Going Back In Time – Avenue of Flags
2026 WEBSITE UPDATE
To all past faithful Wheels ‘N’ Windmills Car Show committee members, event participants, event sponsors, event helpers and spectators, we hope you have enjoyed the first two chapters of “Wheels ‘N’ Windmills Car Show Going Back in Time”. Thank you for the comments/reviews we’ve received regarding chapters one and two. All responses we have received to date for both chapters have been responded to. Unfortunately, we have not received any comments on either chapter since early November of last year. We tried sending out two bulk emails advertising the new website addition, but we knew that there were mostly past participants email addresses in the two emails. We also added the request for comments to the paragraph on the website home page and tried to get the word out verbally to past participants, committee members, event sponsors, event helpers and spectators. We expected that we would see less action on the website during the holidays, so we postponed working on chapter 3 until this year.
Dan and I really enjoyed putting chapters one and two together even though we spent many hours reviewing hundreds of pictures and supporting information, selecting the best pictures, and putting it all together to get the final product you see on the website. Our website manager also spent a significant amount of his time “fine tuning” the information we provided so it “best” presented the final product we hoped you would like.
Since we haven’t received any comments for over two months, we are getting concerned that what we are providing on the “Going Back in Time” chapters is not doing what we had hoped it would do. Without input from the people that visit the website, there is no way for us to know if the site is good, bad, or indifferent.
That said, we are going to keep the website open for one more month at which time we are asking everyone to please let us know what you think of the website and if we should continue with chapter three. Based on the responses we get in the next month, we will either continue with chapter three or shut the website down. If you enjoyed the Avenue of Flags and Wheels ‘N’ Windmills Car Shows as much as we enjoyed putting them on, please let us know how you feel before February 28,2026.
Please post a comment in the “Comments” section at the bottom of the website home page or send an email to either Dan or Bob at the email addresses below. Thank you again for the support you have provided for our shows you attended or supported over the years.
Sincerely,
Dan Hoagland and Bob Stokes
Segment two will contain some new changes. Each segment, we will add a bit of history related to things that happened before, during, or after our shows that affected our following events.
The first major event change happened starting in 2007 (3rd annual show). We were approached by Ray Patton, the Santa Ynez Valley High School Auto Shop teacher. He asked if we could bring some of our classic cars to an “Open House” the school was having so he could get more people to come see the auto shop. He needed to “Drum up” support for the auto shop to keep the program from being considered for removal from the high school electives. We brought about a dozen vehicles to put on display. Ray’s plan worked great. The “mini car show” brought significantly more people to the auto shop. Some of our committee members talked with Ray after the open house and found out that he was facing “budget cuts” that were going to make it very hard to continue the program for the kids. At our next committee meeting, we discussed ideas on how the car show could support the auto shop program as one of our charities. It was decided that the best way was to put on a raffle at the car show to get money for the auto shop. One of our sponsors, Jon Stephen, owner of Jon’s Equipment and Construction Co. offered to donate a brand-new GM ‘small block’ V8 engine for us to raffle off. The raffle was such a huge success, that we made it an annual part of our show. Through the following years, the new V8 engines got better, the raffle proceeds increased significantly, which helped get the high school auto shop program off the “Chopping Block”, and in some of the following years, we were able to help support multiple local high school auto shop programs.
Also, in this segment we had a bit of a “hiccup”. We had a photographer issue that was unexpected the morning of the 2008 (4th annual show). Our photographer that took pictures of the show vehicles as they entered the show from the check-in area showed up, but we were unable to capture pictures from the actual show. So, all we have to offer for the 2008 picture gallery is a slideshow of the 250 plus vehicles that got their picture taken at check-in. The slideshow takes about 15 minutes to watch, but it really shows the incredible variety of vehicles that entered the 4th annual show. If you have the time to watch it, there’s a good chance you would see your car if you brought it through check-in, or possibly a friend’s car during the slideshow presentation.
As we said in the last segment, our hope is that each segment will bring back memories of the great (and sometimes not so great) times we had putting on, participating in, and attending the events. We encourage you to use the “Comment” link to provide us with feedback (good or bad) related to each segment. We will review all the feedback responses and use them to help us try to improve each additional segment.
Thank you again for your loyalty and patience. We hope you enjoy segment two of “Wheels ‘N’ Windmills Car Show Going Back in Time”.
Sincerely,
Bob Stokes and Dan Hoagland
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29 Responses
Great memories. Hope to see more chapters in the future.
Hi again John,
Was there anything in particular about the chapters that you really liked and would like to see more of? Anything we could improve on? Thanks again for your emails.
