Hot Rod Power Tour 2008: Power Tour Day 0.... getting there is half the battle!

Well the adventure began today! At 4 am I got up and finished loading everything up in the Caprice. After working on her the past few days she was ready to go.

I went and picked my father up and we headed out at 5 am. Leaving Chicago was quite interesting with fog and the sun just coming up. We hopped up to I-57 and headed south west. I didn't get much sleep the night before so I took a quick nap en route.

After an hour it got bad. The rain started coming down hard, the windshield wipers could barely keep up. We went from cruising at 75 mph down to 40 mph. that lasted for about half an hour until we drove through it.

We needed gas and so we pulled into a gas station off of I-57. It was almost completely under water. There were a few stalls still open and not under water. So we pulled into the good stall. Of course a semi had to drive next to our stall and send a nice wave right at up. We quickly moved out of the way and continued on our way.

Not much happened after that. We ran into a few Power Tour participants en route. Some joined out little caravan, others we just passed by.

The car had no problems. It was nice cruising without the air on until about 2 pm when the humidity became a real killer. So the windows were closed and the air came on, and no problems.

Once we got onto I-55 there was nothing much going on. We pulled over and had lunch somewhere on I-55.

It was nice drive, but I was thankful to get it over with. 10 hours straight was enough for me. We pulled in with a group of about a dozen cars and made our way into the fair grounds.

Made our way into the fair grounds and checked in at the hot rod trailer. After you sign in you go and park the car anywhere in the show area. We actually ran into a group of friends from Chicago that had left even earlier then us.

We all parked together and began hitting up the different vendors and getting free schwag. We I get to the GM Performance booth and I lose my pass to get free stuff.

At least Linda Vaughn was there.

The weather was HOT. We were sweating all over the place and I was without sunscreen. I really regret it now.

The park started closing up around 5:30 pm so my father and I made our way to the hotel where we just crashed (figuratively). And here I sit completely wiped out and barely able to move. But I'm ready for another day!