Mid-day spectators were settled along W. Fort Street as far up as Lincoln Park on a late June Saturday. The cruisers there were few in number.

But proceeding through Riverview and Southgate, traffic and excitement began to grow. The 2007 Downriver Cruise culminated in Wyandotte, where parking lots were jammed with muscle cars, hot rods, a few antiques and some late-model specialty vehicles mimicking their forerunners.

Dennis Mogor's bright-yellow 2000 Prowler fell comfortably into the last category. The Belleville resident had parked the open-air two-seater in the lot of a Ram's Horn restaurant beside his daughter's late-1960s black Dodge Charger R/T.

"She is Kim Cowles and she won the Charger back in 1986 in a radio contest," he said. "It was $4,681 new, has a 440 engine and six-pack carburetor."

Cowles lives in Taylor, he said. She drives it in the summer. The perfect muscle car was in this condition when she got it two decades ago, he said.

Bloomfield Township resident Larry Jeffery had buffed up his blue 1966 Chevrolet Nova SS and brought it all the way to Wyandotte mostly as a distraction. Jeffery said he was anxiously awaiting the birth of his first grandchild in Oakland County. He was leaving the cruise early and ahead of the crowds, just in case.

Grant Hamilton of Hamilton Steel Products, Inc. in Detroit took his 1971 Camaro to the cruise. He said he thought Fort Street "was a great venue," as traffic was moving but there was plenty of time to see vehicles as they passed by.

One of the more unusual cars parked along W. Fort Street was a big, white 1960 Edsel Ranger four-door sedan.

A parade of hearses showed up late in the afternoon -- a sober reminder that as much fun as people were having driving and watching, you can't take it with you, but you can go out in style.