For some, the rally actually kicked off on Wednesday. The Clark's and Wolfe's actually arrived at the campground Wednesday, where they secured the front row for us. Then Terry, Wanda, Ray, Gary, Berny and I met up at Chris and Kim's house, where we stayed the night in our campers.
Thursday morning, Chris and Kim and their kids, Terry, Wanda, Ray, Gary, Will and Tobi with their kids, Jim, Berny and I met with Larry and Zach (who couldn't make the trip) for breakfast at the Flying J.
Once our stomachs were full, the caravan hit the road for Indy. About 15 miles out, Will experienced a flat tire on his camper (thankfully near an exit), so we stopped to change it out. Then we hit the road again. After a brief stop at a rest area, we continued on uneventfully into Indy.
We arrived at the campground around 2:30 eastern time, where we met up with the Clark's, Wolfe's and Waibel's. We checked in and then began setting up the "courtyard". The Clark's graciously provided the meat (some darn fine BBQ) for our annual "pot luck" dinner and everyone else pitched in some really good side dishes, so we once again had full stomachs. Then we settled in and got reacquainted with many of the other rally goers while imbibing on some cold adult beverages.
Despite a forecast of rain, we awoke Friday to very nice weather, which stuck with us for the whole day. We cleaned up our trucks and then rolled over to the Corral as a group. When we arrived, the Crew Club people asked us to park "front and center" in the corral, so SLAPS was definitely on display all day on Friday!
We mingled around, looked at all the really nice trucks on display, cast our votes for the show-n-shine, went through the midway at the track and talked with other rally participants for a good portion of the day. When it came time for dinner, the International folks treated us to a good feed and gave out the show-n-shine awards. SLAPS was well represented here: Kevin Clark won the Best Paint, Terry Swisshelm won the Best Work Truck, Chris White won the People's Choice and I won the President's Award.
For the past several years, International has arranged for the rally participants to take their trucks out onto the track prior to the truck race. Each time, we have honored the military in some manner. This is one of the highlights of the rally every year and this one was no different. We honored a group of young men and women who just that day, had joined the Army. I have to tell you, with all that is going on in the world, my hat is off to anyone willing to place their life on the line for our freedom.
Following the on-track events, we were treated to a very good truck race. We thought that Rick Crawford in the Power Stroke Diesel truck was going to make a run for the win until late in the race when he suddenly started backing up through the field.
Once the race was over we headed back to the campground where we were treated to another SLAPS tradition.... Cincinnati Chili Dogs, courtesy of Wanda Swisshelm. This is always a treat and if you haven't had them, you are definitely missing out! We finished out the night with some good ol' bench racing and adult beverages.
Saturday morning, the sun was out in full force and it got warm to say the least! Thankfully, we had a breeze from time to time, so it wasn't miserable. We headed over to the SLAPS/FOKISD rally area where we set up the trucks for the show-n-shine, watched folks run on David Dunbar's dyno and visited with the other participants. Later in the afternoon, we sat down to another feed courtesy of International and handed out the awards from the day's show-n-shine. Once again, SLAPS was well represented: Chris White won the Best Modified 94-97, Lou Drenner won the Best Stock 99-08, Will Haskell won the Best Modified 99-08, Scott Fosdick won the People's Choice 94-97 and Kevin Clark won the People's Choice 99-08.
Once the day's events were wrapped up, we all headed back to the "courtyard" for another round of cold adult beverages and good conversation that lasted well into the night.
Sunday, we awoke to another bright and warm day, packed up our gear, said our goodbye's and headed out for home. Along the way we ran across Lou, who had burnt up a wheel bearing about 30 miles west of Indy and was on the side of the road. We helped him get safely to the next exit (close by, luckily) and made sure he had the help he needed, then continued on west to St. Louis with no further issues.
That about wraps up what happened at the Rally...
I look forward to seeing everyone next month!
Until then,
Keep on truckin'!!
Chuck
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Club Officers:
Chuck(teamroper60) President Terry(tubzz) Vice President Ray (PeterbiltCE) Secretary Chris(Ytee) Treasurer Will(Ghostrider304) Sergeant-At-Arms Gary(Strobert) Past President/Founding Member Eddy Lee(Eddy) Founding Member Jim(JimTJr) Founding Member