Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Classics Roll Through Town In The Annual Sugar Valley Rally
Earl and Tony Johnson prepare to leave Kimball after their required pit stop. They were driving a 1937 Studebaker, which Earl found at a junk yard and refurbished.
Sugar Valley Rally participants Earl and Tony Johnson arrived in Kimball on Friday afternoon, May 31 for the required pit stop and needed refreshments. The Scottsbluff father/son duo were driving their 1937 Studebaker, silver with maroon fenders.
When the Johnsons arrived in Kimball, Tony got separated from his dad and wandered around the parking lot at the Event Center looking for the entrance, he was having difficultly maneuvering the parking curbs. Karen Morrison, who was waiting to cheer on her husband and grandson in the rally, quickly came to his rescue and escorted him around the parking curbs and into the building.
He told Karen that he was looking for his father and that he was the "navigator" for his dad. His white cane gave him away. He enjoyed the humor of telling everyone he was the "navigator".
Tony suffers from diabetes and is almost totally blind. Friday, Tony was celebrating his 44th birthday.
Tony rode with his Dad on Friday and will again on Sunday, one of Earl's other sons will ride with him on Saturday. Friday and Sunday are shorter trips and it was easier on Tony.
Diabetes makes it difficult to maintain his body temperature and Tony's blood sugar spikes then dives. When he was about eight he lost about seventy pounds, Tony said "darn near killed me". That was the start down the path to blindness at age forty. The only link to juvenile diabetes (Type 1) according to Tony was his maternal Grandfather.
Besides being the "navigator" for his dad, Tony still works on some of his own cars-a 1923 Dodge Roadster, a 1976 Roadrunner, and a 1974 Charger.
According to the The Sugar Valley Rally website, it is a precision timed event. "Teams are given a set of instructions and directions for the course. The team coming closest to the "perfect" computer generated score wins."
The Johnson-father and son team were not real serious about winning the rally, not only was their "navigator" blind, but the speedometer in the 1937 Studebaker was broken and had been for about a year. No worries. They just enjoyed the time together cruising through the panhandle.
