WELCOME WAGON

WOLF LAKE — It’s been a wild ride since September when the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman first shared the story of Fred Keller’s and Judy Foster’s scale-model Radio Flyer Wagon.

“We just built it for fun. We had no idea it was going to catch on like this,” Foster said.

After the Frontiersman’s story printed Sept. 24, next came KTUU Channel 2, then Country Legends 100.9 FM and the Associated Press did versions of the story.

Television stations and print media as far away as Ireland, China and Canada picked up the story and shared it with their audiences.

“It went all over,” Foster said.

The same week the AP story was released, Anchorage photographer Clark James Mishler shot photos of the car for the January issue of Popular Science after a writer from the magazine saw the Frontiersman’s story and asked to be put in touch with the Valley couple.

The cool car even earned the duo an invite to the Specialty Equipment Marketing Association’s annual convention in Las Vegas, Nev.

“It’s the biggest thing I’ve ever seen,” Keller said. “It was just mind boggling.”

More than 100,000 people and about 2,200 vendors from the aftermarket equipment and services industry — including Kia, Mazda, Audi, General Motors, Chrysler and Toyota — were at the show.

SEMA flew Keller and Foster to Las Vegas and put them up in the Las Vegas Hilton for six days.

He said the Radio Flyer was actually SEMA’s second choice.

When organizers called one Friday in October to ask if they’d be interested in being part of SEMA’s annual convention, Keller and Foster were skeptical.

“We thought it was some scam to separate us from our wagon,” Foster said.

After Keller hung up the phone, husband and wife mulled the offer for about 30 minutes before calling back.

“It sounded more real after we heard the Wienermobile had backed out,” Keller said.

In the end, they agreed to drive the wagon to the Port of Anchorage, put it in a shipping container and load it on a Totem Ocean Trailer Express barge.

A security guard at the Port of Anchorage was surprised to see them. He told them he didn’t believe his 5-year-old grandson when he told him about seeing the wagon on TV until they pulled up.

SEMA flew Keller and Foster to Las Vegas and arranged for a driver to meet them at the airport.

On the ground in the Nevada airport, they saw a lot of people holding signs meeting passengers, but not one with their names. So they decided to keep going toward the Alaska Airlines baggage claim carrousel.

There they saw a well-dressed man with a sign that said “Keller/Foster.” He helped them carry their bags out to a long, black Continental limousine.

For a couple of small-town Alaska folks, it was a big deal, Keller said. They even asked the driver to take their photo with the limo in the background.

“We just couldn’t stop chuckling about it,” he said.

Thousands of people stopped by their booth at the car show, Keller said.

“So many people walked up and talked to us: ‘Oh, I saw you on TV,’” she said.

They took a guest book with them. One man who visited with Foster for a few minutes signed his name and left a special note for her in the book: “Judy, will you marry me.”

Lots of people also offered to buy the car or asked about hiring Keller to build them one.

Aside from visiting with folks at the car show, Keller and Foster’s chief responsibility came at the Thursday night awards banquet.

A comedian was scheduled as the evening’s entertainment, and Keller had the job of driving him in the super-sized wagon some 75 to 80 feet to the stage for his performance.

The one-of-a-kind ride will likely get a new coat of Napa’s viper red paint this winter to repair a 6-inch swatch of damage on its side, likely from a serving cart at the awards banquet, Keller said.

Weeks after the Frontiersman’s initial story published, they are still getting letters, e-mails and phone calls from people captivated by the car and media outlets who want to profile the project.

The 3.63-scale-model Radio Flyer wagon was crafted over the course of 11 months from an erstwhile 1976 Mazda pickup Foster inherited when her father died in 1988. The couple crafted it using marine plywood covered in a composite of foam, epoxy and fiberglass, Keller said.

It will be featured in the April issue of Family Circle and will be illustrated with Frontiersman images shot by photo editor Robert DeBerry.

And, if the Canadian Discovery Channel can get permission from the Radio Flyer company, which owns the trademark, the car will be featured on its Daily Planet program, Foster said.

Nestle Crunch even contacted the pair. The company sent a nice note with candy. “Whoa! That car is so cool,” the letter from Nestle said.

Keller mailed a copy of the Frontiersman story to his brother in Arizona. He called his brother a few days later to ask if the paper had arrived.

“No, but I saw you on television,” his brother replied.

Contact Heather A. Resz at heather.resz@frontiersman.com or 352-2268.