Cell phones, walkies, and maps-it would be impossible to guide the Tour 2000 without any of these things, and right now, Mike "Lord of Sales" Robleto is occupied with all three. He is on the cell with the South Leg, on the walkie to the North Leg lead car (a very shiny '01 Civic), and reading a map for highway changes. The scariest part of all this is that he's driving. He is steering with his knees and manipulating the cell and the walkie with both hands, and I swear on my life that he must be turning the pages of our trusty Rand McNally with the Force. Talk about multitasking.
I'm "riding shotgun," furiously searching for good radio, which is impossible in North Carolina, because the only CDs Mike brought are techno, which means they are all of the same exact song over and over and over again. OK, I do dig techno and it may make for decent driving music, but after cruising 10 hours in a straight line through the deep South, it starts to melt your brain.(OK, next time I'll take the techno-you can have Cullen and his music.-JK) I've lost all grasp of adjectives and I'm starting to think that the other cars are talking to me. Our snapper, Wesley "Punk or Die" Allison, is falling into a coma.
This is the dynamic of our Astrovan and will be, unless I find something on the radio and quick. Country? OK, good enough, something different. Mike doesn't seem to notice. But Wes, he seems to waking up, but not in a good way.-RC
It's Getting Out Of ControlOK, so we've been lying to you a little about our motivation behind the Tour 2000. Yes, we love to meet our readers and yes, we all enjoy a good drive down the East Coast and yes, it's always cool to meet up with the saucy flirts who are inevitably drawn to the Tour by the allure of us strong editor types. But our behind-closed-doors collective reason for throwing the Tour 2000 this year was that it is a damn good excuse to throw a party-or in this year's case, parties.
For the North Leg, we shook it down shook it down now at Jillian's after Thursday's long drive. Jillian's is Raleigh, North Carolina's one-stop party shop and Mike "Two Turntables and a Microphone" Robleto freestyled and restyled on the main stage, throwing free goodies into the very saucy crowd.
OK, time for the shameless (but very worthy) plug: The title sponsors on the Tour 2000, Yokohama Tires and Eibach Springs, really really put out this year. They gave away tire and spring sets along with more than enough T-shirts and hats to keep everybody's wardrobe stocked through the end of 2001. Pioneer was also ready to party big time, by giving away stereo equipment and suede jackets. So, cheers to them and be glad that the Super Street staff was way too tanked to pocket the prizes for themselves.-RC
Red Bull Rules!The final tally of cars on the North Leg is 505. Here are some more numbers. The total number of miles traveled is 1,256. The trek took us 18.3 hours. We drank 11 bottles of Eibach spring water (get it?) and bought three bottles of Evian (and determined that the Eibach water tasted better-yikes). We listened to five different trance and techno CDs. Wes bought five punk CDs at a mall we passed and listened to three of them. In Atlanta, Exit 36 became Exit 96 and it took 1.5 hours to wind our way through rush-hour traffic to travel to the final 30 miles to the NOPI Nationals at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. And I shot five rolls of film.
Then there are the things that are uncountable. For instance, I've seen a man with glittery red hair inside his glittery red car. I've seen the DC Sports rig pull into a mall parking lot and park across a line of key spots in spite of mall security. I've seen a truck driver get really pissed off. I've seen a giant inflatable bull. I've seen Super Street glow sticks. I've seen the Super Street staff have way too much fun at the Red Bull party at the end of the Tour. And I've seen an entire line of Super Street cars behind me spanning two lanes and stretching as far as the horizon. And that's probably the coolest thing of all. -RC