Work is temporarily relocating me to the Minneapolis area for 6-9 months. Any recommendations on people to see, places to go, shops to visit would be truly appreciated.
I have family in MN, and all of them are car nuts. From visiting, it seems like the area is a hot pocket of hot rod activity. You just missed Back to the Fifties, which is about 12,000 cars at the state fairgrounds every June (I drive from Indiana to go see it every year). Check out the North St. Paul cruise-in on Friday nights. Check out the Minnesota Street Rod Association, they are an old organization who should appeal to a lot more than "street rods", and should have a good list of events and friendly vendors. It might be worth subscribing to their "Linechaser" magazine to get all the fliers included for shows and vendors.
Psycho Suzie's Motor Lounge is a must visit... 2 level tiki bar and restaurant, awesome food and amazing atmosphere!
What 6-9 months will you be here? For obvious reasons, during the winter the car scene is nonexistant. From May to September you can usually choose from a number of events every weekend. In addition to North St Paul there's a weekly cruise night in Anoka and an every other Saturday cruise night in Hastings. The suggestion to join the MSRA is spot on, you will get a monthly magazine that has listings for almost every car show, swap meet, cruise night, etc...
One of the best swap meets I ever went too at the fair grounds in October. Is Moriarty HAMB friendly ?
That's the Twin City Roadsters swap meet. It's very good. Ususally around the second or third week in October. Hastings and North Saint Paul are usually lots of fun. Messaround show over Labor day weekend is good also. Frankensteiners shows are usually fun too. They do a spring show and a Halloween show every year. Spring show got (mostly) rained out this year so they re-scheduled for some time in August. Jay
You know what part of town you'll be staying? Our club has a show in Mounds View on the 17th at the Mermaid event center. Usually about 100-150 cars, a few HAMBers in the club with cool cars.
Shops: "Little Dearborn" at 2424 University. Where I buy my early Ford parts. They have lots of NOS stuff. it's worth a stop just to see the old neon and signage in the lobby.
Well...I've arrived in Eden Prairie. Thanks to everyone for all the responses and private messages. I'm going to work on getting one of those MSRA monthlys. See ya.
Look on autoswalk.com select the state MN and shows and events are arranged by month. Something almost every night of the week.
Here is a small list of events taken from www.msra.com http://www.msra.com/MainEvents/2011/MSRAEvents07.11.11.pdf
To bad you missed this:http://www.freewebs.com/cochrancarshow/ I have always been a Eddie Cochran & Gene Vincent fan from "back in the day" grab a Carbones pizza and a cold Grain Belt for me,those 3 things are on my "bucket list"
I have been also, but not very camera friendly as far as engines. About 90% have hoods closed, what they embarassed? Lot-o-junk among the advertisd 11k they have.
The Jalopy Journal
