The Larimer County Fairgrounds in Loveland, Colorado, was filled with hot rods and customs the last weekend in May. Those who wanted an earlier kickoff headed out to Pinkee's Rod Shop, in nearby Windsor, for the Thursday night party and open house.

Here's a small sampling of the cars and trucks on display at the Indianapolis Road Rockets' Rumble, held during the weekend of June 20 in Clermont, Indiana. The Rumble has become a must-see show for me over the last few years and seems to get a bit better each time. It's a pretty laid-back crowd, and Saturday features some great music and a pin-up girl contest.

Very few events get to be known solely by their location, rather than their official name, especially nationwide or even worldwide. Bonneville, maybe, or possibly Louisville to some, but then there's Paso. Mention the word in certain circles and everyone knows what you mean. Or knew, anyway, as the West Coast Kustoms event that was "Paso" is no more. We won't get into the reasons here, but the event had to move after more than two decades in the small central California coastal town, finding a new home at Santa Maria Fairpark, a few miles south.

The 5th Annual Luckenbach Rod Custom, Classic Car & Motorcycle Show went off without a hitch and provided plenty for everyone to do. There was a live auction, door-prize drawing, live music, great cars, fun for the family, and much, much more! The first 100 entrants received T-shirts and dash plaques, and the event benefited the Boys and Girls Club of The Hill Country. For registration information for the 2009 event, visit www.rockincarshow.com.

If there's one show I've wanted to attend for the past few years, yet never quite managed to get to, it's the Lone Star Round Up in Austin, Texas. I'd seen various reports and heard nothing but good things about the show from friends who'd been, and seeing as I lean toward the, ah, more traditional side of things, I was sure I'd make it out to Austin someday.

The Early Times car club formed 43 years ago the Los Angeles-adjacent city of Compton. Although it wasn't the first hot rod club, and it isn't the oldest existing one, it is definitely one of the most historically significant.

As with each year, the annual Roy Brizio Street Rod shop party felt like it came up before the last one was over. The party kicked off on Friday with a major shop cleanup and a barbecue catered by Shaub's Meats from Palo Alto, California. Besides cleaning every corner of the shop, the crew positioned each project car so everybody could get a good look at it.

Now in its 19th year, Australia's Wintersun Retro Nostalgia Festival has become the biggest and best of its kind in the land of Oz. The festival is held in the coastal towns of Coolangatta and Tweed Heads on the New South Wales and Queensland border late May early June. Running for more than a week and featuring almost 1,500 hot rods, custom and classic cars, rock 'n' roll bands, and street parades, it's the place to be in the southern winter.

Pinkee's Rod Shop in Windsor, Colorado, held the kickoff party for the Goodguys Colorado show for the third year in a row. This year's party was bigger and better than ever with sponsorships from Coca-Cola, Dellenbach Motors, and Broadmoor Heights Phillips 66. Hemrod (featured in R&C, July '08) had the prime spot at the party-on display in the showroom of the shop.

If you're looking for something cool and fun to do in Idaho the third weekend of May, make some plans to attend Sandpoint's Lost in the '50s Weekend. The show is a great mixture of music and cars starting on Thursday night with events running through till Sunday. Activities range from concerts to dances to a vintage car parade to a 5K fun run. For more info, check out http://www.sandpoint.org/lostin50s/.

If you're building a show car and want to compete against the best there is, there's really no better place than the Detroit Autorama to bring it and see how you measure up.

There can't be many rodders attending the L.A. Roadsters' Father's Day Show who don't know SO-CAL Speed Shop hosts an open house on the Friday of the event. This year, LimeWorks held a similar, more quaint affair on Thursday, while Walden Speed Shop opened its doors to the public on Friday evening-which was ideal, as it's located just around the corner from SO-CAL. Interestingly, the cars that showed up leant in the majority to the traditional side of things, though many rodders in attendance were drawn to a killer lime-green early '70s Dodge van-complete with gold-leaf lettering, slot mags, and side pipes!

