Concerns were high going into this year’s Garlic Festival Car Show in North Plains, OR.  First the temperature had been unbelievably hot the last week or so.  Then we lost our promised staging area, the one that we had been planning on all year long, two weeks before the event!  Apparently the Garlic Festival Committee folks had given us permission to use the church’s parking lot without talking to the right people.  So we were a little apprehensive as Saturday morning approached.  Saturday dawned a little overcast but with very comfortable temperature in the 60’s later to get mostly sunny in the 70’s.  So far, so good.

 The Festival folks put us on a street behind the Festival area.  Drivers could park their cars and not have to worry about moving them until after the show was over.  The past two years we had to wait till the parade ended to park the cars.  The only problem now was that we were sharing the street with the walkers and runners in the 2k/10k events.  Oh well, at least we weren’t on the parade route.

 This left us cozily tucked into a one block area plus a small field for overflow.  Drivers started showing up at 7 a.m. while Matt, Eric, Paul, Andrew and Tom set up the canopy, tables and generator.  Matt, Vikki, Paul and Debra started registering over 70 vehicles that showed up at 8 a.m. And by 9 a.m. we had a wide mix of participants, from a Camaro drag racer to an Indian motorcycle to a 40’s vintage Ford truck with John Deere tractor. It was interesting to watch the runners and walkers finish up their races and then cool down with a stroll through the cars.

 The music playing in the background was a mix of 40’s Big Band, 50’s and 60’s Rock n’ Roll and 70’s disco with some commercials of yesteryear thrown in for good measure. The live bands had not yet kicked off so there was not conflict there.  We did not bother with food or drink sales this year since we were so close to the Festival grounds.  They always have a better selection of stuff.

Being so close to the Festival also drew larger crowds.  The street had a constant flow of onlookers and they gladly filled out the ballots for the Viewers Choice Trophies.

 By 12:30 we had the ballots in hand and Vikki and Debra were tallying them for the 1 p.m. awards ceremony.  This year we asked that people only put their cars into one category so that one car could not win multiple trophies.  It worked out smoother this year.

 By 1:30 most everyone had moved on out and we had everything taken down. So even with the last minute changes everyone thought the show went smoothly.  There were some rough spots (just like the overflow field we had to use!) but overall it seemed like people attending thought the show was a good one.