Sincerely,
Bob and Dan
Loved both “Going Back In Time” chapters Looking forward to the next one
Hi John,
Thanks for checking out the website and enjoying the memories with us. Although the Wheels ‘N’ Windmills Car Shows are in the past, we are hoping that the “Going Back in Time” chapters will rekindle memories of the good times we had and keep people interested in our hobby. Dan and I will be reviewing (and responding to) all of the received email comments until the end of this month. Based on everyone’s comments we will make the decision to continue or shut down the website. The more comments and suggestions for improving the website will make the decision much easier, so please get the word out to all of your “car show” friends to visit the website and send us comments.
Sincerely,
Bob and Dan
Any thoughts to having a category for “daily driver “ by decade? This could encourage others who don’t have the money or desire to have a trailer queen.
Just a thought.
Keep up the great work.
This is one of the best car shows around.
Plus your collection of pictures are fun to review
Hi Brad,
We are assuming you’re referring that you are participating in the Viking Charities Car Show in Solvang. Your suggestion should be presented to committee that puts on that show. We will pass this suggestion on to the guy that heads up the Viking Charities Car Show planning committee. Thanks again for the email.
Bob and Dan
Love this show.
Hi Dan,
Thanks for checking out the website and enjoying the memories with us. Although the Wheels ‘N’ Windmills Car Shows are in the past, we are hoping that the “Going Back in Time” chapters will rekindle memories of the good times we had and keep people interested in our hobby. Dan and I will be reviewing (and responding to) all of the received email comments until the end of this month. Based on everyone’s comments we will make the decision to continue or shut down the website. The more comments and suggestions for improving the website will make the decision much easier, so please get the word out to all of your “car show” friends to visit the website and send us comments.
Sincerely,
Bob and Dan
Hello. I usually enter my 28 Roadster in the show each year. This year, I was under the weather and missed it. I plan on continuing to attend each year. This is the first I have heard about the website though.
Jarom Kemp
Hi Jarom,
Thanks for checking out the website and enjoying the memories with us. Although the Wheels ‘N’ Windmills Car Shows are in the past, we are hoping that the “Going Back in Time” chapters will rekindle memories of the good times we had and keep people interested in our hobby. Dan and I will be reviewing (and responding to) all of the received email comments until the end of this month. Based on everyone’s comments we will make the decision to continue or shut down the website. The more comments and suggestions for improving the website will make the decision much easier, so please get the word out to all of your “car show” friends to visit the website and send us comments.
Sincerely,
Bob and Dan
We are assuming you’re referring that you are participating in the Viking Charities Car Show in Solvang. Although the Wheels ‘N’ Windmills Car Shows have ended, we are glad to see you are still showing your roadster at other events.
I enjoyed the memories the 1st two chapters brought. My wife and I always had fun at the shows and were disappointed when they ended.
We’ve moved to Oregon and are enjoying the new shows we’ve found, from the coast to the mountains.
Hi Larry,
Thanks for checking out the website and enjoying the memories with us. Although the Wheels ‘N’ Windmills Car Shows are in the past, we are hoping that the “Going Back in Time” chapters will rekindle memories of the good times we had and keep people interested in our hobby. We are glad to hear that you are still enjoying our hobby. Dan and I will be reviewing (and responding to) all of the received email comments until the end of this month. Based on everyone’s comments we will make the decision to continue or shut down the website. The more comments and suggestions for improving the website will make the decision much easier, so please get the word out to all of your “car show” friends to visit the website and send us comments.
Sincerely,
Bob and Dan
I found it quite enjoyable to look at the old pictures of classic cars. I am a participant in the new Viking Charites Car Show.
Hi Steve,
Thanks for checking out the website and enjoying the memories with us. Although the Wheels ‘N’ Windmills Car Shows are in the past, we are hoping that the “Going Back in Time” chapters will rekindle memories of the good times we had and keep people interested in our hobby. We are glad to hear that you participated in the Viking Charities Car Show. Please let us know what you thought of last year’s show compared to the first two shows. Dan and I will be reviewing (and responding to) all of the received email comments until the end of this month. Based on everyone’s comments we will make the decision to continue or shut down the website. The more comments and suggestions for improving the website will make the decision much easier, so please get the word out to all of your “car show” friends to visit the website and send us comments.
Sincerely,
Bob and Dan
Hi Bob, Dan,
Really enjoy seeing the people and cars from the past shows. I would like to see you continue to post.
Dan R
Hi Dan,
Thanks for checking out the website and enjoying the memories with us. Although the Wheels ‘N’ Windmills Car Shows are in the past, we are hoping that the “Going Back in Time” chapters will rekindle memories of the good times we had and keep people interested in our hobby. Dan and I will be reviewing (and responding to) all of the received email comments until the end of this month. Based on everyone’s comments we will make the decision to continue or shut down the website. The more comments and suggestions for improving the website will make the decision much easier, so please get the word out to all of your “car show” friends to visit the website and send us comments.
Sincerely,
Bob and Dan
I am enjoying seeing the content!
