One of the first people we saw was our old friend David Kidd of Dupli-Color. Jim reminisced about old times with David.

David drove that wild 5.0 Ranger on the Power Tour last year, the one with the flip-flop paint. Too bad he missed a great Tour this year.

While Gary and Jim held-down the fort, I gave the fairgrounds one last walkaround, looking for interesting sites I hadn’t seen yet. How about a new Mazda Protegé 5?

They were able to put it together in only three days. Looks to me like they were very busy days.

The P5 wasn’t the only import, though. This Geo Metro’s owner put quite a bit of time and effort into covering all the wiring in the engine compartment.

Gives it a real special look, doesn’t it?

In a more traditional look was this ’62 409 Impala.

It’s the entry-level “post” model, but the owner smartly spent all of his option money under the hood.

Let’s see, I guess that makes it a “4-speed, dual-quad, posi-traction 409.” Someone should write a song about this car. . . Maybe get some Boys from the Beach to sing it, too.

The Power Tour took its toll on many of the participants, both mentally and financially. This poor soul was pretty well wiped-out,

while this poor soul was looking for some coin to keep his car going.

Brother, can you spare a dime? (Or a quarter?)

The final event for Tourers was the longhauler photo shoot. This was the chance to get your car in the pages of Hot Rod Magazine, and your name to boot. As our designated driver, Gary took the honors of delivering the ’59 to the infield of the horse track at the Canfield Fairgrounds.

That’s us over to the right. Here’s a close-up, courtesy of the wonders of digital enhancement, and a very cool Nikon CoolPix 5000.

The word was that there were well over a thousand longhaulers who made the trip this year.

Hugh Wright of Clinton Township, Mich. was one of our winners. He thought so much of our “Bucket O’ Wax” that he threw out his old stuff for ours, and then proceeded to use them to clean his gorgeous ’49 Ford pick-up.

Doesn’t he look great in that Mothers limited-edition Power Tour T-shirt? Oh yeah, the truck looks good, too.