10/19/06- I met a nice fellow hotrodder at the last show, who told me about a
      smaller, but neat, meet (aka: cruise night) that takes place each Thursday night at Teddy's cafe (home of the 'old timers' club) located on the North East corner of Pico and Bundy in Santa Monica.

Well I made up my mind and my round of phone calls only to find that every hotrod I know is DOWN. Ken's 32 roadster is pissing transmission fluids. Tommy's Ford truck is in the shop because of a dead clutch. John's pink T-bird is getting painted and his 29 roadster is down for some unknown reasons (probably related to his flat head). In short, we are a pitiful carless bunch LOL. All the hotrods are DOWN, but two: My roadster and Dave's bright red 32 Essex. He's always ready to cruise so we promptly finalized plans and met the next day at my work at 3PM, as usual :).

It was an uneventful drive down, except for the construction site near the 405 freeway which had produced a considerable amount of mud - mud which was now laying across my path. COOL. As I drove through it with my fenderless tires, I could see it splatter everywhere LOL, even on my hand, which usually always casually lays out my driver's door (you ain't cruising if you got both hands inside your car LOL). Hot as it was the mud on my skin dried up instantaneously and I just brushed it off, along with the remaining stress of the day at the office. Once I am driving my roadster, nothing else matters but the wind, the speed (or lack thereof LOL), the sound of the engine and most of all, the swing music I ALWAYS play while cruising. I have never felt SO GOOD in my entire life. I call it, in two words: Roadster Blitz :)

As expected we got a bit crunched around Sunset Blvd, as Sepulveda invariably comes to a screeching halt right around there. But it promptly (15 min) released us and we were free to frolic again, cruising happily down to the rendez-vous point. For the first time in my entire life (I kid you not) I was the first one there! Which got me the most coveted Bestest primo parking spot hehe. Shortly after, Todd and his famous "faux coupe" pulled in. Then another car, then another one then... Then our stomachs got the best of us and we decided to nourish our bodies so we may have the strength today to continue hotrodding tomorrow :).

The food was surprisingly GOOD and DIRT CHEAP. $9.50 for filet mignon????? Yop, you read it right, it was NOT a typo. My $2.25 glass of red wine was FILLED to the VERY TOP, I could not even lift it up, that's how full it was. I am not much of a drinker and get buzzed on two drops of wine (cheap date LOL) but I knew it would be a good 3 hours before we had to drive again so it was safe to indulge a bit. Note that I otherwise NEVER drink ANY alcohol (not even 2 drops) when cruising with my roadster. The vegetables were cooked to perfection, the steak was good, the potato too. The beef barley soup was also a very pleasant surprise. I give the restaurant, food and price wise a 9 out of 10 (and I am very picky). So don't hesitate to eat there if you do that cruise night. In comparison, Rickie and Ronny's got only a 2 out of 10. We came out to find the lot was now full (and dark - so dark none of my car shots came out - boohoohoo).

I brought with me my laptop and set it up on the roadster, to play an obscure hotrod video I just found on ebay. Everyone gathered for a while to watch the footage, pointing out cool old cars and describing the SCTA meets. A very old man, "old timer" remembered it all, as he was at the very first SCTA meet. His comments added an element of authenticity to the viewing experience.

Soon it was 9PM and I was pretty much D.E.A.D (up since 4AM). Dave and I decided to call it quits and head home. I sure was happy it was cold because the brisk air kept me from falling asleep at the wheel. I was happy to pull into the garage around 10PM and tuck hiboy to sleep and barely 2 minutes later I was sound asleep myself... Only to dream about MORE hotrods :).