Tag Archives: dodge

Idaho

Hunger Games U.S.A.: Pocatello SAC show, June 2023.

Video

On 10JUN2023, the Oldies Rod & Custom Car Show was held in Historic Oldtown Pocatello, Idaho, to benefit the Senior Activity Center‘s (SAC) food delivery service: “It’s the people that we serve are underserved in our community. And so, it really helps with the nutrition for them so that they can hopefully stay in their homes longer and with activities and everything else. That’s part of our goal to.”-Pam Landon, Secretary for SAC

The automobile show was free to the public, proceeds from food vender sales, and raffle ticket sales, went to help SAC.  Just to let you know how much the help is needed, in 2022 the Pocatello SAC served more than 22-thousand meals to local old people.

Here is a sampling of the vehicles that were there (click on each image to make them bigger):

Walk around video of the show, which was supported by many local business sponsors, most of the video has no audio as they were blaring copyrighted music at the event:

For more SAC show videos, check-out my YouTube channel.

Apparently, the first Oldies Rod & Custom Car Show to benefit Pocatello SAC was on 10JUN2018.

For information about upcoming auto-shows around Idaho, visit United Street Rods of Idaho.

Chubbuck Days in Cotant Park, August 2016:

Helicopter ride forced down in neighboring Chase Park, due to too many passengers for the little ‘copter! (note the dejected riders walking away from their ride)

CAR SHOW & HELICOPTER FORCED LANDING

Pocatello Airport, August 2014: FREE CAR SHOW TO GO WITH THE FREE AIRSHOW!

Busiest Chubbuck Days ever, August 2012:

Things got too hot for this portable toilet.

DOGS, CARS, FIRE TRUCKS, HAMMERS AND POLES BEING THROWN AROUND, PLUS FOOD, MUSIC & VANDALISM CHUBBUCK STYLE!

Chubbuck Days, 2010:

Free Car Show!

Planed-emic, 2020: SOUTHEAST IDAHO PANDEMIC ROAD-TRIP

Technology

Dodge pickup spontaneously bursts into flames! Area 51?

Image

Until 2010, the Nevada National Security Site was known as the Nevada Test Site/Sandia National Laboratories.

Nevada Test Site photo, 09JUL1986.

In July 1986, a relatively new Dodge Ram pickup suddenly caught fire, or rather whatever it had in the bed of the truck suddenly caught fire.

Nevada Test Site photo, 09JUL1986.

These photos came with no explanation, only with vague reference to “fire testing” and “fire effects”.  The photos are titled as “General Test Truck Fire”.  I have a problem with it being referred to as a ‘test’, the photos clearly show that the Dodge was being driven along a road when the fire burst out.

Nevada Test Site photo, 09JUL1986.

It pulled over, as did vehicles behind it.  Photos show items in the pickup bed were thrown out in an effort to prevent them from burning, an unused fire extinguisher is still in the bed, and the cab where the driver sits also caught fire.

Nevada Test Site photo, 09JUL1986.

One photo is focused on two strange looking boxes/electrical components that have suffered fire damage.

Nevada Test Site photo, 09JUL1986.

Perhaps this truck was being used to carry materials to conduct ‘fire testing’, and those flammable materials burst into flames under the hot Nevada Sun?  By the way, Area 51 is officially part of the U.S. Air Force’s Nevada Test and Training Range, not the Nevada Test Site.

HTRE-3

ANCIENT NUCLEAR POWERED JET ENGINE FOUND IN IDAHO DESERT, PROOF OF ANCIENT ALIEN VISITORS?

1942 FORD FIRETRUCK RETURNS TO SERVICE WITH THE USAF!

Denton Program Failure: CANADIAN FIRE TRUCKS, U.S. AIR FORCE, CENTRAL AMERICA

 

Idaho, Influenza

Southeast Idaho Pandemic Road-Trip

Video

Washed and waxed and ready to go!

On 23 June 2020, perhaps too much self-restricting pandemic lockdown (I say “self-restricting” as most of us in Eastern Idaho are not adhering to CoViD-19 lockdown, and even the local Sheriff departments refuse to enforce such things) forced me to hit the road for a scenic road-trip from Chubbuck to Bear Lake, Idaho, in my 2010 Dodge Challenger SRT-8.  I was accompanied by one of my daughters, Aryssa May Hutchins (who took 90% of the photos), and Andrew ‘Bulletproof Family Photos’ Erickson.

