Reporter's Notebook: The Cake Doesn't Lie

How do you look back at 15 years of this work? 

How about with cake?

On May 6, we had a few friends and supporters over for a small celebration of our 15th Anniversary at our usual spot in Tonka Bay, Minnesota. Bringing us back to Joey Nova’s reminds us of the times we got together to celebrate, chat, share knowledge, roast, laugh, console…all through the ability to navigate the entire human interactive experience. 

Some traditions still hold sway with us. several of years ago, when we celebrated a couple of #VOTY wins with a cake? The great people at Joey Nova’s baked those for us. 

This year, George brought the cake. It was made at one of our locally based grocery chains. 

At first, I was hesitant to include confectionary to our get-together. Embarrassing? Not given our track record with cakes at our celebrations. Though I was thinking it.

George did come through. We let him. It was a good cake, by the way…

There were some leftovers. I ended up handing off the rest to families and an individual. I didn’t want it to go to waste. 

Oh, and I only had a small piece of cake. No frosting. That would go real well with my health care team. 

This is not about a cake. It is about reflection and looking forward. It is about what we accomplished in fifteen years. The vehicles, the stories, the opinion pieces, the research…the lessons learned. 

The easy part is to recall the best moments at the top of my mind. Even that’s getting to be fleeting these days. There were some that still resonate some years later. 

That night, we reminded ourselves of that Ultrasonic Blue Mica 2.0 2015 Lexus RC F. My first one I worked with. The effortless performance coupled with snapped necks and broken hearts. If as they have not seen Hudson Williams or Connor Storrie in person.

The questions kept on coming…

“Do you remember what you brought to [such-and-such] show?”

“Who was that guy with a red Golf that was tall with glasses?”

“What happened to [any person]?”

“How long have you known George?”

That one we tried to pin down. We think it’s about 2016 when he got his first (Mk7) Golf R – the gray one with a manual gearbox. We met through MNVW – a club that no longer exists. 

That seems to a theme – clubs that no longer exists and who do we still know from these clubs? 

George came up with the idea to add video content along with the written material. I am forever indebted to him for elevating us to a level that should’ve been executed years before. 

There is a lot more people who have become a part of V&R over these past 15 years. They’re not writers or videographers. Some have photographed our vehicles with their work appearing on here. Some have provided technical assistance or editing of our content. Some own a t-shirt or cap of ours, as well as putting our stickers everywhere – from vehicles to welding rigs to toolboxes. 

Also, we acknowledge our media colleagues, fellow content creators, industry contacts, vendors, business and community liaisons, fellow club members, day job staffers, supervisors and executive teams, friends and family. Everyone who had a toe in our business.  

So many faces – here and beyond. We’re seriously talking beyond here. 

It’s not just cake that brings us together. It’s the automobiles, the conversations, the intelligence, and more. That’s fifteen years of this work in a nutshell. 

What about the future? 

There is some hope for it. There are concerns, as well. The list on each side of the ledger is too long and challenging to parse out. No need to get into specifics, because we’re dealing with all of it right now. 

We were not the first not the last in the world of digital automotive, transportation, and travel content creation. But, we’re still here. Looks like we’re not going away anytime soon – or ever. 

All photos by Randy Stern – unless otherwise noted.