The 2008 River Tales Classic will be the 31st annual car show sponsored by the River City Rodders Ltd. The Rodders were established in 1976 when a group of local hot rod enthusiasts who already hung out together decided it might be fun to organize a formal car club. The Rodders hosted their first car show in 1977 in the parking lot of the Town Plaza Shopping Center in Cape Girardeau. They have hosted a car show every year since then on the second Sunday after Labor Day, which always lands on the final weekend of the Southeast Missouri District Fair.
After many years of hosting their annual show in Capaha Park, the Rodders decided that it was time for a change and moved their show to historic downtown Cape in 2007. In conjunction with the move to downtown Cape, the annual car show was renamed the River Tales Classic to tie in with Cape’s current marketing slogan – Visit Cape Girardeau, Where the River Turns a Thousand Tales. In order to help promote the new location the Rodders also invited Old Town Cape to become co-sponsors of the new River Tales Classic.
One of the main reasons the Rodders relocated their car show to downtown Cape was to take advantage of the redevelopment that has occurred there in the last several years and provide both participants and spectators with a variety of things to do and see while they are attending the show. The list of opportunities is extensive, ranging from browsing at the numerous antique shops in downtown Cape to checking out the flood-wall mural that provides a pictorial history of Cape to exploring the new Mississippi River overlook and walking trail at Southeast Missouri University’s new River Campus to touring the historic Glenn House and Old St. Vincent’s Church. All of these attractions and more are within a block or two of the car show location, which is right in the heart of downtown Cape in the shadow of the beautiful new Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge.
By any standard the move to downtown Cape in 2007 was a huge success. The feedback from all of our participants was very positive and both the number and quality of the cars in attendance were at all time highs. A large number of car owners from the St. Louis area made the trip to Cape this year, with several of them coming down on Saturday to make a weekend of it. We would like nothing more than for this trend to continue. Cape Girardeau is a really cool town with lots of things to see and do and an abundance of excellent restaurants – with most of the non-franchise ones located in downtown Cape. The grand finale of the Southeast Missouri District Fair, which is one of the largest and best fairs in the state, is also the Saturday before the car show with their headline entertainment on stage Saturday night.
It looks like the River Tales Classic has found a new home in downtown Cape. The Rodders are hard at work to make the 2008 show even bigger and better than the last one. We hope to see all of our friends back again this year, and encourage you to bring a bunch of your friends along to experience our hospitality. See you in September!
