Cruising Downtown Manchester: A lot of Cars and a lot of People!

After rolling into the staging for the “Cruising Downtown Manchester” event at the parking lot at the Brady Sullivan Tower at 5:55 am and then strolling up to the registration table manned by volunteers from the Manchester Rotary, I was initially surprised as I thought to myself: “Well, that was quick, I guess there are not that many cars…”   Yeah, then I ate a lot of crow that was sprinkled in motor oil and in some cases, racing fuel. Why? you ask? Well, Because Holy mackerel! Where did all these cars come from!?!?!

There had to be well over 1000 cars!!!

By the time I got back to my car to wait for them to let us head onto Elm St of Manchester that was closed for this event, I stared at a huge line of cars coming in with a bunch of volunteers doing an amazing job of directing them to spots for staging and registration. My Friend Jay who Lives just up the street from the staging area came down to help pass the time of waiting. We were both struck with the thought: “Jeez, this ain’t a bad show just watching this line of cars arrive!”

The best was being able to listen to some of these cars coming in. There were, however, a few times I felt bad for a few folks as they were driving T-Buckets in and/or cars with no tops and with the wonderful New Hampshire early morning temp of 42 degrees? I would imagine at speed, that probably feels like -20 degrees. 

And they kept on coming in!

Exactly as their main page instructions said slightly after 7:15 we were directed to head to our cars and each row would be allowed to cruise in where more volunteers awaited our arrival to direct us to a place to park on Elm St. Leaving the staging area seemed to be hampered only slightly by the cars still coming in but once clear of the parking entrance we all cruised up at a rapid pace (Within legal limits I’m sure.) 

Once I was parked on the street I was then treated to be able to watch the parade of cars that arrived after me and it seemed as if the line never ended. Even at 10:00 the Cars were still filtering in slowly. It was blissfully overwhelming for a car nut. 

My Rookie mistake of the day was to not charge my camera battery the evening before. Thus, I did not score as many photos as I had wished to but – truth be told? The bigger issue was the sheer volume of people in the venue blocked so many of the shots I wanted to take and still be able to have time to be able to look at all the cars. 

As I looked over I saw but was unable to go talk to the Owners of Darla who seem to make an appearance at just about every show that I attend. So – it was nice to see familiarity, but it was even nicer to see new iron that I had never seen before and this show provided that aplenty!

Food and Cars!

There was indeed a bonus feature to this event. Food… And lot’s of it. From sausage and french fry vendors, Elm street also has an abundance of restaurants located here and many of them were open for business to take in patrons and give them some quality food. 

Even the Oscar Mayer Wiener Mobile was in attendance. Fun Facts about the Wienermobile is that there are 6 of them and each is 60 hot dogs long, and 24 hot dogs high. It was invented by Carl Mayer in 1936. The interior has 6 ketchup and mustard colored seats inside, a “bun” roof, and mustard splattered carpets. In addition, it also has a 23-inch flat screen TV and sound system and since 1988 has been piloted by recent college graduates who are called “Hot Doggers.”

Entertainment for all

The event featured 2 stages with live entertainment. each catering to different tastes of music from golden outies to some classic and newer country. 

With this many people, I sometimes wondered about the validity of many of the complaints I have heard from fellow enthusiasts of the larger shows. Venues of this size an by the nature of the location it tends to sometimes have people who have never read my Unwritten Rules for a Spectator at a Car Show.

Now, of course with that being said I will say that in addition to that I witnessed a lot of complaints that many spectators have about those who need to read my article “The Unwritten Rules for Bringing your Car to a Car Show” SO – it pretty much evens out.

It truly was an amazing event and I will definitely make an effort to return for next years event!

Check out what I was able to capture below: