Annual Blackie Show'n Shine event

It's been a bit of a slow start in this neck of the woods for car shows. The weather has been down right uncooperative. The sun did break through though for the Canada day long weekend and Rod extended an open invitation for all us Calgarians to head down to Blackie for the big Show'n Shine event. Although I wasn't able to take my Cougar I packed up the old camera and video camera, fanagled a buddy with a high powered camera to come along and we hit the road.

The first stop on the map was the Canada Day show in High River, Alberta. Wasn't too many Cougars but sure were some great rides there. We did come across a very nice 69 convertible owned by Allan Stanley. Allan has only had this Cougar for about a year and was happy to tell us the story of how he got it. It turns out he found it down in the southern states on the East coast. After negotiating a fair price with the seller Allan decided to put the "driver" part of the description to the test and flew down, picked up the cat and drove it home. Now THAT is called having faith in your seller. Here are a few shots from the High River show.

Even though High River is a pretty small community there were several pretty wild rides around.

Check out the monstor motor in the old hot rod:

As great as the cars were at High River we had to blast because we knew where the real Cougar action was going to be and so we made fast tracks for Blackie. Once we arrived in the little town it took us all of about 5 minutes to track down the show at the baseball park. Rod had the cars all dressed up and looking purty in the sun. all kinds of cars were there, roadsters and classics, I think I even saw someone let a Buick GN onto the field...

Rod is a great host. He had food and beverages for everyone and took Trevor and myself off to look at this garage where some more very cool cars were in various stages of repair and restoration. 

Rod had a total of 4 of his cars in the show this year. He had his black 1970 standard hardtop Cougar. It was sporting a very nice interior and had a real nice stance. He also had his Orange 1970 Eliminator clone convertible. I know some people don't approve of convertible clones but they sure do look nice when they are done up.

Rod also has one of the few remaining Rocky Mountain special cars and it was on hand to awe the onlookers. Rocky Mountain Specials were a batch of 98 special order 1969 XR7 Cougars. These cars were special ordered by the Rocky Mountain Insurance Company back in 69 as a bonus for outstanding sales performance for their employees. Whether you like the color or not, you can't argue at the scarcity and uniqueness of these vehicles. Of the original 98 cars less than 20 are still known to exist.

Last, but certainly not least in Rod's stable was the lean green eliminatin machine. Rod's latest restoration project, only finished a week earlier, was looking fantastic as it soaked up some rays in the park.

Not intimidated by Rod's formidable array of Cougar's, we also were treated to a really great look at Jamie's 1969 fully restored Convertible. Very clean, very detailed and very sharp.

I don't know what to tell you other than don't let the town's population of 100 people fool you... Lot's of folks rolled into town for this show and there were at least 40 cars from classic to exotic. If you are going to be in South Central Alberta over the Canada Day long weekend next year you better look up Blackie or hit up Rod over at www.mercurycougar.net and make sure you make arrangements to attend. 

Bring your cat or bring a camera, but make sure you you bring yourself because this event is all kinds of fun.