It wasn't just the trains you heard.

Last night, some members of the Rod Benders and their families

went to CruzinPort in Port Jervis, NY.

Harold & Sherri Butler, the local police and fire

as well as the business community must be applauded for

what is the only real cruise night I have ever attended.

What would normally gridlock a town was a well oiled machine.

The cars were allowed to cruise around on Jersey Avenue

and yet other traffic was also on the street.

I saw no one that usually uses that road as a shortcut

for Route 6 complain. They were happy to be around all the nice rides

that attended this monthly event.

We'd like to also thank Stan, the staff and the owner of the Erie Hotel

for their hospitality and a superb dinner.

The last cruise night for the season is on Tuesday October 6th.

Don't miss it.

I don't know how soon the pictures of last night's cruise will be posted

but you can see the past cruises at

http://cruzinport.myphotoalbum.com/albums.php

Cruisin For A Cure

The Rod Benders Car Club & PopYourHood.com helped the

American Cancer Southern Ulster Relay this past weekend

with their 1st Annual Car Show.

The weather was off and there less than 40 cars

but a good time was had by all.

-

I'd like to thank my crew

Jim Turner

Craig, Terri & Krystal Young

Bobby Smith

Denise Lippolis

Tom Donald

Audi-Bear Mountain Cruise Night Mascot

for their help and support.

-

Also the trophy sponsors

Chris Bartolomeo & Brian Jackson

at David Learner Associates-White Plains, NY

Roger W. Dwyer at Allstate-New Windsor, NY

Kevin Gray at East Coast Antique Auto Appraisers-Monroe, NY

Jim Turner at Donation Vehicle Program-Newburgh, NY

Rod Benders Car Club of New York-Fort Montgomery, NY

and a special thanks to

Adam Tambascio at D & D Auto Supply-New Paltz, NY

George T. Vlamis at Gold Fox Restaurant-Gardiner, NY

Steve Ellsworth at Prosound Entertainment-Ulster County,NY

Pat Flynn at Party Time Productions, Highland Falls, NY

Brenda Otto at Personalize-it, Newburgh, NY

-

Finally I'd also like to thank the Relay Committee members

Christine Giangrasso

Kathy Becker

Joanne Giunta

for asking me to help with this event. It was very rewarding.

Click here for some photos.

Took out my ride for a launch.

Today my friend Jim Turner

from Donation Vehicle Program in Newburgh, NY

turned me onto SG Performance in Walden, NY.

Jim was driving my 69 elCamino and I was telling him

that the 4 barrel was out of sorts.

He told me to visit his friend Scott and have him take a look.

In no time Scott had it dialed in and she was

pulling the wheels and taking command of the asphalt.

I highly recommend this shop.

SG Performance

Specializing in engines, chassis, fabrication

and general repair.

1030 Rt. 52

Walden, NY 12586

914-384-9963

845-778-5551

This is your brain on grass.

The Bear Mountain Cruise Night is back on the lawn

for the 2009 season.

The 1st two weeks were in the skating rink parking lot as the State

had to finish prep work around the park.

-

The weather was picture perfect and everyone that came heard

Karen, Jim, Pat, Jay and Bill of the The Kore Band

play what I counted as at least 3 sets.

http://www.thekoreband.com/

-

The State changed the exiting for the cars and things went somewhat

smoothly as no matter what you do when you leave, it runs into a bottleneck.

-

The car & truck trophy winners for May 20th were:

Brian Arico

James Destaso

Tony Franich

Matt Walsh

Gary Overeen

Nadeem Baig

Paul Edwards

Jake Kossowski

Matt Ellsworth

Bill Geiler

Over the Rainbow

Last Friday I got a call from a close friend asking

about the Cruise Night at the Frozen Rainbow in Port Ewen, NY.

He wasn't sure about when it's start date for the season was.

To make a long story short,

(and for those of you that know me know that's hard to do),

I said I'm not sure,

but I'm positive that the owner would NOT turn you away.

I spoke with someone there tonight and they told me there were more than 50 cars.

It's great that hot rod & car enthusiasts have a friend like

The Frozen Rainbow.

It's official start date is Friday, May 1st, 2009

Here's a link for more info

http://www.popyourhood.com/Friday08.html

Cruise Nights have begun!!

Rod Benders attended the 1st Cruise of the season

at Adam's Fairacre Farms in New Windsor last night.

We wish we had food like that at our cruise night!!

It's a great cruise night with something for people of all ages.

Plus shopping right there for home and garden needs saves a trip.

As usual Dan Wasvary ran a great opening night for the 2009 season.

We saw many friends and had a great time.

Also we saw cars with Jersey tags which means it's a cruise worth the trip.

If you haven't made it there, it's on the 2nd Tuesday of each month.

The next one is May 12, 2009 starting at 5pm.

You can find further info at

http://www.popyourhood.com/Tuesday08.html

10 years in the blink of an eye

There has been much talk recently
about the 1st Cruise Night at Bear Mountain back in 2000
as the 10th Anniversary of the Rod Benders
hosting of the Bear Mountain Cruise Night is this year.
How many cars there were and where,
and who was there and so on.
It took some rummaging of my brain and
moving boxes but I was successful in finding the
negatives which shows how long ago 10 years really was.
Even for a tech savvy guy like myself,
I thought I stepped into the future when I brought
the 35mm negatives to the Rite Aid and saw the
bank of computers and printers and such at
the photo department area in the store.
We've come a long way since the little FotoMat shack.
Click here for a blast from the past