October 23-26, 2017
Westgate River Ranch, Florida
Things
kicked off with a board meeting.
Important problems were solved.
And then
that evening it got a bit more casual. Debi Stalder got right in to the
swing
of things at the opening reception/welcome dinner. Note the cowboy boot
glass.
Here are
some of the participants enjoying a down home meal.
Next day we
started off with a nice casual breakfast buffet (included), then boarded the bus
(pictured beyond the handicapped sign). Then at 8am we headed out to the
Kennedy Space Center.
This picture should start to show you how nice our venue was.
Here we
are heading into the Space Center.
They were
in a hurry to run in and see the sights, so they just about ran off without me..
I know, I
know, it is the Sunshine State. Yes, it was cloudy that day, but the
temperature was just about perfect.
There are
many options on what to see at any given time. We opted to board the bus
that goes out to the pads.
Rockets are a bit
dangerous. So they launch from a pad that is miles away.
On this
part of the tour there wasn't any getting about and exploring on your own.
This is the Vehicle Assembly Building.
And we
like to keep our Vette in a garage. Wow, so these are the Space Shuttle
Garages...same idea.
This is a
mobile rocket launcher. A trip to Mars will start here.
Sorry
about the reflection from the glass. This is pad 39B. It is
being re-done for
general launch use.
Another
view of the Vehicle Assembly Building.
Now we
are inside and learning from a presentation that included the Apollo launch
control modules.
Here's a
better view of the presentation.
There are
performance exhausts..... and then there are performance exhausts. This is
the Saturn V rocket.
And this
is the moon lander. It is the real thing because they cancelled the last
three missions.
And it
was up close and personal with the Space Shuttle Atlantis.
Part of
the Space Shuttle cockpit.
Would you
look at this typical tourist..
This is
the real deal astro-van.
And when
we left our bus driver took us to the Dixie Crossroads Seafood Restaurant in
Titusville. It is very famous and very popular and for good reason.
IT was really good.
Now fast
forward to Wednesday, October 25. After another nice buffet breakfast
(included),
I caught up with Monte Hagerman and his nice black '61. He has owned this
car since
1968. It has a non-original motor that was there when he became the owner.
He fabricated those side pipes himself.
Here's an
under the hood view.
He
relocated the battery in the trunk, made it so you could slide it out on those
tracks.
Here you
can see a nice '62 with owners Wally and Darlene Abela.
They have owned the car for about 3 years. He finished
its' restoration when the
owner then gave up. The car is a Texas car.
They drive and enjoy the car.
And
here's a peek under the hood. It is a Chevy 383.
With nice
interior.
The resort had all kinds
of activities. Here is the marina.
The
entryway to the marina.
And here is
their swamp buggy.
And this is
part of the driver's meeting for the road tour to Bok Tower in Lake Wales.
Getting
ready for the road tour.
And here
is the tower itself. It is in a beautiful garden setting.
At the top is the carillon bells. We hit it just right as
they were having a visiting
carillon player performing that day. And he was no amateur! Played
beautiful music.
And they
even had closed circuit flat-screen TV allowing you to watch him play.
Here you
can see some of the captivated audience members.
This
should give you an idea of the beauty and serenity that was there to enjoy.
Out there
in the parking area I caught up with Tyler Townsley. This car was pieces
in boxes in 2003 when he got it.
And then
we went to Manny's Restaurant in Lake Wales. Manny specializes in steaks.
You might
not know this, but Debi Stalder has a music background and she helped
the Blues Brothers.
We had a
private dining room. It was super noisy...until they started bring out the
steaks.
It got real quiet then.
And it
was happy birthday Russ Sobczak..
Now fast forward to
Thursday. This is a custom car for the GM Motorama. John Baldwin is
the owner.
Here's
another view.
The tech
sessions were really good. Presenting were Rich Mozzetta on C1 electrical,
Bill Tower on C1 race heritage, John Baldwin on the concept car, and Ken Kayser
on Corvette history.
SACC VP
Brad Bean brought plenty of merchandise.
And Guest
speaker at the banquet was Ken Kayser, Corvette Historian. His talk
was
at odds with some of the history we have learned, but he also presented the
written
evidence. Forget May 30 being the build date for the first Corvette.
When was it?
Obviously you missed out on an informative session.
Your club
officers were all there. (L to R) Ken Amrick, Editor, On Solid
Ground, Bill
Stalder, Western Regional Representative, Ron Dill, Eastern Regional
Representative,
Bruce Fuhrman, Secretary, Brad Bean, SACC Vice President, Lucy Badenhoop,
Treasurer/Membership,
Max Brockhouse, President, and Jack Hollada, Central Region Representative and
website editor.
There was a general membership meeting where elections took place. re-elected were Jack Hollada, Brad Bean, and Lucy Badenhoop.
Well, that was a general run-down of the convention. There
was more going on, but it is hard to be in two places at the same time.
And I have said it before, if you missed
it, you missed it.
-Jack Hollada (Holiday), DC, SACC Central Representative