536 cars lined up along Morro Bay Boulevard and the surrounding streets for the Cruisin’ Morro Bay Car Show’s ‘Show and Shine’ event on Saturday.
Donald Harris has lived in Morro Bay since 1970 and brought his updated 1951 Chevrolet to the show. “I try to keep it to look like a ’51. We upgraded a lot of things. There’s a radio behind the speaker panel and the seats,” Harris said.
Harris said this is his fourth year taking part in the event. “This is one of the best things to do to support this town. I love it,” Harris said.
Jeff Brown also took part in the show, bringing his 1953 Sunbeam Talbot Alpine.
“Mark one, it’s one of 200 cars. The famous thing about this car, not this particular car, but this style of car, was Grace Kelly drove it in Albert Hitchcock’s movie, ‘To Catch a Thief’ with Cary Grant,” Brown said.
Brown said this type of car is a true roadster. “The car itself is a boulevard cruiser,” Brown said.
Leann Gajarian Keeler came to Morro Bay with her family on Thursday. She said the Cruisin’ Morro Bay Car Show is her favorite car show of the year.
“Thursday as soon as we could check in the hotel at 3 o’clock because we want every minute of this show and we’re not leaving until the last minute on Sunday,” Keeler said.
The car show attracts many locals along with visitors, some coming from as far away as Canada. Organizers said around 11,000 people took part. “I’ve seen cars here from Washington, Idaho, Colorado, Texas,” Harris said.
Morro Bay firefighters raised the American flag from one of their fire engines during the event as visitors and car owners looked on. “There were people that, like us, look forward to this show from everywhere so even rain wasn’t going to stop us this year we were coming rain or shine,” Keeler said.
The Cruisin’ Morro Bay Car Show first rolled through the City of Morro Bay in 1997.
