Cherry Hot Dashboard for a '56 Chevy Bel Air

At last weekend's Marion (Iowa) fly-in a selection of classic cars displayed their best chrome and hot paint finishes. This 1956 Chevy Bel Air interior is a show stopper with all its original and modified shine. The guy that owns the car says he has invested a bunch of dollars into some of the latter restoration projects. He hopes that investment will at least keep the car's value up but really doesn't know. He is more proud of the show quality of the half century old Chevy than selling at the moment.

Marion Fly-In 2014 Part 1

One of the opening activities for Freedom Festival is the Marion Fly-In in Marion, Iowa. Today the cloud ceiling was low and therefore no fly-ins participated. However several local small planes gave $10 a person rides throughout the morning.

A skeptical boy hangs on to his mother as they approach a small plane for a ride. 

Air traffic is brisk during mid morning but the crews did a good job in getting people on and off the planes.

A trio of guys get their photo taken after completing a successful flight.

Vehicle traffic was routed slightly differently than in years' past. A volunteer directs traffic away from the old entrance. Note the relative height of the corn in the background. Its been a wet spring.

Gas Prices Below a Dollar at Shell Oil in Marion, Iowa

Come and get it. This evening the Shell Oil gas station in 42N country's Marion, Iowa advertised regular gas as 26-9/10ths cents a gallon! No Photoshop on this image. For perspective, earlier in the day I filled up at another station for $2.64 a gallon for ethanol regular (we are in corn country.)

Was this a special promotion for a very limited time? If so, there were hardly any cars around taking advantage of the offer. Most likely the digital sign was in error either due to the operator not punching in the full price or a machine malfunction. Wait until management hears from irrate customers for not honoring the price, that would be a PR nightmare for the station owner. But for the meantime time its like driving back in the 1960s or 1970s but without the full service attendant available. Fill 'er up and check the oil. Know that.