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I arrived in Tampa at about 1 a.m. Saturday morning after a long five-hour flight from Vegas, where I had just attended SEMA for the four days prior to Slamfest. Jay and Jim from Relaxed Atmosphere-Florida greeted me at the airport and we set off to find something to eat (five hours and no food makes a guy hungry). After hitting the local Taco Bell (I can't believe they stopped serving Chili Cheese Burritos) we headed over to the Masters Inn, which happened to be the host hotel for the event. Upon arriving, the parking lot was packed with rides and people, all of which were gathered in groups, getting the weekend partying started early. I got my bags put up in the room (Friday night I shacked up with my Relaxed Atmosphere-Florida family) and headed out to make the rounds talking to long-time friends and meeting new people. I ran into Jason, Jennifer, Shaun and Eddie right away from Negative Camber-Georgia. After checking out Eddie's Isuzu, I stopped at the next group of people where Shaun and some of the Xtreme Lowz-Florida crew were hanging out. Jay Church and myself walked around and found the Vero Beach crew hanging out, and I was immediately greeted with open arms as well as open mind. After enjoying my favorite pastime… twice… Jay and I walked around to the back parking lot where we found Magnet from Negative Camber hanging out with his crew. We talked for a while, and then Jay and I finished our walk, checking out the rides in the parking lot, before heading to the room to crash at about 3am. At 7am, Jay gives everyone a rise and shine wake-up call. Seeing how I was used to Vegas time, it was still 4am for me, at which time I would normally just be going to bed. After letting Colleen and everyone else shower, I finally got myself up and going and we all headed over to Burger King for breakfast and then to the show. The weather in Florida was great. The sun was shining, very little cloud cover, and boy was it hot. The Mini Madness crew had things well in hand as the roll in line was long, but moving at a steady pace. After getting through the gate, I ran into a familiar face right away, Mike Self, my roommate the entire week of SEMA. We quickly hooked back up and started strolling through the showground's checking out this year's show. We first ran into John BeBe and the Drop'Em Wear crew. John had his latest and greatest line of clothing selling like hotcakes and after being dissed for borrowing his golf cart (thanks John! Mike and I appreciate that!) We walked on and started checking out the rides.
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The first interested ride that we came across was a 12" body dropped Nissan King Cab. Sporting 15-inch wheels that were pertruding thru the hood, this monster of a ride had a crowd around it larger than a government cheese line at the beginning of the month. Mike and I did a quick walk-around this "truck," made a few suggestions of what "we" would have done, and quickly moved on. I quickly noticed that the show was completely packed, with a final count of over 1500 rides from minis to compacts to lowriders. The hard hitters of the show scene were on hand, with clubs sporting their best in the form of Negative Camber, Severed Ties, Acrophobia, Relaxed Atmosphere, Aftermath, Local Miniz and Xtreme Lowz. The Down2Earth boys from Louisiana brought out their freshly featured and freshly repainted Chevy Dually, which drew more than its fair share of on-lookers as well. Kevin from Negative Camber even performed a phat burnout in his body dropped Ford Lightning, smoking the 22's for the crowd, showing he's not scared. This show brings out the best, which was evident by the number of previously featured, as well as cover vehicles present. After snapping massive amounts of photos, catching up with old friends and meeting tons of new people that I consider friends (and getting "lei'd" by the girls from Gulf Breeze Customs not once, but twice…) the day was getting late and Mike and I decided to head over to the Masters Inn to check out the partying going on. We were greeted by a parking lot full of people already in full party mode. Shortly after our arrival, the real show began when some of Florida's finest draggers took to the streets and gave the massive crowd a display of frame-grinding sparks. Mike and I watched the railing until being offered to go to dinner with Negative Camber members, which we gladly accepted. After returning from dinner, Mike and I hung out with club members from several clubs before heading back to the Crown Plaza hotel to crash for the night. Wow… Saturday was finally over! Sunday morning, we were awaken by a few Mini Madness members who had been selected to pick us up at the hotel and cart us over to the showground. Sunday's weather wasn't quite as good as a Tropical Depression was making its way over Florida. We checked out the bikini contest, hung out with friends, shot more photos and bid everyone farewell after the awards were handed out. The Mini Madness crew took us out to dinner before returning to our hotel and crashing for our flights home the next morning.
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