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Well the illuminated cruise didn't go off quite as well, technologically speaking, as previous events. We had serious lighting issues. Mainly because I hadn't had time to test all the lights before we left, so I didn't know that six strands of rope lights draw way too much power for our inverter and charger. As do five strands. And four. We kept unplugging a strand at a time, but still the lights kept flickering on and off and the inverter kept squealing. Finally we cut back to three -- one on one side and two on the other -- which the charger seemed able to handle. Until it ran out of juice halfway through the first leg of the cruise! We tried to plug the inverter into the cigarette lighter but three strands was too much for it, the inverter squealed terribly. So we finished out the cruise with no lights except the glow sticks taped to the wheels. I was so stressed about the rope lights I had forgotten all about the black light inside.

The other annoying thing that happened was another art car driver cut into the caravan and rear-ended me! He only tapped my rear bumper, but still! When it happened the guy merely held up his hand in the "sorry" gesture, as if he had just cut me off rather than hitting my car. No other response. He was at the next caravan stop, I saw the car, but he didn't make any effort to come over and make sure my car was okay. (I don't believe there was any damage, but it was dark so I'm not 100% sure.) I'm not going to identify the car by name, but if you are reading this blog, I want you to know that you are a dick and I wrote down your license number and if daylight reveals any damage to my rear bumper you will be hearing from my insurance company.

Overall it was a more chaotic event than what I was expecting. Actually, I don't really know what I was expecting, but it was basically a roaming party with lights on the cars. A few of the cars had their flame jets blasting! I can't imagine driving around in Durham on a Saturday night with open flames coming out of pipes on top of my car. One of the cars was a flatbed with a band playing music; I'm not sure if they played while the car was in motion or not. There were two boat cars, both of which were blasting excellent house music. The one closest to us played Timo Maas, which Georg and I were both grooving on. He said he got into Timo Maas at Burning Man.

After the lighting disaster we chatted with Donna of RU Game about her rope lights. She said she never uses more than two strands at a time because they use so much power. I asked about DC rope lights, but she said they're a lot dimmer and also much more expensive. She and a friend whose name I didn't catch are going to order a whole big roll of EL wire. I asked them to contact me if they need someone to share the order, but I suspect they probably won't be buying a color that would work for me (all I would want is white or maybe blue). Still it's worth a try. That stuff is a lot less expensive if you buy it in bulk.

I think the illuminated cruise would have been fun if it weren't for all the stress, and we talked about setting up the lights again with just two strands, and turning on the black light. But we were tired and the party was obviously going to run very late -- it was 10 pm and they had only just gotten to the first stop -- so we bailed after the first leg. The police were showing up just as we left, and I think they must have been telling everyone to leave because we crossed paths with the caravan a few blocks away.