If anybody gets to be nostalgic, it's custom-car builder George Barris. The man's been a part of the hot rod and custom car movement since its earliest days, and shows no evidence of getting out now. Four years ago, George decided to sponsor a hot rod and custom show to bring back the days of cruising and racing and bench racing in the Los Angeles area. The result was the Cruisin' Back to the 50's Culver City Car Show. We go every year and couldn't miss the 5th annual event, which filled the streets of downtown Culver City with a terrific variety of pre-'75 rods, customs, restos, musclecars, classic trucks, and lowriders-not to mention vendors, live music, and crowds of spectators.

We were still buzzed from the Grand National Roadster Show a couple weekends earlier. The sensory bombardment of seven-or was it eight?-buildings stuffed with the country's best rods and customs doesn't shake off quickly. Now we were at the Cal Expo fairgrounds in Sacramento geared up to repeat the experience. Except now there were 10 or 11-or was it 12?-buildings jam-packed with more extraordinary rides of every description.

John St.Germain's black and coral '50 Ford Business Coupe was chosen to participate in a very respected show held on the beautiful grounds of the Edsel and Elenor Ford Estate in Grosse Pointe, Michigan (http://www.eyeson.org/).

Turn back the hands of time. The year was 1956 and Art Ingels was an employee of Kurtis Craft Company, Frank Kurtis' race car-building operation in Glendale, California. In his spare time, Ingels welded together a few steel tubes, added four wheels, and a small surplus two-cycle West Bend engine, and what would soon become known as a "go-kart" was born.

It doesn't seem like much-seven buildings and a whole three days to get around them all, plus outdoor vendors and what should have been two days of outdoor cruise-in show cars, though torrential downpours on Sunday stopped all but the most hardy car owners. But, man, there's never enough time to see everything, and while we journos like to talk as we go 'round shooting pictures, we also get the privilege of being in those buildings after the public and exhibitors have left for the evening. How do you think we get all those shots with no people in them?

You've probably seen Scottsdale's Westworld on TV even if you've never attended the Goodguys Southwest Nationals there, as it's the venue for the Barrett-Jackson auctions that push the price of collector cars so ludicrously high. It's a great venue for a Goodguys Nats, though, because it's primarily an equine venue, which means there's plenty of grass to park on, in addition to asphalt, while the mountains that surround Scottsdale and neighboring Phoenix make for a picturesque backdrop. Add in fantastic weather for November and a great swap meet, and the bowl-like venue is perfect. Vendors have the luxury of setting up shop inside the building that houses the B-J auctions, and out of the still-hot-for-November Arizona sun.

There must be some kind of time portal out there on the road north of Bakersfield. It was March 2008 when we left the motel, but by the time we got to Famoso Raceway, it was like we'd gone back in time 40 years. Maybe more. The March Meet is drag racing like it was back in the old days, with the pits and staging lanes filled with front engine dragsters, early Funny Cars, altereds, gassers, and hot rods.

If you've ever been to a famous landmark or met a celebrity--or seen a well-known historic hot rod or race car--you might know how unreal it can be to see a person or place or car that you've only previously seen on television or in photos. There was a little bit of that feeling at the Goodguys 14th Southeastern Nationals, held at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, the capital city of NASCAR country. Walking through the rows of hot rods, customs, musclecars, street machines, and classic trucks was a familiar enough experience. But looking upward at the banked oval, expansive grandstand, and multi-story suites of the historic superspeedway was a bit of sensory overload. Let's just say it's more impressive in person.

The British and Scandinavian nostalgia hot rod scenes have been going strong for over two decades now, with Europe fast catching up, but apart from the A Bombers show in Sweden and numerous smaller reliability runs, there strangely has not been a show solely dedicated to traditional rods and kustoms. That is, until three years ago, when the Executioners car club staged its first weekend event after numerous one-dayers at the famed Ace Caf in London.

San Francisco has arguably has more sights to see per square mile then any other city west of the Mississippi, but for one weekend a year the best sights to see are a couple miles south of downtown at the legendary Cow Palace. You would be hard pressed to find an event with more variety then the San Francisco Rod, Custom and Motorcycle Show. With a whopping nine buildings to work with, the show can cater to all tastes from the wild and wooly motorcycle crowd, street rodders and homebuilt hot rods in the Suede section. So when I had the opportunity to head out to one of my favorite cities, and go to a great car show I obviously jumped at the chance. Check out all the pictures below to check out the best the bay area has to offer.