Summing Up The Smiths: The Giveaway Car- Day 1

As most of you already know, my dad (better known as PawPaw) builds hot rods full time at his custom shop. The name of his shop is Ronnie's Hot Rods. He started his first business when I was in Kindergarten, and finally reached his dream when he was able to open up the hot rod shop. My dad has worked his whole life to create a successful business to support his dreams and his family. My brother, Casey, works for him at the hot rod shop. His brother, Ken, works for him as well. It's a family affair at Ronnie's Hot Rods. Along with blood family he has a crew that he thinks of as his family. The men that work there have become so special to not only him, but to mom and I too. They help him make his dreams come true. The highlight of Dad's career came about last year. NSRA (National Street Rod Association) approached him about building a car to give away at the Street Rod Nationals in Louisville, KY. When I say "give away", I mean give away... He had sponsors to help him with the materials for the car, but all the labor was totally free. He and his crew built the car from the body's hull to road ready in a year. He spent many, many long hours on the build of that car. He also took the car all around the country to show the followers the progress of the build. After a year of seeing this car transform into such a beautiful piece of machinery, we all had grown attached to it. It was like a little piece of our family by the time it was time for it to go to its new owner.

The original body was not this color. He chose this color.

Frame.

Dad chose to build a 1932 Ford for this project. He was allowed to build it without any stipulations. The car that he built was 100% his choice. I heard him say to someone that if he could build himself a 32 Ford, that it would look exactly like the giveaway car. He picked out every single piece of that car as if it were going to be his car to keep forever.

We had been talking about making the trip to Louisville to support dad and the guys from the shop since May. I asked for permission to be off work the first two days of school, and they shockingly approved my absence. From the day they told me I could be off until the day we left I thought about all the things that could go wrong, how stressful it would be, and if I really wanted to even tackle the project of taking Suzy along with me. Up until the day before we left I was going back and forth with the thought of backing out. I just couldn't do it, I had to go and I had to take Suzy with me. I was super nervous about all the things that would be different for her and stressing out about her schedule. We had planned to leave early Wednesday morning, so I took Suzy to daycare the Tuesday before departure. I packed, cleaned, organized, etc. I got in the bath tub at like 3:00, and as soon as I had lathered my hair up my cell phone rang. It was dad. He was calling to tell me that we needed to leave right then. I quickly finished bathing, grabbed all our stuff, threw it in my car, headed to town to get Suzy, and started loading up. We had made arrangements to ride with mom and dad in his big truck. He bought an 18 wheeler that has a living quarters in the cab. It is equipped with a bunk, couch, kitchen table, kitchenette, a full bathroom, and a TV with a DVD player. Riding with them seemed like the only feasible way for Suzy and I to go.

This is one of the magazines that they are in for this build! So exciting.

So proud!

We finally got everything in the truck and pulled off at 5:30'ish. I thought Suzy would easily fall asleep in the truck since she could watch TV. I was wrong. She didn't go to sleep until about 11:00 PM. She cried for at least an hour, because I was trying to rock her to sleep. I finally gave up and let her stay awake. She finally wore herself out and slept from 11:00 until we woke her up around 6:30 the next morning. We made it to Louisville around 3:00 that morning and dad parked the truck and trailer in the parking lot of a stadium that was close to the event. We all got a few hours’ sleep, woke up, and headed to the event headquarters. We were at the doors waiting to be let in at 8:00.

The stadium we woke up to.

Dad's truck and trailer had to be inside of a building where all the exhibitors were located. There were tons of people already there and set up, so it was a bit unnerving to watch him back that huge truck and trailer through a building full of vendors and very expensive cars! He did it with ease. He constantly impresses me.

She needed a drink. Her was thirsty!

We got the trailer unloaded and the display set up, and we were all ready to go to the hotel to get some rest. While we were resting some more of the group showed up. Shirley and Jesse Danford, Mike Irby, and George and Melanie Lynch had arrived by the time we had woken up.