Aryssa says there’s plenty of room in the backseat.

No Crouching Tiger here.

Heading south.

Immediately I noticed how green everything is, especially since it’s the end of June.   Between 2011 and 2013 I drove courier routes all across Eastern Idaho, including to Montpelier near Bear Lake, and by June everything was bone dry and brown.  2012 was the year the south end of the city of Pocatello burned (June 2012: POCATELLO BURNING! EVACUATIONS! SOUTHEAST IDAHO BURNING! BANNOCK COUNTY BANS FIREWORKS, DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY!), it was a busy fire year.

A lot has changed since then; my children all became adults and moved away to the evil metro-ville called Boise, my house was paid-off the same year I lost my Mail Handler job at the U.S. Postal Service’s Gateway Station (I tried reapplying online as a Clerk but got an instant message saying I wasn’t ‘qualified’ to apply for that position) and apparently my age is keeping me from getting hired by any of the local employers I’ve applied at thus forcing me to live off my children’s ‘inheritance’ (ha, fortunately they’re all financially better-off than I was at their ages), my parents died which in turn forced me to realize I wasn’t getting any younger and I had not fulfilled one of my personal promises to acquire a muscle car (having sold-off my muscle car projects in the early 1980s due to the skyrocketing costs of becoming a spouse and parent) thus providence led me to a one-of-a kind (for Eastern Idaho) second-hand Dodge Challenger SRT-8 with 6-speed manual transmission and low mileage.  The original owner was forced to sell due to a back surgery that left her unable to engage the clutch pedal without pain.  Ironically she bought the Challenger brand new from the Dodge dealer in Pocatello for the same reasons I wanted to buy it; loss of relatives reminding her that she was not getting any younger, and reminiscing about her young adult days driving muscle cars in the 1970s (yes, many women owned and drove their own muscle cars back in the days when feminists were burning their bras for ‘equality’).

Cache National Forest

Face masks are mandatory!

U.S. National Forest Service’s Minnetonka Cave (aka Caverns), be careful, the steps and handrails in the cavern are wet and slick as ice.  Also, you better be in shape, there’s a lot of steep climbing and wearing the face-masks makes you feel like you’re going to suffocate.

Minnetonka supposedly means Falling Water, or Great Water.  There is a lot of water coming down inside the cave, through earthquake fault lines that run through the cave ceiling.

The tour guide tried to convince me that I was looking at Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Statue of Liberty?

Bring your neon-black light flash light, these rock are radioactive (high phosphorus content)!

They call it Stairway to Heaven, I calls it Stairway OF Hell!

Can you see the petrified Hypno-Toad?

Some bats were fluttering around, the tour guide seemed concerned.

I survived, but wait, this isn’t where I parked the car!

I always regret bringing a jacket, I end up soaked with sweat.  The cave is a constant 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4.4 Celsius), but you wouldn’t know it because you overheat climbing up and down the very steep stairs.

There appears to be some faces in the rock-face of this outcrop above us.

Rock spirits of Minnetonka!

We hadn’t planned on going to Bear Lake but its bright blue water beckoned us as we came down off the mountain. We’re now suffering with solar induced radiation poisoning (sunburn), in other words we got fried.

“I gotta rock!”

Arriving at the North Beach of Bear Lake we discovered it was packed.  After paying the Idaho State Parks $5 parking fee at the gate on the west entrance, I drove all the way to the east end to find a parking spot.  Being Idahoans we counted license plates, one or two vehicles with Idaho plates, at least three with Oregon plates, at least 90% of the vehicles had Utah plates, I facetiously hope we don’t get sick with all those domestic foreigners around.   Most of the beach area was wall-to-wall people and despite ‘the age of CoViD-19’ nobody was wearing masks or ‘social distancing’, but what we should have done was protect ourselves from the Sun.

Gulliver goes renegade on the tiny Lilliputians!

Bear Lake’s North Beach is shallow, you can walk out for a while with the water getting no higher than your mid-thigh.  Some spots are soft sand while other areas are rocky.

