MOSES LAKE — Well over 100 people from across the region turned out in Moses Lake on Saturday for the first of what organizers hope may become a regular event — a downtown cruise.

After successfully gathering a small fleet of hot rods, low riders and vintage vehicles to cruise by for his son’s birthday and later for local senior citizens, Ken Scott heard from his friend Rosco Rivera suggesting that they try to make an event for the general public. It was a revival of sorts of a pastime that many car enthusiasts still remember fondly, of gathering with friends and the car club community on the weekends to catch up and cruise around.

“We’re all up in our late 30s and early 40s now, and cruising is what we did back in the ’90s for our social gatherings,” Scott said. “Back then we didn’t have any Facebook or Instagram or any of that, so this is kind of how we found out what was going on in town.”

On Saturday, among those riding in their sports cars or vintage vehicles were Scott in his dark-green ’65 Pontiac Bonneville and Rivera in his black ’93 quad-cab GMC dually. With typical social gatherings barred during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Scott said a cruise could be an ideal compromise, letting people come together and enjoy the community spirit while keeping their distance.

Though many in attendance did stay in their cars or keep their distance, dozens without masks also milled about, exchanging quarantine stories and admiring engines. Scott said that while he hoped that attendees could self-regulate, he didn’t have a way to enforce social distancing rules set by public health officials.

“I have absolutely no control over what people do or don’t do, I have no way of enforcing what they should do, nor am I going to tell people what they should or shouldn’t do,” Scott said. “We would hope that people use their own discretion to abide by the current rules and regulations.”

There was also a small minority of attendees who engaged in other behaviors that Scott said the event had actively discouraged, including burnouts, racing and littering.

“Unfortunately, like any event you leave open to the public, you’re going to get a few of those bad seeds that want to do reckless stuff like burnouts and the other stuff,” Scott said.

“If the police want to have a presence, we have no problem with that whatsoever,” Scott added. “In fact, we’d encourage it — we’re not trying to do anything illegal. We’re just trying to go out and do something socially that we can enjoy.”

Scott added that he hoped that attendees understand that events like this have been shut down in the past due to illegal behavior, and the long-term success of a local revival of cruising downtown could be dependent on attendees abiding by the rules of the road.

The vast majority of attendees respected the rules, Scott added, and he felt the overall impact of the event was a positive one. If cruising in Moses Lake does become a regular event, Scott said he’d like to see some engagement with local businesses and restaurants that have had fewer customers during the pandemic shutdown, which might benefit from the large event.

Though the event may have been boosted by being the only game in town — many car shows and other events have been canceled during the pandemic, and Saturday’s event attracted many from out of town — Scott said he hopes that cruising in Moses Lake is here to stay. Though nothing has been planned yet, Scott said he’d like it to become a monthly, biweekly or even weekly get-together.

“There’s a lot of things that the whole virus deal has changed a lot, but in looking at it from something like this, I sure hope this is something where people look at it and say ‘this is a lot of fun, let’s continue to do this,’” Scott said.

Emry Dinman can be reached via email at edinman@columbiabasinherald.com.