Pueblo…finally!

 We finally made it to Pueblo around 3:30pm on Thursday.  Finally!

What a gorgeous city.  We're staying at the recently remodeled LaQuinta for the next three days.  Hands down the cleanest hotel I've ever stayed in, stateside.  (Overseas the Mandarin Oriental in Singapore was impeccable.). We have met the nicest folks.  Being out west makes me feel like I'm in America again.  Been awhile since I was surrounded by folks who are truly patriotic.  Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Colorado.  They seem to have being a proud American down to a science.

I was thrilled to unpack my suitcase(s) but I'm pretty sure I didn't need to bring all this:

That's a lot of necklaces, bracelets and earrings for a road trip so, I gotta get better at editing.  Sigh.  It all seemed really important.

Thursday night we had dinner here:

Good old fashioned bar and grill!  We tried these things called sloppers. Sloppers are an open faced cheeseburger covered in green chilli or red chili.  Pretty sure they're called sloppers because they come to you in a bowl looking a lot like slop you might throw out to the hogs!  Inspite of the appearance… they were delicious.

This is Chuck:

Chuck owns the joint.  He was right proud to tell us about winning Food Wars on the Travel Channel.  You can check that out here:

http://youtu.be/h49_G5JWejc

After dinner we headed back to the hotel and saw this magnificent sunset:

I missed the sunrise this morning. Whoops!  I'll try again tomorrow.  I was up at 6:45am but just forgot to open the curtains.

So, that brings us to today…Friday, June 26.  Today, we headed out to the car show (the main point of this trip) about 10am.  We were heading down I-25 and notice that Jack (ice cream for lunch Jack), his wife Mary, and their gorgeous 1935 Cadillac were missing from our caravan.  Turns out the front right tire was wobbling something fierce.  They got off the highway and ended up at a place called Car Doctors.  Turns out half the spokes on the wheel were broken.  That's when all this happened:

So guess what?  Ice Cream Jack needs a 16 inch wheel with 5 on 5.  (See how much I've learned!). I called a few junkyards… no luck.  We left Car Doctors but only made it a block down the road to Peerless Tires.  These fine folks ordered a 16 inch wheel with a 5 on 5 with an ETA of 1:00pm. It was 11:30 "ish".  That, my friends, is a lucky break!

FYI:  If you're going to own a classic car you're going to do a lot of this:

And . . . a lot of this:

But that's the thing.  If you've been bitten by the classic car bug - you don't care about broken fuel pumps, broken wheels, blown head gaskets.  You just get together with your other classic car buddies and when there's a problem you figure out what to do next.  Its a classic car person's form of bonding.

We left the '35 Caddy at Peerless Tire and headed to the Black Eyed Pea for lunch.  We used to have those in Atlanta but they closed.  Maybe opening across from all the Picadilly Restaurants wasn't the best marketing move.

Apparently, the hostess was photographically challenged and didn't get us all in the pic.  Sigh. Is it REALLY that hard?

We headed back to Peerless Tire where Daddy and I dropped off Ice Cream Jack, Max & Jerry.  We kidnapped Mary and took her to the Riverwalk with us.  Riverwalk wants to be a Greenich Village but not quite there yet.  Don't get me wrong.  It is a wonderful place with lots of shops and diners . . . but lets face it . . . you just can't be New York if you're Pueblo. (Deep.  Think about that.)p

Down on the Riverwalk I found the most amazing store.  Seabel's. Lord God in Heaven above!!!!! I have found the Promised Land and its full of glitter, lace, fringe, boots, purses & heels.    I was pretty bummed before we got there.  I'd already typed a great blog for this morning but didn't press "SAVE" and so hours of work went out in some black vacant spot in the "inter-verse" and I had to recreate this blog again.  BUT . . . when I saw all this:

I felt soooooo much better!