Speaking of getting fried, we got hungry and headed back to a row of locally run tourist shops in the tiny town of Saint Charles, including North Beach Burgers that sells ‘gourmet’ burgers and shakes. I got the elk meat burger, Andrew got the bacon-black & blue-burger, Aryssa got the standard bacon cheeseburger, and we split a huckleberry shake.

Goes off every hour.

On the way back to Chubbuck we stopped in Soda Springs to refuel the car (it had just a little more than half a tank when we started the road-trip), and with The Fates on our side, hit the ‘captive’ (human-made) Geyser as it went off.

In the past I’ve seen people collecting this sulfur rich water for drinking purposes!

East Side

West Side

Close-up of wooden railing on the West Side of the geyser. Decades of mineralized overspray is petrifying the fence.

Soda Springs also claims to have Idaho’s oldest pharmacy, Eastman Drug, where we found this old 1950s era Mack firetruck.

Interstate-15 has a maximum passenger vehicle speed of 80 miles per hour (128 kilometers per hour) within Idaho, but once you take the Soda Springs turnoff the state highway speed is maxed at 65 mph (104 kph) with lots of drops to 35 and even 25 mph (56-40 kph) going through the many small towns along the way.  My 425 horsepower 6.1 Liter (372 cubic inches) hemi V8 managed to average 23 miles per gallon, something my early 1970s muscle car projects (with larger 6.2 L/383 ci and 7.2 L/440 ci motors pumping out less stock-factory horsepower) would be hard pressed to achieve even with the then 55 mph (88 kph) max speed limit on interstates, back then.

Photo of my dad with my Canadian built 1971 Plymouth Satellite Sebring Plus, 383 ci V8 with 3-speed automatic transmission, circa 1983-84.

Don’t let CoViD-19 get you down, get out and drive!

August 2017: POCATELLO AIRPORT FIRE BOMBERS ARE BACK!

More Economic Decline: COVID-19 SHUTDOWN 24HRS WINCO?

Bannock County’s ROAD TO NOWHERE

Bannock County’s WHITE ELEPHANT

A History Lesson in Economic Decline: POCATELLO’S OLD FRED MEYER & ALBERTSONS ON YELLOWSTONE AVE, DID NOT CLOSE DOWN IN THE 1990S

Road Trip 2011: ANCIENT NUCLEAR POWERED JET ENGINE FOUND IN IDAHO DESERT, PROOF OF ANCIENT ALIEN VISITORS?

U.S.

Vehicle I-D: Join the U.S. military get a classic car?

Video

This is a pic-n-vid round-up of some of the car shows across the U.S. involving U.S. military personnel, in 2018-19.

Iron & Ink, Marine Corps Base Hawaii, February:

U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Corporal Isabelo Tabanguil, 24FEB2018.

USMC photo by Lance Corporal Isabelo Tabanguil, 24FEB2018.

Also in February, Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, ironically used this old maintenance intensive MG to promote the concept of saving money:

U.S. Air Force photo by Airman First Class Alexis P. Docherty, 26FEB2018.

In March, the city of Twentynine Palms, California, tried to make Marine Corps personnel fell better about being stationed in the Sun:

USMC photo by Lance Corporal Rachel K. Porter, 31MAR2018.

USMC photo by Lance Corporal Rachel K. Porter, 31MAR2018.

Eglin Air Force Base, Florida:

Mustangs take part in a public relations car-show on Eglin AFB, 27APR2018. USAF photo by Samuel King Junior.

The Sergeant Slaughter truck was part of the car show on Eglin AFB, Florida. USAF photo by Samuel King Junior, 11MAY2019.

At Fort Benning, Georgia, hosted the Teal Wheels automobile show as part of April as Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month:

U.S. Army photo by Bryan Gatchell, 28APR2018.

USA photo by Bryan Gatchell, 28APR2018.

