Not much going on lately. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s have come and gone. It’s cold, gloomy and dreary here in the Quad Cities. And my favorite local Lincoln dealer, Strieter, just sold out to out of towners.
I consoled myself by going to La Rancherita for homemade chips, pico de gallo and a steak burrito.
Fortunately there’s a lone beam of hope in the form of the rod and custom show, held at the QCCA Expo Center in downtown Rock Island.
Since last spring, I’ve been happily working for the insurance company in claims, and one fringe benefit is we close at 1 PM on Friday.
And the car show started at noon this past Friday. A retired friend of mine, Allen, called a couple weeks ago to remind me; I’d forgotten.
We made plans to go Friday afternoon, as it gets super busy Friday night and all day Saturday. So I clocked out, hopped in the car, picked him up and made our way to the show.
It was refreshingly quiet, with ample time and space to get good photos of the cars on display. As you’d expect I zeroed in immediately on this curiously hued 1976 Electra Limited Landau coupe.
I’d seen it a couple years earlier at the Port Byron car show, but at the time someone was sitting in it, so I hesitated to take more than a couple photos. But now I had free reign to take a ton, ha ha.
It was entirely original, bone stock and appearing unrestored, which made me wonder if it was special ordered in orange. One could do such things back then, for an extra charge. Anyway I loved it. I’d add whitewalls and drive it proudly.
It was a nice variety of original and custom cars. Something for everyone. Also a lot of late model stuff, which I walked right past to take pictures of more interesting Crown Victorias, Bel Air sedans and such.
I really loved this 93-94 Crown Vic. It was loaded with blue leather and the Mark VII LSC style BBS alloys.
Remember when Ford made actual, attractive sedans and not ugly boogers like the “Mock” E electric Mustang? Pepperidge Farm remembers.
Anyway it was a nice break, seeing some interesting cars and not having to deal with winter! Still three months until car show season resumes!