Out for Delivery

Last week, Kathy and I embarked on a trip to San Diego to attend the annual car show held in Barrio Logan’s Chicano Park. The car show was to take place on Saturday, we were in town from Friday to Sunday. During our previous attendance, we arrived at the park around 6:00 AM, which proved to be an a little too late, as we encountered difficulties in securing parking. To avoid a similar experience, I informed Kathy that we would depart from our hotel at 4:30 AM, which we diligently adhered to.

To ensure my car’s timely retrieval, I utilized the QR code we were given to request the car be retrieved for pickup, but unfortunately, our request was not responded to.

Undeterred, we proceeded to the hotel lobby and walked outside to the parking valet kiosk. We discovered that the parking attendant was nowhere to be found. Given the early hour, we did not anticipate any significant delays.

We returned to the lobby where we observed the parking attendant engaged in animated conversation with a young lady behind the guest registration desk. We interrupted their conversation and requested that the parking attendant retrieve my car. This he promptly did and we loaded our camera bags in the car and departed.

By 4:45 AM, we had successfully arrived in the Barrio Logan neighborhood. However, due to Kathy’s apprehension that our car would be towed if we parked immediately adjacent to the park, we opted to park a few blocks away. The walk to the park was somewhat sketchy but ultimately uneventful, and we arrived without incident.

Upon our arrival at the park there were already a considerable number of cars present. Without wasting any time, Kathy and I unpacked our cameras and tripods and commenced shooting.

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One of the initial vehicles I captured was a stunning 1939 Chevrolet Sedan Delivery. It was slammed and exhibited an exceptionally flawless paint job. I came to a complete halt when I noticed it. While Kathy favors the 1948 Chevrolet Fleetline (which I also admire), this particular vehicle is essentially my dream car. Unlike later in the day, there were relatively few individuals present as I approached and set up my camera. A gentleman did approach and informed me that the delivery version of this car is quite rare in contemporary times. I informed him that I had never encountered one before and proceeded to take several sets of photographs from various perspectives. This was merely one of several hundred cars I captured at the park that day. This car show, which typically sells out almost immediately, appeared to have ample space for additional vehicles by the time we departed. We learned from third-hand sources that a new car show steering committee had made the decision to hold the car show on Easter weekend. This alone may have deterred some individuals from attending. I am uncertain whether this was accurate, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Kathy was also having a pleasant time until her well-worn tripod, which she had been using since 2018, broke. She spent some time attempting to reattach the leg segment that had detached. I inquired about the situation and offered a few suggestions, all of which were promptly rejected. She appeared agitated and somewhat irritated. I decided to keep quiet for the time being. Ultimately, she was unsuccessful and the tripod would not rise again “Lazarus come forth!”. I offered to lend her my tripod and ball head, fully anticipating that she would decline the offer given her current state of mind, but she remained silent. Long experience told me that this silence could indicate contemplation or acceptance. I took a chance and removed the L-bracket from my camera and attached it to hers. She simply observed without uttering a word. I mounted her camera on my tripod and she tentatively adjusted the controls. After a few moments of loosening the drag adjustment dial which was inexplicably jammed, she was back in operation. She decided to photograph a few Chevy bombs that had just arrived and I proceeded on my own in search of breakfast. All in all a great and fun day.