Thunder road

The sound of high performance engines cranking out serious RPMs, the smell of burning rubber, clouds of thick smoke, and a huge crowd encouraging it all. All this was the makings of the Mopar Cruise-In 2007 in Heath, Ohio tonight. My daughter Paige and I cruised on my motorcycle tonight thru Heath on St. Rt. 79 around 7:30pm , which is the main stretch of road that goes thru the heart of the city. Crowds were lined up everywhere from 5-30 people deep on both sides of the 5 lane road. Meanwhile Mopars of every make, model, and year were backed up as far as the eye could see.

After taking the short ride thru Heath from Hopewell Drive all the way to Tim Horton's on 30th Street, we turned north and circled back to parked the bike near Caribou Coffee, where I stopped and picked up a hot cup of Hazelnut Cappacino and spoke with a couple of friends for a few moments.

The rest of the evening was spent drifting on foot up and down 79 and stopping for a while to watch the steady procession of Classics cruising around. All down 79 people were throwing out water to setup burnout boxes for all the cruisers. Lots of burnouts all night long. It was absolutely awesome to stand within a few feet of these fine high performance cars while they smoked the tires and did their burnout.

I read in the Newark Advocate newspaper the Heath Police Department wasn't going to tolerate any burnouts because of recent deaths and "depending on the severity of the offense, drivers could receive a minor misdemeanor for squealing their tires or a first-degree misdemeanor for reckless operation of a vehicle, he said.

Those convicted of reckless operation of a vehicle face a $1,000 fine, six months in jail and impounding of their vehicle". On one occasion I did see a fella do a burnout and their was a police car right behind him who then pulled him over in the parking lot at Best Buy. Funny thing is, I read to on the Advocates website that no sooner did the police pull away from the incident, and spectators began throwing money into the car of the person pulled over to help with the cost of the ticket, which I read was around $92. Gotta love how folks stick together to help out.

After taking quite few pictures, Paige and I decided to leave and cruise down 79 for one last ride among the activities. By this time it was after 11pm and as we headed North on 79 to head home, the Heath Police blocked and shut down traffic on 79. Kind of reminded me of when the Police shut down activities at Mardi Gras each night. All in all, it was a good evening spending time with my daughter and enjoying being around racing machines of the caiber we saw tonight. Ride on!