Event Coverage: The 32nd Annual Resolutions 2008

This year marked the biggest and craziest custom-truck show to date. Too bad it was also the farewell party that brings this nationally known mini truckin' show to its end. After 32 years of scrappin' and draggin' in the New Year, the promoters of Resolutions are retiring -- and I wasn't going to miss it.

This is the fourth year I've gone to this show and every time it seems to get better and bigger. I met up with some friends from a club called No Sympathy to spend five days and three nights camping at the Colorado Fairgrounds in the middle of nowhere -- Blythe, California.

I was planning on taking Truck Trend's long-term Chevy Silverado for the journey, but with great timing, I managed to land an SUV worth showing: a one-of-a-kind 2006 Toyota Highlander turbo-hybrid, a far cry from our stock Silverado, but a nice ride to show off at the main event. The Highlander features a two-tone custom paint job, custom interior with five LCD screens, and a turbo-hybrid built by Borg-Warner.

We arrived a day early to the campground to claim our location and pitch our tents for the whole team. We saved room for a few more members of the truck club to join us the next day. Early the next morning, it was evident this campsite wasn't going to hold every one who had come all for long. By mid-afternoon, people started to pitch tents and make camp in the parking lots. The chilly night led to early campfire parties as processions of lowered and lifted trucks cruised the campground. We were the talk of the sites as we hung out in HAMX2GO swing chairs by our fire pit. A few drunken strikers braved the 30-degree weather, while most people hung around the main stage dancing to the DJ to keep warm.

The next morning was an early one for most of us. We headed out to a nearby oval racetrack to enter our vehicles into the main truck show for the weekend. Sure, everyone's been showing off their rides for the past 24 hours, but this is where the showing off really mattered if you were looking to take home a trophy from this last big show. Once we parked our vehicles in the oval track, I spent the better half of the morning cleaning the Highlander hybrid. (Don't tell Toyota, but that SUV needs a good clay-barring. It's lucky I didn't have mine with me or that paint would've been perfect.) With as much cleaning as I could do, I left the Highlander in the sea of custom trucks and spent the day checking out other custom creations.

Everything from chopped, stretched, lifted, body-dropped, shiny, rattle-canned, and just hacked-up metal was on display. Classic Volkswagen Bugs, old Datsun trucks, low-rider-inspired Cadillacs, and imports were also in the show. It was an eclectic display filled with something for everyone, but with one thing in common -- how custom are you?

The sun began to set and everyone filed out of the racetrack to make his way back to camp. I followed my friend in his Ford Ranger; the crowd screamed for him to make his truck dance. As he passed onlookers he impressed them as he made his truck rock from side to side. The same crowd shouted to me: "Show us how to save gas!" I sneaked on by without making a sound -- but that did bring a smile to my face.

The freezing night fell again, and what's known as the biggest and last party night began. It lasted into the early morning as bass from various sound systems thumped into the night and bonfires reached to the dark skies. This was it, the end of the Granddaddy, the last Resolutions truckin' show to ring in the new year, and I was there.

Needless to say, our little Highlander didn't take home any trophies, but it did turn a lot of heads.