The air conditioning excuse is for weenies

**Note: I apologize for being so late on this post! Hot August Nights is over and I FINALLY have time to write this all up. It has been a hell of a week (in a really good way)! Anyways, here goes... also, some pictures will be sideways as this campground does not have any electric power and the internet is slow so I am just barely squeaking this post by.**

8/4/2016

People seem to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to explain to me why they can’t drive their cars like I can. There’s some reasons that are legitimate, of course – health issues, time issues, etc. – but some reasons are just not. The one I get most frequently is the air conditioning excuse. You know, the one where someone says, “Man, I really wish I could drive like you, but I don’t have air conditioning like you do! If I had air I would drive all the time!”

Well… I’m here to tell you that air conditioning is for weenies. Yes, I have A/C. Yes, it’s lovely. But honestly, I don’t use it. Growing up, my mother would always tell me, “we’re not trying to air condition the outdoors!” when I had the A/C on and the window rolled down. And I would much rather have the window cranked down and the wind blowing on my face than have A/C. So I don’t use it.

And to prove my point – that A/C is not necessary for a good time – I drove the entire way from Austin, Texas to Reno, Nevada without air conditioning. Not a single time did I turn that dial to “on”. When I left Austin, it was 100 degrees out and 80% humidity. When I got to Albuquerque, park rangers told me to be careful as they were in the middle of an extreme heat wave. Arizona was… well, Arizona (with the exception of Flagstaff), and it was 103 degrees at 6PM when I pulled into Vegas. It was hotter than that when I passed by Death Valley, and remained in the high 90’s until I hit Reno. I felt a little warm sitting in traffic a couple of times, but really the rest of the time I was 100% comfortable. The key is to have the window rolled down and that oh-so-essential quarter vent window cracked to throw extra air across your arms. Wonderful!

So don’t tell me you can’t drive your car because you don’t have A/C. If you do, I’ll think you’re a weenie. And no one wants to be thought of as being a weenie. Come up with a better excuse instead – like “if I drive past 6PM my car turns into a gremlin” or, “if I drive over 65 mph the front end takes off and I haven’t gotten around to installing wings yet”.

Speaking of gremlins… Jane’s picked up one of her own. My friends – the ones from California that I’m so fond of driving excessive distances to hang out with – informed me on the way to brunch that Jane is jettisoning blue smoke out of the driver’s side tail pipe in large volumes. This prompted an hour and a half long discussion about every possible cause of this issue over pancakes and eggs at Peg’s. Spoiler alert: we were wrong about all of them (duh). But more on that later.

After brunch, I drove over to Virginia Street to park Jane in the downtown Reno daily car show. Since I got there pretty late I didn’t get an especially good spot, though I did still get to park next to Diane’s ’69 Mach 1, which is a pretty awesome car. But that’s okay! The magic of Virginia Street is not in where you get to park your car, but in all of the other cars around you. There were hundreds of incredible classic cars of all makes, models, and styles parked along the boulevard – and this was only one of four venues holding car shows at the time! So here’s some pictures of some of my favorites, though of course it’s by no means ALL of my favorites.

But really, this one is my favorite.

Look at this tiny thing! It is apparently a Nash, which I've never heard of before.

This may be the best looking engine bay I've ever seen in my life.

Me and Dad in front of the Summit Racing monster trucks

Uber driver rat rod, ha!

The wood grain flames were really well done on this car.

Well, we (myself, my parents, Jeff, and Diane) walked ourselves into a stupor and saw every single car on the street, as well as every single vendor in the “Big Boy’s Toy Store”, an indoor convention center type dealio with all kinds of amazing car-related merch. I found the world’s stubbiest screwdriver in there!

We took a short break to get cooled down and let our eyes rest, then headed off to the Grand Sierra Resort – the host casino – for a nice Italian dinner. That place was absolutely nuts! I had been there in the morning briefly for registration, but when I came back in the evening it had ramped up to insane levels of activity. Hundreds of cars all cruising around looking for parking (yes, me too), lots of vendors, lots of displays, a stage, you name it they had it. I was super excited to check out the lot, but we ended up grabbing dinner first and then heading straight to the more important part – the downtown Reno nightly cruise!

So the way this cruise works is pretty standard, apparently. There’s a rectangular “cruise path” encompassing several blocks. You line up on the back side of the cruise path, two across, with all of the other cars, then slowly parade around to the front side of the cruise path where all the spectators hang out. We had three cars in our little group – Diane’s ’69 Mach, John’s ’65 coupe, and Jane – so we all lined up together. Unfortunately for many people, the backside of the cruise path was extremely congested, and the night was warm. So it kind of went from a pleasant fun cruise to a survivor-type reality show, with the cars as the contestants. And man, they were dropping like flies! I saw multiple cars (including John’s coupe) pull out of the cruise before even rounding the block due to heating issues. Even worse, I saw multiple cars blow their coolant out and have to be pushed off to the side of the road. I, of course, kept a hairy eyeball right on my temp gauge since Jane has been running a little warm this trip. And I figured since the radiator hose has already escaped once… it might try it again! Fortunately, Jane was on her best behavior and we putt-putted around with no issues (well, other than the part where I was smoking out whoever was behind me). Amazing!

There were thousands of spectators out to see the cruise and they got an awesome show. Tons of drama (from the cars overheating), lots of revving (from the cars trying not to overheat), some "loose" tires, and a lot of drivers that were in full parade mode. I was actually a little bummed out - it hadn't occurred to me that when you are the one in the cruise, you only get to see the car in front of you, the car behind you, and the car beside you! Bummer. Nevertheless, it was a really awesome time. Dad rode with me this time and I told Mom that she could ride with me tomorrow night. Got some really great shots and apparently Mom got a really nice video of us cruising under the Reno sign.

Well, having to finish this post up quickly, but to make a long story short - after one turn around the block, I took Jane back to the hotel and then went back to the parade to see the rest of the cars run. Tons of fun and a great start to Hot August Nights! I can already tell that this event is going to be a keeper. Can't wait for tomorrow!!

(Hopefully I will have a better internet situation tomorrow, sorry folks for the shortened post at the end).