2004 Woodward Dream Cruise underway - for you Tommyknocker!

[yoda313]

Hello,

http://info.detnews.com/joyrides/story/index.cfm?id=500

Story from the Detroit News:



Elizabeth Conley / The Detroit NewsDonna and Bill Preble drove 2,300 miles from San Diego to Auburn Hills in their 1954 seafoam green Chevy Bel Air to attend the Dream Cruise.
Thursday, August 19, 2004
Die-hards just can't get enough of cruise

By Jennifer Chambers / The Detroit News
ROYAL OAK — Separated by most of a continent, the Mulligans and the Prebles each have their own way of celebrating the Woodward Dream Cruise.
Pam Mulligan and her husband Mick bought a house about 100 feet from Woodward with a clear view of all the action.

Donna Preble and her husband, Bill, drove 2300 miles from San Diego in their 1954 seafoam green Chevy Bell Air to take part in the cruise.
While many nearby residents abandon their homes to flee the clogged roads and crowds around Woodward during the event, some fans like the Mulligans and the Prebles have gone to great lengths, planning for months or even years, to be at the heart of the action when the Woodward Dream Cruise roars to life on Saturday.
The Mulligans and Prebles are among the 1.5 million people who are expected to descend on Metro Detroit’s main drag for the 10th cruise.
For years, the Mulligans watched the cruise from afar at a friend’s house a few blocks from Woodward. They soaked in the noise, the crowds and the music, then headed to their Royal Oak home farther removed from the action.
That all changed when they bought a brick ranch on Woodslee next to an alley in December 2002.
A more discriminating buyer might have passed on the property, but not the Mulligans. They paid full price just to have a clear view of Woodward for the annual cruise.
“Everyone thought we were crazy,” said Pam Mulligan, looking out onto Woodward from her front lawn in Royal Oak. “We are big partiers. It’s fun to see all the cars and all the people, too. It’s amazing how many people come down.”
Among the cruisers the Mulligans and their guests are likely to see driving by — albeit slowly — are the Prebles of Stuart, Fla. They didn’t think twice about driving their 1954 Chevy Bel Air from San Diego, Calif., up the west coast, across the Great Plains, through Canada to Sault Ste. Marie and then south to an Auburn Hills hotel room, their base for the Dream Cruise.
For the Prebles, it’s also an opportunity to celebrate the Chevy’s birthday by returning the car to its birthplace.
“It’s her 50th birthday and you always have to go home for your birthday,” Donna Preble said of their cruise mobile.
The Mulligans have waited patiently for this year’s cruise, when they will hold their first full-blown Dream Cruise party Saturday. Last year’s blackout sent them packing — with all their food, beer and assorted party essentials that needed refrigeration — to a cottage four-and-a-half hours away on Lake Cadillac.
When their power came back on that Friday, they hauled all the goodies back for Saturday’s festivities. But by then the band had canceled and their first big cruise bash had been reduced to a gathering of close friends.
Pam Mulligan was determined this year would be different. The next day she reserved the rock ‘n’ roll band the Banaceks for this year’s cruise — which happens to coincide with her husband Mick’s 32nd birthday. The Mulligans will finally get to experience the cruise the way they had envisioned it when they bought their home.
“It’s a great view when you sit right here,” Pam Mulligan said from her front lawn. “You can see everything. Because our land is so close, we sit on our porch and walk up the street 100 feet (to Woodward). We gave full price (to buy the house). I said, I’m not taking any risks.’”
Auto Historian Bob Egan said the excitement about the cruise stems from an individual’s need to be part of something larger.
“With something like the Dream Cruise, an event like that is tapping into people’s nostalgia for the past, whether they ever actually cruised Woodward or not. They may have simply read about it,” said Egan, a curator at The Henry Ford.
There is also the attraction to the bright wild colors, the shiny paint and chrome, the thundering engines and mufflers. It’s enough to send the senses into overdrive.
“They look cool, they sound cool. There is something very visceral about that,” Egan said.
The Prebles’ journey to Metro Detroit for the cruise began July 2 when they left their home in Florida. They flew to San Diego on July 2 to house-sit for some friends and pick up their ‘54 Chevy — which they had left in San Diego on a trip last year — for the multi-leg journey that began in mid-July.
The Prebles — Donna is a registered nurse and Bill is a retired business manager — spent the last few weeks crossing the United States in the classic car, which is covered in chrome detail including a hood ornament, extra bumpers over the wheel wells, a spotlight and original sun visors.
They had earlier dabbled in vintage vehicles and once owned a Studebaker pickup truck, but bought the Bel Air in 1997.
Bill Preble, 61, saw the car and wanted it but hesitated at the price. Donna, also 61, urged him to buy it and he did for $9,000.
Thus began the Prebles’ foray into classic cruising.
They attend an annual classic car show in Reno, Nevada, and several local shows around their Florida home. But their plan to bring their baby home for her birthday was hatched in 2002, when Bill read about the Dream Cruise in an automotive magazine. With a 2003 summer vacation already planned, they set their sights on this summer’s Dream Cruise.
They arrived in Auburn Hills last Friday and have spent the week getting to know Detroit and its suburbs with trips to the Chrysler Museum, Greenfield Village and Greektown.
“We don’t let the cruising control our lives, but it is a great way to see places,” said Bill Preble, who has driven them across the country and put 34,000 miles on the Chevy since they bought the car.
“We would never come to Detroit to spend a week otherwise.”
You can reach Jennifer Chambers at (248) 647-7402 or jchambers@detnews.com.


http://info.detnews.com/joyrides/story/index.cfm?id=500

[Tommyknocker]

Thanks for the view of the home front. I spent a lot of time at the link you gave me as well. You're the best!

[yoda313]

Hello,

Thanks for the view of the home front. I spent a lot of time at the link you gave me as well. You're the best!

Ah, shucks, weren't nothin'!

Wish you could have been here for it. I didn't go this year but the weather was perfect (though chilly). They figure close to 1.5 million came this year. Keep on cruisin!

Kevin

[Guest]

I used to live less than a mile from this clusterfuck.What a pain in the ass.