| We had travelled down to the Lake Ozark region which is
about in the middle of Missouri. The main lake was created in 1931 by the
building of the Bagnell dam. This inundated the Osage river valley and as
a by-product created one of the most popular leisure areas in the US. |
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 | There
are in fact many lakes but this is one of the largest. On a summer weekend
there can be over 50,000 watercraft out at any point in time. To us it
still seemed very peaceful and unspoiled, but there weren't that many
boats out today.
On arrival we were asked if we had come for the car show. So our plans
went on hold whilst we had a day going round an American custom car show
with over 600 entries. |
| The car rally was held by the side of the dam. They had
closed the road through the township and the cars were just parked on
either side. This was the only true old vehicle we saw. It is a 1927 Ford
truck virtually in original condition with a wooden cab and body. The body
cost $200 and the chassis and engine $500 in 1927 - an awful lot of money.
The side-valve engine had been restored and ran beautifully. The rifle in
the doorway was also an original 1895 pattern Winchester. I can understand
collecting something like that. |  |
 | There were some
restored old cars which looked like they might have looked when new. This
is what we would expect to see at an English vintage car rally. |
| Then there were some obvious 'era' cars from the 1950s of
which this was a good example. I'm sure this had been enhanced, but
tastefully. On this one the aerial top and the lock pushbuttons all had
glass dice on them. |  |
 | There were a number of
custom paint jobs with obviously hand built jobs. Some of these claimed to
be 1937 such and such but it struck us that this was stretching
credibility a bit far. |
| Some of the engines were just outrageous and most had been
extensively chromed. I suspect some were worth rather more than our
camper. Although we did find (in good condition) a 1968 Volkswagen Beetle
in original condition, for sale at only $4900 |  |
 | It
wasn't just the outsides which had been customized. This was a
particularly colourful example. If you think the speakers in the doors are
a bit over the top, you should have seen the bass units in the back. I
would not have wanted to be within a mile of it when turned on. It is also
to be hoped that it had some suspension raising device because the
bodywork was resting on the ground. |
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