WOODWARD AVENUE is one of several major roads that begin in downtown Detroit Michigan and radiate outward from the downtown area like the spokes-of-a-wheel radiate out from the wheel's hub.
The WOODWARD DREAM CRUISE began in August of 1995 and celebrated its 20th anniversary this summer. The DREAM CRUISE (this is how it is referred to locally) takes place on the third Saturday of August.
The below T-Shirt is a souvenir from year 2010 ..
In my opinion .. the DREAM CRUISE actually begins on the Monday before the third Saturday .. and day-by-day as the week progresses onward .. the 'local-action' slowly 'ramps-up' in terms of on-lookers watching from the curbs of Woodward Avenue and the numbers of automobiles and other forms of transportation 'cruising' Woodward Avenue.
We explored the actual DREAM CRUISE route (the round-trip is approximately 26-miles or 43-Km) all-the-way north to Pontiac Michigan and then back south to the 8-Mile Road southern boundary of Ferndale Michigan and then back north to our home here in Royal Oak Michigan. Patti and I took the first of two drives of the complete route in our Chevrolet Suburban truck on Wednesday the 20th.
Then on Thursday the 21st we saw considerably 'more-action'. On Friday the 22nd we saw 'still-more intensity' in terms of the crowds and vehicles 'cruising'.
On Saturday the 23rd .. Patti .. who by-the-way had never seen any of the DREAM CRUISE until this trip to Michigan .. could NOT believe the increase-in-action from what we had seen on Friday (one day-before Saturday). Friday seems like the REAL beginning of the cruise.
On Saturday the 23rd of August .. we again drove the entire DREAM CRUISE route in our own truck. Since many of my friends in India have not seen our truck .. I want to show you a few photographs of our 1998 Chevrolet Suburban truck that we call 'Black Beauty'.
On Saturday the 23rd of August .. we again drove the entire DREAM CRUISE route in our own truck. Since many of my friends in India have not seen our truck .. I want to show you a few photographs of our 1998 Chevrolet Suburban truck that we call 'Black Beauty'.
As I did in Part I of this series of posts .. I will mix photographs of the crowds with those of the vehicles. I feel the photographs of the crowds will give you all a 'feeling' for how large this event is. It is .. after all .. the largest one-day automotive event in the United States.
WELL HELLO THERE !
Riding 'out-amongst-them-all' .. what a view we could get of the crowds from our truck.
Riding 'out-amongst-them-all' .. what a view we could get of the crowds from our truck.
To get many of the photographs .. I 'hung-out' the rear window of our truck and snapped-away!
Patti sat in the passengers seat up-front. In the below photograph you can see more of the 'traffic' we were experiencing!
With Patti sitting up-front .. I sat in the back of our truck so that I could jump from side-to-side in the back seat to capture photographs from both sides of the truck.
There is a lot of room to move about in the back seat.
'ZILLA .. 'ZILLA .. 'ZILLA .. what-on-earth would I possibly do here writing this Post without you following along on my left shoulder asking me questions !
Yes 'ZILLA? "Cap .. you were in the back seat shooting photographs and Patti was in the front passenger seat riding and watching the action?" .. "You are correct 'ZILLA!" ..
"Cap? WHO WAS DRIVING your Chevy Suburban?" ..
Great Question 'Zilla !
Meet Tom .. our great buddy here in Royal Oak Michigan and former professional truck driver.
With Tom at-the-wheel of my truck driving .. I could TOTALLY AND I could 100% relax as I jumped around in the back seat from the right side of our Suburban to the left side and back-and-forth-and-back-and-forth-again for FIVE hours !
Ladies here in the Greater Detroit Area check Tom out on e-harmony.com and at tomtiger1945@yahoo.com ! .. giggle
With the patience-of-a-saint .. Tom crept along .. and I mean CREPT along in bumper-to-bumper traffic for about FIVE hours so that Patti and I could just get immersed in the DREAM CRUISE ..
THANKS TOM !
YES INDEED ! The DREAM CRUISE IS BIG NEWS here in the greater Detroit Metro Area !
Patti hooted-and-howled and loved the below 'umbrella-car' ..
I will get-serious now ..
"Serious Captain?" .. YES .. I will show you some photos of a few .. REAL STREET RODS !
OOPS ! .. GIGGLE ! .. YOU'RE NOT A STREET-ROD little VW!
"But aren't I pretty Dad?" .. "You sure are little VW!"
RADICAL STREET-ROD !
JOHNNIE is about as 'street-rod' as you can possibly get ! I lived out in California for some 33 years !
Back in the late 1960s into the mid-1970s I myself worked professionally on racing cars .. such as the ones in the two below photographs !
"What's that 'Zilla? Nifty!" .. oh yes ..
