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OK, quick update. The trip took a lot longer than expected, but we made it without any major incidents. We got in to Louisville around 8:30 and headed straight to the drive in, no time to check in at the hotel. The drive in was a lot of fun. We chatted with Greg Phelps (That Car), Tim McNally (Plaidmobile), Conrad Bladey (Handy Car) and several people who I don't think have art cars. Because we hadn't gone to the hotel we brought both Undersea Mah Jongg and Spacepod. People really grooved on Spacepod being biodeisel & Lisa had a lot of conversations with people about that. Unfortunately I wasn't as good at conversation as I might have been, because I was so fried from the trip and from not having eaten dinner yet. I'm afraid I left all the conversation duty to Lisa.

Also, I meant to take lots of photos of the cars, but I was so fried that I only got a couple of random shots. What I really wanted was a photo of a row of artcars illuminated by the light from the movie screen. But the lot wasn't set up like that at all. The screen wasn't that bright and most of the art cars were on the street. So that idea didn't pan out.

The drive-in was at the Cinderblock Art Gallery. A bunch of cars parked in the lot and they screened the movies on the wall of the gallery. First they showed Wild Wheels. I hadn't seen the movie since meeting the Button King so that was really cool. The movie included the coffin that he had on display in Charlotte.

After Wild Wheels they showed a series of classic VW car ads. That was really fun. Then a short thing about the custom cars designed for the tv shows Batman, the Green Hornet and the Munsters. I'm not that into classic cars, or those shows, so that was less fun. Last they showed Repo Man. Which I love, but by that time Lisa and I were both so exhausted that we bailed. It's too bad, I would have loved to see that movie again. But there was just no way.

OK, so the hotel. It's called the Galt House. It's a swanky place but they put us in the decidedly unswanky west tower. I have a suspicion that the west tower was once the original hotel, because it seriously looks like they haven't redecorated in about thirty years. Everything is clean and well-maintained, but trapped in an early 70s time warp. I'm talking dark wood paneling, weird retro chairs and a stucco ceiling in the room. We have to take some photos of this room before we move.

Which we are doing because the one thing the room does not have is net access. Their website says that all guest rooms have free internet access, but apparently in the west tower that means dialup. That is bullshit. I've never before been in a hotel that promised free net access and provided a phone line. Right now I'm writing from "the conservatory," a very nice glassed-in area where they have a wifi hotspot. That's fine for now, but I have so much net-related stuff to do on this trip, I can't camp out here all weekend.

Add to that a few minor annoyances (like the water glass Lisa picked up having a big crack in it, and the alarm clock in the room going off at 6 am and being next to impossible to disable) and our enthusiasm for the west tower has seriously waned. This morning we went down to the front desk and arranged to be moved into the east tower. The room will be bigger and therefore a bit more expensive, but it's totally worth it to me.

Okay, so enough complaining about the hotel. Today UMJ has to be parked on Main Street all day. In fact I need to get back to the room and get dressed (I'm still in my pajamas, fortunately they look enough like regular pants that I don't think anyone has noticed) and get my car over there. I'm not sure how much we're going to webcast today. We need to conserve battery power for the illuminated cruise tonight. We'll probably take another look at the schedule and decide.