Unlike last year, we actually had beautiful weather for most of the weekend. There was nary a complaint about the sun and heat, in fact.

ABOVE: Friday afternoon at the host hotel. One by one, Cougars would trickle into the lot and line up. It was apparent as soon as I got there that everyone was excited for the whole weekend.

ABOVE: Crystal has had some bad luck in getting her Thunderbird fixed up in time for the show. The bodywork and repainting went very well (especially for being done at Maaco!), but the guy doing the upholstery and interior parts gave her fits. She barely got the inside back together for the show (and made the 13 hour trip from MA in about 18 hours with construction delays) when her door popper solenoids needed the cables adjusted. This was actually a common site all weekend: Crystal working on the T-Bird, hands blacker than midnight. Gotta love it.

ABOVE: A partial view of the cars in the A&W parking lot. We cruised down the street from the hotels to A&W at around 5pm and lined up the Cougars toward the back of the lot.

ABOVE: Good thing we got there early...the lot filled up fast. Most attendees had a positive response for our cars being there (they're not used to a group of cars showing up at once).

ABOVE: Another view of the cars. The red '88 XR7 is owned by Zach, who made his way up from WV to be with us. The cool ARE old-school black lacy rims are a real eye-catcher on this Cat. He's got some trick interior mods as well.

ABOVE: Perhaps the car that made the most dramatic improvement from last year would be Alex's '84 V6. Just a few weeks before CJ, Alex and his father did all the bodywork and paint. It was the first time for doing such work for both of them, and I have to admit, the results were better than what I'd expected. Note the custom grille and slight cowl hood scoop.

ABOVE: Steve's '88 LS V6 is his first car, and although he admits that it needs some work, he certainly puts a lot of time and effort into it. He originally was going to buy a Honda but fell in love with the Cougar's size and style. While a lot of his peers tend to get on his case in his native PA, Steve is sticking to his guns and building a cool Cat, with his dad's help.

ABOVE: Aaron couldn't make it down from Niagara Falls in his Cougar, but he did twist his friend Pat's arm into driving them down in Pat's S-10 pickup. Unofficially it became known as the "Cougar with the bed".

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