Hot wheels

MOSES LAKE — Classic cars from every era were on show in Moses Lake on Saturday on the second day of the city’s annual Spring Festival celebration.

Cars from the 1920s, the ’30s, even up through the 1980s were displayed — most clean, rebuilt, and shiny. Even a few old tractors sat, rebuilt and repainted, proud owners showing them off, under the warm late spring sun.

But bicycles?

“She’s riding a 1940 Schwinn Packard,” said Brandon Baker, pointing to his stepdaughter Kylie’s unpainted bike. “We got the frame and the forks, but it still needs some work.”

Baker himself was riding a solid black cruiser bike that he’d built himself, slowly, over the course of several years.

“It took me four years to find the parts I wanted,” Baker said. “I had a chopper bike in mind, and that’s what I wanted to build.”

The whole Baker family — Brandon, his wife Robin, and her daughters Kylie and Rhianna Smith — were on bicycles, slowly riding through the crowds on Third Avenue as people stopped to look at the cars, the trucks, and all the other people.

Carl Owen reclined in his folding chair as people oohed and ahhhed over his meticulously maintained 1965 Chevrolet Impala SS.

“I bought this in Coeur d’Alene in 2008, I’m the fifth owner,” he said as he began to rattle off the number of improvements he’s made in this car — five-speed transmission, power steering, power disc brakes. The car has an almost otherworldly look with its “tropical turquoise” paint and interior, and heavily chromed engine.

Owen, who brought a 1970 Chevelle he’s restored to the classic car show last year, said he’s won several awards with this car, and plans on showing it off six or eight times this summer.

But he wouldn’t say how much he’s spent on restoring and maintaining this old car.

“I don’t want to hear the answer,” his wife Margie added.

Nearby, Tim Myers of Scotty’s Auto Repair in Moses Lake sat in front of a giant pickup truck as kids would occasionally climb up into the cab and honk the horn.

“This is a 1976 Ford F250 that we’ve customized,” he explained. “It’s got too much horsepower, and we break something every time we run it.”

Myers said the truck — something of a monster truck with it’s huge tires — has been designed to drive around in mud bogs, something he said the truck has won an award for. That trophy sat on the ground, right next to the issue of American Mud Magazine featuring a picture of his truck.

“I’m a mechanic, and I’ve been working on this truck for many years,” Myers said. “I’ve owned it since 2003, but I didn’t actually clean it up until 2012.”

As people wandered looking at the cars, boys of all ages played half-court basketball along Third Avenue and in-between, set off by yet more traffic cones, the three Distinguished Young Women of Moses Lake — Jana Osborne, with runners-up Morgan Tolley and Cora Bruneel — drew a big chalk picture of a flower on the street.

And handed out chalk to other kids, encouraging them to write and draw whatever they wanted on Third Avenue.

“It’s Springfest!” Osborne said. “We’re just out enjoying the day!”

Tolley described the street art as part of their duties and responsibilities as the town’s “distinguished young women.”

“We like to be involved, and we’re happy to be involved,” she said.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com