Road Tour Wrap-Up

The NSRA's brand-new Golden State Nationals in Sacramento, California, put a whole new spin of our annual Road Tour adventure. Placed between the Northeast Nationals in Vermont, and the Southeast Nationals in Tampa, Florida, the swing west made for a very interesting last leg of this year's Tour. "Interesting," as in snow, wind, heat, and some very hard rain!

Setting out from home on the Sunday following the Burlington event, my goal was to reach Sacramento by Wednesday afternoon. The 2,500-mile trip west was filled with heavy crosswinds in eastern Wyoming, snow flurries in western Wyoming, heavy downpours in Utah, and then a very beautiful drive over the Donner Pass into California.

The weekend at the first annual Golden State Nationals in Sacramento was fantastic. It was obvious from the comments (and the turnout) that this will be a premiere West Coast street rod event for years to come! The California Exposition center is a beautiful place for a rod run of this size. There is plenty of room and a lot of shady spots in which to get out of that California sun for a while. They love their roadsters on the West Coast and it showed at this event! The weather was perfect all weekend. All the comments from the participants and spectators were very positive. This show is a winner! Check out the complete coverage in the March 2003 issue of Street Rodder magazine.

On Sunday afternoon it was time to head out. The Southeast Nationals in Tampa started on Friday, and there were a few thousand miles between shows. That's right -- 3,000 miles west to east and a little over three days to do it! Luckily a co-driver volunteered to ride along at the last minute. I had become friends with Milan Dupkanic over the last seven years. He is president of International Trade Services and sets up a display at all of the NSRA events, selling tools including the "Nibbler," a metal cutting device. He was going to fly home to Indiana after the drive to Tampa, but decided to make the trip with me in the appropriately named (Coast-to-Coast) Road Tour convertible.

We headed out on Sunday afternoon for the 3,000-mile, 3-1/2 day journey. Monday was beautiful as we crossed I-40 to Needles, California, and then south through Lake Havasu City, Arizona. After a quick visit at Mullins Steering Gears we jumped on I-10 for the drive across the southern part of the United States to Florida. On Tuesday we began to get reports of bad weather in central and eastern Texas. By Tuesday evening we caught up to it, and bad weather was an understatement! Wednesday we drove in a constant downpour for over 12 hours. Milan had spent many hours driving across country to the shows, and was a great help behind the wheel during some very trying conditions.

We stayed in Gulfport, Mississippi, on Wednesday evening. It was "Cruisin' the Coast" week in the Gulfport-Biloxi area, and we fit right in with all of the other street and custom rods. On Thursday, we were up way before the sun. We wanted to get out of the rain and finally found good weather when we reached Florida. At 2:00 pm on Thursday afternoon, we drove onto the Florida State Fairgrounds. The "Iron Man" run of the previous week, and the 2002 edition of the Road Tour were finally over!

The Southeast Nationals were blessed with sunny, dry weather all weekend. This event is always a great way to wrap up the NSRA season. The complete coverage of this event will also be in the March 2003 issue of Street Rodder magazine.

This year we logged 25,000 miles on our '39 Ford Coast-to-Coast convertible. It has been another exciting and fun-filled summer. As usual, we had many adventures and some adversities, but we got through them all. Thanks to good products made by great suppliers and the quality workmanship of the crew at California Street Rods, it had been a successful season. It was a very enjoyable summer for me, personally. The Tour 'vert turned heads wherever I went, and the ability to have a top (or not) is a luxury that I haven't had in the past.

Get ready, we're going to do it all again in 2003! Our Street Rodder Magazine Road Tour ride for next year is going to be a Ford-powered, Wescott-bodied, '33 Ford roadster, built by Barry White's Street Rod Repair Company in Placentia, California. I hear they're going to give me a break and have a fold-up top on it. Like the rest of you, I'll have to wait and see! Stay tuned to www.streetrodderweb.com for all the details. Have a great winter, and we'll see you on the Road Tour in 2003!

This was a Road Tour first. When I woke up in Evanston, Wyoming on Tuesday morning, I was greeted by snow flurries!	I had made stops at the Bonneville Salt Flats on previous Road Tour trips. It had never looked like this! Unusual rain had turned it into a lake.	I elected to take the northern loop around Salt Lake City. It's very scenic and gives you a great view of this natural wonder called the "Devil's Slide."
A few miles west of the Salt Flats is the city of Wendover. This former Air Force base town with its picturesque setting has made the transition to a booming casino area.	I hooked up with Vernon Walker, of Walker Radiator (and the NSRA). We made the gorgeous run together from Wendover across I-80 to Reno. We both had our sights set on Sacramento.	Just west of Reno you begin the climb up to the Donner Pass. After you reach the summit, there are 40 miles of downhill grade as you drop into California.
It was an exciting evening at Roy Brizio Street Rods in South San Francisco. Roy gave us the complete tour of all the great projects he and his crew are working on. I was in awe as I stood with Roy beside the original Tom McMullen roadster.	In the same building as Roy's shop is John Mumford's fantastic collection of vehicles. The original "Ala Kart" is in amazingly good condition.	I finally made it! The California Exposition grounds in Sacramento was the site of the first annual NSRA Golden State Street Rod Nationals.
"Yes sir. It's called the Street Rodder Road Tour. Yes sir, 3,000 miles to Tampa, Florida in about three days. Thank you, I will moderate my speed sir." He loved the car.	We made a stop in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, to visit its second most famous tourist attraction: the London Bridge. The most famous attraction is, of course, Mullins Steering Gears!	My traveling companion (from Sacramento to Tampa) was Milan Dupkanic of International Trade Services. Milan sells the "Nibbler," a metal-cutting tool, at all the NSRA shows.
There is usually a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. Not this time! We were headed for the worst weather I have ever encountered in seven years of the Road Tour.	This was the scene in downtown Houston at rush hour on Wednesday morning. We were pounded with monsoon rain for 12 hours, as we traveled across eastern Texas.	Success! We finally made it to Tampa and the Southwest Nationals. It had been a very grueling end to a great 2002 Road Tour season, but we completed our task.