2010 Midnight at the Oasis - Yuma, AZ
by Conrad Monroe
After a reallllllllly long wet and cold winter Michelle and I were looking forward to heading down to Yuma for the 2010 version of Midnight at the Oasis. This show has over the years become one of our favorites. There is always a lot of cars that you don't often see and a lot of activities to keep you occupied.
We headed down the mountain on Wednesday so that we could go to the club meeting and get an early start on Thursday for the trip to Yuma. On Thursday morning we met most of the usual suspects at the Cracker Barrel at I10 and Litchfield Rd. After a leisurely breakfast we headed down I10 then on to Gila Bend. After the usual gas stop we continued down I8 to Yuma in time for our usual lunch at Penny's Diner.
The rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning the bugs off the cars and enjoying the mid 70's weather with a few beers and good friends.
Our plan on Friday was to catch an early breakfast and then head over to the park and stake out some prime parking real-estate. Bzzzzzzzzzzzt - not so fast yellow shirts. Our usual place for breakfast was always JB's across the street from the Yuma Cabana. Unfortunately, it has been bought out by Cocos and had not been reopened. We tried to talk some of the construction workers into fixing breakfast for us, but they weren't too interested in the idea. Plan 'B' turned out to be walking down the street 2 blocks to the Beer and Burger.
As much as I love beer, the idea of having it at 7:00 AM just didn't seem right, fortunately they had a great breakfast menu; unfortunately as usual 14 Yellow Shirts were able to bring service to a slow crawl. We finally got back to the motel at 9:30 or so. I told the hostess a the Beer and Burger to bring in some more staff for Saturday AM since we would be back with around 30 Yellow Shirts. I must say they paid attention because the service was quite good on Saturday as was the food.
When it looked like we were not going to be at registration in time to get a good area we called Jerry Erwin our potential new member that lives in Yuma to see if he could pick up the stakes and get us a good spot. I guess it was kind of like the Sooners of the Oklahoma land rush - most of the good ol boys were let in early and had staked out the best claims.
Click Here for Friday's Photos
By noon most of the Friday crew had arrived at the motel so we packed up and met them for lunch before heading to the park & swap for the start of the parade at 4:30. It doesn't seem possible, but I think there were even more folks lining the route than there were last year - my guess would be around 20-30K. The parade ended up at the park where we had the usual grilled chicken - Spanish rice dinner.
Click Here for Saturday's Photos
Saturday was another brilliant day - sunshine and clear skies until late in the day when it started to cloud over. There were well over 1000 entries parked on the fields and a ton of spectators. After cleaning the cars, everyone either headed for the easy-ups or began wandering around checking out the cars and talking with friends. Lunch was again the usual great tri-tip BBQ that MATO is so well known for. After lunch I finished my rounds checking out the cars on the west half of the complex. For some reason there seemed like a lot of Corvettes this year, more so than what I remember in the past. Included in the Corvette count were 2 - TWO 1963 split window Stingray Coupes - Both Silver - I cant remember the last time I saw one, let alone two! Also there was a really nice 1954 survivor roadster that had a moderate restoration sometime ago. As usual MOPARs were more than scarce but we had a nice selection of Olds & Pontiacs to look over. I have to say that my favorite at the show was "Patina" Tom Eckholdt's 1935 3 Window - Tom claims that he does have some shiney cars and said that he might bring one to Goodguys in March.
Dave Bennett was notified that he had won the Mayor's Trophy with his '37 Caddy. I don't know what it is about that car that Mayor's like so much. This was his second Mayor's Award - go figure.
Click Here for Sunday's Photos
Our luck with the weather didn't hold. It started raining fairly heavily around 4:00 AM Sunday, forcing us to load the cars in the rain. We headed over to the Country Club to have breakfast where we decided to get an early start on the trip home. Dave and Anne stayed behind to pick up their award while the rest of us beat feet down I8 in the down pour.
About half way to Gila Bend, my RainX gave up the ghost - between the rain outside and the fog inside about all I could see was a blurry image of the car ahead of me. Fortunately it was Elliott's Screaming Yellow Zonker which did provide me with a good sized target.
After Gila Bend, we followed Paul and Judy Nolte back to their home in Scottsdale where I parked the '39 and took Paul's Dodge pickup for the run home. This was a great call on Paul's part! The trip up to Show Low was not a lot of fun, even in a truck that had new wipers and a set of great defrosters. It rained heavily from Fountain Hills to Payson where it turned into snow. By the time we got to Star Valley the snow was starting to stick, and by the time we hit the top of the rim at Woods Canyon Lake turn off it was a real mess. Basically white out conditions, the road had a good solid coating of ice under about 4 - 6 inches of wet heavy snow that turned to ice when you drove over it.
From the top of the rim through Forest Lakes to Heber it was a real mess. We were following a couple of 4x4 pick ups that helped with finding our way through the white out. Traffic heading up the mountain was not heavy however there were a ton of vehicles heading down. As I recall we counted around 15 vehicles off the road and in the ditches along the way.
After Heber the snow changed to a mix of freezing rain and snow mix that stayed with us until we made it home. By the time we pulled up to the garage, the front of Paul's truck had between 1/2 and 3/4 inch of ice on the front.
Anyway, it was a great trip and we will be looking to see everyone at the March Goodguys!