2019 Cruise to the woods. I made it!!!!

It is nuts how fast the summer flies by. I wasn't able to do much fun car stuff this summer and I was lucky enough to be able to get to got to this year's Cruise to the woods show in Fort Dodge Iowa. (My wife let me miss the kids soccer games and go as long as I took my 2yr old daughter.):D Which was no big deal because she is my little buddy.

Of course as usual, I was running behind that morning. I was supposed to be at Altoona at 7:50 but it took longer than I had planned to get miss Ivvy's stuff together. (I couldn't find her coat) We did manage to make the Ankeny spot with some time to spare. I spotted an open spot next to a buddy's car. Luckily his wife was going to a gas station because I needed some goodies for Ivvy. About 10min later the group began to roll out. Sara got back a few minutes later and we loaded up. These guys didn't know where to go so they followed me. It worked out really well because my friend Adam was running behind too and he just happened to be coming down the street when we were pulling out so he let us out and followed us.

The best part of this show to me is the last meeting point, and the drive. All routes are routed to a town called Stratford and the streets are filled with cars and trucks. I think I heard them say there were 636 cars and trucks in that little town. You can walk around and check out everything, and get food and beverages. They have changed it some from years past. You had over an hour to be there and there were restaurants open to go set and eat. Now you have about 30min to eat and be back at your ride. When we were walking around heading back to our cars, I got pic 3 from Seth. :LOL: He must have been in the way back because I never saw them.

Luckily I grabbed Ivvy's toy bag. She would have been really board since she couldn't see much from the back seat. She loves books and was having a great time. The route is pretty cool. You drive through some very small towns and it is a good drive. You can see the rivers are pretty high here.

The park is one of a few I believe that has a "Ford" in it. The water was too high for anyone to pass through it though.

Check out the last view, almost as many hot rods as stalks of corn in the field. :LOL:
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I saw the mural on this grain elevator and thought who ever climbed their butt up there to paint that was nuts but very good! :LOL: I think the mural went all the way around the entire elevator.

We made it to the show safe and sound. Then it was time for Ivvy to setup and finish driving us there. :cool:

I was surprised there weren't many 40 Fords here. But, we didn't make it to the other side of the show either. The pics behind the show were taken by where the food vendors were. It was surprisingly not a crap hole considering all the rain we had last week. The place started emptying out earlier than I remember in previous years. We met up with Seth and his wife and checked out Rita. Seth offered to steal, I mean buy the Camaro back at a cut rate too. You have to watch those Northern Iowa Dutch guys I guess. :LOL: Seth's wife took Ivvy over to check out the horses in the horse trailer too.

Since we have no idea when the Camaro and Rita will be in the same area again, Seth's wife took some pics of us. The sun was out in full force, but it sure felt nice. :cool:

We said our goodbyes and we set out for home. I was really worried I was close to being empty on gas. It turns out I had around half of a tank. I didn't set my trip on my gps, but googling the address with the 8.3gal I used, I would be around 13.7. Someday I'll get a VSS put on the trans so I can hook up the speedo and drop the tank to see why my fuel gauge is inop. That's another day though. :LOL:

Adam and I decided to take 2 lanes back since this is the closest thing either of us are going to get to a vacation any time soon. I tried taking pics of neat Iowa scenery along the trip. Overall it was a great trip and the car did good. I probably put 250 miles on it round trip and it felt good to make it back with no issues. :eek:

The last 2 pics I'll leave you with are some from the Neal Smith Prairie area I took today just because it will all be white in 2 months probably. :whacked:

I sure had a good time going to the cruise, I'm definitely going to try to make it a yearly thing.I almost enjoyed Stratford more than the show itself, I've never seen such a small town so jam packed full of cool cars. I searched the whole car show high and low and I couldn't find one Dodge Pilothouse pickup so I'll definitely have something different if I ever get one to a show. Ivy sure is a little cutie,Kari was pretty happy that Ivy was comfortable enough with her to see the horses. I don't know why Ryan was so upset with my offer, he has a car for not even two years and I offer to double his purchase price and he just laughs, I don't get it :LOL: Getting up early to go on a cruise does have some perks, check out the sunrise pic.

Very nice pic! It was overcast and sprinkling when I left home. You had to leave earlier than me though. :LOL: Ivvy is a good judge of character. That's why she loves me so. :D I definitely agree, the time with those streets packed is really cool. I'd also like to park in the park sometime and watch everyone drive by. That would be a good time too.

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So cool you guys (and Gals) got to hookup and enjoy the show and the ride. Seth, that was a great pic of the sunrise.

It used to be on sunday mornings a group of us ( 8 to 12 usually) would gather at a friends gas station, usually the headers cracked open and we'd go on a cruise to no-where. Just spend a day cruising the countryside.. 'course gas was 25 or 27 cents then too.... but it was just so much fun!

Today I took it to a car show in Winterset. Tomorrow night its going to the car club meeting and hay rack ride. Pics to come tomorrow.