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Every year, The Underground Car and Truck Club in Las Vegas, throws a huge show downtown on Fremont Street. Years ago, Fremont Street was considered "The Strip" of Las Vegas. When the "New Strip" was formed on Las Vegas Boulevard, they needed to revamp the downtown area and make it more appealing to tourist and locals so the solution was to close Fremont Street to traffic and create the "Fremont Street Experience". It is now an entertainment place where people enjoy live bands, throw private events, or enjoy great car shows like we were just there for. It stretches about 5 blocks and is covered with a huge canopy that doubles as a huge graphics display and as soon as it is dusk a laser light and music show will entertain the crowd every hour until midnight. A permanent stage is set up in the middle of the street for various live bands to play on and the casino entrances are wide open for people to come in and either grab a drink, nibble on some food or to gamble to their heart's content. We got to the show around 1:00 p.m., after we regrouped and got over our hangovers from Amanda's birthday get together, and the party was in full swing. Live bands were playing on the stage, people were gambling or drinking and the cars and trucks were stretched as far as the eye could see. There were five blocks of vehicles for us to look at and get pictures of and realizing that in order to see them all it was going to equal a ton of walking, we set off to get our first, but not our last, drink of the day. There were a lot of cars, trucks, and any other type of vehicle you want to imagine here for this show. Some people brought out their vehicles that have been in some of our favorite magazines. Others were there to show their support and brought out vehicles that were "in the creating stage." There were so many vehicles that they had to park some of them on side streets because they ran out of room under the canopy. The crew from The Underground did a very good job getting everyone settled into place around the various craft stands and souvenir stands that are set up down the middle of the street. The show caught everyone's eye and it had something for everyone to look at, even the tourists visiting Fremont Street Experience were walking around checking out the cars. As you walk by a body dropped mini, you always love to hear that question that someone not into the scene might ask, "How do they drive them that low?"
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I had a great time at the show and the weather was perfect. Everyone crowded around the big stage somewhere between 5 and 6 and trophies were given out to the winners. We then stopped and watched the traffic jam as the show cars tried to clear out of the area and that got pretty interesting. After everyone had left we wandered up Fremont Street towards the Union Plaza, which is the last hotel for the street. There we found our friends from "No Regrets" and "FFF" watching a glass blower making necklaces of their club logos to take with them. Where they were standing happened to be outside of the Glitter Gulch, (a very old strip club), and a girl was out there talking to people trying to get them to go inside and check the place out. Well Greg from "FFF" decided to wander over to help her and he started passing out the fliers and hollering at people. She kept disappearing back inside cause he was doing a better job and getting more people inside than she was. It was a comical thing to watch. After the logos were done some of us then went and had dinner and relaxed from a tiring day of walking. It was then 11 p.m. and I was just wanting to go to sleep, so I stole the car keys and went and passed out in the car for a couple of hours waiting for the "FFF" guys to stop gambling. Amanda and I got home at about 1 a.m. and I died in my bed until work the next morning. If you can, try to come out for this show next year. I have gone to it twice now and it has yet to fail me. I saw many old friends and made some new ones and where else can you gamble practically right next to your vehicle? Who knows? Maybe you'll win big gambling or maybe you'll win a trophy for your class. See ya! By Nicole Gentry
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