Congratulations to the East Tennessee Region AACA.... and especially Randy Moats.... for a great tour during June 20-22, 2008 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Thunder Road movie premiere! Di and I and our daughter Shannon had a great time on the tour.

This was a great follow-up to last year's 2007 Thunder Road 50th Anniversary Tour hosted by the Great Smokey Mountain Region AACA. The 2007 tour commemorated the 1957 filming of the movie in North Carolina.

Di and I and our daughters attended the the 2007 tour in North Carolina that visited the filming locations and other places during the weekend. We had such a good time that we were very interested when it was announced at the time that another Thunder Road 50th Anniversary tour may be planned in Tennessee for 2008.

Actor James Mitchum, who starred in the movie with his father attended both the 2007 and 2008 tours. The three day tour this year included beautiful destinations in both Tennessee and Kentucky. The grand finale of the tour was the showing of the movie at the historic Tennessee Theater in Knoxville, Tennessee (where I believe the movie originally premiered). The street in front of the theater was closed off with the Thunder Road Tour cars displayed on both sides of the street. A simulated chase between a 1950 Ford moonshine hauler car and a 1958 Ford police car was also staged on the street. The public turned out in large numbers for the event. The enormous historic theater was packed for the showing of the movie.

Approximately 50 cars were on the 2008 Thunder Road 50th Anniversary Tour, consisting primarily of cars from Tennessee, but also from North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia and Maryland. Our 1949 Plymouth and a 1956 Ford from our Region (which also made the 2007 tour) represented Maryland.

Thanks to Randy and all of the great people we met on the tour for a great weekend.

Just a few more photos from the recent Thunder Road Golden Anniversary Tour held on June 20-22, 2008

Great pictures Bruce, beautiful scenery too.

Touring is where its at!

Wayne

A few more for you Wayne....

and a few more

Smile Randy!

Looks like you put on a great show.

Wayne

It was a really fun weekend - even my 5-year old daughter Jordan is still talking about it. We had the words to the Thunder Road song printed in our tour book. Every day, Jordan wants me to sing the song for her. The words to the song must be pretty good, because I certainly can't sing!

Hot dog, a karaoke partner for the Cleveland TN Meet later this year!

Wayne