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Let me start this article on a personal note. The states of Florida and Alabama need to do something terribly about putting a major freeway from Montgomery, Alabama all the way down to Panama City Beach, Florida. I had my trip all mapped out and ready to go and everything was going pretty damn smooth until I had to switch from a nice, big, beautiful highway, to a small two-lane, backwoods road, that went through every small town from Montgomery all the way to Panama City Beach. After endless miles of wondering if I was going the correct way or not, I finally ended up in Panama City Beach. With that out of the way, let's get down to business. Vitals Signs of Panama City, Florida held their annual car and truck show, Spring Fling, in the hot and beautiful Panama City Beach, Florida again this year. As always, Spring Break just happened to still be going on, which can only make for an even wilder time, if you can imagine. This year was no different. After arriving in Panama City Beach and getting checked into the hotel, I jumped in my fullsize Chevy and took off down the main drag, checking out the scenery and the show site. After fighting the long lines of cruising traffic, I finally found the show site and the crew of Vital Signs. I met up with Scott and O.L.B. (One Legged Bastard) and got everything straight for the weekend's events. Many vendors and show contestants had already started rolling in and getting setup, so I let the crew get back to their work and headed back out into the Panama City Beach night. After taking in a few beach shops and getting something to eat, I headed back to the hotel to rest for the next day. When Saturday rolled around, I was feeling majorly refreshed, yet ready to get to work. The weather outside was gorgeous. The sun was shining and it was over 80 degrees. I showered, shaved and put on some clothes, packed my camera and headed out the door on my way to the show. As luck would have it, the streets were already crowded with rides going both directions. If you've never been to a major Florida town that's known for crowds during Spring Break, then you probably can't imagine the traffic. It was backed up, terribly. After fighting the crowded streets, I finally reached my destination, parked my Chevy fullsize and unloaded my equipment. As I strolled through the show grounds, I was amazed by the size of the place and how many vehicles it could hold. The night before it hadn't seemed that large. It was still early in the morning and the place was already getting pretty packed.
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I started out by taking a quick stroll through the grounds, just to see what kind of rides Spring Fling had to offer. As I strolled through, I ran into tons of people that I've known for a long time in this sport. I bumped into Kevin from Exclusive Styles, Bob from NissanHeaven.com and my boys from Negative Camber, Magnet, Jeremy, Toddzilla and of course Tom Bennett, who you may remember from SSM two issues ago, with the Local Cheetah Blazer. We talked and it was back to work. The vehicles were very impressive at this show. There were tons of compact cars, body dropped trucks and even lowrider style vehicles. You could also find many awesome 4x4's running around the show site as well. There were a lot of rides that were well known in the sport on hand to show the crowd what their rides were all about. A stroll through vendor's alley got me back in contact with the crew from Drop Em Wear and the boys from Air Lift, including Bill Dermond, who made a long 20 hour drive to get to the show with some of his hottest air ride suspension parts and pieces that scene has to offer. The show had all the major events planned out as well. There was already a major stereo competition going on in the rear of the showgrounds. At center stage, all of the other contests were held, including a hydraulics competition as well as an Air Hop competition. After a long hot day in the Florida sun, I retreated back towards my hotel. This time I didn't feel like fighting crowds so I took the bypass around it and picked up a pizza and some coke and took my place in the hotel room for the night. I was hot and beat and ready to just relax. Sunday morning, the weather didn't look so hot when I woke up. It was cloudy and sort of gloomy outside and looked like rain. I still managed to get up, get dressed and head to the show. The gloominess was short lived however, as the Florida sunshine came rushing out in full-force. On Sunday it seemed even more people had decided to show their rides, as the grounds were even more packed. So, I unpacked the camera and went back to walking around, snapping photos and talking to many great people. Sunday also happened to be the day of the bikini contest as well, with several girls shaking what they had, going for the cash purse award. A trio of girls even decided to use water on each other and lick it off, adding the excitement of many of the guys in the crowd. I however had business to be done and went off to a location to shoot features. Continue----->
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