Carlisle Import and Kit Replicar Show - The FNG Does Carlisle

The last day of my stay was definitely the most fun. I woke up pleasantly early for West Coast time, just in time to catch lunch at the local hot dog stand (Wow, FNG! You woke up in time for lunch?How thoughtful. Lucky you weren't working.-MP). The fairgrounds were mad-packed, more than 30,000 in attendance, in fact. I bumped into a few of the show entrants whose cars I planned to photograph later in the day and we roamed the fairgrounds for anything amusing. Gee, we just happened to wind up at the local beauty pageant. After waiting a few brief moments for the intense Sound Showoff competition to move out, it was time for the locals to get rowdy. With the sun beating down on my face, I watched as these poor girls got shot down by the hootin' n' hollerin' of a grandstand filled with half-naked Backstreet Boys wannabes (Mmm... Backstreet Boys.-BM). Not a pretty sight. After the boos and the booty-shaking settled down, the lovely Natalie Ovide of York, Pennsylvania, was crowned Miss Custom Compact of 1999. The rest of that afternoon was spent shooting the feature cars I had scheduled previously, after which we hit the fairgrounds one last time for a few burgers and laughs. On my flight homebound, I ran across this one thought: I think I can honestly say that I had a great time, maybe more than I would've had on the bikini-clad beaches of Southern California. Well, who knows?