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After attending one of last years 4 annual shows hosted by Jay Christian and his top-notch crew from Show-N-Shine Promotions, I know I had to make it to more of them this year. After playing email tag with Jay during the off-season, I decided that I would make the 5-hour trip to the Summer Nationals at the Colonial Mall in Staunton, Virginia on August 10th and 11th. This is the first time I made it to one of Jays shows in Virginia and it defiantly wont be the last one I make it to. After working until about 7pm on that Friday, I went home and loaded up the car and grabbed my wife and kid. This was the first out of town car show that we took my 2-year-old little girl to. She slept most of the second half of the trip, so other than the occasional stop or two to change a diaper, the trip was pretty smooth. After about 2 hours into the trip I realized why I have TV's for the back seat. I found out quickly that "Pooh" is a good child occupier on a road trip. We arrived after midnight and went straight to the hotel to crash for a few hours. After a short night sleep, we were up and ready to head out to the mall to see who was already at the show. Before we left the hotel we met up with Terence from Relaxed Atmosphere (who had shown up only a couple hours after we did the night before) and my dad. Since this was the closest show we have been to my dads, he wanted to see what a car show was like first hand. After a quick chat, we all headed to the show. When we pulled into the mall, the parking lot was already full, so I knew this was going to be a good show. After a quick pass through the show, it was time to find a spot for my dad and little girl to sit and watch the drive through judging. Once we watch a few rides pass through the judging area, I could tell that this was probably the best group of judges I've seen. When a car pulls up to be judged, a handful of judges surround the car like a swarm of bees. They even pull up a Craftsman creeper and look all under the car to make sure they don't miss any details. Since the weather held out and was nice all day, it provided plenty of time to meet tons of new people and even line up a feature shoot for the following day. Since the show was at a mall, Jay had arranged to get a dozen or so rides set up inside the mall. At the end of the day we headed back to the hotel to clean up and back to towards the mall to eat. After eating, and spending a little time trying to hook Terence up with the waitress, we headed back to the show site trying to catch some of the neon contest, but missed it by only a few minutes. By this time it was my kids bedtime so we went ahead and called it a day.
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Early Sunday morning we were up and ready to head back to the show to shoot the feature I had lined up the day before, then to walk around the show a little more to catch anything I had missed the day before. There was a full range of rides at this show. Everything from euros, to minis, to some of the biggest and baddest 4x4 trucks I've seen, including Jays fully detailed, 4 wheel steering ranger. Since we had a pretty good drive ahead of us we headed out about midday. Even though this was the first of Jay's Virginia shows I've attended, I defiantly won't be the last one. If your looking for a well-organized, smooth running show, try hitting one of these Show-N-Shine Promotions shows held throughout NC, VA and SC. For more info on any this years shows or for info on their 2003 shows, check out their web site at www.Show-N-Shine.com.By Brandon Burrell
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