The Gear Shift

Hi folks!

Last night, we went to Road and Travel’s International Car of the Year Awards for the second year in a row.  They moved the event to the new MGM Grand Hotel and Casino this year.

Pros:  Cool venue, awesome penthouse (more on that later)

Cons: 
(1)  We couldn't find it! – It took us forever to find it in the GPS system that Chris rented, so we drove around in circles while it “recalculated.” I’ll take my Mapquest printed directions and a good shotgun rider any day over that thing.

(2) The Food - So, we get there late, but given last year’s event, I was looking forward to a nice dinner.  I should have been warned when we talked to Patrick on the phone and he asked when dinner would be served.  That was supposed to be dinner!!  Compared to last year, the spread was thin and had plenty of selection for those with strange unique tastes.  i.e., Plenty of raw food and pates.

Ok, onto the awards. A fun time was had by all. We agreed the production and writing, while still corny, was improved over last year.

Here were two memorable moments:

- They started the show with the band singing “I believe I can fly.”  That led our whole table to say – pass the wine!  (We’ll need it to make it through!)  Which, by the way, the white was a delicious 2005 Ferrari Carano chardonnay.  So yummy – try it if you can. (Note the car name in the wine – again, just another little cheesy moment, but we’ll forgive because it was that good.)

- When introducing the Earth Angel award, Ben-Franklin look-alike Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) went off-script (I think hope) and, following on the results of a R&T survey of people and their cars, basically implied to the audience that he and his wife have had sex in a car - and not his! Hilarious!

After the event, Chris & I went to the VIP Afterglow.  Being extremely hungry from the lack of dinner, I was hopeful for some yummy appetizers upstairs.  While the food again did disappoint, the venue did not. We were up in the amazing penthouse with a great view of the city (even Detroit looks pretty at night).  And the bathroom was HUGE!  We left early, though, so we could finallly eat some dinner.

See the list of award-winners here: International Car of the Year Awards.

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