Cache Valley Cruise In
July 1

Of the truly popular and well attended car shows that I know of in the genre of "classic, antique, hot rod and custom" three come to mind. Long Beach has Belmont Shore, Costa Mesa has the Orange County and Logan has the Cache Valley. Remarkable collections of hardware, all.

Motoring north this year from BMCU for the event were Mitch and Diane Johnson in their white Triumph Spitfire, Dawn and Kimberly Owens the "Mini-Girls" in Kimberley's beautiful cobalt blue Mini-Cooper and me in my red C-280 Benz-O-Matic.

Departure point was Grounds for Coffee out on 89 in Layton. I suggested that location due to the convenient gas station and mini mart right there and we'd be headed in the right direction.

Saturday July 1st. had glorious weather, warm not hot with temps in the low 80's, so far. Out on the highway we're passing lush agricultural areas up to Uintah and once past Ogden the scene continues, overlooking Willard Bay to the west and down into Perry. Maddox is the landmark where 89 heads east toward Mantua, north to the 5,800 ft. summit then down to Wellsville and Logan. Like Trappers Loop this is not any place you want to exceed the speed limit. My friend the Porsche Club trip planner made that abundantly clear. I think she was "detained".

The Logan / Cache Valley Fair Grounds is the site of this event and I have never been successful in finding it on the first try. This time I got the address from their site, or I thought I had the address. We get there and it's a residential area with no fair grounds in sight. I hale a passing bicyclist who points south and calls out "three blocks, there's a car show there". Arriving, it becomes clear why I have trouble finding it. When they built it there was probably nothing else around it. Well, there sure is now. You don't see it until you're right upon it.

Last year a buddy had his 912 there and the year prior there was a handsome Ferrari Mondial. The owner seems so happy that I knew what it was and was interested. That was it for imports. Well, it was a bit different this year. Somebody "let the cat out of the bag" and there were actually quite a few Britmobiles for us to enjoy and not a slouch in the bunch. One Austin Healey was positively Concours. Now they don't park these cars in any particular order so when we came upon a British car it was a pleasant surprise. Lots of food vendors this year with interesting treats like Hawaiian rib slices and other vendors included the widow and family of the late Ed "Big Daddy" Roth with all the Rat Fink gear, great stuff from the 60's. Of course I got a shirt with a skeleton on a chopper. Outrageous! Mrs. Roth invited us to visit so we'll follow up on that.

The ride back south was the same gentle cruise and once to Maddox Mitch went to I-15, I went back on 89 and the girls had left a little earlier.

Yes, it's mostly Chevy-Ford- Dodge "Detroit Iron" but I never tire of the beauty and preparation that goes into these cars. And this year there was a nice showing of British beauties. Lovely day.

--Paul Jaroch

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