Before we get rolling I want to talk about something
important to me. This month if you’re not aware is Autism Awareness Month,
throughout this month there will be fundraisers and promotions in order to
promote awareness of this mental disorder and to draw attention to tens of
thousands facing an autism diagnosis each year.
Why am I adamant about this? Well as I announced last Christmas time my little brother Roo (That’s his long standing nickname.) has for all his life had down syndrome with autism. I’m not exactly sure how to word this but I want to make people aware of what’s going down this month. You can check out more about this at http://www.autism-society.org/get-involved/national-autism-awareness-month/. There are tons of local events happening all over the country so be sure to check with this website if there’s anything happening in your area!
Photo Provided by http://www.autism-society.org/
Why am I adamant about this? Well as I announced last Christmas time my little brother Roo (That’s his long standing nickname.) has for all his life had down syndrome with autism. I’m not exactly sure how to word this but I want to make people aware of what’s going down this month. You can check out more about this at http://www.autism-society.org/get-involved/national-autism-awareness-month/. There are tons of local events happening all over the country so be sure to check with this website if there’s anything happening in your area!
While it’s not every blog day that I discuss cars, I am a
huge car enthusiast especially when it comes to vintage cars. I’m constantly on
the lookout for the coolest cars no matter where I go, camera at the ready. Due
to this there has been this one specific car place that has been catching my
eye my eye for a while now and I’ve finally taken a much needed walk inside. If
you live in Shreveport, Louisiana or are familiar with the area you’ve probably
seen nestled on 2915 Youree Dr. a building by the name of Elite Auto with some
incredible vintage cars lined up behind the tall glass window store front. If
you’re not familiar with this place or just have never entered the place then
strap in and come along as I take you inside.
Immediately as I walked in I noticed a lot more cars lined
up in the front then I originally thought, eight cars in total actually, I’ll
get into them in a minute. Originally I thought this was a museum of sorts but
it’s actually primarily a used cars sales dealer, talk about coolest dealer of
all time right? A Vintage Car Museum and a Car Dealer might just be the coolest
combination of all time. Elite Auto LLC was established in 2009 by car
enthusiasts Craig and Ashley Fondren in the little town of Ringgold LA. (Which
is about 20 miles south of Minden.) They moved to Shreveport in recent years and
their business has been booming ever since.
I was greeted warmly by the staff inside the place; I walked
in on them as they were holding a meeting I believe so I do hope I didn’t
disturb them. Regardless the operations manager of this place, Michael Williams
described for me each of the awesome cars that lined the front of the store and
allowed me to take some photography just for you guys. I’m only sharing a few
of their cars today but these specific cars are some of the coolest vintage
cars I’ve seen in my life.
Oh yeah I’ve mentioned this before but forgive me if I get
even the slightest information wrong, I’m not a car genius despite being an
enthusiast. All my knowledge comes from what I’ve been told and the research I
do.
Starting off we have this 1934 Ford Coupe!
Isn’t it quite a coincident that I would run into this
specific motor? This is the same exact model of Ford (Not the same car itself
of course.) that Bonnie and Clyde were in when they were shot and killed on Highway
154 near Arcadia. Two weeks ago I actually did a blog about Bonnie and Clyde
where I visited the ambush site myself and the local towns nearby. (Which you
can read here: ) So yeah it’s awesome to run into this model Ford again. Of
course this Ford has been hot rodded up, you can only imagine Bonnie and Clyde committing
crimes while driving around in this hot rod, okay maybe that’s a bit farfetched.
Next up we got possibly my favorite car in this whole
building and lot. I present to you a 1959 Austin Healey!
Not just any Austin Healey though this is a gorgeous Austin
Healey 3000 Mark 1! These babies used to race in many old European rallies and
even today you can find this car turn up in some classic car competitions.
(Remind me to get to one of these one day.) It appears that this car is a
winner of some sort and has this bad from the Mid-America Old Time Automobile
Association.
As a movie buff I have to point out the fact that this car and all the Austin Healey 3000s released following this 1959 release have turned up in all sorts of movies and TV shows such as Father of the Bride and apparently an episode of the Simpsons somewhere along the line. This is my kind of car, I absolutely love the design and color and I was just dying to take this out for a test drive, ohh well maybe next time. I would like to know more about this MOTAA award and the Austin Healey club so this will be good reasons for heading back.
