It’s already October! Where did the summer go?

As I’m sitting here working on the computer I can look back on all of the photos from the season that is now wrapping up. From the first events when the snow cleared to the recent Supermeat, a lot happened; and while at times I’d be tired from preparing for show after show, I’m glad that I attended as much as I did. I made a conscious effort to go to more shows and meets with my cars this year and I hope to do the same next season.

I thought I’d put together a short recap of what we’ve attended over these past months, as this post would also be small milestone for the blog and I wanted to do something special. This is my 100th post on ThreeTwenty! Thank you everyone for reading and following along, and showing the support that you have. I really do appreciate it! This is meant to be just a log of my experiences and I’m pleased to see that so many visit the site and are even willing to sport decals for it. As we head into winter I’ll try to keep it updated regularly but there won’t be much to post in the way of show coverage; it’ll probably turn more to photos of UCCC meets and stockpiled parts for next summer.

Anyway, let’s move on to the recap of the 2013 season. It was a good one:

April:

Spring Thaw

With the summer wheels having just come out of hiding, the first big stop this year was the Spring Thaw back in April. It was a chilly day but cars of all sorts were brought out to celebrate the start of the season. It was awesome to see all of the machines come out of hiding or be converted back to summer mode, and to have clear roads again.

May:

Edmonton Season Opener

I had an invite from Jules to head north to the 780 Tuners Season Opener so I did just that. The Focus was packed and a weekend spent in Alberta’s capital, the highlight of course being the Opener. It was so much bigger than the Beyond meets I’m used to, with draws, food, and cars overflowing into two other parking lots! It was definitely worth the trip and I hope I can go again next year.

Driven

Following Driven 2012 I had made a promise to myself that if it were to return to Calgary for 2013, I’d enter the Focus. It did just that, so I started a makeover for the sedan and on May 11th I got to see it parked in the Oval with the rest of the cars. It wasn’t alone though, as the UCCarClub organized a group of 10 cars and managed to get a great location right by the doors. We put in a lot of work and I would do it all over again. Here’s hoping 2014 sees another edition of Driven in Calgary.

Driven is also when we started our new tradition of making commemorative decals for shows we attend as groups.

Firebird Club Show and Shine

The old Grand Prix was finally dusted off and fired up after a 7 month hibernation and brought out to the Calgary Firebird Club’s Show and Shine. The evening before was spent getting it out of storage and making sure it’d be ready to drive the next day, and the following morning it was all clean and parked with the other Pontiacs, getting its share of attention. The Focus is generally the car taken to events but occasionally the Pontiac will attend instead. I don’t store it to preserve it for shows, or meets, or anything like that. Instead, I store it just to preserve it for my own enjoyment and occasional summer drives. Sometimes though, it’s nice to bring it out to an event and see it get some attention.

June:

Canmore Father’s Day Show

This was actually a last-minute decision, but I happened to be in Canmore at the time so I entered the Focus in the Father’s Day show. It got plenty of attention and I even ran into Ian and his father, with the V6MISTAKE. I was completely unprepared but it’s a good thing I always carry detailing supplies. Just a few days later the floods hit though and Canmore sustained a fair bit of damage. I was back this past weekend and there is still a lot to repair, and the town is pretty different compared to just a few months prior.

August:

Sunday School

I missed the first Sunday School but both this and the previous year I made sure to attend. As if bringing both the Focus and Grand Prix wasn’t enough work (as I did last year), I one-upped myself and took on the responsibility of a car for Metro as well. Some friends joined and we all went under the ThreeTwenty name, bringing a variety of vehicles. As with Driven, parking worked out really well and we found ourselves in what we considered one of the best spots. Thanks again to everyone who joined the group and helped out as it wouldn’t have happened otherwise. Also, thanks to Metro for letting me take out a 5.0 – that was a lot of fun.

September:

Park and Polish

For a few years now I have attended the Quarry Park and Polish in September, and this time we went as the UCCarClub; once again managing to get an outstanding location. It’s luck, we honestly have no say in it. Haha. This year trophies had been added and some very special supercars (and the Ferris Bueller movie car) were there. It was the last big show and shine we attended and it was a great day.

There is more to come for this as I still have the final group of photos to post. That will be up soon!

Supermeat

I know this was just covered one post ago, but being late in September it can be a good way to start wrapping up the season. It may have rained but some of us still headed over to Chinook and toughed it out. It was smaller in size than previous Supermeats but that’s okay. Now with this behind us the meets are shrinking and cars are starting to be prepared for winter. It had to happen eventually but I’m still sad to see it starting.

There are good things about winter though – for one, it gives you time to start making changes to your car for the coming season, when we’ll do this all over again.

-Bill