So here we are again, another month has gone by and I am sure you guys are ever so interested in what is going on in the world of Galen.
Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I have had a very quiet month. No tickets, no crazy neighbors' hitting my truck and no last minute builds going on, at least not for me. Mike Alexander on the other hand is going to try to 'bag, body, and shave up his newest project before the Forbidden show in less than a month. By the time you read this you will know if him and his buddies made it or not.
For the past five months, I have refused to let my hopes get the better part of me. What I am talking about is all the conversation about a River Run happening at La Paz County Park. When I first heard about it, I wasn't very excited because throwing a show at La Paz has been tried before with little or no response and it turned out just to be words. Now I am not trying to discredit Bob Hase in anyway, shape or form, because if anyone can pull it off it would be Bob. He wasn't inducted into the MT Hall of Fame just because he's old and one of the first in the scene (just kidding Bob). But now with the conformation that West Coast Nationals is returning to La Paz County Park there is a renewed enthusiasm starting to form within the West Coast mintruck scene. It brings back many awesome memories that were shared with friends.
I can remember a time that might seem like a dream to most. Back when spring and summer would roll around and I'd work all the extra overtime and crap shifts I could get at the grocery store just to have the weekends off. This left me free to go to truck runs! Back then, there was honestly a truck run held just about every weekend somewhere in California, Nevada, or Arizona. That's right, I'm old enough to remember that every month from April through September, there was something fun to do that involved hundreds of people and their trucks. Unfortunately, the truck runs are almost a thing of the past.
I'm going to date myself even more, so hold on to your shorts, sit down, or grab a hold of something. I remember back when I went to my first truck run at the river. It was called Spring Splash and was held by Spectrum Minis at La Paz County Park. I remember the show as if it had happened last month, not almost 20 years ago. Yes, the year was 1989, and I was very young. I can remember rolling out with my club, chatting on the CB radios with 20-plus other members of Extreme Fantasies. We had a lot of fun driving to the river, and I had no idea what that truck run would be like once we arrived there.
By the time we reached La Paz, there were so many minitrucks in line to get into the show that it took us hours to get anywhere near the front gate. By that time, a party had already broken out in the entry lanes to the show. Once we finally entered, we found our camp and parked our rides because we weren't in any shape to be driving anymore. Were we drinking and partying it up? Hell yeah we were! Was anyone being unsafe or damaging property? Hell no. I will say, that experience hooked me into the minitruck culture and I look forward to those times again. I hope that we as a collective group give ourselves a better reputation than the one we have been branded with, and we prove to these venues that we are not unworthy to be on their grounds.
Everyone has his or her place in this sport, and for it to thrive for years and years to come, we'll always need every kind of minitrucker, from the beginner all the way to the hardcore enthusiast. So, treat each other right, help each other build the trucks you've always wanted, and respect the shows that we have, present and future.
Until next month,Peace out