The nameless asshole had been elected and we were collectively in the middle of the embafflement, the world had not yet been changed by the collapse (of everything) due to come in two years. Those of us who were on the side of (at least trying) not lying to ourselves about the deceitful bigot and corporate toady in office were still sort-of, at least, clinging to past ideas of what a world rid of such shit might be like.
Facebook et al have always been raging pits of lowest-common-denominator, and I'm not complaining about people, but corporate code that amplifies our worst habits and provides a platform for outright deceit (bots, Russian trolls, etc) and vicious and sniveling profiteers (I mean besides the evil piece of shit CEO and his lacky CFO: Cambridge Analytica, the most famous of them) and I'd been working on, for myself, how to get out of the circular trap of arguing with people and generating the emotional heat that drives the likes of cesspools like that. And people complain about 4chan...
Anyway I wanted to see for myself. And I'd just built this roadster, and I love to drive, and it was far away, and in the southeast, and I wanted to talk to actual unmediated people so I went.
I had a swell time, in spite of the sponsoring magazine, which in my opinion, is just going through the motions of hosting an event like this.
The tour was some 3500 cars, seven? cities/racetracks, some 1200 miles in the tour, plus I had to drive to and from Los Angeles. By far I was the furthest participant that I could detect.
I met a lot of great people. I won't generalize here about the crowd, nor in person really. The whole tour, through mostly rural towns, was quite great. The event is treated like a giant parade, which it is. People were out in their yard in chairs, waving and cheering. It was great to see them, talk to random folks in scorching hot parking lots and in restaurants. Everyone (really) was friendly and welcoming. There was, let's say, a bit more diversity of thought as to what the larger goings on was, than you might expect if you live in a coastal city like me, but within the framework of a fairly white event through fairly physically-segregated parts of the country. Meaning, we're in the rural south, and I hardly spot any black or brown people. Seriously that route was no accident. "It's just the way it is" I'm sure.
If you know me I'll tell you about my experience if you ask. Otherwise here are some photos and videos.
Meow Wolf just happened to be hosting a car show in Santa Fe, so of course I stayed for the event. It was great. I won the prize for the best car to drive through the multiverse.
