Anyone who knows me, whether in real life or just on Facebook, knows I love cars, particularly older muscle-era cars.

The good old American cars of the 1950 and 1960s are my favorites, especially Mustangs.

While I love all cars, I happen to own three Fords two of them are Mustangs and both of the Mustangs are convertibles.

One of them is a 1966 Mustang that I’ve had since 1976 and the other one is a 2008 Mustang Shelby GT that I’ve had for about five years now.

In case you’re wondering, my other Ford is a 2004 Ranger 4×4 pickup Edge edition that I’ve had for a few years and use as my daily beater.

Just because I happen to have three Fords and a couple of Mustangs, however, doesn’t mean I don’t like other cars.

Dodges, GMs, Chevies, Lamborghinis, Maseratis, Aston Martins, Toyotas, heck, I love them all.

Who doesn’t love vintage Corvettes, Camaros or any of the old Mopar cars, such as Barracudas, Challengers, Chargers or even the new models of those cars?

My cars just happen to be Fords.

For the past 16 years, I lived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast which hosts the annual Cruisin’ The Coast event that brings thousands of classic, antique and customized hot rods, street rods, rat rods, cream puffs to the coast for what is billed as America’s biggest block party.

Through the years at that event, I was able to see great examples of just about every car made from any era of automotive history and many that were never actually produced but are just pure, customized vehicles.

Since I’ve been in Natchez for the past couple of months, I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find that we’ve had quite a few car shows and events here.

It seems there is some sort of car cruise-in event almost every weekend, but on top of that, we’ve had the EuroFest car show, featuring European sports cars, including Alfa Romeos, Jaguars, Ferraris and more.

And now this week, we have the weeklong Vintage Chevrolet Car Club Southern Spring Tour featuring representatives of just about every model of vintage Chevrolet from 1926-1954 and beyond.

Wow, even a Ford guy can appreciate that, and it is all part of the Great River Chevrolet dealership’s 100th anniversary celebration.

I’m excited about seeing the vintage Chevies cruising around town all week, and I hope to get out to a couple of the cruise-in events and see them up-close and personal. I’m sure they won’t hold my Ford vehicle against me.

Beyond that, I can’t wait to get all of my boxes unpacked and get my head above water on all these daily newspaper deadlines enough to drop the top on my Mustangs and do some of the first-class country cruises around these here parts on both sides of the great Mississippi River — Highway 61, the Natchez Trace, Airport Road, Kingston and Louisiana 131 in Vidalia.

I’ll keep my eyes open for other vintage cruisers and hope to make it to some of the local cruise-ins.

I just hope my old ponies are fast enough to outrun all the gnats we’re dealing with.

Happy anniversary, Great River Chevrolet, and happy cruising to all the Vintage Chevrolet Car Club visitors.

Scott Hawkins is editor of The Natchez Democrat. Reach him at 601-445-3540 or scott.hawkins@natchezdemocrat .com.