As a movie buff I have to point out the fact that this car and all the Austin Healey 3000s released following this 1959 release have turned up in all sorts of movies and TV shows such as Father of the Bride and apparently an episode of the Simpsons somewhere along the line. This is my kind of car, I absolutely love the design and color and I was just dying to take this out for a test drive, ohh well maybe next time. I would like to know more about this MOTAA award and the Austin Healey club so this will be good reasons for heading back.
Love race cars? Well I do, so check out this awesome Chevy
Corvette!
This is a 2008 Corvette which served as the pace car on May
25th, 2008 at Speedway, Indiana for the Indianapolis 500. If you’re
not sure what a pace car is they’re the cars you always see in the lead at the
start of the race. It’s got a couple of functions and one of them is leading
the racers around a couple of times in warm-up laps. It’s almost like the
Olympic Torch Runner, if he or she was a sweet car.
There were two pace cars actually for this specific event, this one was actually created in celebration of the original 1978 Indy 500 Pace Car which just so happens to be a Chevy Corvette and the Corvette’s first appearances as a pace car. Thus this 2008 model has a similar color scheme and shape. I do not have a confirmation whether this is a replica or the original but it’s still signed by Emerson Fittipaldi who drove the original on May 25th 2008. If this is a replica it would be one of 500 replicas made and sold, which isn’t many considering how many people live in this country.
There were two pace cars actually for this specific event, this one was actually created in celebration of the original 1978 Indy 500 Pace Car which just so happens to be a Chevy Corvette and the Corvette’s first appearances as a pace car. Thus this 2008 model has a similar color scheme and shape. I do not have a confirmation whether this is a replica or the original but it’s still signed by Emerson Fittipaldi who drove the original on May 25th 2008. If this is a replica it would be one of 500 replicas made and sold, which isn’t many considering how many people live in this country.
Speaking about that 1978 Corvette Pace Car… Guess what just
so happened of been in the same place?
Yes this is the 1978 Indy 500 Chevy Corvette Pace Car, well
it’s more likely to be one of the limited edition replicas (Replicas are just
as awesome, just saying.). To be more specific this is a Corvette C3 model and
this pace car celebrates the, at the time, 25th anniversary of Chevrolet
Corvette’s original 1953 release. On May 28th, 1978 this pace car
was driven by the late Jim Rathmann who himself won an Indy 500 championship
back in 1960.
While I haven’t shown you guys all the awesome vintage and
antique cars that were placed inside Elite Auto this car dealer is the coolest car dealer I’ve ever
been too. As this doubles as a museum of sorts and a used car dealer these cars
I’ve shown off are actually for sale and while I don’t know the exact prices
these would be amazing additions to your car collection if you just so happen to
be in the Shreveport, Louisiana area! I’m assuming they will be bringing in different
cars in the future and with that in mind and the fact that I discovered other
cool cars on the lot that I didn’t look at will definitely get me going back to
this place. That Austin Healey will bring me back every time I swear. You can
check out Elite Auto on their website http://www.goeliteauto.com/
I'm going to be making a part 2 of sorts to this blog real soon with the other cars I took photos of in this place, so stay tuned for that!
I'm going to be making a part 2 of sorts to this blog real soon with the other cars I took photos of in this place, so stay tuned for that!
Can’t end this blog without featuring a knitting pattern,
right? After brainstorming a little I decided to put up a pattern that you can
easily knit in the car on trips out on the road. What better pattern then a
vanilla sock pattern? This Vanilla Sock pattern comes from no other then The
Knitmore Girls aka Jasmin Canty and Gigi.
This pattern specifically is done by Jasmin and is of course
completely free! I’ve been listening to The Knitmore Girls podcast since I
started knitting in September so I’m happy to share some of their awesome work.
I’ve actually done a vanilla sock pair for myself last year. Anyone remember
these?
Yup these are my first socks (Jasmin's looks so much better then my bigfoot socks.) I’ve ever knitted and they’re
completely vanilla like this pattern. The pattern is written for US Women’s 7 ½
size socks but it’s vanilla it’s so easy to adjust your sizes. I’d recommend
you increase or decrease this by 4 stitches. For my socks I did 64 stitches,
because I have gigantic feet. Anyway get out there on the road and knit some
vanilla socks! Just don’t knit and drive at the same time, I do not condone
that by any means. You can check out this pattern on Ravelry but don’t forget
to check out The Knitmore Girl’s podcast on iTunes! It’s an awesome Mother and
Daughter podcast. Check them out on http://www.knitmoregirlspodcast.com/ as well.
That’s a wrap folks!
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