A couple weeks ago we shot an event called, Back to the Beach, in Kenner, LA (which is basically New Orleans) on the shores of Lake Pontchatrain. It’s a weekend-long music festival culminating in a car show on Sunday; all to raise money for the restoration and preservation of the lake. It sounded like a good event, a worthy cause, and an excellent excuse to go down and tank up on some of that great Gulf Coast food, as can be seen in the pic of me going one-on-one with a killer soft shell crab Po’ Boy. Tasty!

We went down a day early so we could also take in a few of the sights in New Orleans’ famed French Quarter.

The temperature was 102 degrees that day, and I found myself strangely drawn to the signs heralding “Huge Ass Beers”. I can also say with certitude that was not false advertising!

We were looking at the potential of another 100+ degree day on Sunday, which can make shooting pretty brutal, but fortunately a light rain blew thru, dropping the temperature into the low 90’s. Not exactly chilly, but certainly more bearable.

There were about 600 cars in attendance, and the rain certainly didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits. Hey, this is New Orleans, and a shower at a car show is a long way from what these folks consider adversity! Their sense of humor was in fine form too as I was greeted early on by a group sporting handlebar mustaches in honor of our attendance. If I’d had a little shoe polish for mine, I could have fit right in.

Another thing that takes a little getting used to is that everybody down there calls you, “Baby”. At first when all these women were calling me Baby, I thought, “Hey, I kinda like this!”, but when I realized that all the guys did it too, its appeal diminished a bit.

But have I mentioned there were cars there?

One that stood out to me was a ‘65 Plymouth Satellite convertible whose new owner had just completed his second tour of duty in Iraq. You don’t see these very often, and this wasn’t an over-the-top restoration; just a really nice driver. And that’s why he bought it, and that’s what he does with it. I hope he enjoys his cruisin’. He’s certainly earned it!

There was a pretty cool ’29 Model AA fire truck that was used up until 1953 by the fire department in nearby Bucktown.

As well as a really nice old school ’55 Chevy Gasser. This was owned by a guy who had been in local law enforcement for over 30 years and hence the name, Lawman.

There was a wide array of T-birds in attendance, but the one that caught my attention was this ’72 mega-bird. You don’t see these very often either. This thing was the size of a Lincoln Continental, and it was largely original. It had the 460 cui engine which it probably needed to haul all that weight around. Perhaps not one of the sexiest Birds ever built, but I bet it’s like driving the living room.

Rounding out the shoot was a nice little ‘36 hot rod Chevy truck. It was an eye-catching peach color with teal contrast, not to mention its heavily chromed, blown engine.

Everybody had a great time at the show, and I’m sure I’ll be working my cholesterol back down for the next couple months after all that deep fried seafood. The next stop is an event called, Slamology, in Indianapolis, and I expect that to be a whole different kettle of fish, so to speak.

Happy Motoring,