Houston 2005

Every Summer when we travel to Houston, Texas, for the Lowrider Tour event the weather is always the same-hot and sticky. That's not a pleasant combination, especially when you're used to warm sunny days with a nice breeze. But that's no reason not to come to Houston because the only things hotter than the weather here are the beautiful women and all of the chrome-plated, candy-covered and flaked-out rides that you'll find inside Houston's Reliant Arena.

With plenty of time on our hands, we flew in a couple of days before the show to enjoy what H-town has to offer. We were greeted by 80-percent humidity and hot weather as soon as we got off of the plane. We were exhausted from a three-hour delayed flight, but you have to get used to the bad to get to the good, que no? When it was time to get up on Saturday, we started by taking the 610 south to the Reliant Arena to see who was in line and ready to move in.

With all of the car clubs lined up and getting their cars cleaned and ready to move in, we spotted some of the heavy hitters on the Texas show circuit, like Frank and Rosie Requena with their out of this world "Outer Limits" '48 Chevy Fleetline. Also in line was the August LRM cover car, Johnny Borrego's mind-blowing "La Manosa" '81 Cadillac, and the August Lowrider of the Month, Gordy Murr's "It's A Boy" '78 Chevy Monte Carlo, as well as one of the nicest bomb trucks on the circuit, "Isaac's Laughter." And coming in all of the way from Southern California was Anthony Fuentes' '63 Chevy Impala, "Sun Dance."

With so much to see and so little time, we headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up before proceeding to Shorty's Hydraulics for a Texas barbecue. After eating all of the carne asada that we could handle, we found out that Saul could put away another 3 pounds of beef accompanied with tortillas without any hesitation. After that we hit the Toc Bar, where we were treated like tourists, even though we felt like we were the oldest ones in the crowd. But it has to be considered a good night when a girl comes up to you the next day and tells you that she's the one who drove you home when your friend was supposed to make sure that you made it back to the hotel okay.

Juan's '80 Regal was gleaming with Brown Pride with a custom mural of Zapata on the door.	Here's one of the cleanest '57 Bel Air convertibles in the nation.	Nichole Serrato was in the house for Dallas Lowriders C.C.
Another Latin Image creation was on full display.	Ever Mendoza took home Best Truck with his newly customized Astro van.	Ben's "Mary Jane" is one sweet Impala.
Jaime Vela took home Best Bomb of Show with his chopped-up '38 Chevy.	Augustin Cruz' radical '84 Regal was on full display.	"Newby" shows off his lowrider pride tattoo.
Luis' '64 is another bad Texas ride.	The luscious curves in the Nitto booth kept bringing us back	They were giving away oil and bags full of goodies at the Quaker State booth.