Lone Star Throwdown 2012

NR Texas member Joe receiving his logo. This was my favorite shot of the day but it shows how much love and support the club shows to the new members.

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Who wants to see them race?

LO ASIAN wows us again with his Yota on 22's.

I felt like I predicted the future on this show, because before it even happened. I knew it was going to be a huge success. The show was promoted very well, but it had another thing going for it. It was hosting the Negative Camber 20th anniversary! Having attended the 15 year anniversary I knew we would be in for a treat of awesome rides. It's not always that you get to see Tito's army assembled, but when you do, it's very impressive. Honestly I could sit here and write about NC all day long but that's another story.

Coming to this show for me was a special treat as I received help from some friends to attend the show. Right off the bat though things didn't go as planned at the Airport. The flight was over sold, which is very common in the flight world but because my ticket was booked through Yahoo, it basically meant I was low man on the totem pole. It was looking like I might not make it out after all. I did some negotiating with the woman at the counter and she told me a secret. If I purchased an upgrade on the shortest flight it would give me priority for the whole trip, so $45 later and I was on top of the world. And let me tell you first class is worth every penny, especially for a bigger dude like me.

The NC Crew was busy cleaning Titos truck for the show!

When I landed in Houston after a small stop in Dallas I was picked up by in a custom ride, a 1965 Malibu belonging to Tim from our Texas chapter, you couldn't have asked for a cooler way to get to any show. A small drive later and we were in Conroe, Texas. The town was bigger than I expected and I didn't see many rides in town. As soon as we hit the show grounds though, it already had a small army of feature worthy vehicles and many past features. Actually before I even entered the show, I saw the truck that would be my favorite of the weekend. A green and white Dodge Dakota. (look for it in the pics, it's gorgeous) I quickly ran into some old friends from NC and ST that I hadn't seen in a while, I took the time to reminisce about the old days and had some good conversation before it was time to head out. After being at the show for about an hour we decided to head out to the hotel and meet up with some more NR members to hit the town and enjoy the festivities.

That night the party was pretty calm. A good Mexican dinner with friends was followed by some "Parking Lot Pimpin" and drinking a few cold brews.  The night ended at roughly 3am, not a long night compared to the all nighters we pull sometimes but the excitement of the next day had me on pins and needles.

found these guys hanging out behind a port-o-potty lol

The following day John Mata from Mini Truckin' Magazine picked me up and we headed to the show. As we pulled in we ran into the new head Editor at Street Trucks Magazine, Jason Mulligan. They both had rentals and I almost had them willing to street race. But Mulligan claimed his car was rattling weird so the idea quickly died. That would have made for a hell of a story though.

Little truck, big motor!

Something about a doored chevy!

As I entered the show I very quickly got overwhelmed by the size of the show. I'm not sure how many vehicles were in attendance but if they told me the mark broke 1000 I wouldn't doubt it. As I walked the NC area alone it took me over an hour to shoot some shots and check out the rides. I was very happy to see Tito's truck in attendance. Jeff Davy from Devious Customs and fellow club members were busy cleaning the truck and getting it ready. Even though I'd already seen the truck on many times I still got chocked up a little bit and found it hard to talk about the truck. I know others experienced the same thing. But I think we all know that Tito would have been so excited to be there and I'm sure he was in a way.

This one is also doored!

I spent a good portion of the morning taking shots and enjoying some Hot Links. The second part of the day I enjoyed hanging with my club members and watching a few guys get voted into the club and earning their logos. The Texas guys know I'm always grumpy about Texas but all in all I think it's mostly a complaint about weather. This year the weather was very cold, and I love it when it's cold. Cold can be fixed with a jacket but 110 degrees with humidity can only be fixed by melting away slowly all day until you reach a cantina. The guys got me a skateboard deck with the Texas flag painted on it and signed by the chapter members. It was a great gift and something I'll cherish always.

My favorite truck at the show!

White Interior! Thats Balls!

Just a little bit of rust

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Street Truck Editor Jason Mulligans frame was looking sweet. Status Customs brought it out.

Chico, being Chico!

Unfortunately I didn't really get to see much of Sunday or see the awards because I had to head home to be at work on Monday but I would gladly return to this show next year, because it has easily landed in my top five shows I've ever attended. If they can keep it going like this I see many years of success for the LST crew.