In May 2018, Airmen got to ride in the kool kars at the 20th Annual Altus, Oklahoma, car show:

F. E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming, Father’s Day Car Show:

Also in June, the Gearhead Car Show at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico: 

In September, near San Angelo, Texas, the Goodfellow Air Force Base took part in the Ruckus at the Rec Camp, including a car show:

A Lamborghini Gallardo ‘landed’ on the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar flightline, during the MCAS Miramar Air show:

I Marine Expeditionary Force Support Battalion Car Show at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, September:

Also in September, the 15th Annual Cruisin’ Keesler Car Show at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi:

Another September car show took place at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma: 

September seems to be THE month for car shows on military bases.  Kentucky Air National Guard Base in Louisville, Kentucky: 

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Employees’ Wheels to Work car show, Walla Walla, Washington, October:

Also in October, officials at Luke Air Force Base , Arizona, tricked people into attending a health fair by holding a car show: 

In November, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, a car show was held to celebrate the re-opening of the base Auto Hobby Shop: 

VEHICLE I-D: U.S. MILITARY FERRARI AND LAMBORGHINI

1942 FORD FIRETRUCK RETURNS TO SERVICE WITH THE USAF!

NHRA SPONSORS RACING IN IRAN, CHEVY VS BMW!

2016 CHUBBUCK DAYS MASS BAPTISM BY FIRE….TRUCK!

Business/Economics

What U.S. automotive industry recovery? Vehicle manufacturing & sales job destruction for 2014

Incomplete list of publicly revealed U.S. automotive related industry shutdowns and layoff announcements made in the Gregorian year of 2014:

Russian steel company Severstal selling off its factories in Deerborn, Michigan, and in Columbus, Mississippi. At least 25-hundred jobs affected! The company was supplying steel for Ford tough trucks, but the new Ford F-150 will be made of aluminum (cans?).

Alabama: After 60 years Graysville Tire Store shutdown.

California:  In Sacramento, Harrold Ford car dealer gave state employment administrators a two days notice of laying off 120 employees! The WARN posting says reason “Not known at this time”.    In La Mesa, car dealer Drew Ford issued a WARN saying it was shutting down due to its sale to a competitor, 281 jobs in limbo!   In Carson, U.S. Auto Parts Network shutdown their distribution center in August, 78 jobs lost.   Car dealer California Superstores shutdown three locations across the Golden State, 203 jobs lost by August!  In San Diego, Midway Jeep Chrysler Dodge Ram shutdown in August, 96 jobs lost.  In San Jose, car dealer Courtesy Chevrolet shutdown in July, 100 jobs lost!  In Roseville, caranything.com killed at least 99 jobs.  In Chino, automotive parts maker Senior Operations/CAPO killed 131 jobs!  Maker of car batteries Exide Technologies killed off 61 jobs at their Los Angeles ops. The battery maker and recycler is also under federal investigation for emissions violations.  In San Jose, Capitol Expressway Ford warned they will render 102 people jobless in December!

Florida: It has been confirmed that Bonita Springs based publisher of many automotive magazines (Motor Trend, Hot Rod, Camaro Performers, GM Hi-Tech, Super Chevy, Import Tuner, Honda Tuning, Super Street, etc), Source Interlink, killed more than 5-thousand jobs at the end of May! Those jobs were in California, Florida and Michigan. The parent company, Source Home Entertainment, went chapter 11 bankrupt busted! Officials with the publisher-distributor blame e-books and “the continuing overhang of the economic downturn” creating a “difficult operating environment”. Company officials also admitted that hundreds of each magazine issue has had to be destroyed at additional costs, because nobody is buying them! 20 years ago there were about 400 magazine wholesalers in the U.S., with the demise of Source Interlink there are now only two!

Georgia: In McDonough, the World’s largest maker of small engines Briggs & Stratton shutdown a factory, 270 jobs lost: “We have not been able to get the McDonough plant running at full capacity for several years. That, and market conditions, have made it even more difficult.”-Laura Timm, public affairs

Illinois: In Chicago, it was revealed that 1-hundred Ford employees were fired on Halloween. Ford administrators said they notified the employees via ‘robocall’, yet many employees said they thought the electronic message was somebody’s Halloween joke.   Isn’t that kind of chicken shit of Ford, to use a type of messaging service to tell employees they’re fired?  Moline based farm vehicle maker Deere (formerly known as John Deere) announced they will kill more than 600 jobs in Illinois, Iowa and Kansas! Some inside reports say it’s more like 1-thousand jobs killed! Company officials blame crashing sales.  Peoria based heavy vehicle maker Caterpillar reports their sales crashed by 12% from March through May. It’s all part of the big mining shutdown conspiracy around the World.  As a result Caterpillar shutdown four of its Anchor Coupling production and logistics facilities, at least 170 full time jobs lost!   Fiat-Chrysler laid off 325 people in Belvidere! It’s blamed on a 37% drop in sales of the new Dodge Dart.

