While I'm working on getting one of my Mopars on the road again, I do have another brand P vehicle that I can take out cruising.

It was such a nice night out on Friday that the wife and daughter ran down to Woodward with me. After all the action I saw out there a few weeks ago on one of nicest nights of the year thus far (and one of the busiest cruise nights I've ever seen out there short of Dream Cruise week), I thought this Friday would be just as busy...maybe even better as people (cruisers) get more restless.

Boy was I wrong! There was no one out by comparison. 40-50 other nuts like me stretched over the whole run from Birmingham down to Ferndale, and that was it. Maybe a dozen people stopped and setup with chairs along the way. Since the super busy cruise night of a few weeks ago, Birmingham had closed all of the metered spots on Old Woodward (put bags over them). And I'm quite serious when I say I've NEVER seen so many police out on a normal cruise night. And with people (cruisers) pulled over. In many instances 2 or 3 squad cars per cruiser pulled over. While I obviously do not know the specifics of why they were pulled over, it certainly looked like an attempt to intimidate. I ran a few miles in the inside lane (next to the grass berm) behind a white fart-piped 350Z (from Birmingham/Hunter House down past the McDonald's at Coolidge). I NEVER broke the speed limit, often running 5 under just to be sure given the excessive presence of law enforcement. At Coolidge, an unmarked black Ford Exploder pulls up next to me. On the green, I laid back and had the cruise control set at 5 under, as I often do when cruising. The guy in the Z was minding his Ps and Qs too, but was slowly pulling away from me, running the speed limit with the rest of the pack (everyone had seen this police cruiser pull up on us, so he wasn't surprising anyone). About 2 blocks from the corner at Coolidge, the cop pulls over in front of me, right on the Z's , and moments later, hits the lights. Pulled him over into the old Harmony House record store parking lot right before the cemetery. That I had observed in the preceding 5 minutes or so of cruising, this guy had done nothing. Now, he might have gotten ticketed for taking a nice white 350Z with factory duals out the bumper and installing a cheap chinese amazon fart pipe hanging low off one side...it was an egregious violation of good automotive taste....but other than that, this guy was cruising like Grandma. There was never a time when we were out that you couldn't look in either direction and see the flashing lights of police cars with people (cruisers) pulled over. It was an embarrassing display on the part of local police IMO. Are you old enough to remember the late '70s Car Craft Street Machine Nationals in Indy, where they chased cruisers out with cops in riots gear with dogs? Well it wasn't like that, but it sure brought back memories!


I was going to go back out last night to full-fill my duty as public menace (and more seriously to defend my right to be there...heck, even the Gov says to get outside), but it was sprinkling here about the time I would have left.

That was the bad. The good? With restaurants still shut down, it was a rare opportunity to slip up inside of Vinsetta garage (with 3 Berkeley cops with a guy pulled over just down the street) and get a picture under the neon. This is not usually an option as the place where I'm parked with be packed with customer cars at dusk.



Ordered a few more items for the Chrysler this week. Cleaning continues. No radiator yet. And no paint yet. Getting a little worried about that order, and going to follow up with them tomorrow. Just about done with a Rock Auto order for belts and hoses, though I'm not sure the belts are right. The lengths they list are shorter than what I have for the alternator and A/C compressor. Time will tell.