Felsen Tribute, rolling hills in Iowa, Nebraksa

Valley Junction is several blocks of the old downtown business district of West Des Moines, built back when the town was separated from Des Moines by fields and woods. Now of course it's all one big urban/suburban area with malls, business parks, and freeways. Valley Junction isn't exactly quaint as it is old-fashioned. There are too many ordinary businesses that just happen to be housed in old, red brick buildings. There are also boutiques, candy stores, and crafts stores along with hardware stores and a pharmacy. Sport of a preserved 1960. This Sunday morning 5th St. was shut down for the Henry Gregor Felsen Tribute hot rod show. Mr. Felsen wrote several books for teenagers back in the 50s and 60s, and he remains popular today, especially among those who have an interest in old hot rod cars. It was a short ride to Valley Junction from my hotel, and I arrived and parked a little after 9 AM. About half of the 200 cars in the show had already arrived and were lined up along both sides of 5th St. It was another beautiful autumn day, sunny and mild, and I took a quick turn up and down the street looking at the cars. At the registration area I looked at the T-shirts and posters, and picked up a copy of Hot Rod, Felsen's first (and my favorite) novel. Several of his books have been re-issued by Amazon with some corrective editing, and introductions by his daughter, Holly, and son, Dan. In the course of talking with the lady at the booth, it came out that I'd come to the show from San Francisco, and she said, "You have to meet Holly, she'll be thrilled that someone came that for for her dad's show." Holly was right there and we were introduced and spent quite a bit of time talking about her dad, growing up in a small Iowa town, cars, and how Felsen's books have remained popular over the years.

Holly poses in front of her recently completed hot rod.

Holly's older brother, Dan, was also there and I met him as well. In her introduction to Hot Rod Holly says the Dan was into cars like his dad, whereas she didn't care anything about them, but that she and her dad shared a love of baseball.

The cars were mostly classic rods, although there were a few resto-mod 1950s models, as well as a few stock old cars, rat rods, modern performance cars and 60s era muscle cars.

A classic hot rod

Another classic rod

An elegant '32 Packard

'59 Ford Skyliner - the original retractable hardtop

A nice pair of hot rods

a '40 Ford

'55 Chevy resto-mod

Street scene in Valley Junction

A friend of Holly's from Portland, Oregon was singing in a coffee shop, so I listened to his songs for a half hour or so. His songs are all about cars, and are whimsical and wry - much like those of my friend, Joel.  Scotty (the singer-songwriter) writes for car publications, and corresponded with Felsen over the years until Felsen died in 1995.

I left Valley Junction around noon and rode down I-35 to State Highway 92 west to US 169, which I took south to US 34 and then west to Creston, where I stopped at the town Visitor's Center, which is an old Philips 66 gas station. I believe that I took a similar picture of the same place last year or the year before.

Visitor's center in Creston, IA

I continued on 34 to US 71, which I took south to Clarinda, and then UT 2 west to US 59 south into Missouri, where I finally turned  west on US 136 in Tarkio. That's a lot of wandering around, and it gave me a chance to appreciate that part of Iowa with it's rolling hills, streams and rivers, woods, and fields. Not twisty mountain road scenery, but quite lovely nevertheless.

By now it was late afternoon and I was riding into the sun. I stopped just over the Missouri River in Brownville, Nebraska, to take a picture of a paddle wheeler that appeared to be undergoing reconstruction.

The Captain Merriwether  Lewis

I've ridden on US 136 many times  over the years, and I went through Auburn, Tecumseh,  Beatrice (which is quite a large town with several blocks of red brick buildings), Fairbury, and  finally, just as the sun was beginning to get low in the sky, Hebron, where I'm spending the night at the Riverview Motel, the river being the Little Blue., I had a dinner of fried chicken at nearby Mary's Café, and there was even strawberry/rhubarb pie for dessert. It was dark as I walked back to the motel,  and I admired the large full moon that was low in the east. Later when I went out to the bike I noticed that there was an impressive lunar eclipse, which I hadn't known about.

Tomorrow on to Denver and dinner with Vanya.