Kalamazoo was represented by plenty of vehicles at the show for domestic cars whose makers no longer remain in business and for imported cars from brands no longer sold in the United States. But while the western Michigan city was well represented in numbers, only two marques were present, and one of them included a single vehicle.

A tiny 1903 Michigan Runabout owned by Buck Mook of West Bloomfield, Mich., was the only Kalamazoo-built Michigan model on display. Meanwhile, there were more than a couple dozen Checkers, the Kalamazoo car that was primarily popular for its service as a taxi cab.

One of those taxis was a 1978 Checker A11 model driven to Ypsilanti by Mike and Kim Donahoe of Rochester, Minn. The car wore the yellow colors of the Rochester Yellow Cab company, where Mike works and where he remembers driving this A11 when it was brand new. Later, the car was involved in a mishap, sat in an insurance company lot for five years and eventually was returned to the cab company and then obtained by Donahoe, who did the restoration of a car that is titled as a Chevrolet because the state of Minnesota recognizes powertrains, not bodies, and by the late '70s Checker was using Chevy engines and transmissions.

Each year, Joyrides gives an award at the Orphan show to a vehicle that captures the spirit of what the website tries to reflect in its coverage. Chosen to receive the award for 2007 was Paul Schuster of Munhall, Pa.

Schuster drove from the Pittsburgh area to southeast Michigan in his 1950 Hudson Pacemaker convertible, a now immaculately restored car that was little more than a rusted hulk when he bought it seven years ago.

Schuster bought his first Hudson when he was a 17-year-old high school student and has owned several, including his first new one, a 1957 that he bought as a 19-year-old and that turned out to be the last Hudson coupe ever built. The car and two convertibles that were behind it on the assembly line have asterisks after their VIN numbers because they were not quite finished when the line stopped. Thus his coupe has a headliner cobbled from one that should have gone into a sedan and a steering wheel from a blue car instead of being black like his car.

Schuster's Joyride's award-winning Pacemaker had been bought in 1950 by a couple who used it for their wedding, drove it until 1961, then parked it under a tarp until they sold the rusted remains to Schuster, a mechanic who spent three years in restoration.

If you didn't see Schuster's car here on the banks of the Huron River, pay close attention at the Woodward Dream Cruise. Schuster hopes to drive the convertible back to Michigan for that event in August.