Indiana:  In Mishawaka, taxsucker, and maker of the (in)famous Hummer, AM General (formerly part of American Motors Corporation [AMC]) laid off 60 people. However, the company had actually recalled 200 people earlier in the year due to increased demand for the military general utility machine.  In Kokomo, General Motors (GM) revealed they laid off an undisclosed number of employees at their computer control module factory.   In a surprise announcement, Monaco RV shutdown their towable recreational vehicle factory in Elkhart, 160 jobs lost! It’s blamed on the 2013 takeover by Allied Specialty Vehicles (ASV). Officials with ASV say towable campers are no longer money makers.  Truck maker Navistar International announced they’re shutting down their Indianapolis foundry by the summer of 2015, at least 180 jobs lost! Company administrators say the suck-ass economy is forcing them to get their parts from a cheap-o-contractor instead of making them in their own foundry!

Iowa: Farm vehicle maker Deere continues job killing, this time 462 people in Waterloo are now jobless!  That’s on top of the previously announced Deere layoffs in Illinois.

Kansas: Farm equipment maker AGCO tried to blame their factory shutdown and killing of at least 111 jobs on the embargo against U.S. farm equipment by Russia, however, ag analysts say it’s really the suck-ass economy: “With depressed crop prices, farmers don’t want to spend money, and large equipment dealers like John Deere, like AGCO, are starting to see the effects, and they’re being proactive.”-John Jenkinson, The Ag Network

Massachusetts: Boston based Hill Holiday advertising laid off employees after losing GM’s Cadillac contract.

Michigan:  Detroit based General Motors (GM) announced they are cutting back on car production in Russia, due to crashing sales.  In Lansing, GM revealed that 450 people at its Grand River Assembly Plant could become jobless in early 2015! It’s blamed on crashing sales of upscale Cadillacs.  GM also killing off at least 160 jobs at its Buick and Chevy Orion Assembly Plant by the end of 2015 (they hope production will go up when they introduce the new Camaro)!  Five Suski’s used car lots across two counties shutdown!  Plastic parts maker for the automotive industry Flint Hills Resources shutting down their Marysville plant by mid-2015, at least 75 jobs lost. Company administrators said that despite their best efforts the factory could not “remain competitive”.

Minnesota:  In Minneapolis, Borton Volvo shutdown. They were the last new car dealer in the city. The owner blames city officials for changing zoning laws, now he’s building a mega dealership outside city limits (less tax revenue for the dumb city officials).  However, U.S. Volvo dealers might have a hard time getting new cars to sell as Sweden based Volvo said they lost so much money at the end of 2013 that they had to kill 4,400 jobs around the world in 2014! And that’s on top of the previous 2-thousand job cuts announced at the end of 2013!  After five years of selling Italian motorcycles, Ducati Motors shutdown in the Lyn-Lake area: “We are closing because we are unable to be profitable.”-Merrill Ferguson

Missouri:  In Saint Joseph, car battery maker Johnson Controls laid off 29 employees. They blame “technology advances”.

Nevada:  Reports say construction on one of two secret Tesla Motors Gigafactories in Reno was stopped. No reason given, Tesla officials refused coment. The Gigafactories supposedly will make lithium-ion batteries for electric cars.

New Hampshire:  In Newport, after 80 years City Auto RV Superstore announced they will shutdown sometime in 2015. The current owner says she’s going back to being a nurse.

New York: Manhattan Ford Lincoln shutdown in September, 245 jobs lost!   In several cities across the state Long Island Automotive Group-Land Rover dealers shutdown, 243 jobs lost!   General Motors (GM) shutdown their Treasury Operations in September, 46 jobs lost.  In Owego, France based automotive electronics maker Asteelflash laid off 34 U.S. employees, blaming the bad economy.  In Newburgh, after 65 years Dabrusin Auto Parts shutdown. The owner said the automotive market is so bad that he talked his daughter out of taking over the business!

