes we’re lucky and we stumble on the Blue Collar Comedy Tour shows with Jeff Foxworthy. His “You Might Be a Redneck” jokes always make us laugh. Sometimes we remember something from our past or maybe something a relative has done comes to mind. And often we’re reminded of scenes we’ve seen along the backroads.
Here are a few of our favorites:
You might be a redneck if grass is growing in the floor boards of your car.
You might be a redneck if Friday night is “sneak into the drive-in night.”
You might be a redneck if you finally mow your front lawn and you find the pickup truck that you thought was stolen.
You might be a redneck if your bathroom is 50 feet away from your house.
You might be a redneck if taking your wife on a cruise means circling the Dairy Queen.
We often see humorous things along the way as we travel the backroads, so we’ve made up a few redneck jokes ourselves. Here they are:
You might be a redneck if you have to be told not to park on the sidewalk.
You might be a redneck if you need help aiming when you relieve yourself by the side of the road.
You might be a redneck if there’s a sign on your car that says “Honk if anything falls off.”
We often joke with our brother-in-law about being a redneck. Maybe he invites it by wearing shirts that say things like “PETA – People for the Eating of Tasty Animals.” Whatever the case, we always get a laugh out of it and he laughs right along with us.
Laughter is good for the soul, so when you’re out on the backroads, watch for those funny moments and scenes and laugh out loud.
Happy Shunpiking!
Ruth
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Rowdy and Rambo Take a Ride
By Joann M. Ringelstetter
One of the most interesting encounters I had on our recent trip to North Carolina was with a man and his dogs. It was our third day in North Carolina and we had just entered Alamance County. As we drove down a country road, we passed an old red and white Chevy automobile with a “For Sale” sign on it. It was early afternoon on a very sunny day, so the lighting was pretty harsh, but I decided to snap a couple of pictures of the old car anyway.
As I set up my tripod, I heard some dogs barking from across the road. When I turned around to see what the commotion was about, I realized that the dogs were about to run out into the road. Just then, an older gentleman with white hair came out of a large shed and scolded the dogs. “Rowdy! Rambo! Get back here!” he shouted. As I watched him, I realized that he looked a lot like the eccentric inventor, Dr. Emmett Brown, in the movie Back to the Futue.
I went across the road and introduced myself and he said his name was Cary, “spelled like Cary Grant.” He told me that the old car was a 1955 Chevy Bel Air two-door hard top and that it was pretty rare. He said that, if he had restored it, it would be worth about four times what he was asking for it in its present condition. Then he said, “I’ve also got a 1940 Buick Special in the shed. It’s fully restored and it runs perfectly. Would you like me to pull it out so you can take a picture of it?”
I said, “Sure, that would be great!” Cary quickly turned around and headed into the shed. Rowdy and Rambo were running around in front of the shed. As I tried to get a photograph of them, Cary called from the shed, “Come on, get in.” I wasn’t sure if he was talking to me, but then Rowdy and Rambo made a mad dash for the back seat. Cary started up the Buick Special, revved up the engine (which he later explained was a Straight-8), and backed the car out of the shed. He drove it across the road and towards the Chevy Bel Air.
I was still standing on the other side of the road by the shed, and as Cary stopped the car, I noticed a great silhouette with him in the driver’s seat and Rowdy’s profile in the back seat. I attempted to capture the silhouette, but Cary was too quick to jump out of the car. It was then that I realized that, although his appearance reminded me of Dr. Emmett Brown, his mannerisms reminded me of the character, Kramer, from the sitcom Seinfeld.
I crossed the road and Cary asked me if he had parked the Buick Special in a good spot for my photos. I asked him if he could move it a bit so that there was a better background. He willingly obliged and, all the while, Rambo and Rowdy were sitting in the back seat, just like a couple of people waiting for the chauffeur to drive them somewhere.
I took a couple of shots of the Buick Special and then pulled in close to capture Rowdy and Rambo as they waited patiently in the back seat for the short ride back to the shed. And while I photographed them, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. You never know who you’ll meet as you travel the back roads of this great country. In this case, two rambunctious dogs, Rowdy and Rambo, had made my day.
Happy Shunpiking!
Joann
One of the most interesting encounters I had on our recent trip to North Carolina was with a man and his dogs. It was our third day in North Carolina and we had just entered Alamance County. As we drove down a country road, we passed an old red and white Chevy automobile with a “For Sale” sign on it. It was early afternoon on a very sunny day, so the lighting was pretty harsh, but I decided to snap a couple of pictures of the old car anyway.
As I set up my tripod, I heard some dogs barking from across the road. When I turned around to see what the commotion was about, I realized that the dogs were about to run out into the road. Just then, an older gentleman with white hair came out of a large shed and scolded the dogs. “Rowdy! Rambo! Get back here!” he shouted. As I watched him, I realized that he looked a lot like the eccentric inventor, Dr. Emmett Brown, in the movie Back to the Futue.
I went across the road and introduced myself and he said his name was Cary, “spelled like Cary Grant.” He told me that the old car was a 1955 Chevy Bel Air two-door hard top and that it was pretty rare. He said that, if he had restored it, it would be worth about four times what he was asking for it in its present condition. Then he said, “I’ve also got a 1940 Buick Special in the shed. It’s fully restored and it runs perfectly. Would you like me to pull it out so you can take a picture of it?”
I said, “Sure, that would be great!” Cary quickly turned around and headed into the shed. Rowdy and Rambo were running around in front of the shed. As I tried to get a photograph of them, Cary called from the shed, “Come on, get in.” I wasn’t sure if he was talking to me, but then Rowdy and Rambo made a mad dash for the back seat. Cary started up the Buick Special, revved up the engine (which he later explained was a Straight-8), and backed the car out of the shed. He drove it across the road and towards the Chevy Bel Air.
I was still standing on the other side of the road by the shed, and as Cary stopped the car, I noticed a great silhouette with him in the driver’s seat and Rowdy’s profile in the back seat. I attempted to capture the silhouette, but Cary was too quick to jump out of the car. It was then that I realized that, although his appearance reminded me of Dr. Emmett Brown, his mannerisms reminded me of the character, Kramer, from the sitcom Seinfeld.
I crossed the road and Cary asked me if he had parked the Buick Special in a good spot for my photos. I asked him if he could move it a bit so that there was a better background. He willingly obliged and, all the while, Rambo and Rowdy were sitting in the back seat, just like a couple of people waiting for the chauffeur to drive them somewhere.
I took a couple of shots of the Buick Special and then pulled in close to capture Rowdy and Rambo as they waited patiently in the back seat for the short ride back to the shed. And while I photographed them, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. You never know who you’ll meet as you travel the back roads of this great country. In this case, two rambunctious dogs, Rowdy and Rambo, had made my day.
Happy Shunpiking!
Joann
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