The Perfect Car Show
For the last 23 years, the Central Oregon Classic Chevy Club has put on the Flashback Cruz in Bend, Oregon. Situated along the meandering Deschutes River, in tree-covered Drake Park, this show attracts cars from all over the west, and northwest particularly. This year approximately 500 vehicles of all makes, marques and descriptions were on display, some ratty, some racy and most radiant!
The 2008 event was my second visit to this show, as I planned a family visit to Bend that just happened to occur over the same weekend. Brilliant! The show was great in '06 and even better in '08. One of the most attractive aspects, besides the great variety of cars, is the location. The park provides plenty of shade, a spectacular view of the river and is big enough to comfortably accommodate a large number of vehicles. No door dings in this group.
Anyone who has ever been involved with producing and directing a car show of this size knows how difficult it really is. The Classic Chevy Club crew has it all together, and for an innocent bystander like me, it all appeared to go off without a hitch. There are also other events tied to the Saturday show. In the evening, several square blocks of old downtown Bend, are closed for cruising. After several hours, the cars can angle park at the curb, and a street dance entertains the folks after dark. On Sunday other car related events in the area are available to those who choose to attend.
The show is usually the first weekend of August, so if you're in the area, it's worth a stroll. One item of note, as I drove back to LA a few days later, I saw two vehicles that were at the show being trailered back through central California. Depending on where they were going in SoCal, that's about 16-hundred miles round trip. Obviously, the trek and show was worth the effort and expense to those folks. You couldn't get a better recommendation that that! For future show information contact www.centraloregonclassicchevyclub.com.
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