Goodguys East Coast Nationals 2017

This is going to be mostly an-off topic post, but there is one card down in the post! 

You may remember from my post last September when I returned to Lake George, I love going to car shows...to be honest, I love old cars and car shows even more than I love cards. But my health causes me to miss almost all of them. Yesterday, I surprised myself by being able to get to a car show I thought was lost to me forever. The Goodguys East Coast Nationals has been held at Rhinebeck for a long time...this was the 25th Anniversary of the show but not all have been held at Rhinebeck. My earliest photos of the show are from 1997. I was there before then, I think as well, and for a while in the late 2000s I would go all three days as my model club ran the model show there. But once they moved it to June, from September, even though I would go it was really really bad for me healthwise. I couldn't go anymore after 2010, and for a couple of years they moved it to Massachusetts and I wasn't able to go to them either. In June in the Hudson Valley it's usually high 90s and humid, which causes me an immense amount of trouble. This year has been far cooler than normal- last week we actually had to wear jackets to go out as it got into the 40s at night- but it's been cool. The heat is here now- as I type this on Sunday afternoon it's 88 and humid. I could not do the show today. I could, but I would be really sick from it. Yesterday, it was supposed to get up to 84- about 9 degrees more than I can usually stand. It ended up getting to 89, but I was able to do the show anyway! I decided to risk it and though it got hotter than expected, there was a nice breeze and plenty of shade I could hide in for a while. I was able to do almost all of it, which surprised me the most. I covered parts of the show that I know have been there all these years, but never walked on foot before. The only time I ever saw them was the year I rented a power scooter, and I might have yesterday had they not been $70 for the day.

I'm in a bit of rough shape today and I expected that...but it was so worth it. I am probably not going to be able to walk well for a while, and I need help to get up off the couch for example. But I don't care. I actually got to enjoy a day yesterday, and I don't regret it.

Now, some highlights from the show:

 The El Caminos were down from usual, but there were a few. I picked up the nickname El Camino Billy many years ago and I dream of someday owning one. This is a 1967.

 This was taken up on the hill when you first go in the main entrance. (Check out some of the show in the background). This hill is the area I've never covered on foot in this show before. This time, since we were not going to the model show first (it no longer exists) we didn't have to take our stuff there so we did the hill first.

 Man, you don't see many 50s Mopars at shows. And it's a 4-door, which I prefer, to boot!

 One of my favorites at the show, a 56 Ford. I tend to favor pickups.

1949 Pontiac Sedan Delivery in the car corral. I love old Pontiacs, and check out the bumper- you can see the reflection of my brother and I!

 Only $6500 for this Rambler. There are some classic cars that are still in reach of the common man, giving me new hope that someday I could have a classic car, a lifelong dream.

 A 1969 El Camino in the car corral.

 This is a 1941 Buffalo, and started life as a fire truck. I'd never seen a Buffalo before yesterday.

 An indoor car show was new. As a nice touch, it had some air conditioning.

 Neon signs for sale. A photo of me standing in front of them is now my profile picture on Facebook.

 A Dodge Daytona! My favorite Mopar ever. These were created specifically to race in NASCAR and are pretty rare...I took more than one photo of this one.

 This car traveled to the show- in upstate New York- from Nevada. The Goodguys shows are a nationwide tour and you can accumulate points from each show. There are people who travel from show to show and I bet this is one of them. Also, the guy in the bright green shirt with blue backpack is my brother, who photographed rows of cars that I physically couldn't get to.

 You never know what will be here at these shows.

 The metallic sparkle in this paint was great. The only car video I took was of this one, but it came out so good I wish I had taken more.

 I have a fondness for sedan deliveries too.

 Not sure how this one snuck in, as it's a 1987 El Camino...the newest cars allowed by the show are 1972, with some leeway in the car corral. This was parked under a tree in the vendor area. I'm not going to complain, and I spent a bit of time on the benches back there watching the cars go by...and staring at the El Camino.

If you look closely at this picture my brother took, I'm hiding in the shade under the tree on the left. I was pretty much at my exhaustion point by then, although after sitting on a "bench" for a while I was able to cover some more of the show. It wasn't really a bench- the top of a stone wall- but close enough for me. I ended up sitting there watch the cars and people go by for probably 45 minutes.

One cool thing about this show is the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome is just a few miles north and there are usually bi-planes flying overhead most of the day. This was actually the second photo I took on the day!

There's a little bit of blur because my camera is kind of crappy, but it has a good zoom. Most of the photos in this post were actually taken with my smart phone.

I have all 430+ photos I took, plus the pictures my brother took, on my website HERE. They are still uploading as I publish this, though.

This was my only purchase on the day, from 1967.

It's got some water damage, but when you are paying $10 for a 50 year old program I'm not expecting perfection.

And now, the promised card: When we arrived home, waiting for me was a rare Ebay win. I don't go on ebay too often, because I don't want to spend all kinds of money that I should be using on something more important, but I saw this one...somehow...and bid on it. I was, amazingly, the only bidder and got it for the opening $5 bid.

That's a pretty unique glove relic, and a two color patch easily picked out from the Bass Pro Shops logo, for $5...won just days after his first career Cup win...I got lucky there! The rubber from the glove actually sticks out from the card, and mushes on the scanner tray...all the parts on the left are actually openings...it sort of reminds me of the undersea worms on the old GI Joe cartoon actually. It's totally unique in my collection.