Entering another dimension

Last weekend Alene and Bailey went camping. I couldn't join them because I had to be at a football equipment check out Saturday morning, so toward the end of my work day, my brother Russ called me to invite me with him to a classic car show put on by Bo Huff.

I had learned about this guy a few months before. Russ is currently restoring, from the ground up, a 1951 Chevy 2-door hard top. He is pulling it apart piece by piece and fixing it up. It's very impressive to watch him as he progresses through it. Anyway, Russ told me about Bo Huff, who is one of those guys famous for re-storing cars, or for "chopping" cars. He is originally from East Carbon, UT (a small town outside of Price, which is a pretty small town itself). He has been restoring cars since his teens, moving to SLC, then LA, where his work really took off. He eventually moved back to Utah, where he continues to restore cars for people all over America.

So, with that said, I high-tailed it from work in order to head down to East Carbon, UT to check it out. In one of my previous posts, I mentioned that I used to LOVE going to classic car shows with my dad when I was younger and I've recently taken a liking to getting out and doing it more now. Someday I hope to be able to restore a car and cruise it to my death bed.

We arrived around 6:30pm and when we got there, we immediately felt out of place. I'd say about 90% of the people there were extremely hard-core. They truly lived the life of car choppers. Most had tatoos all over the place, most were drunk off their rears, and most looked like they would slit your throat if you looked at them wrong. I felt like I had jumped back to the 50's among a group of greasers. Now, I wasn't intimidated, because we found as we talked to everyone, they were all pretty nice. We saw Bo walking around talking to everyone. Russ had first met him while working security at the airport and talked to him for a bit. He saw Russ and said, "Whats up daddy?". Dude was cool as a cucumber, long white haired beard, white hair slicked back, sunglasses. People around there just absolutely worshiped him.

The town itself doesn't have a hotel (that I know of), so people were just camping out on the side of the streets or in their campers. A lot of the cars were very interesting and I wished I had brought my camera (these pictures are from Russ'). We were actually there a day before the official show, so we didn't see every car. That night they had a concert with two "rockabilly" bands playing. I was impressed with each band because they had their own niche.

The first band was Joey Fender and the 55's. This dude was very interesting and had a great way of playing a slide guitar while also helping out on drums (see video below). He also had a rock-star moment when he jumped off the stage and started playing his guitar in the crowd.

The second band was cool because it consisted of 3 brothers and some older guy on standup bass. The guitarist couldn't have been older than 17, the drummer had to be about 12-13, and the lead singer was about 9 years old. You couldn't really understand what he was singing (mostly original songs, with a cover of "walk this way"), but the kid MOVED like a frontman (with a guitar) and he had feeling in his voice as he sang. I felt like I was looking at a group of kids from the 50's. It was surreal.

Since the bands didn't start playing until 10pm, we didn't get home until about 1am. It was still a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to going back next year.

Russ outside of Bo Huff's shop



Some pictures of the various kinds of cars that were there. While some may not look finished, that is what was so cool about them is they are left like that on purpose. Kind of an "F-U" to the world that this is what they're doing with their car and it will smoke yours any day in a race-attitude.

This guy was from Montana. Funny as hell.





'50 Mercury. Love how they chop the top down on top of the cars









If I remember right, this car was pretty much hand-made, but had a Ford engine in it (even the body was fabricated by the owner)



Some of the rusty chopped up cars





This one sat there and burned out for about 20 seconds





One of Bo Huff's personal cars



Joey Fender and the 55's







Check out the slide guitar technique



The "brothers group" (can't remember their name, but they're from Springville, UT)

My little brother Russ is getting smarter

30 years old and he can almost spell my name correctly.

Messing around at the drive in movies with my camera

This isn't my good camera. This is the cheaper camera. We were watching Transformers 2, so I HAD to find something to do to kill the time. Got a couple of shots of an airplane flying behind the screen.





