NCRS Winter Meet and Classic Corvettes of Orlando's
Wonderful World of Corvettes: Old Town, Kissimmee FL
January 25-28, 2006
The weather for this 3800 mile trip more than made up for the last two,
with post card perfect skies and temps the whole time I was in Florida...
and NO SNOW OR ICE STORMS getting there and back!
The NCRS Winter Meet also produced $1300 for the American Cancer Society,
thanks to the winner of our 50/50 drawing donating back his winnings.
This has become a tradition at this event: the winner for
the past 4 years has donated back his share of the pot!
THANK YOU Ed Augustine and NCRS Florida Chapter
for your hospitality and generosity!
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Saturday, January 21
We elected to start out a day or 2 early because of the
forecast of a snowstorm to arrive in Maine on Monday.
Departure from Wiscasset, Maine.
After a brief visit with my parents in Philly, I pushed on to Carlisle PA for the night.
Sunday. January 22
It was a bit FROSTY in Carlisle!
(Note for computer junkies - About an hour after leaving Carlisle, my trusty laptop threw a fit. See rest of the story at bottom of page.)
Then, a momentous event:
Mid morning, I got a call from friend and cancer survivor, Paul Eggermann in NJ. He was on his way home after picking up his new C6 from Kerbeck's in Atlantic City, and was ecstatic! He said it was fantastic, and added that he thought I should have one! He said that he knew I had nearly 200,000 miles (see above) on the Corvettes Conquer Cancer C5, and, with my permission, in the morning he would start a nationwide fund drive to purchase one to replace the C5 so I could continue Sandy's mission! To top it off, he intended to have Corvette Chief Engineer Dave Hill present it to me on the circle in front of the National Corvette Museum on April 22, during the C5 Bash! He says there was a long silence on the phone as this sank in.
Monday, January 23
Leaving the overnight stop of Kingsland, GA, where gas was (relatively) cheap.
Passing through Kissimmee on the way to visit family
in Ft. Myers, I stopped briefly at the show site.
Are we having fun yet?
It took 90 minutes to go 3 miles just east of Tampa! That's the traffic helicopter just above the antenna of the car in front. Seems a lumber truck took a tumble and scattered its load over both directions of I-4. Pickup sticks... (And just now as I edit this I noticed the plate on that Mercedes!)
Wednesday, January 25
After spending 2 nights with Sandy's sister, her husband and her parents in Ft. Myers, I headed back toward Orlando.
I had arranged to stop on the way at Jake Delaney's Corvette Ranch in Sarasota to pick up some tune-up goodies. When I got there, Jake insisted that they do the work too! His son Brian made short work of the plugs, wires & filters and some cleanup detailing, and I joined them for a great lunch as well. Thanks Jake, Brian and Teresa!
Checked into the Comfort Suites, car washed, looking over the Old Town complex.
Thursday, January 26
When our assigned space proved to be too small to fit both my display and the car,
our hosts quickly found this great alternate spot, right inside the entrance.
Yes, all that stuff came out of the Vette: 12' of table, 10' tent, chairs, display stuff!
All tied down for the night, ready for dinner at Logan's Roadhouse with Carl Zander.
View from my room after dinner. Yup, my stuff is still there -
under the bright lights, left of center.
Friday, January 27
Same view. Wow, looks like I'm late, but at least my tent & table are still there!
Our display from the entrance, and the entrance from behind our display.
A lot more clouds, but still 70's. Gotta love it!
Dinner Friday night was with the National Corvette Museum group, back
at Race Rock Cafe again. As usual, a great dinner with great people.
This was our table: Tony & Pat Vernogis, Jake Delaney and yours truly.
Saturday, January 28.
More ideal weather to wrap up the show and pack up. No worthwhile photos.
Ed Augustine MC'd the Saturday Awards Banquet.
After dinner, we did the usual 50/50 Drawing to benefit the American Cancer Society. The pot came to $1300, and the winner was Larry Martin, the immediate Past Chairman of the Board of the National Corvette Museum. Larry had bought tickets from me since we first started doing the 50/50, and always said that he hoped he would win it, because if he did, he would donate his 50% back. He made good on his promise, so the whole $1300.00 went to the American Cancer Society in Florida!
That's Larry on the left in this photo with Doug Fehan from the C5/C6 Bash last year.
Sunday, January 29.
Some scenes from the Classic Corvettes of Orlando show
Monday, January 30.
The perfect weather had to end sometime, and the perfect timing
would have to be Monday, the day after most people left for home.
Calling it a day in Statesville, NC
Tuesday, January 31
Calling another day in Clark's Summit, PA.
Wednesday, February 1
Back home in Maine. No ugly weather or scary photos this time!
Computer fit, cont'd from Sunday Jan 22:
About an hour after heading South from Carlisle, my trusty laptop threw a fit. The GPS on my Delorme map program froze, and I couldn't get it restarted. Plugging the receiver into a different usb port didn't help. Thinking it might be a problem with the receiver, I tried the usb connection to my camera: no response. OK, maybe it's a usb problem. I then tried the camera card directly in the built-in slot in the laptop: still no response! Next step was to check the Windows Device Manager for problem alerts. The Device Manager box opened up - EMPTY! What the *&$#%!
OK, looks like we might have a Windows problem! Since the laptop seemed to be working fine otherwise, and I could still use the map program, I just chilled, and figured I would work it out at the overnight stop. It was not to be - the laptop had lost any communication with anything outside its little plastic shell - meaning NO Internet and NO e-mail!!! Does that suck or what!
When I had a free moment at the Comfort Suites I contacted (who else but) Paul Eggermann for ideas. He did some research and quickly got back to me with a possible solution he had found: a simple configuration setting. When reset to what it should have been - IT WORKED! Thanks Paul!