SEMA Highlights, Day One

Tuesday:

Registration was quick and easy at 7:00am and the media room that Continental Tires provided us a welcome and useful space indeed. Grubby auto journos vie for one of the courtesy computers lined up for our deadline use.

The massive Las Vegas Convention Center held treats and surprises at every turn; impressively tuned supercars, airbrushed mini-trucks, chrome, electronic wizardry, and hootchies in hot pants a'plenty.

From press conference to scheduled interview to PR presentations, I ran around SEMA like a headless chicken on crack. The array of gadgetry, mechanical wonders and artistic creations made the price of sore feet and a stiff neck well worth the, well...you know.

That evening brought a lovely dinner at Smith & Wollensky, courtesy the fine people of Sony. We talked about the California wildfires, the weather in Colorado and I even found a Consumer Reports writer who went to the same stupid college where I wasted a semester in 1987: Ft. Lewis College in Durango, CO.

I wish there were cars here I could get tremendously excited about, but it's all been done before. Talking with the other auto journalists reveals that I'm not the only one searching for a story.