Red Deer Cruise Night is well-established as the premiere weekly drop-in show in Alberta.
This show attracts hundreds of cars per week to the northwest parking lot of the Parkland Mall at the peak of the car season.
Here’s a look back at some of the highlights of the 2013 Red Deer Cruise Night car show season.
The unofficial season began on April 25, 2013 with great weather for a shake-down night.The ’70 Cuda was a feature MSCC story back in May 2013.
May 2nd was a little less friendly but there were still some very cool rides that night because the local guys were coming out of cabin fever. The ’65 Ford was another MSCC story.
May 9th was a huge night for Red Deer Cruise Night-the weather was great and the parking lot was full and I was out of town that night. That’s what they call the luck of the draw.
May 16th was carnival night at the show so the background was taken up with Ferris Wheels and midway rides. This show usually gets hammered with bad weather but it was in the range of a decent night for Red Deer in mid May. The ‘61 Ford wagon was another great story.
May 23rd was more typical. The skies opened up but there were a few solid entries in the “classic rides in the rain” contest that night. Jim picked up the ’55 Nomad story in the rain.
May 30th was another great day for ducks and flowers. You get used to the ominous clouds factor but there was another solid night of classic iron. The ’47 Buick convertible is in this month’s MSCC.
June 6th was a better weather night for Red Deer Cruise Night. The numbers were up significantly and the clouds were only semi-threatening. Look for a 2014 feature on the General Lee.
June 13th finally showed the participants some seriously blue Alberta skies and the numbers at the show reflected the sunny outlook because the old iron was all over the parking lot. The ’58 Plymouth will show up in MSCC in 2014.
June 20th was a step back to reality because RD Cruise Night was officially called thanks to brutal weather.
June 27th was a much better scenario-the sun came back and the show was invaded by a bunch of Jeep owners.
July 4th took the show back to reality. There was a threat of rain the whole night and the numbers reflected that but there were still some pretty cool future MSCC stories at the show including the Meteor convertible.
July 11th was really good. There were the ever-present looming clouds but it turned into a great night packed with some seriously cool old rides.
July 18th was a more threatening version of the week before but the numbers were still solid at RD Cruise Night.
July 25 was washed out thanks to a serious bout of Alberta sunshine in form of driving rain.
August 1st was more of the same brutal weather but the hardcore guys came out and provided a sparse but cool lineup of classic rides. Look for the ’69 Super Bee in an upcoming MSCC feature.
August 8th was wiped out again-so much for the Farmer’s Almanac.
August 15th was a great night to be at the biggest drop-in car show in Alberta. That Ford convertible is another upcoming MSCC story.
August 22nd started great but ended in a mass exodus thanks to some nasty clouds in the east. The white Caddy will be a 2014 MSCC story.
August 29th was a carbon copy of August 22nd but this time there some out of town guys from the Edmonton area. They’re used to spooky banks of clouds.
September 5th was a great late summer night and the massive numbers in the parking lot reflected the great weather.
September 12th was a great night again but the most memorable part was the salute to “Challenger Dave” Burden. Dave was presented with a plaque by the local car guys for being the man behind the scenes at RD Cruise Night for many years.
September 19th was another solid example of how stable the fall weather gets in Alberta. This was another excellent turnout because car guys know how fickle the weather gods are in Central Alberta.
September 26th gave the show more great fall weather. The numbers are solid but the sun dips pretty fast so there’s an exodus right around sundown. The custom Chevy sedan will be a feature car in 2014 on MSCC.
October 3rd was another mild weather night but the ranks started to thin because the sun sets early and the temperature drops fast.
October 10th is a question mark for MSCC photos because of another out of town commitment but they definitely had a few people taking in the evening before the nasty weather.
October 17th was coolish but there were some diehards out including some extremely cool trucks. One of them will be in an upcoming 2014 MSCC story.
October 24th was the last picture show. The weather was cool and clear and the car to truck ratio was high but this extremely cool one-owner ‘68 Camaro convertible was there and it is definitely coming up in 2014.
This is the Reader’s Digest version of Red Deer Cruise Night. There were some incredibly good shows in 2013 and some of the highlights included some unique silent auction items for RD Cruise Night. The Rat Fink raised several hundred dollars after Daryll de Souza bought it and the MyStarCollectorCar limited edition print raised several hundred when Terry “Big Guy” McCrindle bought #001 in the series.
Red Deer is currently under a blanket of snow but the great memories linger after a good run of Red Deer Cruise Nights.
Jerry Sutherland
