I gotta give a shout out to...
I gotta give a shout out to Ross Berlanga for snappin' this picture while I was knee deep in work, and for helping a few of us out in a jam when Johnny Law laid down the law and booted us from a perfect Kodak moment.
Normally, when I think of summer I think of lazy days with a mindset tuned into what is more commonly called a lazy daze. The lake, the beach, vacation hot spots, or even the front porch is more than enough to sit back and enjoy the peaceful easy feeling (yeah, I quoted the Eagles) that radiates from a hot summer sun and a cool evening breeze. Ah yes...summer, a time of year when the world just kicks back, has a few coldies, and watches time pass by. All right, who am I kiddin', that reality of summer only plays out in my mind or in a Jimmy Buffet song! Because in actuality, everyone tries to cram as much of whatever they can from the time that golden globe in the sky rises until it falls out of reach, myself included.
Yep, the way to sum up my summer so far can be said in three little words, one crazy summer, and yes, for all you '80s pop culture aficionados, that is a John Cusack movie from 1986...but hey, who's keepin' track, ya know. This weekend marked my fifth weekend in a row where I have attended a car show. Ranging from Lincoln, Nebraska, to Chatsworth, California, one could say I have been near and far and high and low to check out what's going on out there in the world of classic trucks. In fact, I also just booked my trip to Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Let's just say I go wherever the trucks take me. When I'm not show-seeing, I'm still on the go shooting features, getting kicked out of parking lots, doing tech, or mashin' on my '71, Project Get Shorty. It's a nonstop thing.
Speaking of my '71, the craziest thing happened to me the other day. I walked into work and sat down to check what came over the wires in my e-mail just like everyday. As I was reading one of my e-mails from a reader, he went on to talk about how he almost bought a '71 longbed and planned to cut it down, and, well, pretty much everything I have outlined for the project. At the end of the paragraph, he told me he was surprised to see my editorial with the truck in it, and that once I opened the pictures he attached to the e-mail I would know why. I'm not going to lie-I was pretty much lost at this point. But once I opened his pictures, there it was, my exact truck! He was going to buy my truck and follow along with the same plan-what are the odds on that?
Now speaking of crazy-as you will soon notice, in this issue we are running a '71 El Camino. However, is it crazy or cool? We happen to think it's way cool, but when the topic of El Caminos comes up, it's kind of like talking republican or democrat-everyone has their own opinion. So don't be shy on this matter, and let us know what you think about it.
You know, I could keep going on with all kinds of crazy things that have been happening around here, simply because that's the nature of summer, but instead I think I'm going to take a second to relax, capture the moment, and pop on Buffet's "Cheeseburger In Paradise." -Dakota Wentz