So this past Saturday, I decided to participate in the world's largest one-day annual celebration of classic car culture - the 2011 Woodward Dream Cruise. Like most locals, I dreaded this event and usually just avoided coming anywhere near Woodward around this time of year because of all the traffic and congestion that the Dream Cruise generated. This year however, I thought, why not? Let's see what this is all about and checked it out. Guess what? I had fun.
Here's a fun fact...the Dream Cruise first started out as a simple crazy idea for a fundraiser to support a soccer field in Ferndale in 1995. But look at it now. It has evolved into an annual event that attracts over 1 million visitors from around the world, and more than 40,000 muscle cars, street rods, custom, collector and special interest vehicles.So Saturday, I started my adventure by getting my twin six year old daughters dressed and ready to go. Yes, I brought kids with me to the Dream Cruise. I live in Royal Oak, so we went to the corner of 13 mile and Woodward which happens to be where Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram and Fiat had their display.
You're probably wondering where I parked. Well, I drove around a residential area close by and parked on the street. Others did the same thing because the street where I parked was jam-packed with cars on both sides. Then, it was a little bit of hike from where I parked to Woodward Avenue, but it was okay. No big deal...I managed.
The sights,sounds and smells at the event were amazing. You could hear powerful engines revving up as the muscle cars drove up and down Woodward as well as music from the radio station booth blasting the air with Rock and Roll. You could also smell all kinds of different foods being cooked by all kinds of vendors in tents all up and down the avenue. And of course, you could see the endless parade of classic cars, muscle cars and custom cars driving by.There were lots of things to see and do. It almost was overwhelming but again, I managed. I had kids with me so I took them to all the kid friendly places.
The Chrysler corner on 13 mile and Woodward had all kinds of fun things for kids. First stop was a Dodge display where they had a face painting booth. There, a couple of ladies dressed in clown outfits decorated my kids' faces. One got a flower and the other got Oscar the grouch painted on.
Then we headed off to the Fiat display where they had a young lady with some stencils and paint spray-painting logos on kid's arms and legs. My kids saw this and yelled out, "TATOO! Daddy, we want a tattoo!" So we got in line and they got their tattoos. One got a Fiat logo and the other got a Ram logo spray-painted on. They thought it was pretty cool.
Next we went to a Ram Monster truck display where they had a photographer take our picture for free. We were then given a badge with a website and a code so that later on, after a short survey, we could download our picture from our home computer. Aha...so that's how they get people to fill out those surveys.We then walked around some more and spotted a Crussh Smoothie booth. It was a nice day but from all the walking around, we were hot and thirsty and boy, did this hit the spot. We got a couple of berry smoothies and went on to explore some more.
What an event. My girls and I were exhausted from all of the walking around but we had a good fun day. The Woodward Dream Cruise for me, was a spectacular experience. It's fun to drive in, or, merely watch and marvel at from the sidelines. I dreaded participating before, but now that I had, I'll certainly do it again next year.
Well, that's it for this blog. Thanks for tuning in. Please feel free to leave a comment below.
- Ed Dancel is a sales consultant at Southfield Chrysler 248-354-2950
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