Power Tour

Welcome to Day 5 of the Hot Rod Power Tour. Today's route was a bit shorter at 186 miles, so we expected a rather drama-free day (with the exception of Shane's mini market mini rants on the adverse effects of processed sugar). This wasn't to be, as I was caught off guard by our dependency on technology. It's amazing how the smallest glitch can send reverberating ripples across our entire Tour experience. For instance, my unfamiliarity with the settings of the microwave in my room caused me to overheat my breakfast sandwich. Oh, and the connection speeds were so poor that it took all night and into the morning to publish yesterday's post. It set our departure back by a couple hours, but more importantly, the soggy sammie put me in such a mood. Steen and Hunter were ready to take a turn behind the wheel of the Callaway AeroWagen on this leg. I'm including this sexy car wash booty shot of Steen with the hope that it will get me back in the good graces of Mrs. Steen in the aftermath of the Great Burnout Media Blast Catastrophe of Wednesday. This was Forrest's view this morning. Watching the sun rise over Big Al's Chevelle. And this was my view as I waited impatiently for the assets in yesterday's post to upload. Chevy Performance Guy's cow case included for attention and disappointed Hunter is there to make me feel as if the delay was a user error. I'm compelled to argue that I'm quite digitally savvy and it's unfair of Hunter to cast his judgmental gaze from behind the screen of his fancy, interwebs phone. Once Hunter showed me how update my Facebook relationship status to "It's complicated" (it really is), we stopped off to top off our tanks. Now this pic makes me sad because it's the end of an era. Our beloved Amy from Accounting is leaving Mothers after some 14 years of incredible service. How incredible? Well, for starters, she put up with my expense reports, which amount to little more than the images and text in this blog, like this one. For starters, um, the AeroWagen runs on diesel and it has a special 79 gallon tank, which should come to $1,675.23. No need to check my math, Amy, I had Hunter crunch the numbers with his fancy phone. We'll truly miss you, Amy, mainly because you pushed most of my expense reports through without question. Speaking of which, how soon can I get reimbursed for the expenses incurred on Power Tour? Those breakfast sammies have been doing a number on my per diem. At the gas station we ran into one of our Mothers Polished builder partners, Scott Laitinen (left), and his latest build, Huckleberry the Sleeper, complete with a Roadster Shop chassis and 800-plus hp Don Hardy Racecars mill. He finished the truck and broke it in by driving it from his Lake Havasu, Arizona shop to Bowling Green, Kentucky for the Tour kickoff party. After long hauling the entire Tour, they'll haul whatever's left over back to AZ. It should be a brisk 6,000 mile-drive when all is said and done. Another departure is the patina on the truck, as Scott is known for more polished builds, some of which have received our Mothers Choice awards. Finally, out on the open road to Raleigh. Our celebration was short-lived as a highway back-up halted traffic and may have spurred an electrical issue with Charley's Camaro. Everyone wanted to ensure Charley could get back on the road as quickly as possible. With that mind, we used our patented union approach to fixing the Stielow-built Camaro, which is to say seven of us standing around while Steen did the work. This was the cause of the delay. It goes without saying, but I implore you, please, be careful on the road, people. This 72 Chevelle belongs to our new friend, Jamie Deveny, the VP of Brand Development at Lucas Oil. It's been fitted with a fuel-injected 572 leading out to a Moser 9-inch. If that package sounds familiar, it's because Steen and Hunter rebuilt this one, just in time for the Power Tour. Glad to see that Jim's got that laid-back shooter stance on lock. Lunch at Freddy's was enjoyed by all... except for Shane, who brought his own salad. Can't take him anywhere, unless it's to eat salads at Freddy's. Finally made it to PNC Arena. Which do you want, LS9 or LSX? Our product demos are always a hit. Forrest lost a best hat award to these two, John Gray (center) and Nate Tovey from Tremec. John is a retired USAF officer and he sells these special Long Haul Gang stickers on Tour with 100 percent of the proceeds going to Susan G. Komen for breast cancer research. Since Forrest was in a giving mood he also auctioned off a special dinner with himself (jaunty hat not included). The proceeds went to John Gray's Susan G. Komen donation fund and the winner was Betty Vaughn, a 21-year Cancer survivor. I'm not entirely sure what the National Brotherhood Hot Rod Assembly does, but I do know one thing, they're doing it better than us with bark bars and not much else. I see the problem here, they're trying to do Power Tour with a couple of AMC Eagles. We found Art Morrison's Farm Truck, but where in the world is Carmen San Diego (not to mention, Art)? Tomorrow we’ll go 181.2 miles to zMAX Dragway in Concord, North Carolina. In the meantime, feel free to enjoy our gallery of pics from Day 05 here. John Naderi for Mothers® Polishes•Waxes•Cleaners facebook.com/mothersusa