"Cruising for a Cure", Dayton, Ohio

This show was my first real professionally judged car show. I mean I went to many car shows in the 80's and early 90's down in Englishtown, NJ but this show was amazing. The indoor cars were absolutely spectacular. These Ohio boys take their car shows real serious.

The more casual cars were outside which is where I was. I had contacted them earlier about bringing a late model truck and said "sure". There were a couple of categories but they wound up sending me to the late model sedan area along with a few other confused pick-up drivers.

Anyway, I had a lot of great talks with some farmers out there about biodiesel usage and American farm jobs. They all saw the truck and was curious why it was at the show. Alot of families appeared so I got to talk to them and their kids.

At one point the Quaker State Oil guy came by and was selling tickets for the 50/50 and we had a long talk about the truck and that I was going around to different shows educating people and letting them look at the truck. So I bought an "armlength of tickets" for the cause (I think it was 10 or 20 bucks). What a lot of "anti-car people" don't know is that most car events are for charities which is why if you have a greasecar you need to go to car shows more.

So we get to the end of day and they are handing out awards and eventually they went on to the giveaway prizes and finally the 50/50. Now I am sitting in the shade relaxing and thinking to myself. My great uncle Bud (first guy to take me fishing on the Fox River out in Aurora, Illinois who later died of brain cancer from diesel fumes where he was a bus mechanic and my Aunt Lonnie (who was more like a friend then an aunt) who died of a rare cancer working as a CPA at a refinery out in Bronx, NY.

Now I'm wearing the shirt she gave me from her last vacation before she got sick and I thought. "If I win I'll give half back to the group in their memory". A minute later I won about $650.00 so I went up and accepted half and donated it in their memory. The Quaker State guy then goes on to say the guy that won much less on Saturday gave nothing back and tells the entire field of people about the truck and what I was doing. "You need to see this truck....., it runs on....., he's going around...." What a great day.

Maybe if everybody used vegetable oil based fuels all the Lonnies and Uncle Buds out there could stay around a bit longer.

So if you are modifying an old car why not drop a diesel in it, the performance is the same if not better and it will pollute less.