Right in the middle of my moment of joyful bliss in my own paradise  - Jerry calls to say the wheel arrived and Ice Cream Jack is back in business.  HOORAY!  Let's go to the car show!  FINALLY!  Well, Daddy, Mary and I headed back to Peerless Tire but apparently it wasn't fast enough for Ice Cream Jack and he convinced Max & Jerry that he knew how to get to the Fairgrounds and they should just follow him.  We pulled up at Peerless and it was a Ghost Town.

Hmmmm.  Looks like we've been left behind.  No worries we know where the Fairgrounds are and if we don't well SIRI does and she's always happy to hear from us.  Few minutes later the phone is ringing.  Aha!  Guess which three amigos were lost?  That's right!  They need us after all.

My Dad was able to slide right into the Fairgrounds in the 2002 Lincoln Blackwood (typically, not allowed if it isn't a classic car). HA!  Well, it is a classic.  They only made 400 of them.  We decide to all cruise through the grounds until we found a place we wanted to plant ourselves.  MAN OH MAN!  

What an amazing array of cars.  Gorgeous! We made it all the way to the back and found a "grassy knoll" to park our cars and hang out.  

There was a man walking diligently towards me.  Kinda had a feeling he might say something "smart" about the Blackwood being on the grounds.  Before he could say anything, I looked at him and smiled and said "Hold on, Man! This gal's a classic!"  He said back to me "I know she is.  I made the entire back end!"  WHAT?  His name is Tim Hoefer and he owned a specialty shop in Sterling Heights, Michigan that Ford contracted to make the entire back end of the Blackwood. 

Tim explained in intricate detail how each part was made and what they went through to make it.  He was beside himself seeing us come through the fairgrounds and tracked us down to see it for himself.  What are the odds folks?  Tim sold that shop and now lives in Colorado Springs.  Remember how I told you there were only 400 of the Lincoln Blackwoods made?  Tim told us why.  It was a big pain in the ass to make so Ford said "Goodnight, Gracie" and that was the end of that.

The car show folks have gotten pretty smart about the fact that there are women coming to these shows.  Lots of women.  Everywhere.  What do most women like to do?  Shop.  So they created a thing called 'Womens World' that is a big warehouse on the grounds with everything a woman could possibly want to shop for.  There was even a gal there selling a magical cream that is suppose to get rid of sagging skin and cellulite.  You can learn more about that here: http://nerium.com/join/skincareforall

Pretty soon all the cars were leaving the grounds and folks were packing up for the day.  We can take a hint.  So we all left out for dinner (some went to Golden Corral and some of us went to Texas Roadhouse where I was told there would be a 45 minutes wait. 

I sat outside while Dad, Max and Jerry went to the bar (well, this riding around and looking at cars is a tough deal!).  Not 2 minutes after they left Max was telling me to come on in that Dad had us a table. How on earth?  Well, he just slid right in to an open booth in the bar.  Bar tables are first come first serve.  That man has the best luck all the damn time!

Apparently, when the guys all get together, they pretend it's someone's birthday.  Tonight that was Jerry.  The servers all came and sang and made a big hoopla about the whole deal.  (Shaking my head cause these guys are nuts and my Dad is one of 'em.)  Happy Fake Birthday, Jerry Nestlehutt.  

Now we're all back in our rooms.  Its 10:01pm in Pueblo.  What a great time we're all having . . . in spite of Lucille tanking out on me and Dad, Max's fuel pump dilemma and Jack's terrible luck with the front right wheel.  My friend and guitarist, Steve Moore, told me a long time ago "If its a problem that can be fixed with money, its not a problem."  That seemed cruel at the time because I was young, newly married and we were really broke.  I argued with him that it was easy for him to say that because he had money.  He argued back that it wasn't true because if it happened that I really needed money I could get a 2nd job or suck up my pride and ask my parents or a friend for money, if possible take out a loan, whatever.  The point wasn't finding the access to the money.  The point was understanding that there are things that CAN'T be fixed with money.  Things like death, catastrophic illnesses, words spoken in anger, etc.  You get the gist.  So as that wisdom was passed to me, I now pass on to you.  

If its a problem that can be fixed with money, its not a problem.

Peace & Love!

Kayla