Our Tour to the 2006 Eastern National Meet – Batavia, NY

By Ken Bounds

On July 10 a small group from the NIRG arrived in Batavia, NY, to attend the Eastern National Meet, sponsored by Western New York Regional Group #3 – the second oldest active regional group in the Early Ford V-8 Club.  Driving the 625 or so miles from the Chicago area had taken two days, but the planning had been going on for nearly a year.

While attending the 2005 Eastern National Meet in Hiawassee last June we were treated to a lively presentation about the Batavia meet from Co-Chairman Bob Malley.  His enthusiasm was contagious.  As soon as we returned home we were checking out Batavia.  A quick review of maps revealed some good news:  Batavia would be the closest meet to Chicago since the last Grand National in Dearborn.  We were going!

The meet hotels have been selling out very early for National meets, so we registered right away.  By early August most of us were already registered for the meet and had made our hotel reservations.  As the months passed we went over the route to the meet, planned overnight stops along the way, and generally got the cars ready to go.  That is a bit of an understatement since three of us installed new engines and another did a partial restoration!

About a week before the meet we held our “traditional” drivers’ meeting - if you can call the second year in a row tradition, that is.  We all met at Home Run Inn pizza in Addison, then over to our house for a few refreshments, to go over maps and the tour route, to review a travel checklist, and for a Batavia-related trivia contest.  Everyone won a Rain-X kit.  Carolyn also got to show off her new kitchen.

Finally, the week of the meet was here.  Sunday morning, July 9, we met at the Chicago Southland Lincoln Oasis (yes, that is the new name).  Well, we sort of met.  Road construction complicated access to the Oasis, so we had some difficulty getting together.  But with that crisis solved, we were on our way.  Don & Elaine Braun in their ’36 Coupe, Joe & Nell Kozmic in their ’37 Coupe, Joey Novak in his ’40 Pickup, Dan & Diane Pudelek in their ’53 Victoria, Stan Gaynor & Art Russell in a modern car, and Ken & Carolyn Bounds in our ’50 Convertible.

Our goal the first day was to get past Cleveland.  With the flatheads running well, we accomplished that and more, making it to Erie, PA, for the night.  Coincidentally, we met several folks at the hotel who were returning to Canada from a GoodGuys Streetrod meet in Columbus.  After a nice dinner and relaxing evening, we headed out again in the morning for the last leg of the trip to Batavia. 

After paying the cash tolls on the Indiana Toll Road and the Ohio Turnpike, it was nice to get on the New York Throughway, which accepts our I-Pass for toll collection.  In a pleasant surprise, we learned that the I-Pass, like the local E-ZPass, receives a 10% discount on Throughway tolls.  We have not yet decided what to do with the 76¢ each car saved by using the I-Pass.  By noon Monday we had arrived at the host hotel, the Holiday Inn of Batavia.

After checking into the hotel, we hit the meet registration desk, picked up our mileage pins, checked out the large item raffles, and spent a few dollars at the Chinese auction.  Then it was out on the concourse for the safety check and the thinning of our wallets by the various swap meet vendors.

It was really nice to meet old friends and acquaintances from all over the country.  I always have a good time comparing notes with others on how far they drove their V-8’s to the meet.  One humorous story involves Bob York from Texas.  He and his friends Jimmy and ?????? are regular attendees at National meets.  It was not interesting enough that Bob drove his ’40 over 1,600 miles to Batavia, but we also found out that Bob had Jimmy pushing his car to start it when the starter didn’t cooperate.  And Jimmy is older than Bob!

