Ephrata car show shines with another large turnout year

EPHRATA — The 2023 Anything with Wheels Car Show and Shine brought out car enthusiasts of all ages to C Street in Ephrata Saturday. While the turnout for the show this year was slightly smaller than last year, 130 cars in total turned out to shine, Ephrata Chamber of Commerce Director Rita Witte said.

“You have to enjoy working on them,” said Kelly Cash. “I’m just an old hotrodder from back in the late ’50s and ’60s; I was running on the drag strip and that kind of stuff.”

Cash, who lives in Coulee Dam, brought a 1956 Chevrolet half-ton pickup to the show. The black truck is special to him because it is the same type of car he used to drive when he worked for the U.S. Forest Service.

“I’ve owned this since the early ’80s, so it’s been with me a long time,” Cash said.

He explained that this type of truck was in high demand at the time.

“If you got there first, at the Forest Service office, then you got your pick of vehicles that were in the lot and you always grabbed these,” he said. “If you got there second you had to take the Dodge Carryalls and if you got there third you had to drive the Internationals because that was the only thing left.”

While Cash has enjoyed his truck over the years, making customizations and upgrades along the way, he said he knew its worth would increase as time went on, though his wife had a hard time believing him.

“The beauty of these things is that they get more valuable as time goes by,” Cash said.

He said in the ’80s, he bought it for only $300. It had been a water truck on Bainbridge Island.

“It was owned by the water company and they had beat it to death,” he said.

He put in the work fixing it up himself, and now, it’s worth more than a new car.

“I never intended to take it to shows when I first started building it; I was just going to drive it to work,” Cash said.

He said a lot of his customizations are hard to spot unless someone is familiar with his model of car.

“A friend of mine once told me, ‘You did real good work but you’re too subtle, nobody will ever know you’ve done it,’ and that’s true with this truck,” Cash said.

Showing off their hard work seems to be what attracts exhibitors to the show as well as being able to connect with other car enthusiasts.

The Anything with Wheels Car Show and Shine has been a fixture in Ephrata for more than a decade, which is barely younger than a few of the cars in this year’s show.

Morgan Cruz of Moses Lake brought a 2008 Chevrolet Corvette Z06. His car attracted a lot of attention at the show, and not simply because it’s a Corvette, but because of its custom wrap.

The car, which was all black when Cruz bought it four years ago, has white doors and a white roof. He added a mock California Highway Patrol insignia on the doors and “Protect and Serve” and “Dial 911” in white lettering on the rear of the vehicle.

Cruz said he is from California originally and liked how the highway patrol cars looked so he wanted to imitate it on his Corvette.

“I haven’t gotten pulled over or anything,” Cruz said. “So far all the cops love it.”

Cruz said the Corvette is his dream car but he would also love to have a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle. He does have a second car, a 1987 Chevrolet C10, that he said he would have loved to bring to the show as well but didn’t have a way to bring both.

He has always loved cars, he said, and his love for cars followed in his father’s footsteps who also grew up around cars.

“I just love to bring it out and show it off,” Cruz said. “The people are great, I love to meet new people. That’s the great thing about car culture is everyone is so friendly and super fun.”

Rebecca Pettingill is a freelance writer and photographer based in Soap Lake. Send your news tips to news@columbiabasinherald.com.