Tail lights



The boys

Silver Lake

Check out our hike to Silver Lake on our outdoor adventures blog:

Sliver Lake

Golfing

I went golfing with my brother Jeff and my brother in-laws Nate and Brock at Soldier Hollow. Check out this video I made from our trip:

"Do you like what you see?"

My nephew Ian does this dance from the movie "Hot Rod" perfectly. My family has this obsession with watching totally dumb, yet funny movies over and over again and this is the end result of what happens to us.

Ian:




The original version from the movie:

Video of Bailey walking

She's not full-on walking, crawling is still her choice of transportation, but we can trick her into walking every once in a while. She's doing so good and we're getting so excited for her.

Vis-a-Vis my progeny

Tepenyanki 6.22.09

Happy Fathers day

I recently started reading David McCullough's book, "John Adams". Alene bought me the HBO min-series and I really liked it. I'm only on the 2nd chapter of the book, but one thing stuck out to me, probably by chance because it's fathers day. It was the section where it starts to describe his up-bringing and his parents. He starts off by talking about how much he loved his mother and respected her and when it got to his father, this is what he had to say:

There were scarcely words to express the depth of his gratitude for the kindness his father had shown him, the admiration he felt for his father's integrity. His father was "the honestest man" John Adams ever knew. "In wisdom, piety, benevolence, and charity in proportion to his education and sphere of life, I have never know his superior, " Adams would write long afterward, by which time he had come to know the most prominent men of the age on two sides of the Atlantic. His father was his idol. It was his father's honesty, his father's independent spirit and love of country, Adams said, that were his lifelong inspiration. (as written by David McCullough)

Now, I don't know if it's ego, or what, but there is something inside me that so badly wants my children (and my wife) to think of me in this manner. I don't think it's ego though. I think if they think of you in this manner, that you have done a good job as a father and that is what you want. Often times I feel like I've failed so much and I get down on myself. I won't say I give up, but it just seems like I can and never will be someone admired by my children or my wife due to my many faults. I'm often late to things, I don't follow up on punishments at times (or often), I don't fulfill all my obligations as a priesthood holder in the home (i.e. we don't study scriptures as a family or hold family home evening hardly at all). I just feel so inadequate and I wish I wasn't.

With that said, I cannot be more proud of my children and being a father has brought more joy in my life than anything else. Seeing my children happy and laughing and loving is something I live to see.

I often wonder if Caiden knows how dumb I really am. I remember growing up thinking that my dad was the smartest man alive. I'm not sure when that realization changed (no offense dad, neither of us will ever top Einstein), but I still have all the respect for my dad that I could ever have, and I especially respect him for his knowledge and wisdom. He's always been a good example to me that working hard and doing your best, even when nobody is looking, is important. He's taught me to have a sense of humor and try to make others laugh. He's taught me to love oldies music, especially the Beach Boys. Most important, he has taught me to have an un-conditional love for my family and to sacrifice anything he could for us.

I still have a fond memory of being about 10 years old, maybe 11, and being pretty aware that we did not have much money. I rode my bike down to my dad's car lot and asked him for $.50 for a candy bar at the store. I remember he just paused and looked me right in the eye and said, he wanted to give me so much more, but for now he would give me all the change in his pocket. He scooped in and pulled out WAY more than the $.50 I wanted and gave me a big hug. That really meant a lot to me and in some ways, made me feel really secure that my dad would never leave me wanting.

Here are some misc. pictures of my dad or me spending time with my dad.

The fisherman with his mustache



Helping me develop my love for swimming



Giving me a haircut, even if it appears I'm going to fall asleep



Pulling us on a sled - I can actually still remember this happening and not wanting it to end.



Taking us to car shows and putting a HUGE belt buckle on me



A little bit Country....



....and a little bit rock n roll



"Should I stay or should I go"




Going to more car shows



The knees are still holding up





The poser



A couple of pictures I love of mom and dad

(Their friends Gary and Sandy gave this one to me)







Dad's kids