The Moonshine Festival

Each year in Dawsonville, Georgia, the town celebrates its heritage - a colorful one filled with moonshine and fast cars - with a festival. Last Saturday I attended the Moonshine Festival for the first time, and I found the biggest car show I've ever seen. The cars and trucks (but especially the trucks) I saw there were breathtaking. There was also quite a variety, as the reader will soon see.

But before I even got out of the parking lot, this guy pulled in and I couldn't help but stare in amazement (not the good kind of amazement, either):

Still, it's not my place to judge, and he had a good looking girl in the passenger's seat, so why not? But then, just as I was starting to feel all accepting of pickup trucks gone astray, I turned my head and saw this:

So many questions. And I don't want to hear the answers.

Now on to the show! Here's the great rat rod featured on our facebook page:

Trucks like this have become popular recently. Since they're show trucks, I approve. Here's a Ford with the same wheels:

 Eight ball on the steering wheel, grenade welded to a piece of rebar for a gearshift, broken window...okay, this truck is cool. I admit it:

This was one of the goofier entries, but not the most out of place Nissan I saw the whole day...

This truck was the most out of place Nissan, or anything for that matter, that I saw the whole day:

This one's for sale, $11,500 I think:

This one isn't part of the show, but it goes to show that you can have a silly looking dually and still tow something with it:

 '40 Ford:

Clean Chevy:

An International Harvester - one of a kind (it does have a front right wheel, too):

Here's a really nice Chevy Apache (note the split rear window of the International Harvester behind it):

I found Papa Smurf under the hood of this truck:

I have no idea what make this rat rod used to be, but its name, shown on the door, is "Moon's Shine" and it was a crowd favorite:

Here's an old PLV, the first generation Ford Ranchero:

I took a picture of this because it's what I'm sick of seeing on the road and now it's at a car show:

I don't know if this rolling distillery works:

And I'm not sure what's going on here:

Here's the only Dodge truck I saw:

Here's a rat rod with a lighter attitude:

This guy wasn't in the show, but he continued the trend of making me scratch my head:

And one more PLV for good measure...or is this a pickup truck?

Tool Boxes Revisited

Many moons ago I wrote a post about tool boxes - they're like trunks for trucks! And I stated that while a cap, or camper shell, might look good on a smaller truck or a Northern (I'll say Yankee) full-size truck, they just don't fly down South. (Toolboxes, on the other hand, can help you "fly" quite literally, as this guy showed us.) And some Yankees too have come to the realization that tool boxes look better than caps (Who can forget the Michigander with two boxes instead of a cap?) Well, today's post is just a friendly reminder that things haven't changed.

Here's a "slim" tool box that looks great in a "Sunburst Orange" Ram (fun fact: this truck is a 2009 model, as the Sunburst Orange Pearl Coat was available from 2007-2009, with 2009 being the only current-style year to offer this color - and who says we don't care about Rams?):

Heck, we even support unorthodox tool box placement over caps. If it makes sense, do it (unless that means buying a PLV - don't make too much sense, please!) And we LOVE big racks, so when we see a beauty like this it makes us proud:

But there is an option we disapprove of even more than a capped bed...that's when the owner can't make a decision! I never thought I would see more than one of these in my life...

 ...but apparently there are two people in the Nation who think it's a great idea to have a tool box AND a cap. Gentlemen, please. At least the first guy's setup actually fit on his bed:

Another Post about "Truck Art"

Here at the Nation, we've done a number of posts in the past highlighting some of the best "Truck Art" in the nation. We've got conflicted feelings about Truck Art. Sometimes it looks great like the now famous 'Merican Truck or the classic Wounded Warriors Truck. But more often than not, the artists are not so gifted. What you get, instead of a beautiful, well-coordinated piece of rolling artwork is a tacky hodgepodge of bumper stickers, decals, and chrome. Like a 12-year-old's bedroom, these trucks are scatterbrained and often reflect the fluctuation of hormone levels. I'm talking about trucks like this one:

Guess what the other side says. (Hint: it's not "Defense".)

We see a lot of military themed Truck Art here at the Nation. What we've found is that military art rarely looks good on a truck. However, even more rarely does it look as bad as this:

Now I'm not trying to detract from this Purple Heart winner's service, but this Artilleryman seems to be confused. After all, a Chinook cannot lift a 28 Ton Paladin.

This Cavalryman is proud of his heritage:

And this guy has illusions of grandeur:

Actually, he's neither speeding nor qualifying. He is waiting for the light to turn green so that he can make his way home from the grocery store.

My personal favorite, though, is this little guy:

I have a feeling that these children will be scarred for life.

Look, I'm not saying that all truck art is bad. But the above examples are tacky at best. What we really need is a well coordinated effort. I'm waiting to see this on the tailgate of a Chevy:

Wouldn't that be the ultimate American Truck?

Highway Rules

Greetings, faithful readers of Pickup Nation! Although I no longer own a pickup truck (I prefer to say that I am "between trucks"), I feel that I can still contribute at least a small amount to the welfare of the Nation, especially in matters regarding vehicles other than pickup trucks.

