Steve and Tara's Power Tour Adventures: HRPT 2017- June 11: Day 2- Kansas City, MO to Newton, IA (260 miles)

Today marked the first driving leg of the Power Tour. It seems that everyone planned on leaving at the same time this morning. It's pretty sweet to hear 50 hot rods, sports cars, and muscle cars all start up at once. We would have left as planned, but we had to wait a few extra minutes for Scott. Tara's convinced he likes to make a grand entrance any chance he gets. We also were joined by our friends Ted and Lori from Texas in their silver Pontiac GTO who we met last year.

Our intrepid band

We hit the road around 7:45 and the morning started off perfectly cool. Our route was really nice. It was predominantly two lane winding country roads through farm country. Sunday is Tara's favorite driving day because of all the folks that come out to watch the Power Tour roll through. The traffic was almost exclusively Power Tour cars.

Sunday brings out the most roadside observers

Early in the day, we hit one stop sign where everyone had to turn right and traffic stacked up a little, but not bad. The route took us through Chillicothe, MO, which claims to be the home of sliced bread.

Best looking traffic

The greatest invention since...

Lori found our lunch stop at a tiny place called Home Town Café in Lineville, IA (guess where it's located?). It was cafeteria style and seemed most of the town (population 28) ate there. The fried chicken was REALLY good and the service was great. The locals were super friendly and asked lots of questions about the Tour and were amazed we drove all the way from Florida.

This place seats the entire town.

The fried chicken was good. The McRib meat, not so much.

After lunch we made our way to the venue, Iowa Speedway. Our cool morning weather gave way to the heat wave we had heard so much about. One bank sign we passed said 89 degrees. That's when it's nice to have A/C. We rolled up the windows and hit the air and rode the rest of the way in manmade coolness. Somehow, we timed our arrival at the speedway perfectly. We drove right into the venue. Within a few minutes after we arrived though, the traffic coming in was backed up all the way around the track. After they initially parked us, Tara, Jacob and I promptly drove to find better spots. There were absolutely no trees, so we found the next best option, a grass spot at the end of a row where we could watch the cars pass by. It was hot, but there was a strong wind blowing. Unfortunately, the road and pathways were gravel and dirt and the wind and passing cars whipped it up pretty good.

King of the Road

King of the Track

The motivator for supercharging my Corvette. 840 HP and it's for sale!!!

Yeah, it's got a HEMI!

Once we were parked, Jacob and I went to get clocked in, pick up our magnets and buy today's "participant" shirts. I also bought a few of the special edition Hot Rod Power Tour diecast cars (only 768 were made) for my niece and nephew (I also bought one for me too. There was a vendor selling some cool plasma cut signs and they had an Ace Café one, so I had to buy that. I also bought a GTX sign for the garage. Who knows, before the end of the trip, I may have one for each of the cars. They don't have an Acadian one though, I asked.

Jacob and I went back to the cars and that's when Tara and I got the idea to climb to the top of the grandstands to try and get an overhead photo of the showfield. There were a steady stream of cars coming and going, yet there were at least a thousand in the parking lot. The wind up top was so strong, it blew us backward.

Blown away

The panoramic doesn't show the field as well as this video (mute your sound so you don't hear the wind

We went back to the car and then decided to bail out of the heat, wind and dust. Jacob Googled a pressure washer car wash and we headed out. One parking guy threw a couple F-bombs at us for going the "wrong way", but all of the exit signs were pointing in the direction we left. We got the Acadian cleaned up and headed to the hotel for a shower and dinner. I got some rock star parking on the side of the building in the shade.

We had dinner at a La Cabana Mexican restaurant. It was really good. After dinner, we went back to the hotel and spent some time in the parking lot. Tara had some of Jacob's uncle's homemade moonshine.

Hot rod Buick 8

Gasp, sssmooooth.

The night had cooled down significantly and it was a great evening to be outside. Tara and I walked across the road to the next hotel over and took in the sights at their lot too. My favorite was a big Lincoln powered by a twin turbo LS motor. Tara liked the Bugeye Sprite.