Woodward Dream Cruisin'

I spent the weekend out with my family. The wife is in the automotive industry. So she managed to get us some really sweet VIPage this weekend. We went to the Woodward Dream Cruise as guests of the Eaton Corporation. Which meant we got freebies! T-shirt, Official 1/64 scale Dream Cruise Shelby Mustang replica, and FOOD!!! Not to mention that Eaton's guest compound was right in cruiser central at 13 mile and Woodward!

Got up early and headed to the shuttle. The wife remarked that we wasted more gas goint to the shuttle than to the actual event. But hey, somebody else was driving and the shuttle parking was free! We got to drool over dozens of well maintained cars in the park. Us parents watched with great amusement as the children almost fell in the ground with the pain of being born way too late as we went down the list of rides our parents had. The Girl Child nearly fell over when I walked her by a '71 GTO that was a lot like the one my mom had back in the day. And then she nearly twisted up in a convulsion when the next car was much like the '73 Mach 1 my dad had. And of course we did the necessary exaggerations about cars arriving for minutes when passing the late '60's and early '70's LTDs that our fathers owned. Yeah. They were born way too late! Did I mention the Monte Carlos?

The sound of a NASCAR engine revving high was like a siren call to the dozens of car heads strolling through the park in the late morning. One of the big motor oil makers had a dyno display set up with a Nextel Cup car running on it. 750 horsepower is a beautiful sound I tell ya!

On to eat! Hot dogs, hamburgers, Italian sausages (foot long), grilled chicken, three different mayo salads, garden salad, chips (potato and tortilla) and I tried to eat them all! And they had water and pop (no, not soda dammit) galore! So many that my Ghetto Girl Child decided that she was thirsty and decided to collect one of each (8 kinds...) prompting us to say "That's G" all day. "G" meaning ghetto as hell! Did I mention they had desert? Fruit (melons, grapes and such) Pastries (cake, cookies, brownies) and ICE CREAM!!! They had Dove bars up in there! And Good Humor!!! I think I gained five pounds and three shades eating outside.

After we finished putting the feed bag on, we waddled toward the real action. Slobbered over a few more rides and hit the main drag. I think that cars from pretty much every decade were well represented on Woodward that day. Rumble seats, racing slicks, neon paint, land yacts from earlier days, an old Checker cab, VW busses (hippie vintage), a car with a circuit board surface, a protester with a sign asking if we have been saved, Smart cars and even an Urkel Mobile (BMW Isetta)! And MANY many many many Mustangs, Camaros, Chevelles, Firebirds, Chargers, Challengers and Corvettes of MANY years!

A good time was had by all. So we caught an early (5:00 p.m.) shuttle back to the car to beat the rush. Strangely enough we left around the same time they stopped passing out food. Imagine that! But I managed to be fat and full and with 2/3 of my summer coloring by the time we got back in. I had to say it was a good day!