There is currently a widespread crisis on America's highways. I have been trying desperately to determine if pickup trucks are more a part of the problem or a part of the solution. The problem is that here in these United States, on our beautiful divided highways, drivers are not driving in the correct lane! At first you may ask, "There is a correct lane on the highway?" Yes! Of course there is! And if you are one of those people who asked the question, the answer is easy for you to remember: the right lane! Right is right. Allow me to explain.

In this country we drive on the right side of the road. This means that on highways, the entry ramps are typically on the right side (away from oncoming traffic). This means that the absolute slowest moving vehicles are positioned the farthest to the right on the roadway. They have to be. Thus, the right lane is the lane where we enter and exit the highway. It is the default lane.

So if the right lane is the right lane, what is the left lane for? Well, it just happens to be the one that's "left" for passing vehicles that are moving more slowly than we would like to be moving. This is how the whole system of a four-lane divided highway works. It's as simple as that. This brings me to the problem: some drivers' default lane is the left lane!

I know what you're going to ask: what's the big deal if I drive in the left lane and you have to pass me on the right instead of the other way around? Here's the big deal. You're driving more slowly than me in the left lane. I go to pass you in the right lane. All of a sudden, there is a car on the right that is going slower than both of us - it could be a stopped car, a car that is entering or exiting, or just a car driving at or below the speed limit in the right lane. Now I, who am driving faster than you to pass you, have to deal in some way with a car that is going even slower than you are! This is not safe for any of us!

I hope this makes sense. It's supposed to be more logical than emotional. Slowest vehicles to the right, fastest vehicles to the left. That's it. And now, some violators in pickup trucks:

Please help us to keep the Nation safe on the highways. Stay to the right except to pass. Besides, it's no fun to get passed on the right side anyway.

A Farewell to Vidalia

This is a sad day for Pickup Nation. As a founding father, it greatly saddens and embarrasses me to announce the recent ending of my relationship with someone very special to me - my one and only pickup truck, Vidalia. Although Jake and I have rarely mentioned our own trucks (boring and functional as they are...or were), I would like to take this opportunity to celebrate my memories with Vidalia.

I got Vidalia in the summer of 2009 and drove her 40,000 miles until last weekend, when I sold her. Vidalia helped at least two women to fall for me with her large bench seat, and she also saw them both out the door. I estimate that I fed her at least 2500 gallons of gasoline (strange to think that three years' worth of gasoline is worth most of what she is...not counting sentimental value).

Vidalia traveled to at least eleven states with me, and she got me only one speeding ticket (and only for ten over, thankfully), though we did get pulled over for running a stop sign and again for going the wrong way on a one way street (I was very sober and the road was very tricky). Her Dale Earnhardt memorabilia may have helped us out of those two tickets, but it was also probably responsible for the speeding ticket.

Vidalia pulled a trailer for nearly 10,000 miles one spring, which she did without complaining. She has managed to live her 112,000 mile life on only one transmission, which is no small feat for a Chevy of her era. Vidalia is a 2004 Chevy Silverado 1500 Extended Cab pickup with a 5.3L engine and the Z71 offroad package. She will be sorely missed. Here are a few pictures:

Vidalia loved Dale Earnhardt because he was a hard-working man who drove like an asshole.

Vidalia once forced me to remove a piece of my new garage door in order to fit her in the garage.

She was known on rare occasions to sport a patriotic flag...

...or a tent.

 Her proudest moment was when she unexpectedly found a mob of happy, patriotic college students celebrating the death of Osama bin Laden. She gladly played Toby Keith's "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue" very loudly for them.

Though Vidalia is gone, she is not gone forever. I sold her to my parents, the ones who gave her to me (I know, I'm a jerk, but at least I gave them a great deal!). She has many miles ahead of her, and I wish her the best. Long live Vidalia and all the great trucks of Pickup Nation!

The Hot Seat

Here at PN we have observed a developing trend in small to mid-sized trucks. Presumably because they lack the desired amount of room for passengers inside the cab, owners have been adding seats to the beds of their trucks. The first generation of truck "hot seats" left something to be desired:

Although this concerned citizen installed both a couch and a computer chair in his bed, the orientation of the seats does not appear to make the ride any more comfortable than in the cramped back seat of the cab. Luckily, the next guy we spotted kept it simple:

This seat also does not look comfortable, but it is at least mostly upright. Since there are only two seats in the cab, this hot seat, although undoubtedly uncomfortable to ride in, increases the seating capacity of the truck by 50%! Here's a deluxe version of this same hot seat:

 This pickup owner is a thinker. His third-generation hot seat is leather, upright and centered, and fixed in place at least somewhat securely. He has even included a cooler for the lucky passenger, and we like his last idea most of all: the extra passenger can actually fill the truck up with gas (using the gas can pictured) while the truck is in motion! Not even the technological wizards at NASCAR have figured this out yet! We applaud this man.

Oh, and here's a South Carolina hot seat:

Yeah, this guy actually mounted a seat in the bed of his truck. WTF?