Posted: Saturday, April 1, 2006.

Cruzin America in a Homegrown
`32 Ford 2-dr Sedan.
Continued from Cruzin America page one.
By Ron Yamaguchi

FIFTH WEEK
Our destination this week was to be in Somerset, Kentucky for their monthly SOMERSET CRUISE the weekend of July 22 & 23. We left Syracuse on Sunday, after the awards ceremony, and spent the night in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

We made our way to Charlottesville, Virginia the next day and spent the next 3 nights and 2 days visiting places such as Monticello, (home of our 3rd President, Thomas Jefferson), Ash Lawn-Highland, (home of our 5th President, James Monroe), Michie Tavern, and rode the Downtown Transit Trolley through the campus of the University of Virginia.

We left on Thursday and spent the night in Bristol, VA. and arrived in Somerset, Kentucky on Friday noon, July 22. We spent part of the evening at the cruise night at the Wal-Mart store parking lot. There is a different cruise theme each month and would you believe the theme that month was "Aloha Night".

The Somerset Cruise Association gave us a special award that evening for coming from Hawaii. Later that evening was spent at Basteins for their Burn-Out Night. Saturday was spent at downtown for the afternoon car show & shine. The whole town is shut down from 2 PM and the streets are cleared for the car show. Only car cruisers are allowed into downtown after 2 PM. This is one of the largest and best car cruises we have ever attended. I must say, the organizing of this organization is very well organized and we highly recommend this monthly cruise to all. The organization is run by all volunteers. (From what we heard, this cruise averages over a thousand cruisers each month). 

On Saturday afternoon, we were recognized as the Long Distance Travelers and presented with an award. The awards we received were beautiful; a clock, a large & small dragster including a Christmas tree starting lights, all made from Junk Yard car and engine parts by Robert Lipke of Somerset. Thank you very much Robert. We were also interviewed by Susan Wheeldon of the local newspaper, the Commonwealth Journal. Our story and picture made the front page of this newspaper. The Show & Shine ends at 8 PM and everybody drives out of town and the cruising begins up and down Highway 27 into the early morning hours.

We again met a group of nice people and special recognition to Bob Lipke of Somerset, the bunch from Louisville and Indiana who we will meet again at the NSRA Nationals in Louisville.

SIXTH WEEK
Since we were already in the state of Kentucky, this was an easy, relaxing week, as we did not have to get to Louisville KY, until Wednesday, August 3 for the NSRA NATIONALS.

We left Somerset and visited the Corvette Assembly Plant and the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, visited Bardstown and took a trolley tour to Heaven Hill Distilleries, Steven Foster’s "My Old Kentucky Home" and historical downtown Bardstown. We left late that afternoon for Harrodsburg and spent a couple of nights there and the next day were spent visiting the Shaker Village. We also spent another night at Lexington and visited the Toyota Motor Manufacture in Georgetown. We arrived in Louisville a few days before the NSRA Nationals and did more sightseeing around the Louisville area. We also made a trip to the Harrah’s Hotel & Casino that is located on the Indiana side of the Ohio River.

SEVENTH WEEK
Spent a good part of the week at the NSRA STREET ROD NATIONALS at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville. We had a great Welcome Back get together lunch with Philip & Jeanette Prather and their friends on Thursday, the first day of the event. This is a tradition for them to meet and have lunch on the first day of the event, as the event is so large, they may not see each other again during the weekend.

We also joined our friends we met at the Somerset Cruise. Special recognition to our friends Jerry & Jan Hasch, Tom & Mary Nolan, David & Pam Greer, Bob & Kim Carter all from KY. Also Jim & Pam Berry, Irvin & Karren Foster, Steve & Nancy Brock, Dennis & Charolette Trobaugh all from Indiana.

There were over 11,000 street rods at this year’s event. We were again blessed with the Outside the Continent United States – Long Distance Award. This was a great weekend!

EIGHTH WEEK
We left Sunday afternoon after the awards ceremony and our destination was to spend the night in Evansville, Indiana.

About a 100 miles out of Louisville, we encountered another rear wheel bearing failure, this time the other side of the one that was installed in Colorado Springs.

The auto repair shop in Colorado Springs was now batting 100% on repair failures. Everything they installed at Colorado Springs has failed. Coming to the rescue this time was Craig Windbigler, owner of HERSHY’S HOT ROD SHOP in Boonville, Indiana.

Boonville is located next to Evansville, so we did get to our planned stop the hard way. Also a big support came from Tim O’Connell, O’CONNELL SPECIALTIES, INC. from Plainfield, IL. for the parts he supplied. We were on the road again the next day, thanks to Tim for the overnight shipment and Craig for the installation.

Our destination that week was to visit Branson, Missouri and participate in the Branson car show that weekend. Along the way to Branson, we visited the St. Louis Gateway Arch in St. Louis, MO. We made it to Branson, visited the sites, saw a couple of entertaining night shows and attended the car show that weekend at The Shepherd of the Hills.

Joining us that weekend was Jerry & Jan Hasch and Irvin & Karren Foster. These are the good folks we met at the Somerset Cruise and NSRA Street Rod Nationals in Louisville, KY. During our car show registration at Branson, we inquired about a long distance award and was told there was none.

During the awards ceremony that weekend, they gave a Long Distance award to a couple from New York State. I approached the MC and he said he was not aware that we traveled from Hawaii and would look into it for verification and send me an award as they made a mistake. So far, no word from Branson and I doubt if they looked into it. We are not expecting anything from them but wanted to have them educate their registration crew on what a Long Distance Award was for. Again we met many nice people in Branson and a special recognition goes to Frank & Barbara Roberts of Oklahoma City, OK. CONTINUED

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