I apologize for the probable incoherence of this post in advance.
Thanks man, it's been a real fun ride.
We did the CHV signing today.. Dan loved the car (said so himself!) And dented the hood, for a picture not even including yours truly!
I know in the procar realm, Ectos are blasphemous. I get that. Those cars (and even the Monacos) are getting more and more difficult to find running, let alone decent shape.
But in their defense, they took a car that was way too far gone for even the strongest of heart (with an insurmountable amount of time, effort, and resources), and really just did an excellent job with it. Plus, we're a part of a charity organization that does a large amount of non-profit fundraising for various causes. Nothing brings crowds in quite like that clown car for some reason!
On to the tale of CHV signing: We arrived in Orlando late Friday night and stop by the liquor store. Just to stop by, show 'em the car, build that rapport with 'em, etc. The manager says to me, "I really suggest you get here early tomorrow. 6 or 7. We've had people asking if 6 was too early."
Naturally, we wanted the car front and center, so we did just that. We roll up to the store at 7am (for an 11am signing!), to an almost vacant lot. Some poor guy who lived a mere five blocks from the place camped out over night on the same manager's word.
We parked and people did eventually start rolling in around 8. And then high up management came around 10:30ish, and made us move the car. Impressed and thankful for our volunteering, they allowed us to park on the curb, where Dan's SUV would be parked. I just wish they had said that before we spent 5 hours hanging out.
So its about 10 minutes before Dan shows up, and they gather the costumed people up. I'm thinking awesome, we're going to get first dibs, maybe talk to him for a few minutes, etc... Boy was I wrong. Basically, they pulled us from our spot in line (where we had an awesome line of sight of where Mr. Aykroyd was coming from) inside. Yay A/C, boo missing Dan admiring the car.
As it turned out, he and his posse posed near the car (and photo evidence will later show [hopefully]) that Dan, in posing for a photo, sat on the hood, and bent it in a little bit... but I'm okay with this lol.
So a little while passes and we finally get our turn up to talk to him. My fiance approaches in her Ghostbusters garb. As usual, he talks to her, and poses for a picture, signs her swag, etc. Then my Elwood, aka my Dad, goes up. Dan asks if the car is his, and a bunch of different questions, that he unfortunately doesn't know the answer to... Dan tells him that he really, really liked the car and appreciated us bringing it out.
Finally, my turn!
I approach, and he doesn't say anything to me. Signs my swag. I say to him, "Mr. Aykroyd. I wanted to ask what you thought of the Bluesmobile out front?" He says nothing. I'm then shoveled off to buy my bottles of booze.
So I go and socialize, pose for pictures, jam out at the car, etc etc.. and decide to go talk with one of his crew, whom I had spoken with earlier. I asked if Dan would be able to sign the car for me before he left. And in so many words, the gentlemen said no.
I get that. He had a charity dinner immediately following signing. He's a busy fella. So I take the next best thing, my license plate in and ask him if he'd sign it. We're the last in line, and as he's singing the plate, I compliment him on his great influence on so many with his music, writing, and acting.
My next exact words were, "The blues is alive and well and living in today's youth."
Dan basically shrugs as if he's saying "That's nice kid, move on." And then I'm shoveled off to buy another bottle of vodka (lol).
Totally heart broken (okay, so not really. But I am a little jealous that my fiance AND dad got more face time with him than I did, twice lol, when I built the car - all because I'm not pretty lady or a little bit older... isn't that what the Blues Brothers were pushing all these years, anyways?! UNITY IN DIVERSITY!)
We made a [long] fun day of it, hung out with friends new and old, shared the spirit of the blues by jamming out by the car with some harps, and even confused some poor people at USF by catching the last BB show over there, parking the car in the lot.
All in all, I'm unfazed. I still love the music and the scene, I love the car, and even after getting the cold shoulder from Dan, he's still pretty keen in my book. No sleep lost here!
In other news, I manhandled my speaker and got it turned away from the oncoming wind and it was a much smoother ride. I was able to keep up with traffic easily (65+ mph), though I chose not to simply for safety's sake. I did keep track of my fuel consumption this time out, and my gas is, as expected, affected greatly. But not as bad as I would have thought. I was still getting 15-18 mpg. Nothing to write home about, but I'll take it.
It may look a little silly, but it makes me feel a little more comfortable driving with it up to knowing that it isn't trying to take flight every time someone drives past me
I've got a ton of pictures to throw up here, I'm just not wanting to unload 'em off my camera right now... so expect that some time in the near future.
For now, I'll leave ya with two that were posted on facebook already lol.