ROBERT 94596 ! I sure thought-of-you when I eyed-this-beauty in the below photograph !
OH YES ! .. the below Street-Rod is RADICAL ! .. CHOPPED-AND-CHANNELED .. and you-name-it and I am LOVING IT ALL !
HELLO Y-ALL ! Look at the ORANGE BEAST on the left edge of the below photo coming up ! When he blasted past this couple in the below photo on their scooters their ear drums had to take-a-hit !
At the CRUISE .. Hi again Tom ..
Tom was such a part of our enjoyment. He kept Patti company while 'yours-truly' was out-and-about photographing 'the action' .. Check out the green-monster on the right edge of the below photograph !
Many of the photographs you see of the DREAM CRUISE were taken from the 12-Mile Road and Woodward Avenue area in Royal Oak Michigan. We have a home about four blocks from this intersection.
Many of the photographs you see of the DREAM CRUISE were taken from the 12-Mile Road and Woodward Avenue area in Royal Oak Michigan. We have a home about four blocks from this intersection.
Yet another small-monster truck !
Personally .. I LOVE the below shade-of-green !
Trucker-Tom is also Tiger-Tom .. a REAL Detroit Tigers Fan !
"Did you say the Detroit Tigers Captain?" ..
Check-out the below photos IN CASE you don't believe me about there being a wide variety of 'rolling-stock' in the DREAM CRUISE !
Well ? Do you all see several .. Detroit Tigers IN the Dream Cruise ?
Now I ask you all .. is the below photograph TOO FUNNY ?!
TOO .. TOO .. TOO BEAUTIFUL !
In the below photo .. will you all Check-Out the lad in the black truck on the right edge of the photo cutting across the DREAM CRUISE so they could get-to-the-other-side so-to-speak ! AND HE DID-IT ! Too Cool ! There was so-much-action going on at all times that I only captured a small part of it all !
TOO NIFTY .. CAN-YOU-DIG IT ?
Mere words completely fail to describe THE WOODWARD DREAM CRUISE !
And ? Below you can see that the above street-rod-is out and running amongst them all ! Even these folks must stop and take a rest from time-to-time.
Oh Yes ! The Fans were out in great numbers !
Thanks to Tom .. who was patiently surviving the traffic as he drove Patti and I along the route .. I could hang out both sides in the rear of our truck and snap-away .. one photograph after the other ..
Street-Rods ? .. Back to the Street-Rods !
I am going to divert for a moment away from the Street-Rods to some other vehicles.
Below is a photo of a 'Rat Rod'.
A rat rod is a style of hot rod or custom car that, in most cases, imitates (or exaggerates) the early Hot Rods of the 1940s, 1950s, and early-1960s.
Most Rat Rods appear to be"unfinished". Thank you Wikipedia to which I happily donate financially each year. Thanks Windows for copy and paste!
Might the truck you see below be a future Rat-Rod ?
The below elderly Caddy is a 'sort-of-ratty' elderly automobile. It is NOT a true Rat-Rod so-to-speak but it sure is NOT 'sano' either !!
In the mid-1960s .. a former racing car driver .. Carroll Shelby 'invented' and manufactured a new high performance automobile that he called a Ford-Cobra.
A cobra .. is a snake. Got it ? So some folks nick-named them 'snakes'.
Below are a few 'snakes'.
So nice ..
Yet more fans of the WOODWARD DREAM CRUISE !
Now ? Back-to-business !
In American-Automotive-Slang .. the word sanitary is abbreviated as 'Sano'. Above and below is one 'Sano' 1948 era Plymouth !
To be honest .. 95% of all-the-iron in the DREAM CRUISE is 'Sano' ..
For my friends in India .. the engine that you see in these three photographs is a SUPER-CHARGED engine.
Most Rat Rods appear to be"unfinished". Thank you Wikipedia to which I happily donate financially each year. Thanks Windows for copy and paste!
Might the truck you see below be a future Rat-Rod ?
The below elderly Caddy is a 'sort-of-ratty' elderly automobile. It is NOT a true Rat-Rod so-to-speak but it sure is NOT 'sano' either !!
In the mid-1960s .. a former racing car driver .. Carroll Shelby 'invented' and manufactured a new high performance automobile that he called a Ford-Cobra.
A cobra .. is a snake. Got it ? So some folks nick-named them 'snakes'.
Below are a few 'snakes'.
So nice ..
Yet more fans of the WOODWARD DREAM CRUISE !
Now ? Back-to-business !
In American-Automotive-Slang .. the word sanitary is abbreviated as 'Sano'. Above and below is one 'Sano' 1948 era Plymouth !
To be honest .. 95% of all-the-iron in the DREAM CRUISE is 'Sano' ..
