On Saturday August 20th Woodward Street, Detroit hosted their annual Dream Cruise and we went! It is hard to describe this event but basically picture a classic car parade going down a very long 4-8 lane street, except that it is not only the fancy cars that drive down the street but also the spectators. The rule is that the fancy cars drive on the outer lanes (so that the people lining the street have a clear view) and the not-fancy cars go on the inside lanes. Most importantly this thing is huge. So so many crazy cars. SO many!
So that is the first reason that this post is in two parts. So many cars! The second reason is that my father-in-law Tommy has always loved cars. For the whole day we all kept saying to one another "Tom would love this!". So, this first post will cover my favourites and talk about the hilarious stuff that we saw at the Dream Cruise (and there was a lot). The second post contains more photos for Tom and any other car buffs to enjoy. I should also disclose here that I know basically nothing about cars. But that didn't stop me from having a great time!
We experienced the Dream Cruise mostly from the viewpoint of our friend Will's Jeep Wrangler (such a fun photography challenge!). In the morning he took the doors and back windows off so we could have the best view of the cars and we drove into town. Let me add that driving on a 7 lane highway in a 4x4 without windows or doors is not for the fainthearted!
Here is a shot of the beginning of the cruise. Some not-fancy cars are in the outer lanes but they will soon move into their proper spot (as did we!).
The most impressive thing about the Dream Cruise was the sheer variety of cars. The most fun thing was driving in the midst of them all and viewing them from every angle as they drove past. The most hilarious thing was seeing all the crazy spectators.
First, a taste of the variety of cars:
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| A delorean! |
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| Pinto! |
Along with the many many cars driving down Woodward there were also cars lined up all along the street.
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Love the retro garage with classic car out front.
It was so fun to photograph these shiny shiny cars, when we was looking at these pics afterwards G noticed that I had accidentally taken a photo of us too!
Here's regular shot: |
Zoom in to the hub cap and there we are!
When we were on our way to the Dream Cruise Will explained to us that the Detroiters we would meet there would not be an authentic experience of Detroit culture because this is the one day that everyone is in a good mood and talking to each other. Everyone was certainly in a good mood. There was lots of chat between the cars with people asking each other what year their cars were. So fun!
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We learned that muscle cars are very popular in D-town. There were tons in the Dream Cruise (see part 2 post for more pics).
Now for some of the hilarious and strange things we noticed along the way: |
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| VW turned into full scale bbq stand. |
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| This man has created his own private viewing platform. See close up below. |
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| This guy has rows of seats up there, cooler of drinks, a custom welded metal fence/gate thingy. It's too much! |
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| Being old and frail is apparently no excuse for missing this event. That is a whole group of very elderly and mostly wheelchair bound spectators. They were there the entire day too. |
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| These people obviously take their documentation of the event quite seriously. See the zoomed photo below for their headlight-camera situation. |
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| A woman wearing a bicycle helmet on a motorcycle. |
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| Giant corn dog stand. Oh America, your crazy food never ceases to amaze me. |
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| This falls into the strange category. A Navy recruitment stand at the event. Since the people attending this event were mostly overweight middle-aged men (yeah, I fit right in) this seems like a slightly strange venue for recruiting. |
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| A totally falling apart, rusty old station wagon. Obviously a work in progress. |
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Old man, motorcycle with Indian stickers on it (but which is clearly not one), bicycle helmet, tear away pants, wire rack at the back. Every single aspect of this is hilarious.
My favourite part of the cruise were the newer cars that were all tricked out. That's right, I Nathalie just wrote tricketed out.
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Ridiculous wheels and crazy doors. On a 1980s Montecarlo? I'm pretty sure a lot of my friends' moms used to drive these when we were in elementary school.
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| Looks like a police car except that it is barely off the ground and has fancy everything. |
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| Been given your Grandma's old car? Well obviously you should install hydraulics. |
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This is a terrible shot but basically it's a delivery van raised up, with huge black hubcaps and other fancy stuff.
At the end of our cruising we parked the Jeep and spent a bit of time looking at some of the parked cars.
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| Will looking at a Dodge Charger, his Dad has one just like this that needs restoring. |
Some fun details:
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| Crazy paint that changes colour from different angles. |
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