National G8 Meet: Day 2

The day started out with a trip to the car wash to finally get all the road grime off. I was worried that on a Saturday morning there would be too many people at the car wash for me to do a proper bucket wash. Fortunately everyone slept in today and I was able to spend over an hour pampering my car.

With a clean car I headed to the car show and parked in the “Modified” section. I know I don’t stand a chance against the other cars with all sorts of appearance mods (wheels, stripes, lights, etc.), but I didn’t think it would be fair for my car to be entered in the “Mild” category (although in hindsight it wouldn’t have been too far off).

My car was really getting some great attention. Most of the attendies were very interested in my Maverick Man Carbon Fiber hood and my Demon8Designs A-Pillar gauge pod. Because of all the help both of these companies have given me over the past year, I tried to return the favor and do a little advertising for them.

The Car Show at the National G8 Meet was very impressive… I believe the final car count was 64 G8’s (71 cars in total)! There were all sorts of G8’s in almost every color of the rainbow (I believe the only missing color was an Ignition Orange Metallic).

After several more hours of looking at cars and talking with owners, I needed to prepare for the cruise that was taking place a little later in the day. The cruise organizer was kind enough to post the route online, so I was able to program it into my In-Dash GPS (this would come in REALLY handy a little later in the evening). I also needed to top-off my gas tank so headed out to get some more 93 Octane… and on the way back stopped to get some lunch.

All of the G8’s started to line-up for the cruise and we headed-out, and it was a very impressive sight.

After getting gathered into groups (to help keep people from getting lost) we headed-out on the cruise.

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About an hour into the drive we stopped at Poopy’s for dinner. The location chosen for dinner was definitely an interesting one. Where else can you get a massive hamburger (called the “Big Poop”) and a tattoo, while you watch cage fighting? Unfortunately it took us forever to get served food and get or bills, so by the time people were done eating it was getting quite late.

As I left the restaurant there was a group of G8’s headed out to complete the cruise, so I rushed to my car to join them. I got into line behind some other G8’s, but they were not continuing on the cruise, so me and one other G8 headed-out to try and catch the first group. We did not know that there was another group of G8’s who left shortly after us…

Remember how I said it was a good thing that I entered the cruise route into my GPS? Well, I needed it! I ended-up being the leader for the two of us, and there would have been no way I could have done it by looking at the printed directions (they were well done, but I even get lost with GPS).

The first part of the cruse took us through some very fun roads to drive. The posted 55mph speed limits allowed for some spirited driving in the corners. Unfortunately, the sun was setting and visibility started to become limited. It was also that time of night when I was afraid of deer crossing the road (here is a video taken by one of the other G8’s on the cruise). I started to spend less time concentrating on driving quickly on the road, and more on making sure there wasn’t anything running onto the roadway.

The sun set quickly and the last 1:30 was spent driving in almost total darkness. I’m sure the rest of the cruise route was very scenic, but with no light it was difficult to see anything other than the road. I kept a faint hope that we would eventually catch-up to the first group of cars, but I figured once the sun went down they would have taken an alternate route home. At this point I just wanted the cruise to be over, but there was not shorter way home, so I just kept pushing forward.

When the two of us finally made it back to the hotel I was shocked to see that the parking lot was full of activity. It seemed like everyone completed the cruise route… and there was even a group that came-in behind us!

The rest of the night was spent swapping stories about the awesome cruise and all of the crazy things that had happened. It was a busy day, but a very memorable one… definitely a day that anyone who was not at the National G8 Meet should be jealous of!