You can't lose with the Hendersonville Cruise

It has been awhile since I did a story about the Hendersonville Cruise, but it is still one of the best around. Last Friday, a nice group of classics rolled into the Glenbrook shopping center as the sun set. Perfect weather, a live D.J., and free ice cream sandwiches probably didn’t hurt the large turnout. This is the best time of the year to go to these events. It is the rare point in the season where it isn’t too hot or cold. Many car show have been cancelled this year, so you probably aren’t burned out on these types of events yet. Plus, the season will end before you know it, so it’s a good idea to get out while you can.

6th National Corvette Caravan and 25th-Anniversary of the National Corvette Museum - Now that's a lot of Corvettes!

If you were anywhere near Bowling Green over the weekend, you know there was something big happening with Corvettes. You could not pass a gas station, restaurant, parking lot, or hotel without seeing dozens of them. That’s because the National Corvette Museum was hosting the National Corvette Caravan for the 6th time. Corvette enthusiasts from all over the United States, and some from other countries even, traveled in huge groups to meet-up at this event. Some reports estimated that as many as 10,000 Corvettes made the trip. When they got there, the museum was celebrating its 25th anniversary, so there were lots of cool displays and activities to keep everyone well entertained. I was able to drive my ’93 Corvette up there on Friday. I’m sure that wasn’t the biggest day of the weekend, but I walked a million miles, and I think I saw more Corvettes in one place than I’ve ever seen in my life.

Return to Platte City

It’s been five long years since I’ve been to the Outta’ Control Hot Rods monthly cruise in Platte City, Mo., but I was in the Kansas City area last Saturday night, so I had to get back. This was the night before Easter, so the turnout was understandably light, but there were still some really great cars in attendance. Many of these were at this event when I checked it out five years ago, which says a lot about the loyalty of the people who support this show, and about how well it’s run. They always have a professional sound board set up to play music. They have door prizes and dash magnets. You’re right in the parking lot of the Pizza Shoppe so you never go hungry. Heck, they’ll even give you a coupon to eat there. If you can get to this cruise on the third Saturday of the month, by all means, make that happen.

Nice start to the Tennessee Speed Sport Cruise

Tennessee Speed Sport is a cool, old-school speed shop in Goodlettsville that has been serving Nashville’s hot rod and racing community since the 1960s. It makes sense that they would start up a monthly cruise night, and so they have. The inaugural event was last Saturday night, and they had a pretty strong turnout for the first time. I even like their old sign, and my truck looks right at home next to it. The only thing I might change would be that they open up the store during the cruise. If you can get 100 hot-rodders in the parking lot of a speed shop, who knows—you might just sell them something. At any rate, let’s check out some of the stuff that was sitting outside that locked building. 

Hendersonville Cruise-In makes moving to the neighborhood worthwhile

We just recently moved to Hendersonville, Tenn. The decision to relocate wasn’t necessarily because the Friday night Hendersonville Cruise-In is only 10 minutes from the house, but it didn’t hurt. This is one of the better cruises around town, with strong participation, music, door prizes, and quality cars. This year it was moved to an old Sears Outlet Store parking lot, which gets it away from the Indian Lake traffic and congestion that it had to deal with in the past. I was able to fire up the old truck and check out the neighborhood cruise last Friday night.

Double coverage of the Mt. Juliet Providence Cruise-In

Every Saturday night throughout the summer, the car nuts gather in the parking lot outside the American Jewelry store in the Providence shopping center, Mt. Juliet, Tenn. My family is temporarily living in Mt. Juliet during a move, so it’s easy for me to run over and snap pictures at this one. For this story, the photo album actually contains photos from two different weeks, July 29 and August 12. That means double the pictures for you to look at all in the same album! It’s hard to tell the difference, though, because they were all taken at the same time of day, and always on a hot, clear night. Let’s take a look at a few of the standouts.

