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Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Today's scheduled drive was slightly less than 200 miles. Our target was the Radisson Hotel in Bloomfield Hills, MI, the meeting place for several hundred Corvettes who were to be there for the Dream Cruise. We planned to leave a little later, which allowed for time to sleep in.

Daryl had a lunch break request and that was to go to Ann Arbor, MI and find Zingerman's Deli, relatively famous in the "foodie" mainstream. Zingerman's turned out to be a culinary success for all four of us. It is housed in an old brick building and as you file in through a narrow door, you are surrounded by at least 100 types of bread (baked in their own bakery) on the right, with samples for tasting, and a huge cheese case (some cheeses are made in their own creamery) with samples on the left. Then you funnel down to the order takers who take your order from huge whiteboards filled with 75 types of sandwiches and then there are the side dishes. (Thumbs up for the Mac and Cheese, the best on the whole trip!) You place an order and then find seating outside or in the next building which houses their baked goods and coffee drinks. Too bad this place is not in Temecula – maybe they could just clone themselves. On the way from Ann Arbor to Bloomfield Hills, we drove through Beverly Hills, MI and then into Bloomfield which has huge homes on even larger lots. Who would know that the car business has been in trouble recently? The Radisson is located on Woodward Avenue which is the road on which the Dream Cruise happens. Woodward is 18 miles long, so there is a 36 mile lap with Detroit and Pontiac on the two ends. We knew that Tom Nagle had driven his '61 from Canyon Lake to Detroit, where he has a home. He was supposed to be staying at the Radisson and we saw him briefly as he greeted lots of people he has seen over the years. After settling in to the hotel and getting the cars cleaned up again, we grabbed a dinner across the street at Little Daddy's, where the Cruise Special was fried chicken, and then went out to see what this cruising stuff was all about. Even though it was early in the week and the big event was Saturday, there were plenty of cars of all types driving up and down and the curbs were lined with locals in their lawn chairs, yelling "Light Em Up! or giving out grades. The crowd in the cars was not overwhelming, but you could see how it would be when Saturday arrived. Rob, with his stick shift, did not have as easy a time as Doug, with his automatic, but there were no complaints about the stop and go traffic. Marilyn made good use of her Corvette hand and got a lot of attention.

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