Time to wrap-up Part II of the WOODWARD DREAM CRUISE with some photos of beautifully restored elderly automobiles ..
Here you go Rockin' Robb Robbie ! A Boss 302 Ford Mustang!
I told the owner of this beauty that I worked on a Boss 302 back in 1970 out of Bud Moore Engineering in Spartanburg South Carolina that wore the number 15 and was driven by one Parnelli Jones in the SCCA Trans Am Series that Ford Motor Company won !
My eldest son is the Robb mentioned in the above photo caption. Robb .. David .. and their mother Beverly lived the dream with me.
One more photo for-the-good-times ! I am pretty sure our Boss 302 did not have the hood scoop .. but .. don't bet-on-my-memory either !
I mean 'sano' !!
The owner of the below 'Caddy' proudly said to me ..
This is a one-owner car !
The sun is beginning to set and so I will sign off on Part 2 of the WOODWARD DREAM CRUISE !
Before I get to the night-time photographs .. I want to show you the area as it appeared the morning of Saturday the 23rd of August. The IHOP in the photos is the International House of Pancakes located at 12-Mile Road and Woodward Avenue here in Royal Oak Michigan a few blocks from our home.
Now to the evening and the setting-of-the-sun.
Before I get to the night-time photographs .. I want to show you the area as it appeared the morning of Saturday the 23rd of August. The IHOP in the photos is the International House of Pancakes located at 12-Mile Road and Woodward Avenue here in Royal Oak Michigan a few blocks from our home.
Now to the evening and the setting-of-the-sun.
In Part III coming up .. I will close-out the WOODWARD DREAM CRUISE 2014 with some final photographs for you.
OH YES there are many more photographs for you.
Smiles .. Cap ..
Only those-of-you who 'Blog' understand the feeling it is to finally press 'Publish' .. but here I go .. PUBLISH !
OH YES there are many more photographs for you.
Smiles .. Cap ..
Only those-of-you who 'Blog' understand the feeling it is to finally press 'Publish' .. but here I go .. PUBLISH !
Wow! Cap you surely put together a great vue of so many beautiful cars, rat-rods, plain old rods - and brings back a lot of memories! You should consider framing all these great cars in a book - a treasure chest of great photos and beautiful cars of all shapes and sizes. It's great that Tom managed the driving so you could take all these photos without you falling out of the backseat or window!! Super nifty! Zilla
ReplyDeleteThanks for your kind words 'Zilla. Part III will be up next. You would not believe what a super NIFTY scene this DREAM CRUISE is. I hope the mix of photos of the crowd and the vehicles in some way conveys the magnitude of it .. Smiles .. Cap ..
DeleteI agree the magnitude of your pictures, the crowd, the busy streets, the cars and large group of folks lined up along the street is truly amazing! Looking forward to Part III. I never heard of the Dream Cruise - I guess we in California sometimes miss nifty events in other great parts of the States! Unfortunately the big news from Detroit is in regard to the dismal state of affairs regarding the economy and the poor financial condition of Detroit! Zilla
ReplyDeleteHi 'Zilla .. Doing some research here on your comments and I see you DID post this comment .. I hope Patti and you can get this figured out for you my friend .. Smiles .. Cap IN Mongolia a year or so later ..
DeleteYou have done a splendid job of showing off the magnitude of the Woodward Dream Cruise!! I'm with Patti in loving the orange car with the umbrella. It is sooo cute.
ReplyDeleteLon and I had a Boss 302 Mustang. It was white with black accents. It had the shaker hood scoop and louvered back window. The interior had bright plaid fabric on the seats. It was pretty amazing. Neither of us were into cars to the extent we should have been to own such a car. We just liked cool looking cars and enjoyed driving them. We didn't keep the Boss very long as it was actually more car than we really wanted or needed.
You are extremely meticulous in putting your blog together. You don't miss a thing when it comes to explaining what is in the photos.
I can understand your interest in cars now knowing that you've worked professionally on them. You did mention that when you commented on my brother-Tom's Camaro but I needed a reminder.
I did the sliding across the back seat from one window to the other trick when I visited my friend and her husband in the Boston area. I took 1,100 photos on that trip and at that time I thought that was extravagant!!
Thanks for taking me to Woodward Avenue for the Dream Cruise. I'll return for more.
Thanks Shaddy for your continuing interest here. I think of you and your several thousand photos from your great trip to Alaska last June and consider myself a 'bit player' here. I laughed when you related to my sliding across the back seat on your trip to Boston and your 1,100 photos !! When did you post those 1,100 photos ? A white Boss 302 with black accents ? Great. Ours did NOT have a plaid fabric interior !! And yes there will be more on the WOODWARD DREAM CRUISE .. Smiles .. Cap ..
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