The PID show at Sonic was a special show so there were probably a lot of non-local cars. When you travel a long distance you generally start out early to allow for problems or getting lost. The regulat Wednesday evening show at Sonic gets about 100 cars at the most. For the most part, drivers like to park with similar cars, Mustangs with Mustangs, Corvettes with Corvettes, Rods with Rods, etc. This happens at Sonic but I've never seen anyone not find a suitable spot. Friday night at Mineral Beach is a different story. Many guys do go early to eat at the restaurant or for their families to use the pool. This show draws several hundred cars. If you get there early you can park on asphalt. Latecomers can park on grass and leftovers park on dirt. That's another reason to get there early. There is some saving of spots but guys I know aren't shy about moving a chair or cone. The State Police moniter the area (mainly because of jerks doing burnouts on the highway) and that keeps trouble away. Another weekly show is on Sunday night at the Caste Village shopping center. This too draws several hundred cars with a lot of saved spots but it's a large lot and everyone finds a spot. In my opinion, saving a spot for someone else shows a real lack of class. Personally, I wouldn't want to park near a jerk like that. But, if it was the only convenient spot available, I'd park there anyway. I actually only ran into a "problem" one time when a car stopped in front of where I was parked. The driver got out and told me I was parked in his regular spot. I told him the spot was empty when I got there and if he wanted it next week he should get there earlier. I stayed, he parked somewhere else.
define normal ? Everyone has their own. I have seen it here in N.E. Ohio. I honestly don't care if someone doesn't have a life and can afford to sit and wait for 8 hours till the car show starts. Maybe this is the birth of car show tailgating? They do it for Football, or when the latest electronic device is introduced.... It doesn't work for me, but who am I to tell others what is normal....
If it's a cruise, shouldn't you be driving around? Just sayin... However, at last week's Telegraph Cruise I was guilty of just sitting too, but I waited for this mini cackle fest.
Was at a show some time ago, hot summertime, one lonely oak tree to provide shade. There was about 6 to 8 other people setting in the shade try to beat the heat. There were many open spaces to park. Watched a man unload a nice car from a trailer, and enter the show. A few moments later, one of the organizers came over to our group and asked if we would move and set elsewhere as the man with the trailer queen didn't want to park his car out in the sun. The answer was "K_M_A" he can park in the sun like the rest of us. Don't know about other cruises but a lot of those that attend the local cruise are "locals" and never go to any out of town events.
Guess I'm one of those guys with nothing better to do. There's a small group of friends that park together and sit in chairs under a canopy and bbq brisket etc., imbibe and enjoy each other's company. Watching people admiring the cars WE built and answering questions makes ya feel good. Down here it's always in the high nineties and walking around in sun and heat ain't good for or possible for some. Takes all kinds. I don't bitch about unless you're a bunch of donks just being obnoxious!!
I see it at a lot of shows around here too. I even have some friends who are guilty of seemingly always having to be the first guy there and getting "their" spot. I don't have the time or the patience to go and waste 6 or 8 hours waiting around, just to much more to life for me. I will say I have been guilty of leaving my vehicle in the same spot for two or even three days at a big show like the Nats North in K'zoo without moving it but that's more due to the congestion of the traffic and the size of my truck. I don't save spaces but there are a lot of those who do. I just drive on by and if I can't find a spot, I leave and just enjoy the ride. I even saw a Handicap Parking sign on a base used to hold a spot and the guy who parked there was definitely not handicapped, at least not physically!
They're supposed to be called Cruise-In's. Meaning you cruise/drive your to the show. I think it got shortened to where it means the opposite. Kind of like when people call an anti-sway bar a sway bar.
I just wish we had a cruise this big. Normally around Atlanta area the local cruise is pretty small. Sure there are some chairs but I don't fight over a space anyway Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
A cruise is a destination, a reason to take a ride. I like to be one of the last there and one of the first to leave. A quick walk around the cars in attendance , say hello to the folks I know then leave and take the long way home. To me the best "cruise" is when you bump in to a friend or two while out for a ride and you all stop at a parking lot, shoot the shit and then continue on your way. Just like we did when we were kids.
