I had a lot of fun with it, My dad and I took it to the 2016 ATHS Plymouth Show, and it's been to the Blackhawk Cars and Coffee meetup a couple of times.

I agreed to sell my GMC when I bought my new truck. I found a great guy via ATHS from Texas who was interested in it and we struck a deal.  He arranged for a transport to come pick it up, and I was able to drive it one last time up onto the trailer.

I'm glad I played a part in saving this truck, and I hope to be able to see it eventually all done at one of our shows.

Laters friend, and good luck to you.

I've added a 100mm Macro Lens instead of using a zoom and extension tubes as well as a stack loader which makes it a lot faster loading and unloading slides.

That was 40 slides in about a minute.

Of the couple things we've learned doing this: Keeping the slides in their carousels isn't a good way to store the slides for the long term. If they are in any kind of moist environment the slides can begin to warp and they will jam the feeders of even the carousels they are in. 

The stack loader isn't any more forgiving than the carousels for warped slides, those I have to feed in one at a time and they take a lot longer to process. 

Storing your slides in something like this can save you a lot of space and aggravation if you care about the slides you are storing.

http://www.adorama.com/fsbsm35.html

Testing my new 100mm f2.8L macro lens out at the  6/5/2016 Blackhawk Cars and Coffee with my friends Lisa Dalisa and Austin Batista.

Lisa brought her red formula hooded 71 "Sheila" out for the first time. Austin had his Macho TA out. I had the "bird" my 2001 WS-6. 

The 100mm lens is not a good walk-around lens, I knew that going in. I just wanted to see what it could do. I purchased this lens for close-up macro work, but I know it's got a good reputation for portraiture. 

I concentrated more than I normally do on people and small details.  I'm really pleased with the lens for the right kind of thing it will be fantastic. For a walk around lens at a car show I definitely prefer my 18-135 zoom, or my 28mm prime. 

With this 100mm fixed I find I need to be looking 40-60ft away for action to shoot which is kind of unnatural. Trying to shoot a car within standing distance and get it in frame is impossible and there are too many people milling about to get a clean shot of a car 40ft away.

I also got to use my new battery grip for the Rebel SL1, I haven't had a battery grip since my original Rebel.  The Rebel SL1 is an ever so slightly smaller camera body, and it takes different batteries than the old Rebel so the old battery grip wouldn't work with the new camera. I think this one is slightly more awkward especially considering it requires a small cable to hook from the base of the battery grip to the remote shooting port of the camera, unlike the original Rebel battery grip that used an internal connection. But it got the job done.

We've started with Christina's family (since those are the ones we have). 

My photographer friend Mark Phelps turned me onto a method of using a projector without it's lens going right into my DSLR with a macro lens. I did some research found I had most of what I needed already. Just got some extra sundries and a good projector.

Christina and I did 1200-1500 slides over memorial day weekend.

I still have a stack loader so we don't have to load/unload the tray coming for the projector and I got an AC power adapter for the camera yesterday so I don't have to stop and swap batteries now.

The setup:

The results are of course highly dependent on the quality of slides but I can color correct some in post processing.

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My friends Lisa and John, below and I went to Muscle Cars in the park, and they let me drive their 79 Bandit (far left). John drove his Rockford clone with side pipes, and Lisa took Roxanne their third gen dealer converted sportster which ended up winning a first place trophy.

Shaker hood shenanigans at a stop light

p.s. yes, Lisa knows her brake light is out...She will just blame John for not fixing it so don't mention it to her. It makes her cranky.

I was playing with my new 55-200 Zoom Lens for all the shots, it really was the wrong tool for most of the job but it took some good pictures, just a little too narrow field of view for walking down isles of parked cars.

https://www.facebook.com/events/881008825284207/

I spent some time with friends from Central California Chapter of the ATHS met a new member Joe White and his family. 

This is a picture of his 4 million mile 1960 Kenworth

I found out he was at the same ATHS National Show that I took my Blazer to in Yakima 2013.

Also shown here in a video with some of the history

In the video you'll hear me bog and choke the engine, and grind some gears, and generally be confused about what gear I'm really in.

This manual transmission is known as a 5-over. With a two-speed electronically switched diff, for 10 forward and two reverse speeds. It has Air Brakes, and Manual Steering.

Shift pattern is as follows.

R 2 5
1 3 4

There is a diff gear selector on the stick. Out is High, In is Low. I think I got that wrong in the video.

1 is a granny, so generally starting in 2-lo. 

When unloaded the shift sequence to get to highway speed is 2-lo, 3-lo, 4-lo, 4-hi, 5-hi. In 5-hi at 2100 rpm it's topping out just under 65mph.

Fourth and Fifth are interleaved so when splitting gears the pattern once you reach 4-lo is: 4-lo, 5-lo, 4-hi, 5-hi.

In this video most of the problems I experienced are from not running the engine at high enough revs before shifting. These two strokes like to be at about 1800+, which makes them sound like they are doing 4000rpm, and it would like to be there at all times.

Another thing I've learned since is while launching from stopped to hover on the clutch a little bit longer before letting it fully engage while building revs and accelerate briskly to avoid the bucking.

Great trucks, great food and great Friends what more could you ask for.

The Wrecker and GMC weren't ready to go yet, so I took my 30yr Old 220K mile Detroit Diesel Bazer.

Despite the threat of rain, the weather held out and it was a great show.  Smaller than last year but great show none-the-less.

Arial View (Taken by another member)

Trans Am Club of America GSC and the East Bay Firebirds participated in a Cruise in to the A&W in Lodi on Saturday April 19th 2014.

I met up with Bear and Darren in their first gens at Black Bear Diner just off Hwy 205/Grant Line, in Tracy and we drove to Lodi together.

https://www.facebook.com/events/634884506580875/