Naples

For years I have gone to Mount Vernon to attend the Flying Pond Broadcasting Car Show. Somehow this year I was talked into the Naples American Legion Car Show.

First let me say that Mt. Vernon is a quaint little town with a quirky little car show whose greatest entertainment value was the Dragon Fly Release that keeps the bugs down. I believe that Flying Pond Broadcasting is 2 guys in the town truck with a C.B. Radio laughing all the way to the bank. The Shows location is behind a private home that has super food, a country store down the road and some of the nicest people.

So I went to Naples, which is a quaint little town that is a little larger than Mt. Vernon and it also had a quirky little car show that was a little quirkier than Mt. Vernon. The one thing that Naples could have had was the Dragon Fly Release to keep the bugs down.

Quirks come with new shows, this isn't a new show. This was the 3rd year and it basically needs another 3 or 4 more to get it right. So it had problems, some can be chalked up to ineptitude by the organizers, mother nature and a field in lousy condition. The problems with the organizers were more with staff that didn't know a street rod from antique from tuner. First rule of car shows, the guy that has the most knowledge should be the guy classing vehicles. This got taken care of quickly.
Mother nature was not cooperating at all but not even the weather guy got it right. So no bad There.

Now the field could be summed up by saying this, Step Step ditch, step divot step and my all time favorite step divot ditch fall shit. That was minor and watching your step was in order at most places on the field. Outside the fence was a little rough with some large tank trap style craters here and there. Inside the fence was better but not much. Second rule, smoother surface, cut the grass

Cramming Classes into areas that were meant for smaller vehicles probably was the worse infraction, especially the 3 truck classes up behind the bleachers like lepers in Ben-Hur.

But now to the big No No. Judges that screwed up the judging. How can you judge a class and award 2 of those trophies to vehicles not registered in that class. Case in point 70's Stock and 70's Modified, 1st place in 70's modified, went to a car in that class 2nd & 3rd went to cars in 70's stock. Ok then, explain to me how a 1st place trophy went to car that wasn't even registered, check the antiques classes.

Many people will not come back to this show due to the opinion that it needs to get better, fast.
I agree that things went from bad to worse to good to bad and yes it needs work. But they tried. The brightest spot was the visit from old friends that we hadn't seen in 18years or more. How things change with time.

How some things never change. Although I missed the awards ceromony due to our visit with old friends, it looked like they cornered the market on Cheap Ass Trophies

I like Dragon Flies