When we arrived at the gates our friend Jessie was directing the entries. He took one look at us in the Dart and told us that all the show cars go to the right. It took me a second but then I said, but we're vendors....wait...there's a car show?? At that moment we just needed to get into the vendor section and set up so I told him I'd think about putting her in the car show. As we were setting up our booth I kept looking at Lucy and wondering if she should be entered. I know I love my car but would other people love her? Plus there were A LOT of really bitchin' cars there. I knew that it wasn't necessarily a beauty pageant though, it was a people's choice jury so everyone could vote for themselves. After we set up I had to move her out of the vendor section anyway so it was either park her on the grass and enter in the show or move it all the way out into the parking lot. Ultimately, I paid the $15 bucks and put her in!
I found a parking spot next to two other wagons and jumped out of the car to survey her condition. Thankfully I had at least hosed her off that morning! I rolled all the windows down to hide the dirt and folded the seat back up. I stowed all the junk under the spare tire compartment and rubbed the cat paw prints off the hood with my bare hands. There was nothing I could do about the leaves all over the floor but c'est la vie! I chatted up the other wagon owners for a minute and told them that I had a vendor booth and wouldn't be with the car. They were cool dudes and I'm sure looked after her for me. As for me, I had only a few moments of freedom from the face painting booth but I did have the chance to make a sign to put on the dashboard that read "1963 Dodge Dart Wagon Work in Progress and Daily Driver, the official car of DONO (come see our booth!)" I put the sign up and gave her a good luck pat and then returned to my servitude as a face painter.
The whole day was great, our booth looked amazing, our crafts were selling well, I was painting faces like crazy and we had a member of our group in the pin-up girl contest too. Candice was our pin-up and she was dressed as an army girl, number 21 ("You have to be at least 21 to vote!"). She looked like a punk rock Andrews Sister, too cute. She did a lot of campaigning to get her number out there to the people so they could vote for her. Every time someone came to our booth we told them to vote for her. The girls were also telling people that we had a car in the show, our Dart number 11! I knew Candice had a winning chance but I didn't think my last minute dusty Dart would pick up any prizes, the competition was just too good. The way I saw it, I just paid for convenient parking when I entered!
About five hours and 100 different versions of "Ring of Fire" later, we were about to find out the winners of the contests. They did all the pin-ups first, there were about 15 in all. They all looked cute as buttons. They started with 4th place first and whadda ya know, Called out #21, Candice! She sashayed up to the mic and accepted her trophy, a shiny chrome pinstriped car part (air cleaner?)! They named the rest of the girls and another one of our friends made it to second place I believe. After that they kept the winning pin-ups on stage to take pictures with the owners of the winning motorcycles & cars. They went through the bikes, then the trucks and lastly the cars. When they got to the cars I figured well, I had better stick around just in case there is some crazy reason my car wins something. The announcer stepped up to the mic and began the car category. As with all the other categories, they announced 4th place first. He said "...Fourth place for the coolest car goes to ....entry number 11"...Right then I gasped, my number was 11...omigod... I wasn't about to shout yet, I didn't want to be that actor who thinks they've won the Oscar when it wasn't their name called. I just waited for more info. "Numer 11, a 1963 Dodge Dart..." Holy crap! I thought I have one of those! I was starting to get excited but just could not believe it, they were going to have to say my name....and then they did! Still I was dumbfounded! My friend pokes me, "That's you!" Suddenly I snap to..It was me! My Dart won a prize!
Making it from my spot in the crowd to the stage was like being on the Price is Right (imagine the music in your head and Rod Roddy saying Come On Down!!!)... I ran to the stage passing through the crowd, and didn't see the steps to the stage so instead climbed up the side like King Kong! I might as well have been saying ME WIN PRIZE! ME WIN PRIZE! When I got to the center of the stage there was a pin-up girl waiting to take a picture with me. AWESOME, LOL! They handed me my trophy which was a pinstriped bottle of wine that said "4th Coolest Car, Johnny Cash Ventura CA 2009" I posed with the pin-up, as the only female winner and gave her a kiss on the cheek! The crowd was loving it. I finally found the stairs and went back to my friends. It was the coolest thing EVER! I was in total disbelief that my wacky little wagon could win anything especially as a last minute entry with leaves all over the floor!
It was a great day all around, DONO kicked butt, Candice kicked butt and my Lucy kicked butt! Not bad for a buncha first timers! Here is the official link the festival web page and some picks of all of us. Enjoy!
www.johnnycashmusicfestival.com
and just for LOLZ, one of me looking like a starving vampire:
