Here's the deal... on a whim I made the trek from Kansas City to Asbury for the 2007 Nationals as a spectator. It was ALOT of fun! The cars, the atmosphere... everything! I still don't have a car or anything, but I've been trying to get down to the event again but something came up last year. To make a long story short, I won't be able to make it to the drags again due to spending the weekend at Tablerock lake - HOWEVER, stopping by the Holiday Inn in Joplin around 8pm wouldn't be much of a detour. Question is... you guys make the night before sound almost as fun as the day of the race. What could I expect at the hotel that night? Obviously there won't be racing going on - but what? Just hangin' out? Like a car show? And 2nd question... are there any other "comparable events" that you guys attend in the midwest that I might be able to get my fix at either later this year or next? I really had fun at the race and would love to see some of these cars running down the track again sometime soon.
Expect a ton of AMAZING traditional styled hot rods, customs, and race cars with a ton of people mingling, drinking, laughing, and havin a good time. From what I understand there will be a band in the parking lot friday night.
you DO NOT want to go on friday night..... cause youll be mad as hell the rest of the weekend cause u aint still there with us.... lol... its a real good time if its all you can do , meet some real good and cool people in the parking lot.
You will miss a great time and you will miss two super cool nitro burners firing up at the hotel between 8:30 and 9:00pm
Was that just last year? The different years are all starting to merge together in my brain. Yeah, it's a great time with great folks.
Not so obvious, actually. There might very well be some mini bike racing. And there have been bicycle races around the hotel in the past. Etc., etc. I'm pretty sure the Hamburgler was there two years ago. But yeah, they all kinda blur together. In a good way.
Hey Chris, Joplin is my Home Place, albeit, it has been 50 years this month since my Momma and Daddy moved me to OKC!!
Then there was Rusty duking it out with that drunk. We're Ryan's people, we d tend to do strange things.
There also was an "individual" riding around on the back of a female "film star" with something possibly protruding from his person...... ...if you were there, you know what I'm talking about. -Abone.
Don't get teh wrong idea...the parking lot party is pretty tame till say, 2 or 3am...after that, you MIGHT see some wierd shit.. One thing you will see is Blakmerc and I still tipping beers when the sun comes up. -Abone.
Last year, Lux and I closed to parking lot down at around 4 am on Saturday and went across the street to crash at the Rivera Motel. I got up at 8 to start loading up the truck and trailer. Somewhere in that 4 hours, we missed the freakin' Joplin Swat Team who was about 20 yards from us on a assault call.
There was more than 1 year for AA. I'm operating under the impression they changed the date for their get together after the after the 2nd time.LOL
it occurred to me after the fact that the Joplin Swat team and the Austin swat team probably do not have alot of the same procedures. There were no flash-bang grenades involved. mabey. I don't think there were grenades. damn.
Yea, but it took em THREE years before they finally moved to another weekend. I think we converted a few of em..... -Abone.
I missed having the "Summer Hummer" people there last year. The way they looked at us drinking a beer, you'd have thought we were beating baby seals. Maybe instead of moving their weekend, they just moved from the Ramada to the Holiday Inn. Wouldn't that be a kill?
After Lux was talking about how cool the furniture is at their motel, I thought maybe they were loading some of it for a trip to Austin. I couldn't see how that might turn into a SWAT team call, but,,,,,I didn't want to get involved ,,,,,,,,,,,,so I just watched from across the street.
The Holiday Inn now bolts down all lampshades. You'll just have to walk around with the entire lamp on your head which really won't be funny unless it's plugged in and turned on at the time so be sure to bring an extension cord that will stretch to the Convention Center but really by the time that you go through that much trouble in the whole pursuit of honor in comedic circles most people are already off doing other things so then you are just left as the guy who is standing in the parking lot with a lit lamp on your head while some guys will be nice and say "cool man" they don't mean it and they'll shush their girlfriends because after a couple of domestic beers She feels like she needs to tell you what she really thinks about your lamp idea you can see Him pulling Her away but you manage to hear her say "stupid" which will depress you so you 'll start pounding beers and then make a big point of throwing the lamp onto the parking lot and stomping on it making sure that the girlfriend sees what you're doing so that somehow you'll gain "streetcred" from this person whom you have never met but has become the floodgates of your happiness but not before security comes out and says "Isn't that one of our lamps" which normally you would say "Im sorry Ill pay for it" but with a post-Gizzlehopper firing crowd gathered you hold the base of the lamp in the air and yell like you're auditioning for Braveheart, the musical, "Fuck Yeah it's your lamp bitch! What up na!" The crowd cheers as you are led away "woooooo" but none show up to pay your bail. So, short story long....if you are going to put a lamp shade on your head it is best to bring one from home. Word...
Funny...the AA group moved to Holiday Inn...they are going to think you're stalking them. Different date though.
Here are a couple of videos & pics from past years parking lot action: 2007 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHCjUCZveCQ 2008 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okNfsODIs3g http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb34/crablogic/HAMB08/DSC07007.jpg http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb34/crablogic/HAMB06/DSC04107.jpg http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb34/crablogic/HAMB06/DSC04297.jpg
The Jalopy Journal