Hot Rods on Beale Street, June 2017

Thanks to my job, Memphis is sort of my home away from home. So anytime the Hot Rods on Beale Street Cruise is happening during my time in the Bluff City, I always try to be there. The June installment followed the usual trend with this one. There were lots of great cars, there was lots of great music, and there was plenty of good food all along the historic entertainment district. Not everyone can get into this one, because with only a limited number of spots, you need to have a pass. It does control the crowd, but it also sort of stifles the variety of cars that can come from month-to-month. The cars are just a backdrop for the party, though. I can look at the same ones over and over again.

Mt. Juliet picks up the American Jewelry Cruise-In

The weekly cruise at the Mt. Juliet/Providence Chick-fil-A was still going strong right up until they decided to stop doing it last season. The demand never went away, however, and now there’s a new place for the car nuts to go on Saturday nights. The new Mt. Juliet Cruise is still in the Providence area, just moved to the American Jewelry parking lot. It’s still in the early stages, so they don’t have any music or D.J. or anything, but the turnout was pretty strong, and there is definitely some good potential here. And this was all happening on the same night as a Predators game, so that ought to tell you how bad people around here want to get their cars out.

Never-ending fun at the Hot Rods on Beale Street Cruise

Former president Jimmy Carter was spotted on Tuesday night checking out all the great rides at Hot Rods on Beale Street. That’s the power of staging a car cruise on one of the most iconic streets in America--you never know who might show up. And why wouldn’t they? This is one of the most exciting, highly charged car events I’ve ever been to. It’s more like a big street party. Sure, the cars are great, but it’s the food, the music, and the people that make this one special. That doesn’t mean I’m going to ignore the cars, though. As usual, I snapped and bunch of pictures and have a few opinions on several of my favorites.

Car owners brave the clouds at the Hendersonville Cruise-In

On-and-off rain and overcast skies are not what you want on the night of your car cruise, but unfortunately, we can’t control the weather. The Hendersonville Cruise-In made the most of those conditions Friday night. Sure, the car count was a bit down, but the rain actually held off for the most part, and the cooler temperatures were a welcome change. You can always tell the die-hards on a night like this, and there were more Logan’s Roadhouse peanuts to go around for everyone. If you were one of the unfortunate majority that didn’t make this one, I suppose I’ll fill you in on some of the nice rides you missed.

Tom's Cruise reaches boiling point

These guys standing around this ’60 Chevy Biscayne as all the water boils out of the radiator pretty much sums up last week’s Tom’s Cruise-In. It was stinkin’ hot in Germantown; there’s no other way to say it. They had music and karaoke and a few cars showed up, but everyone out there was wishing the parking lot behind the Jimmy Johns was air-conditioned. It obviously wasn’t, but that didn’t stop everyone from having a good time. Luckily for you, I took pictures of everything, so you can enjoy this car cruise sitting inside. Check it out!

Even non-car folks like the Fontanel Concert Cruise

As you know, we’re big fans of the Fontanel Mansion Concert Cruise around here. For the June edition, my wife actually encouraged some non-car people to meet us out there. None of them strolled into the car show area even for a minute, but that’s the beauty of the Fontanel. You can go out there and enjoy the lush scenery, eat a nice dinner, and enjoy some quality music. Now for me personally, the car show is still the main attraction. I like the scenery and all, but cars are where it’s at. So I ditched the company for a while and perused the show field. As usual, there were plenty of nice rides to keep my attention. Let’s take a look at a few.

First Fontanel Concert Cruise of 2016

We’ve always been big fans of the Fontanel Cruise. With lots of great scenery, quality restaurants, and live music, it’s just a nice place to be. For 2016, they have changed the schedule to make it once-a-month, and they moved things one parking lot over. We made it out to the first cruise of the season, and as usual, there was a nice selection of classic cars and trucks to keep everyone interested. We even drug the old HMC truck out for this one. I’m surprised more Nashville folks don’t make it out to this event, because the setting is easily more pleasant than a busy parking lot behind some shopping mall.