Hi Jordan,
Thanks for checking out the website and enjoying the memories with us. Although the Wheels ‘N’ Windmills Car Shows are in the past, we are hoping that the “Going Back in Time” chapters will rekindle memories of the good times we had and keep people interested in our hobby. Dan and I will be reviewing (and responding to) all of the received email comments until the end of this month. Based on everyone’s comments we will make the decision to continue or shut down the website. The more comments and suggestions for improving the website will make the decision much easier, so please get the word out to all of your “car show” friends to visit the website and send us comments.
Sincerely,
Bob and Dan
Hey Guys,
Props to you for what you are doing here. While we are all passionate about our cars and the culture thereof, it takes a lot of hard work to pull something like this together. Having all of these pictures in one place for us to enjoy is priceless. The grid format and ‘click-to-view’ features are very intuitive and UX friendly.
Hi Lance,
Thanks for checking out the website and enjoying the memories with us. Although the Wheels ‘N’ Windmills Car Shows are in the past, we are hoping that the “Going Back in Time” chapters will rekindle memories of the good times we had and keep people interested in our hobby. Dan and I will be reviewing (and responding to) all of the received email comments until the end of this month. Based on everyone’s comments we will make the decision to continue or shut down the website. The more comments and suggestions for improving the website will make the decision much easier, so please get the word out to all of your “car show” friends to visit the website and send us comments.
Sincerely,
Bob and Dan
PS: If you have any suggestions for improvement we could make, please let us know.
Bob and Dan (and so many others). Every show was masterful. I couldn’t always enter, but the show in Solvang was a true highlight of the year. I believe 442 meant the number of cubic inches in the Oldsmobile models like Bob’s.
Hi Dennis,
Thanks for checking out the website and enjoying the memories with us. Although the Wheels ‘N’ Windmills Car Shows are in the past, we are hoping that the “Going Back in Time” chapters will rekindle memories of the good times we had and keep people interested in our hobby. We always enjoyed having the military vehicles at the shows. Dan and I will be reviewing (and responding to) all of the received email comments until the end of this month. Based on everyone’s comments we will make the decision to continue or shut down the website. The more comments and suggestions for improving the website will make the decision much easier, so please get the word out to all of your “car show” friends to visit the website and send us comments.
Sincerely,
Bob and Dan
Regarding your comment about Oldsmobile “442”. The “442” was always about the car options, not the engine size. The original 442 “Options” were 4 Barrel Carb., 4-Speed Trans., and Dual Exhaust. They changed over the years as the cars (and option packages) changed.
Good Job. Keep up the good work
Hi Brad,
Thanks for checking out the website and enjoying the memories with us. Although the Wheels ‘N’ Windmills Car Shows are in the past, we are hoping that the “Going Back in Time” chapters will rekindle memories of the good times we had and keep people interested in our hobby. Dan and I will be reviewing (and responding to) all of the received email comments until the end of this month. Based on everyone’s comments we will make the decision to continue or shut down the website. The more comments (and suggestions for improving the website) will make the decision much easier, so please get the word out to all of your “car show” friends to visit the website and send us comments.
Sincerely,
Bob and Dan
Although I appreciate your website, I’m sorry that Wheels ‘n Windmills has to live in the past. I wish it was back and looking to a future show. The existing Vikings organization just doesn’t cut it. Too bad. The show was a blast and made for a fantastic weekend for me and our car club.
Hi Rick,
Thanks for checking out the website and enjoying the memories with us. Although the Wheels ‘N’ Windmills Car Shows are in the past, we are hoping that the “Going Back in Time” chapters will rekindle memories of the good times we had and keep people interested in our hobby. Dan and I will be reviewing (and responding to) all of the received email comments until the end of this month. Based on everyone’s comments we will make the decision to continue or shut down the website. The more comments and suggestions for improving the website will make the decision much easier, so please get the word out to all of your “car show” friends to visit the website and send us comments.
Sincerely,
Bob and Dan
Regarding the current Solvang Car Show being put on by the Vikings Organization, last year the Vikings made some major changes because of issues with the first two shows. All new people were brought in to plan and run last year’s event. The new committee asked Dan and I to come to their kickoff meeting last year. They told us they wanted to pattern their show to be like our show was and could Dan and I provide information they could use to make this happen. We were happy to do this and gave them the basic plans (and tasks) necessary that we used to put on our shows. They consulted with us during the planning stages of last year’s show and although they knew they didn’t have all the resources in place to do everything we did, they did the best they could to make their show look similar to ours. Dan and I attended their show last year and were pleasantly surprised on how many changes they had done with our input. They learned some very valuable lessons during last year’s show and are already making improvements for this year’s event. Check out this year’s event and let us know what you think.
Hi Bob, just checking to see if the comments are working, I have not seen any from the Chapter 2 segment.
Dan, I have received your input. Thank you.
Bob
Testing to see if this goes to the proper email address. RS 10-4-25