Plenty of dreams for Cruise organizers

The Woodward Dream Cruise should feel more like Mardi Gras, or it should look less like a new car dealership.

It should go all the way to Jefferson Avenue in Detroit, or it should stop letting minivans clog the streets.

Oh, and would it be OK if an unlicensed, unregistered go-kart zipped up and down Woodward on Saturday?

I don't know if people send e-mails to the Super Bowl or the Rose Parade, but the Dream Cruise gets stacks of them. That's partly because it has an e-mail address, of course: info@woodwarddreamcruise.com">info@woodwarddreamcruise.com. But at Dream Cruise headquarters -- an ad agency in Troy, oddly enough, miles from the cruise route -- they'll tell you that people drop notes to the cruise because it's a different sort of event.

Unless you immediately begin lifting weights and practicing your menacing glare, you'll never get to play in an NFL championship game. You probably won't even get to stand on the sidelines.

At the Dream Cruise, though, the sidelines are sidewalks, and the playing field is a public thoroughfare. You might get booed -- trust me, no one wants to see your '94 Impala, even if you were foolish enough to spend $2,600 on rims -- but you can cover the same ground as the guy with the swoopy 1965 Impala SS Convertible Coupe.

"Every middle-aged mullet with a new Challenger or Camaro thinks they need to be in the Dream Cruise," complains the owner of a '71 Nova.

"We even planned our wedding around the cruise," says a less critical fan, "renting a 2000 Mustang convertible and cruising with a 'Just Married' sign before leaving on our honeymoon."

Bottom line: The Dream Cruise is personal, enough so that you can scold it, praise it, or ask for permission to ride a go-kart.

"We can't speak for law enforcement," someone from the Dream Cruise responded gently, "but we do know they aim to make the event safe and family-friendly by encouraging licensed drivers in licensed vehicles to obey all traffic laws."

Gentle responses

The responses are always diplomatic, more so than they might be if you or I wrote them.

A woman who works for BP wonders if the Dream Cruise could find a print color that showed up better against a black background. Something the color of a pelican, maybe?

A cheery Canadian who found the website to send his e-mail asks where to go to see the cruise and what time to be there. Um ... have you considered looking on the website?

A car club member from Minnesota asks if the Dream Cruise could provide 150 goody bags. No, that would be the Woodward Birthday Clown Cruise.

But there's no sense being snippy when so many people are being upbeat, like the couple from mid-Ohio who want to know where to park their RV. "P.S.," the note concludes. "I would like the area closest to Bob Seger. LOL."

Expanding the route?

The Dream Cruise logo is trademarked and the countdown clock at http://www.woodwarddreamcruise.com">www.woodwarddreamcruise.com comes through a special feed, so no, Facebook user from Ontario, you can't post either of them on your wall.

And while it's a noble goal to involve Detroit in the cruise by extending the route all the way to the river, LJ from Ann Arbor, that turns the Dream Cruise into the Everyday Commute.

Besides, nobody cruised that part of Woodward anyway. As hard as it might be for the cruisers' grandkids to believe, the city was too congested.

The gentleman who floated that notion also made an offer: He'd be glad to lead the way.

It turns out he owns a 1972 Plymouth, and like 40,000 other classic-car owners reaching for their keys, he's ready to roll.

nrubin@detnews.com">nrubin@detnews.com (313) 222-1874