The scene is a snack-'n'-puke truck stop in the middle of New Mexico. The Captain, Tito, Pincushion, Big Time, and myself were sitting at a table, trying to enjoy our lunch while Ass-Master General farted up a storm. I don't remember the exact comment that was made -- there were so many good one-liners throughout the trip -- but half of The Captain's lunch ended up flying out of his nose and mouth and onto a nearby table. This was the start of one of the best road trips I'd ever had.
For 22 hours, I drove with this rowdy bunch all the way to Round Rock, Texas, for Texas Heatwave 2001. When we arrived at our hotel, we were greeted by quite a few fun-loving mini-truckers that made the trek to Texas for one of the year's best shows. We were a day early and still the local hotels were mobbed with custom-truck builders and owners.
Friday night was spent hanging out in our hotel's parking lot, catching up on old times with people we hadn't seen since the last show. It also seemed to be the epicenter of activity that evening because a non-stop flow of cruisers rolled through the lot, each one putting on a good smoke-'n'-spark show for us. This lasted late into the evening until the cops came and made everyone retire to their hotel rooms.
On Saturday, the show began at Dell Diamond, a new venue for Texas Heatwave. The baseball field's parking lot provided ample room for all of the magnificent show trucks, vendors, and activities. Throughout the day, a DJ spun tunes as professional freestyle BMX'ers performed stunts on a huge quarter pipe and vendors gave out T-shirts to anyone that could get close enough to the stage.
One nice aspect of the show was the weather that seemed slightly cooler than years past. This made jocking all of the minis at the show a bit more enjoyable for everyone. One of the cooler minis in the show was a flamed Nissan Hardbody that sported a Nissan Frontier front end and suicide doors. We also stared at a Chevy S-10 that had a Lincoln Navigator front end cut and smoothed into its cab. Front end swaps seemed to be the hot ticket in Texas that day, and these two trucks were at the forefront of this trend.
We finished out the day by walking over to the other side of the show, which brought us into the center of car-audio competition in the form of a dB drag race. There we sat in awe as vehicle after vehicle punched the living daylights out of their windshields with deafening bass notes. Saturday night was a carbon copy of Friday evening on a larger scale.
Not only was there a party going on at our hotel, but there were several other parties that we journeyed to. Each parking lot seemed rowdier than the next until we arrived at the last one, which was shut down by the local police. It seems that they didn't see the humor in parking lot fast-food tray surfing like the rest of the party people did.
Sunday morning came and we made our way back to the showgrounds. The blur that was Saturday's show faded away because a new crop of minis that we'd not seen the previous day arrived for us to burn film on. If there was any kind of judging going on, we didn't notice it because we were so busy checking out all the new awesome rides at the show. As quick as the day began it was over, and everyone filed into the stadium seats for the trophy presentation. To actually sit down in the shade during a trophy ceremony was a new experience for mini-truckers, and we're sure it was appreciated.
The show was a huge success and the only problem we saw was the overzealous police that gave everyone leaving the showgrounds a rude awakening in the form of some bogus tickets. You can bet that we'll be making the long trip back to Texas again next year to see more insane customs and have the time of our lives.