Great turnout for the Friday night Hendersonville Cruise-In

Friday night means cruise night in Hendersonville, so we made the trip to the Regal Cinema to see what we could see. The worst part about this event is battling the Friday night traffic to get there, but once you’re in, it all seems worth it. They easily had 200 cars lined up out there. We even managed to enjoy a nice dinner and a movie. It’s like a single stop for everything that you want or need. Of course, out of everything out there, what I want and need the most are cars. It wasn’t hard picking a few to write about. The only hard part was trying to decide which ones not to feature.

Cool rides and hot Blues line the streets of the Hot Rods on Beale Street Car Cruise

If you’re a fan of Blues music, historic Beale Street in Memphis is your mecca. Immortalized in film and song, all the great musicians have performed right here. I’ve been to some car cruises in interesting places, but rarely do they occur in a place with such history and notoriety. This is more than just a car cruise--it’s a party. Wherever you go, from one end to the other, you are never out of clear earshot of someone playing the Blues with a proficiency that only comes from honing their craft right here. Combine that with some of the best restaurants in the south, and you have the makings of a very special night.

Late coverage of the Mt. Juliet Chick-fil-A Cruise

I hate to admit this, but I’m so far behind writing these stories that I’m more than a month in the rears on some of them. Unfortunately, that’s the case with this Mt. Juliet Chick-fil-A Cruise coverage, which was all the way back on October 9. That’s not the cruise’s fault, though. There were lots of great cars, fun people, and tasty chicken sandwiches. But don’t worry. Eventually, I get to everything I take pictures of. So, better late than never, let’s get into last month’s jam-packed cruise with the world’s crabbiest D.J.

Cars enhance the beauty at the Fontanel

With lush, green trees, rolling hills, and a burbling creek, the Fontanel in Whites Creek is one of the prettiest places in the Nashville area. It’s even better on Thursdays, because they hold their weekly Concert Car Cruise out on the lawn. The weather was a little cool and overcast last week, so the cruise only drew in about 20 cars. That’s an anomaly though, because usually they bring in 100 cars or more. Nevertheless, it was a nice night to eat at the Italian restaurant, enjoy the beautiful scenery, and check out the cars that were there.

Cruise season winds down at Coach's Eastgate Grille

Now I’m starting to feel a little sad. The first car cruise that I went to when I moved to Nashville was the first cruise of 2014 at Coach’s Eastgate Grille in Lebanon, Tenn. And now, it looks like one of the last cruises of the year that I’ll be going to is, you guessed it, the one at Coach’s Eastgate Grille. These guys started the season early, and are ending the season late. Plus, they do a good job with this event, offering door prizes and even lunch to participants. This is a pretty good way to end things. That’s especially true when you see what kind of cars they had on display.

Trunk-or-Treat at the Mt. Juliet Chick-fil-A Cruise

Mt. Juliet was a scary place last Saturday night when the annual Trunk-or-Treat Car Cruise rolled into the Chick-fil-A parking lot. Vintage cars were mixed with scary costumes for a fun night of candy and chicken. This was the first time since we moved here that the old HMC truck was able to wear its Halloween costume (Tow Mater, every year, of course), but there were lots of other great cars and trucks to check out along the way. Here were a few of my favorites.

Music Valley Cruise-In was about as Nashville as it gets

When you want to visit a really touristy, Nashville location, the Music Valley area is a good place to stop. This is near everything from the Opryland Mall, to Cooter’s Place, to the Opryland Hotel, to go-kart racing, to any number of bars and restaurants. While we were there, we went in to eat at the Nashville Palace, which is about as representative of Nashville as any place we’ve visited since we’ve been here. We watched John England and the Western Swingers. They were a little group of country musicians that all had incredibly impressive resumes. They were great. Oh, and the cars were too.