Hot Rod Power Tour 2010: Day Three, Du Quoin IL

Working it out to have us all meet at Charlie Parker’s Diner was pretty cool, the place was in an old airplane style hanger. Everyone who was there liked the food and had a nice time. A group of nearly 10 Mopars was able to find the place and meet up. We all headed out together for what was suppose to be a easy trip, which turned out to be everything but.

First real issue was there was construction on the highway leading out of Springfield causing a huge backup. We did a U-Turn and found side road that took us along the same direction, but around the construction. It wasn’t actually too bad, even a few Chevy and Ford guys decided they had better follow us too.

After spending a bit of time on the highway, the Tour made its way onto more scenic stuff. This was the second issue, usually through the little towns the police will control traffic and let large groups of the Power Tour go through lights or through stop signs, not in two of the small towns we passed though. We had over a hour wait in each town just because of either a real quick light or too many stop signs.

Making our way to Sullivan, IL I got a call from my friend saying that the road through Mattoon was a disaster and to avoid it at all cost and that they were a lost cause and to avenge their deaths… Still haven’t heard from them. So the MoPower Group went their own route to Mid-America Motorworks, where we were required to now stop to get stamped in.

Our group pulled in much later then we had hoped. We were far behind schedule with out meeting up with some Mopar gearheads at Performance Plus. But we still stopped, got checked in, and ate some grub. Of course while photographing some Mopars start to talking to some of the owners. And they inform me that they have a Mopar only restoration shop just down the block with some extremely rare Mopars if we wanted to see them.

Not wanting to disappoint anyone, I said it was no problem, a few of the MoPower Tour group followed the guy over to their shop and showed us some incredible Mopar iron, from a 71 Cuda flopper, to a triple black 71 GTX. They had a bit of everything there. But that really put us behind, so after our brief stop over there, we flew to Performance Plus.

As I’m about to pull into Performance Pluses driveway, an ambulance pulls in behind me with a medic response vehicle. I’m thinking this is just great, Rob Wolf finally shows up and he causes someone to faint. Unfortunately it was worse then that, a young lady had been riding on the back of a motorcycle when she got stung by a bee, being highly allergic, right after parking fell off the bike. She then quit breathing, but was able to start breathing again, and that’s when we showed up. The young lady left in stable condition the last I heard.

After the ambulance left we only had about a half hour before we had to leave to make it to Du Quoin on time and get stamped in. So we met Marty and his friends, they showed us the show and the cars they brought. Rob Wolf of Mopar Collector Guide met us at the shop bringing along a prototype 2011 Dodge Ram Rumblebee, he was taking video for MoparTV (more on that later) and talking with everyone. We had a nice time, Rob left early with his friend Rhinehart to get the MoPower Tour pulling into Du Quoin.

We left a short time later and headed out to Du Quoin which was 20 minutes away. Along the way we ran into old friends along the way. Right before entering Du Quoin we got a break, a VERY long coal train blocked out way for around 15 minutes. Causing a huge backup, but also allowed some guys that had gotten separated from us to get back in line. So when pulling into Du Quoin we had quite the procession of Mopars. Rob videoed us all pulling in, this will be posted on the new MoparTV. It will have videos from parts of the Tour and other adventures.

The fairgrounds were incredible, the style was art deco with some modern twists. Reminds me of something out of the 30’s. I walked the grounds and talked with some Mopar guys. Got checked, watched some dyno pulls. At this time Rob had gotten done making his rounds and headed out to meet me at the hotel. So I then headed back to the rest of the group, because two of my friends were leaving to go home. So we parted company and wished each other well. They headed home and I headed to the hotel to meet up with Rob.

We checked in, got settled and got all the new MoPower Tour T-Shirts into the Challenger. They all fit with no issues. Plenty of room, so if you want a MoPower Tour T-Shirt, let me know. I have S to XXL. We went to dinner with our friends in the 70 Coronet R/T convertible and then headed back to write the blog.

Tomorrow we head to Bowling Green, Kentucky. We’re LEAVING the Du Quoin Family Restaurant at 9 AM. So be there by at least 8 to 8:30 if you would like to grab a bite to eat beforehand. Rob Wolf of MCG is traveling with me for the next few stops. So if you see him hanging out the window taking pictures, don’t worry. Also we might need to peel away and take some pictures for future articles. We are following the main route tomorrow with only a small stop on the way at a custom car shop. So let me know if you guys have any questions.

Du Quoin Family Restaurant
1290 South Washington
Du Quoin, IL 62832

Defew’s Custom Body Shop
979 US HWY 68 East
Benton, KY 42025