Mustangs are guided into their parking spots in Mustang Alley during the Woodward Dream Cruise Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025, in Ferndale.
By: Mike Koury | Woodward Talk | Published August 17, 2025
FERNDALE — Nine Mile Road in downtown Ferndale was full of visitors Aug. 16 checking out the scenes of the Woodward Dream Cruise.
The Dream Cruise celebrated its 30th anniversary this year and attracted many people to Ferndale, where the cruise was born.
On East Nine Mile Road, hundreds of Ford Mustang owners drove in for another gathering of Mustang Alley.
This included Paul Isenhour, of Concord, North Carolina, who was attending his first Dream Cruise. Isenhour had been in the state for Road Kill Nights in Pontiac Aug. 9 and saw that the Dream Cruise and Mustang Alley would take place the next weekend. Isenhour trailered his 1969 Mustang convertible and decided to see if he could sign up.
“We've been wanting to come to this, to Woodward,” he said. “We didn't know how many cars they were taking, but … we got registered and come and find out we’re 669.”
Isenhour has owned his Mustang since 2017, though it has been updated over the past several years with a new color, interior and had to be fixed up because of rust. He was able to drive it for two years before the car had to be fixed up.
““When we got into the restoration and found out that we had to replace so much metal, it wasn’t going to be original. So, we just kind of took a different path,” he said. “That's actually a factory Ford color. It's Acapulco blue, and I tried to get the seats made to match the deluxe interior pattern, but it's reclining bucket seats and all that mess. So it’s a modern interior sort of and it’s got all modern gauges and modern suspension. But other than that, it's pretty much a 1969 Mustang.”
Isenhour previously owned a 1969 Mustang convertible in high school, but it had to sit for four years while he was in the military and he decided to sell it, which he had come to regret.
“We got a little more financially stable. I said I want my car back, so I started searching and found it online, bought it sight unseen and that's why I ended up having a lot of rust,” he said. “I mean, it looked good and then drove fine. It just had some hidden rust that we didn't know.”
Isenhour was enjoying his time at the cruise and the attention the convertible was getting, especially as he typically sees the Mach 1s get more love at shows like these.
“It is gratifying because a lot of people don't remember the convertibles and the coupes as much as they do with the Mach 1s,” he said. “It’s been great. I’ve been pretty much talking the whole time.”
New to the Dream Cruise this year is the Bronco Corral on West Nine Mile Road, with more than 100 Ford Broncos brought in by car lovers.
Curt McIlroy, of Battle Creek, brought his 1985 Ford Bronco with him, an SUV he’s owned for eight years.
McIlroy said the previous owner had leased the vehicle for two years and performed modifications on it such as lifting it, which Ford wasn’t happy about.
“They wanted him to restore it back to its original stance and he decided he was going to take it all apart and teach Ford a lesson,” he said. “Well, as it be, Ford made him buy it and it was still in pieces. And when he passed away eight years ago, his widow reached out to me and I bought it, and put it back together.”
Along with piecing it back together, he also repainted the Bronco from all white with a tan top to yellow and white. McIlroy said he likes Broncos because of the way they look and, as he’s owned a couple of them, they’re familiar and he knows what to expect.
McIlroy has attended the Dream Cruise in the past and participated in Mustang Alley, but he said that the Bronco draws a lot more positive attention and responses than the Mustang.
“The Mustang, everybody seems to be much more critical of modifications or things that have been done to it,” he said. “I haven't experienced that with the Bronco. You either like it or you don’t and I’ve had an awful lot of people that like it.”
McIlroy’s favorite part of the Dream Cruise is getting to check out all the cars and meet up with some old friends.
“We’ve already walked down the other end of Nine Mile and looked at Mustang Alley and the food trucks on the way down,” he said. “We actually couldn't wait to get back and try the food trucks and sit back here and enjoy the scenes.”