About Us.

History of the Gearheads – How it got started!

Hi, my name is Carole Logsdon, Manager of  Paintsville Tourism, I was telling a friend not a few days ago about the meeting of the minds. I was at McDonalds leaving and Bill Garland was at McDonalds going in. The t’ bucket, Suzie Q was sitting there and I was admiring it. (I should probably say at this time that as a young girl growing up with my Dad and 2 brothers we were always under the hood of a car; or if they were lucky it was a hot rod! I grew up appreciating the beautiful lines of a great car. ) Bill and I exchanged names and cards and weeks later I started calling to see if he would get some guys with cars together to come to the Spring Fling to just hang out. Twenty two cars joined us that Saturday in April of 2007!

After that event was over Bill started calling and said the guys really had fun and would I be interested in their hanging out again. The Cruise In’s were Born! That first year by mid summer we had 65 cars!

Then fall came and the cars moved back into their winter storage.
Then I got the call, about a meeting as a car group at the Pizza Hut. I’ll never forget walking in during the height of basket ball season and wearing a U of L sweatshirt and getting boos from the guys!

I told them to be gearheads… it’s who they are and it’s low key and fun and that’s what they are.  They were my gearheads from the start.

Bill always used the word gearheads to describe who the guys were …it stuck…..now it’s official and it’s the East Kentucky Gearheads, but it’s still the same ole guys and a couple of ladies, with their favorite cars. Some of the cars have been with them since birth, some change cars like they change tires. No matter, they still love cars and like hanging out with them. They like taking pictures of them and they pass those pictures around like they were grandchildren.

The East Kentucky Gearheads first official club meeting was January 2008.  Last year the club assisted Paintsville Main Street with the cruise-in’s with manpower, tee shirts and gathering door prizes from local sponsors.  The Club will be the primary hosts for the cruise-in’s for 2009.  At the last meeting in 2008 the Club voted to give $1,000 of their $1200 to needy charities in the Paintsville area.  As the mission statement said, “supporting local charities” is one of our goals.  The remaining $200 is being used for the start of the 2009 season.

The car hobby is over 100 years old and we’ve seen how the passion of one generation is passed on to subsequent generations because the car hobby truly is one of the few activities that the whole family can participate in and enjoy.  The Gearheads are looking forward for the 2009 season, our second season.  Renewing old fellowships, catching up on what you did to your favorite car in the winter season.  We wouldn’t trade a warm afternoon with a hot dog, and a hot rod or vintage car for anything, here’s hoping you wouldn’t either! Join us!  The Cruise-in’s are held every 3rd Saturday of the month located in the City parking lot on Main Street, See you there.

See The Map On The Home Page For The Cruiz'N Location.