Folks,
January pretty much flew past and it's time to get together again on Saturday morning, February 4th, for our next Coffee & Cars Houston. Last month saw our largest gathering ever, and while we're not sure, we may have broken a record for a free monthly car meet-up (certainly in Houston). Security counted 1012 cars in attendance! This is a remarkable turnout - pretty much every type, age, and style of vehicle was present. If you don't believe us, please be sure and check the galleries on both the website
coffeeandcarshouston.com or the Facebook page
www.facebook.com/coffeeandcars.
Again, a giant thank you for making this a safe, drama-free venue for car lovers to come together. We are be enormously appreciative that all of you do your part to keep the site clean.
A few items of note. We've gone from simply using the front larger lots at Vintage Park, to filling up the second "street" which seems to collect the exotic cars. There is still plenty of room further back on the site, and we're starting to see some cars parked on the back side of the property. This is great! In fact, we ask that you please use the back lots (which are just as large as the front lots) since this reduces a lot of congestion both on entering and exiting our gathering. It also eliminates the need to park in the drive-thru areas of the front lots. There's plenty of space back there, and if you are part of a club or group, this area allows you to easily park together.
Please be conscious of shops that will be open before Coffee & Cars is over. Do not park in front of the Vintage Park Wellness And Aesthetic Center or Alan Murphy Hair Salon. We need a volunteer or two to handle cone duty for these shops so that their Saturday morning patrons are not inconvenienced, and that shop personnel aren't having to fight for their customers' parking spaces. Be conscious of patrons for these locations who are arriving in the middle of our giant gathering. Sadly, some of these folks are not gearheads at all, but we need to be respectful and make sure that they can safely get in and out of the site without difficulty. Finally, be conscious of the bank's parking lot so that employees there as well as bank customers can get in and out of that facility.
Do not park in handicap spaces unless you have a handicap placard. It is against Texas law. We know the shops in some of these areas are not open when we get there, but we don't want anyone ticketed for anything at C&C.
As mentioned above, please do not double park. Vintage Park has at least 2000 parking spots, which means we're only covering one half of the site (so far). Parking in the drive through areas simply makes it more difficult and dangerous for all concerned.
Be considerate when saving spaces for other car owners. We're asking that limited number of spaces be saved, and that they should only be saved until 7:00 am. After that point Security will be collecting all orange cones. If you need a lot of space because your group is large, either make sure everyone is able to come early, or park deeper in the lot or in the back lots.
As we've said from the beginning, Coffee & Cars Houston is a non-commercial gathering. The management of Vintage Park has asked us not to display banners or advertising for any entity, whether for-profit or not. This includes tents as well. Please do not pass out flyers since a certain percentage end up having to be picked up off of the parking lots after every one has left for the morning. There will be no products or services sold on the site (other than tenant sales). We are grateful for the opportunity to meet on the owner's property. Please respect their decision on this.
Should anyone be interested in helping to defray the costs of organizing our gathering and contributing to the costs of the HPD officers who are directing traffic and generally keeping an eye on our cars, there will be a collection box set up and monitored.
As usual we will have signs and volunteers with badges on hand, and three HPD officers on duty as well as site security to help with traffic control. We will not tolerate reckless driving either before, during, or on exit from the site. This includes the intersection at Louetta and 249, and the entrance to the freeway. Montgomery County Sheriff's Department has dibs on that one - don't let them use it for a fundraiser! Don't embarrass yourself in front of your fellow enthusiasts. If you can't drive it responsibly, just leave it at home. As we've said several times before, it will only take one incident to close this gathering down permanently.
Once again, we appreciate everyone's efforts to leave the Park the way we found it - free of trash. That we, a large, random collection of car enthusiasts, can treat our venue with respect says a lot about the pride we have in our vehicles.
For those of you who have not been able to make our previous gatherings, a map of the site is at:
coffeeandcarshouston.com/spectators.jpg There are a number of tenants of Vintage Park who have graciously opened up early to make us welcome.
Forum
and yes, it is rain or shine. Get there early for parking though! It fills up by 7:15am, not kidding! 
