When you get to the Longbranch Car Cruise too late, it's a little tough to see anything

Friday night my mom had some of her little gnome dolls that she makes featured at Images Art Gallery in Overland Park, Kan., so we went down there after work to check it out. My wife drove, and just as we were about to head north toward home, I casually sprung out with, "hey, just turn down here and let's see if there are any cars at the Longbranch Cruise."

To which she shrewdly observed, "um, it's dark out, you know."

And she had a point. Fact is, at 7:15, the sun was completely gone. Pitch dark. Nothing to see here. Why does summer have to end, anyway?

Surprisingly, there were several cars still left at the Longbranch. At least I think there were. There were very few lights in the lot, so I would aim my camera at something I thought looked like the silhouette of a car and hit the button. Sometimes that would reveal something. It was like archaeological car show photography--I was uncovering secret treasures from beneath the darkness.

That might also explain why my slideshow looks like a collection of ultrasounds.

Still, there were some really nice cars there, and several of them I've never seen before since we were out of my neighborhood. Well, I guess technically I still haven't seen them. But if I had, I'm pretty sure they were nice.

So anyway, the slideshow below has some amazing photography of cars that couldn't be seen with the naked eye (at least for 30 minutes before these were taken). Or maybe they're just horrible, dark pictures with a cheap digital camera. Whatever. They're down there, so try to enjoy them if possible.