Sure, car shows are great venues for meeting with friends and taking in some nice rides, but there’s more to a car show than what is behind the ropes. There’s also the parking lot!

Simple parking lots can be a field of treasure. Not everyone can stay for a whole day at a car show, but they want to be sure to take in an event’s sights while they have time. And if it’s a nice day, you can bet they drove their old car to the event, even if they didn’t plan on entering their car in the show.

On April 14, my brother and I headed to the Gopher State Timing Association’s Rod & Custom Spectacular inside the coliseum on the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. The cars in the show were great, but since space is limited in the building, not every old car owner can display a car, but they’ll drive their cars to the event. Given the event’s early-April timing, the show tends to land on one of the first nice days of the year. This fact doesn’t get by car owners itching to dust off their cars -- and the GSTA Rod & Custom Spectacular is a fine reason to get the car out.

The area around the fairgrounds was particularly interesting this year. We spotted a 1946-’48 Lincoln Continental Cabriolet, 1969 Dodge Coronet four-door sedan with a SuperBee stripe on its haunches, chopped early-1950s Chevy two-door sedan with flames and some of the other treats pictured here. Unfortunately, I missed catching the Continental on film before it left, but there certainly was a nice selection of cars left to snap. I’m not sure who the owners of all of these cars are, but I know the wicked “rat rod” ’34 Ford truck is owned by Jeff Bloedorn, who built the truck four years ago. Jeff is the boyfriend of Jennie Melgard, a childhood friend of mine. (We car people stick together!) Hope you enjoy the pics!