While in Batavia we took advantage of the various events, meetings, and dinners that had been planned.  There was plenty of time for kicking tires, telling stories, and tailgating in the parking lot.  Also attending the meet, but not driving with our group were NIRG members Paul Jensen and Paul Linzer.  There were a few glitches during the meet, but overall it came off very well.  The most memorable glitch was well beyond the control of the organizers:  a complete washout of concourse day!  Even some of the vendors told us the day before that they planned to pack up and leave based on the weather forecast.  They were right.  The downpours during the day were incredible.  Every time you thought it was about to clear up, here came another one.  After much huddling by the Judges and meet hosts, the decision was made to postpone the concourse by a day.  Accommodations were made to point judge about 10 vehicles under the hotel entrance canopy for owners who had prior commitments the next day.

The evening before the new concourse day we all boarded buses for a trip to Niagara Falls and a local casino.  The falls were beautiful, although we did not take the time to walk over to the Canada side.  After a terrific buffet, we hit the gambling floor.  I can’t speak for everyone, but Carolyn did pretty well on the slot machines.  At least we left with more money than we came with.

Concourse day arrived bright and sunny.  What a nice collection of V-8’s!  I never got a count, but guess there were around 200 cars – most of them super-nice.  After getting our cars into place and final detailing, we spent some time walking the concourse to look at all the cars and fill out our ballots for the touring classes.  There appeared to be about an even split between the Concourse/Dearborn class cars and the touring cars.  There was also a large representation of Rouge Class cars.  There was even time for schmoozing with National President Tom Johnston.  Because the rainout of the prior day put a great burden on the judging and voting tabulation process and preparation of the awards for the banquet that night, the head judge released the concourse early – about 1:00.

Right after that we were in for a real treat.  The meet organizers arranged for a drive-through of the grounds of a nearby Veterans home.  Quite a few cars from the concourse participated.  The grounds were filled with veterans, some standing, but many in wheelchairs or using canes or walkers.  What an honor it was to parade our V-8’s in front of them.  And my goodness they were applauding us!  It was we who needed to applaud them.  To me this was the highlight of the week.  “Thank You” to the Western NY Group for thinking of this.

At the awards dinner, our group gathered at table 18.  Of course we couldn’t resist altering the number to a V-8.  As the awards were passed out, our table was not forgotten.  Dan received a Rouge Medallion for his interior and drive train.  Don and Joey received first-place trophies for Touring-A, Joe and Ken received first-place trophies for Touring.  While the real fun of the meet is driving the cars and enjoying the camaraderie and events, the trophies make a nice memento and give you the incentive to keep those V-8’s on the road and looking great.

Friday morning it was time to say our goodbyes to Batavia and all our V-8 friends.  The drive back was fairly uneventful until Toledo.  As very dark clouds gathered on the horizon, we knew we were in for some rain.  When it hit, it was not just a little rain – this stuff was serious.  I can’t speak for the closed cars, but the convertible got quite wet inside, even with the top and all the windows up.  It was not until after the worst was over that we could see the evidence of how much rain had fallen.  The ditches on either side of the turnpike lanes were nearly filled with water.  We decided to call it a day at the next sign of motels.  We didn’t even bother with the first motel we checked – the parking lot was completely filled with 6-10 inches of water!  We went to a nearby Best Western that seemed to have a lake in the middle, but at least there was some dry land near the doors.

 

For our final night on the road we literally did some tailgating, having a pizza party on Joey’s pickup (don’t let Lloyd see the pictures!).  There were a lot of stories and a few lies told.  Hopefully, everyone enjoyed our trip and the meet.  As we turned in for the night, we knew that we had only a relatively short 240 miles or so home.

Everyone arrived back home around noon Saturday.  Tired, but safe & sound.  Perhaps the best news was that throughout the nearly 1,300-mile trip, a concourse washout, a biblical deluge on the drive home, and 90° plus heat, we did not suffer a glitch with any of our V-8’s! Our thanks go out to Co-chairs Bob & Judy Malley and the entire Western New York group for hosting this meet.  Oh, one more thing.  At the meet we saw a presentation for the 2007 Eastern National Meet in Fairfax, VA, and received a flyer for the 2007 Central National Meet in Winona, MN.  Here we go again!