Spanaway Moonshiners 4x4 Swap Meet

Mar 7-8, 1998

Attendees
Name	Rig	Roll
Gordon Compton	96 Ford Ranger 4x4 Extra Cab	Driver, Trail Boss
Denny Zander		Passenger
Kevin Beck	88 Toyota Pickup 2x4	Driver, Report Writer
Gil Meacham		Passenger
Randy Stewart	88 Honda Civic 4dr (w/ glad-bag seat covers	Driver, Report Writer
Eric Fennell		Passenger

We had such a great time this weekend at the swap meet I felt a trip report was in order.

I drove up from Salem and arrived at the meeting spot at 9 am. Gordon, Denny, Randy and Eric came from Hillsboro and arrived at 9:10 am. My pickup was load with parts to the point that my rear springs had a nice reverse arch happening. Gordon offered to transfer some items to his pickup but I figured I'd be okay and I didn't want to get all greasey. We decided to drive a few miles up I-5 to Woodland for breakfast. Gordon lead the way out of the gravel parking lot and quickly found himself backing up on the road since he was heading in the wrong direction. I'm sure if he'd had a GPS this wouldn't have happened;-). I was without a CB so Gordon took the lead followed by myself then Randy. Following a good meal, refueling and Denny visiting the ATM cash machine we were on the road again. Seems Denny forgot cash and was planning his strategy to get the most cash from ATM's along the way. Between the ruts on I-5 and the load I was hauling, I was forced to keep my speed below 70 mph. Gordon quickly became a speck off in the distance. It wasn't much longer and he was out of CB range so they stopped at a rest area took alittle break and once back on the road they were right with us again.

The gates for the swap meet open at 3 pm on Saturday for only vendors to set up and again at 6 am (we thought it was 7 am) on Sunday for only vendors before opening at 9 am Sunday for the general public. We rolled into Puyallup about noon and were about 10th in line to entry the grounds. Gordon spotted a motel accross the street from the fairgrounds so Randy went and reserved us a room for the night. The real swapping begins as the vendors are lining up. Five minutes after Randy returned from getting the room he bought a MIG welder. I found a few items I was looking for also. What started out as a single row of vendors vehicles and trailers soon turned into a row three to four vehicles wide. As each new rig turned into the staging area, groups of people would walk along looking to see what treasures were arriving.

Once we saw the sheriff arrive we knew the fairgrounds would be opening soon. The staging area for vendors is across the road from the fairgrounds so the sheriff stopped the road traffic so we could enter. The Spanaway Moonshiners do a really good job running this meet so even though there are lots of vehicles entering at the same time it's not bad at all.

I have a canopy on my truck so no one knew what I had inside for sale. As I was unloading it, items were just getting transferred into Gordons truck as Denny, Eric and Randy keep finding things they couldn't live without. As vendors are unloading is when the good items are available (if you didn't already find them in the staging area). We bought and sold more stuff before the the swap meet even opened to the general public. Randy found a Warn 9000 winch for $475 and made an offer of $425 but the seller wouldn't accept. He came back to our stall and after thinking about it for a few minutes he went back to make the deal. Guess what, it sold to someone else in those few minutes. He kicked himself the rest of the day for missing the chance.

At 6 pm we covered up our stuff and headed out for the evening. We decided to eat dinner at The Keg since the motel had coupons good for 25% off dinner. Little did we know the staff at The Keg didn't understand the concept of time. Denny got his name on the list and asked how long the wait would be for a table and he was told 20 maybe 30 minutes. We decided to wait in the lounge until they called us. About 45 minutes pass, Randy goes to check on our table and was told it would be 15 minutes longier. About 15 minutes pass and Denny checks, he's told 10 minutes longier. We decide if the five of us stand in the lobby maybe we'll be seated quickier. In less than 15 seconds we were seated. We all ordered the prime rib and it was worth the wait.

Next stop, the motel room. The room was very large and had two double beds, hide-a-bed, roll away bed, frig, sink, stove, etc. Gordon and Eric took the double beds, Randy the hide-a-bed and Denny the roll away. I sleep on the floor in a sleeping bag. Denny's bed had special sheets with a "101 Dalmations" pattern printed on them. We wish we had a camera to take pictures of Denny all tucked in. Wouldn't those look nice posted on the web page! We layed around for about an hour talking about 4x4's.

Sunday morning we woke at 5:30 with visions of more new vendors bringing more new items. First breakfast and lot's more talk about 4x4's. We thought the gates opened at 7 am but from our seats in the restaurant we notice people inside, it turns out they opened at 6 am. We shopped around for about an hour and since I had the most stuff to sell I headed back to our stall to uncover the goods. As soon as I pulled the tarp I had a guy jumping to buy stuff he'd seen yesterday. Then the doors opened to the public and things would sell throughout the day. Gil's Jeep T-18a was a major draw with people stopping to discuss and measure it to see how the real thing (not a Ford T-18) looked from the factory. My CJ power steering system also had people checking it out all day long to compare the shaft size from the factory. I decided to keep the box, pump and brackets together otherwise I could have sold lots of PS boxes by themselves.

At the end of the day we only found ourselves left with two white elephants, a rearend which we had to beg someone to take off our hands for free (I wasn't hauling it home) and a transfer case which celebrated it's second (or third) anniversary at the swap meet with no one willing to take it.

Randy and Eric left about 2 pm since they finished all their shopping. I can't beleive how much stuff you can get into the trunk of a Civic. At 4 pm we loaded what was left into the pickups, stopped for dinner and arrived back in Oregon by 9 pm.

Overall it was a great swap meet and lots of fun talking about our vehicles with each other. We were able to learn some things about fellow BushHacker's like: If biscits & gravy are on the menu, Gordon and Denny will order them for breakfast; Denny takes the worlds fastest showers; While Eric does snore, Gordon puts him to shame in the snoring department; Randy is just like a kid in a candy store at a 4x4 swap meet; As long as the prime rib isn't moving, Randy, Eric and Denny will eat it and Denny enjoys playing with orange flashing lights.

I'm looking forward to next years meet and now that Denny own's a CJ I'm sure he's making a shopping list for next year. Denny, just remember to bring cash.