North Dakota: Reports that Case-International Harvester  eliminated 40 farm vehicle making jobs in Fargo.

Ohio:  After 118 years (surviving the Great Depression and numerous recessions) E.T. Paul Tire Company shutdown, ironically by the state Department of Transportation to make way for a new road!   Japan based YSK laid off 19 people at its Chillicothe car parts factory. Company administrators were surprised by their crashing sales: “While a difficult decision and an unprecedented one in its 25 year history, YSK’s Management Team felt that it was necessary for the long term health of the company.”

Oklahoma: Auto parts maker Federal Mogul revealed they will shutdown their recently acquired Oklahoma City factory in 2015, at least 165 jobs lost!  Federal Mogul took over the factory from Affina Group in June 2014.

Pennsylvania:  In Shady Grove, heavy construction vehicle maker Manitowoc Cranes, killed 250 jobs! Company officials blame it on crashing orders, which represent crashing building construction.  Only four years after Swedish vehicle maker Volvo set up shop in Shippensburg, Volvo administrators revealed they will shutdown specific heavy construction vehicle production, not only in the U.S. but in Poland and Brazil, killing off at least 1-thousand jobs into 2015!

South Carolina:  In Spartanburg County, after only four years France based car parts maker Faurecia shutdown, 150 jobs lost!  Heavy vehicle maker Caterpillar shutdown its Fountain Inn factory, 510 jobs lost!

Tennessee:  Custom transmission company Keisler Engineering went chapter 7 bankrupt busted. Company officials blame competitors for spreading rumors that the company was shutting down, but yet at the same time they confirmed the company is shutting down: “The order cancellations created a cash flow problem for KE, and placed new customer orders at risk. I took the initiative to refund all new order deposits going back to Thursday January 9 2014 once I realized the company was at risk of closure…”-Shafi Keisler

Vermont: Plasan Carbon Composites shutdown their Bennington operations in May, consolidating to Michigan, 143 jobs lost! The company makes carbon parts for the Dodge Viper and Chevy Corvette. However, company officials say they might figure out a way to use the factory to make armor plate made from carbon.  White River Junction based turbo engineering company, Concepts NREC, laid off employees across several New England states.

Virginia:  Roanoke based Advanced Auto Parts announced the shutdown of 100 stores across the U.S.! And that’s just the beginning, officials calling it their “first round” of store closings! Thousands of jobs will be lost! It’s the result of their takeover of rival Carquest-General Parts in 2013 (company officials say there are just far too many auto parts stores in the U.S., and they need to be culled). But wait, there’s more! Advanced Auto was awarded $17.4-million USD in taxpayer incentives, if they created 600 new jobs in Virginia! One news report said many of those ‘new’ jobs will actually be former Carquest employees simply re-hired by Advanced Auto.

Wisconsin: Tax sucking military truck maker Oshkosh laid off as many as 1,130 people in 2014! Company administrators proudly stated that despite the reduction in sales “We’re still the number one global manufacturer of tactical wheeled vehicles for the military”.   Oshkosh killed at least 900 jobs in 2013!  In Oshkosh, taxsucking AxleTech laid off 65 people. Company administrators blamed “a sharp decline in demand for military-grade axles and components”.

Idaho

2014 Chubbuck Days Car Show

Image

Click pics (by AAron B. Hutchins) to make bigger:

6TH ANNUAL CAR SHOW, 2012 CHUBBUCK DAYS (PART 1)

Idaho

2010 Chubbuck Days car show in Idaho

Image

Photos by AAron B. Hutchins, click the pics to make them bigger:

Idaho

6th annual car show, 2012 Chubbuck Days (part 1)

Image

Click pics (by AAron B. Hutchins) to make bigger:

6TH ANNUAL CAR SHOW, 2012 CHUBBUCK DAYS (PART 2)

BUSIEST CHUBBUCK DAYS EVER! DOGS, CARS, FIRE TRUCKS, HAMMERS AND POLES BEING THROWN AROUND, PLUS FOOD, MUSIC & VANDALISM CHUBBUCK STYLE!