April 8, 2018 Triple-X drive-in. Issaquah, WA

[JH1]

Y'all,
We're 3 weeks out until the very first military vehicle show of
the season. It is at the Triple X Rootbeer drive-in in Issaquah, WA. See
their website at www.triplexrootbeer.com. The date is April 8, SUNDAY.
No entry fee or anything like that, of course. The address is:9
98 N.E. Gilman Blvd., Issaquah WA 98027
Last year we had 42 military vehicles plus trailers, plus 12 emergency vehicles.
We always have a great time at that show. Best burgers anywhere, too.
C'mon down with whatever you have, all eras and conditions welcome. Have
something that is in the middle of restoration? Bring it. We can dance
around it and talk about what you're doing with it. The public loves it.

We never know the weather, of course. It has ranged from warm and sunny
to torrential downpour in years past. Even in the wettest times, we
truly have fun, anyway. It's also a good shakedown cruise to get ready
for the rest of the season.

We will be joined by the Emergency Vehicle collectors, again. They
bring fire engines, cop cars, hearses (hasn't the emergency already
passed?), and rescue vehicles. We park on the east side of the
restaurant and spill farther east into the Group Health lot, if
necessary. Jose, the owner, needs everyone to have their own vehicle
insurance, in case anyone falls or scrapes their pinky on our stuff.

Email me if you have any questions. Feel free to spread this to other
clubs or social networks. See you there!

Jim

 

[JH1]

11 days to go, now. New info: Jose (the restaurant owner) wants to make sure we all know that the upper parking lot doesn't belong to him and his neighbors graciously let him use it for shows, so please be careful not to mark or drip oil (naw, never happen....) on it. It would be a good idea to bring a drip bucket or similar if your ride has a penchant for marking it's territory. Tracked vehicles need to park in the lower lot, on the same level as the restaurant.

I want to encourage everyone bringing a vehicle to have a battery disconnect switch installed, or pick the negative lead off of the battery during the show. People sometimes crawl into the drivers seat and 'play driver'. If the vehicle is in gear and someone stomps on or turns on the starter, the vehicle moves. I have had people crawl in my vehicles and fiddle with all (ALL) of the switches before. It does happen.

Come as early as you like but the show/display starts at 9 and goes to around 2 to 4 depending on the crowd and weather. See you all there!
Jim

 

[JH1]

Well, we have now seen the worst weather possible for a mil vehicle show. It just doesn't get any worse than this. However, we did have a great time. It actually turned into a people event instead of a vehicle event. We had 12-13 military vehicles, about 6 restored police vehicles, and one hearse. It rained sideways, literally. Fortunately, Chad had a couple of pop-up tents and some tarps. Stephanie had more tarps, and the crew lashed them together and zip-tied the tarps around the sides to make a 10 x 20 shelter. Someone else had chairs and one guy had a Coleman tent heater, of all things. It worked really well, and we kicked the vehicle season off just great. Thanks, everyone for coming out in the worst possible weather!

You can see a couple of quick videos at:

https://youtu.be/D6c0-_wsb4o

and

https://youtu.be/XVIl64lEBNs

Dean had the M35A2 deuce and set it up for the kids to play in, which worked great.

There is more video and some pictures I don't have, yet. I will pass those along when I get them. In the future Triple-X spring events, I will make sure there are a couple of pop-up tents, tarps, chairs, and a BIG heater with us, just in case. Without those, we would have been pretty much rained out.

We had a few people stop by to look at the stuff, but it was pretty much just us collectors. There were a few people that drove by slowly and smiled, but weren't about to get out of the car.

Jim