Helaina Semmler's sparkly purple 2015 Mustang GT gleamed in the bright Saturday sun as she showed off her car at the Shelbyfest car show in downtown Jefferson City. Her car - which also sports pink stripes, mirrors and rims - stood out among the hundreds of others gathered at the event.
As noticeable as her glimmering car were her New Jersey license plates.
Leaving her home in the southern part of the Garden State, Semmler traveled more than 13 hours to Chicago and then five more to arrive in Jefferson City for her first Shelbyfest, an annual event celebrating Shelby and Mustang cars. On the way back, the entire trip will take about 16 hours, accounting for breaks.
She said many factors make the trek worth all that time.
"Aside from the cars and the people, this area is beautiful. It's really beautiful," Semmler said. "The (Cole County) courthouse is gorgeous. The restaurants here have been fabulous. The scenery was really beautiful."
Semmler was like many at Shelbyfest who put hundreds of miles on their odometers to travel to Jefferson City, which this year acted as the event's host city for the second time. She's also driven to shows in Nevada, California, Michigan and Texas. At one of those, Semmler met Kyle Caraway, the Shelbyfest organizer, and he encouraged her to attend the three-day long event.
Last year, Shelbyfest attracted drivers from 28 states who entered 660 cars in the show that brought approximately 15,000 people to the downtown area. Among Shelbyfest's 10-year history, it's common for drivers to hail from America's northern, southern, eastern and western lines. Canadians and Hawaiians also tend to be Shelbyfest regulars.
The roots of Shelbyfest are planted in Creve Couer Park in the St. Louis area, where Caraway and five other men gathered to show off their newly-purchased 2007 Shelby GT500 Mustangs a decade ago. The men, later named the "St. Louis seven," met on an Internet forum and, after online conversations, decided to meet in person.
Since, the Shelbyfest has grown to what was visible Saturday - hundreds of cars lining the streets and thousands taking a peak at each.
Caraway said the event's uniqueness correlates directly with the high level of hospitality, which makes it attractive to many and deserving of travel time for drivers lining America's borders.
"We try to portray a family reunion style to our event, even though we have driving aspects with the autocross," he said. "We try to create an environment in which husbands and wives can get away for the weekend, or they can bring their eight-year-old, 10-year-old."
Like Caraway, Michael Turner, a 71-year-old retired police officer from Gaithersburg, Maryland, also interacted in an online forum with Shelby enthusiasts who were from other parts of the country. Two years ago, someone posed the question: "Why don't we get together?" They decided to meet up at Shelbyfest, which was in Hermann at the time.
Along with his wife, Sharon, Turner formed new friendships with people from St. Louis, Kansas City, Mid-Missouri, Illinois, New Orleans, Texas, Arizona and Arkansas.
"We finally got to meet these people that we had known via Facebook, the Internet for years," Turner said. "It was really fun and we just all seemed to hit it off. We come from many different walks of life, many different professions, but all of us just had a ball."
Shelbyfest also brought together Steve Bornitz and Art Potter who each traveled eight hours from different Wisconsin towns for their eighth time at the car show. Bornitz traveled from Lacrosse in his 2013 GT 500, and Potter drove from Mazomanie in his 2007 GT 500.
They live 90 miles from each other and garnered a friendship at Shelbyfest - about 400 miles away from their homes. Every year, Bornitz said he gets to reconnect with his second family.
"It's like a family reunion," Bornitz said. "We have friends that we've met through Shelbyfest from Illinois, Iowa, Tennessee, South Carolina, Florida. You see them on Facebook throughout the year, but you get to see them down here."
Potter said no matter what Shelby event he goes to, he walks away with friends.
"You can be a truck driver or a business executive, nobody looks past the car," he said.
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