Our group always cruises to a car show!!!!!!!!!!!!! And ya don't hafta scream! Then they should be called a cruise out????????
Well said! I love looking at other folks cars but I agree the drive is what it's all about to me. I usually just do a "drive-by" and circle the lot looking at what's there and then I'm on my way. Really messes with their minds when you do that!
same problem in Atlanta at the big once a month event, too few spaces and too many spaces saved. The saving started as clubs wanting to park 10 or more of the same car together so they would park every other space and save the ones inbetween. They have added a rule that basically the show starts at 8:30am (though people start to get there @5am and it is pretty much full by 7:30am) so you can save spaces till 8:30 and after that it is open season. What they need is more spaces, they get close to 700 cars a month (would be more if there were more spaces once in a big temporary lot they got nearly 1500) for half as many spaces.
Here in the north woods, cruises are smaller and local car shows don't allow saving spots, just anothet benefit of my chosen retirement spot. I have gone to many NSRA & GOODGUYS shows where the rule is "no saving spots" but never saw that inforced ever. I still enjoyed ths shows, the cars and most of the people. Power parking is not my deal, and I refuse to let something like that to ruin my day. When and if I start bitchin and whining about car shows, cruises, trophy classes, parking spots, etc., I will change to a different hobby, Hobbies are for FUN and self satisfaction. I choose to be happy and do not associate w/ whinney bitchy people. John
Dickies with 6" cuffs..check Black T Shirt with crude saying...check Biker wallet with chain...check DA hair cut...check Girlfriend with a parasol & tats...check And don't forget the attitude that these 20 somethings know more about traditional hot rodding then us old farts that were actually there.
That's great. Unfortunetlysometimes, it's people with cars they did not have anything to do with ( Building ) eating food they purchased at the Deli and answering questions about the car, when they know they don't have a clue. " Yup she's fast ,got a 3/4 race cam in her small block 454".
A couple of weeks ago at the weekly cruise at local drag strip I parked my car in first open spot I saw. It's not unusual to have 600 to 1000 cars there every week, anyway I had a for sale sign in my window with my number on it, pretty soon my phone rings and the guy says are you the one with the car for sale? I said yes and then he proceeds to tell me I parked in the camaro clubs area. Are you kidding me I asked? He said no and I needed to come move my car. I told him thanks for letting me know and hung up but my car stayed put for the rest of the evening.
With a few of the hard core power parkers getting in line at Goodguys in Puyallup at around midnight to get "the spot" around the circle. It doesn't matter what event you go to or what style of vehicles are being shown, there are "power parkers" at every event I've ever been to. I was walking around the KKOA Mountain High Nationals in 1989 and had the latest issue of a rod magazine in my hand with a thread about power parkers in it and in rolls one of the best known and most widely known 40 Fords in the country and parks in front of the guy who had gotten there very early to power park in what he thought was the prime spot at the event to be seen. Even power parkers get upstaged by Super Power Parkers.
want a good spot? show up LATE! I got to a show last night to meet up with some friends I hadnt seen in years, and I was a bit late, so the organizers just put me ON the patio right in front of the main doors to the building. Its a primered 40 ford coupe, so its not like its a stunning show ride lol. I was nice enough to get stuff to catch all the dripping oil from getting on their stampcrete too. And by late, I mean half an hour before the show officially began. However, normal for that show is about 30-50 cars, last night was 200
Hahaha! Follow them back to their car and you'll mostly find a black 4dr 65 falcon with red wheels they've "traditionally built"
I skipped one of the biggest downtown cruises in my area last week because i didn't feel like dealing with it. Supposed to start at 4:00, I heard guys were moving barricades and parking downtown as early as 11:00. I enjoyed the whole day working in the garage instead.
The Jalopy Journal
