2015 Detroit AutoRama: This n'That

Today's post: pictures of cool things Monique and I saw at the AutoRama....

Buick Riviera owned by Craig Sobczak of Marquette, Michigan. Love that hood ornament.

1959 Edsel Convertible owned by Frank Robbins of Troy, Michigan.

The Pac-Man Rod.

1959 Rambler American wagon owned by Dean and Bonnie Osland of Scottsdale, Arizona. This features another cool hood ornament, plus her twin on their display plaque. We particularly appreciated this because we have the same Nash hood ornament in the little collection of cool hood ornaments in our living room:

Now I just need to buy a few cars to put these on.

Monique checking out a 1971 'Cuda owned by Maureen Chandler.

Way cool! This is a 1940 Dodgem bumper car owned by Candace Miller of New Boston, Michigan.

Monique checks out a 1962 13-window VW Bus.

Next, we take you to a few of the cool things in the AutoRama Extreme displays in the basement. Here there be rat rods and their ilk:

This is the sales display for SpeedCult. They're a Detroit-area company that does lots of custom plasma cutting for graphics, designs, and other cool purposes. I picked up my cool steel MG logo from them at last year's AutoRama.

Check out their web site to get a better idea and visit them on weekends in Ferndale at the Rustbelt Market when its time to outfit your man cave or weld a cool item onto your rat rod.

1941 Studebaker owned by David Weinberg of Royal Oak, MI.

1963 VW Beetle owned by Jerry Danowski of Belleville, Michigan.

1962 Comet gasser owned by Glenn Botting of Brantford, Ontario.

This fluorescent green 1939 Ford is owned by "Senora Classico y Alcoholico" from Troy, Michigan. We've gotta get her and Trailer Park Girl together some day.

Here's a cool feature I never noticed on a hot rod before. This Willys roadster has a flip-up steering wheel to make it easier to slip into the driver's seat.

1958 Chrysler New Yorker owned by Bob Fryz "Shboom" of Dearborn, Michigan.

1934 Chrysler Airflow built and owned by Bob Cranston. Before.

1934 Chrysler Airflow built and owned by Bob Cranston. After.

A hood ornament seems a good way to wrap up this AutoRama post, so we'll let the Chrysler Airflow's mascot do the job.

2015 Detroit AutoRama: Trailing, Trailing, Trailing...

In this case, the specific trailing is that my photoblogging has fallen far behind my phototaking this Spring. Lots and lots of reasons for that, but what you the gentle Patio Boat reader should know is that you're about to get several posts with a lot more pretty pictures than dense text as I try to catch the digital Patio Boat up to reality.

Today, another batch of photos from the 2015 Detroit AutoRama. Mostly photos of an awesome looking 1935 Bowlus Road Chief owned by Dian Flis-Schneider of Lapeer, Michigan:

A better husband wouldn't have preceded the upcoming photo of his wife with the "Trailer Park Girl" poster, but these are hurried times on the ol' Patio Boat blog and we don't always think this through. In any event, we do have a nice picture of Monique in front of another vintage trailer that we thought was cute as a button, a Shasta Compact owned by John and Cheryl Rose of Dearborn, Michigan:

I assure you, she's not alone and her love isn't mobile. She does, however, try to be good.

2015 Detroit AutoRama: the Creepy Tiki Bar

I've been out and about in the real world instead of blogging on the Internets, so how about a quick batch of photos from the Detroit AutoRama to say "howdy" to my three remaining readers?

Are these fellows gathered around a refreshment stand? Nope, they're sitting down for a beverage at The Creepy Tiki Bar, a 1949 Chevy Fleetline owned by Kevin Smith of Dearborn Heights, Michigan:

This was one of my favorite builds at the show. This guy took a cool car and a theme, and put it all together in a really fun way. He also welcomed attendees to sit at the bar and in the car to check it all out. The Creepy Tiki Bar may be creepy, but it was really a very welcoming place.

Look up? Why? Because the entire headliner is done in bamboo!

A very cool car. And a very cool bar. The Patio Boat blog thoroughly approves!

Virgin Islands: A Few of our Favorite Plants

Sorry for the delay in photoblogging. Rest assured there are more photos of the Virgin Islands to be inflicted upon you all. 

One of the true joys in flying down to the Caribbean from the frozen North is discovering that plants are still growing and thriving. And so today, we present to you a few of our favorite plants from St. Thomas: