Our Tour to the 2007 Eastern National Meet – Fairfax, VA
By Ken Bounds
This is going to sound a little like a stuck record. After a year of planning and anticipation, we were off again to an Eastern National Meet. Last year while killing some time during the washed-out concourse day at the meet in Batavia, NY, several of us registered for the 2007 meet in Fairfax and made reservations at the meet hotel. It sure seemed like a long way off, but now the date was here.
Just before the meet, Dan and Diane Pudelek hosted our traditional drivers meeting at their home. While we enjoyed a nice meal and beverages provided by our hosts, we went over maps and the tour route, a travel checklist, and plans to visit an “old friend” along the way. Everyone went home with a prize from our trivia contest. There was a little Fairfax history, a little V-8 club trivia, and a lot of laughs.
Meeting the morning of Wednesday, May 30, at the Lincoln Oasis were Joe & Nell Kozmic in their ’37 Coupe, Joey Novak in his ’40 Pickup, Dan & Diane Pudelek in their ’53 Victoria, and Ken & Carolyn Bounds in our ’50 Convertible. We set off on our approximately 750-mile journey to Fairfax, with plans to make it to the Pittsburgh area the first day. There was only one minor hiccup from a balky distributor, but with a replacement bolted on at an Ohio service plaza, we easily made our goal. We ate dinner that night at the Lonestar Steakhouse – the very restaurant where we stopped on our trip to the 2004 Eastern meet in Frederick, MD.
That trip three years ago was memorable for several reasons. First, coincidentally, Brood X of cicadas was very active at the time in the east, just like Brood XIII is here now. (Brood designations of periodical cicadas is a whole story in itself). But the part the author would like to forget is the problems I had at the time with debris in my gas tank. After countless times on the side of the turnpikes trying to blow debris out of the gas line, the convertible finally gave up in Pennsylvania, just north of the Maryland state line. We were very fortunate to find a man named Roland in Hancock, MD, who came and collected the car with a flatbed truck, hauled it to his garage, and blew out the line for good with compressed air.
We mention this now because we decided that there was no way we could “blow” by Hancock without a stop at Roland’s garage. Roland and his son were happy to come out and visit with us and snap a few pictures of our cars. We had a very nice time reminiscing about my little misfortune in 2004. Everyone was glad that we took the time to stop.
As usual, one of the highlights of a national meet is renewing acquaintances with V-8 folks from all over the country. From the moment we arrived at the hotel and went through the meet registration process it was like a family reunion. We had a nice time at various events chatting with this year’s National President Craig Gorris – a great V-8 guy. It was also good to see transplanted cheesehead Jerry Reichel, National Vice-President, who now lives in Georgia. I was also glad to see old friend John Treadway from Ohio who proceeded to extract most of the contents of my wallet for some of his incredible parts.
There were many activities planned for the meet and the tours were terrific. On Friday we boarded buses for a trip to Washington, DC, and a guided tour of various monuments, memorials (we learned there is a difference), and historic buildings. We were very fortunate to have the services of Northern Virginia V-8 member Don Lombard, who is also an accomplished tour guide. His knowledge of the sites we saw was truly impressive. We had time to tour and take pictures at many war memorials and the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials. There were photo opportunities outside the Capitol and the White House. Everyone seemed to especially enjoy the Franklin D. Roosevelt memorial and the Iwo Jima statue.
After a long, fulfilling day of touring, we returned to the hotel and jumped in the cars for a short drive to the home of Tom and Chris O’Hare – Carolyn’s parents! We were joined also by Carolyn’s sister Micki and had a great evening with terrific food and even better company. We even got to show off the cars to the neighborhood. A big “thank you” to my in-laws for a fine evening.
Wow, were there a lot of V-8’s at this meet! There were so many that parking was extremely tight in the hotel parking lot. Fortunately, when Concourse Day rolled around on Saturday many of the point-judged cars were moved to a separate, adjacent lot, giving everyone a little more elbow room. We are still waiting to hear a count from the NVRG, but there had to be over 200 super cars. While Nell and Diane took another bus tour of Mt. Vernon and Old Town Alexandria, the rest of us spent a sunny, hot day viewing this fine collection of V-8’s and voting for our favorites in the Touring classes.
How about this for a coincidence? When I was restoring my convertible 5 years ago, a valuable resource for me was old friend Cecil Goff, the 49-51 advisor for the Early Ford V-8 Club. Cecil has owned a ’50 Ford with the exact same color scheme as mine for over 50 years. So who is parked right next to me on the concourse? Cecil Goff with his Casino Cream ’50 Convertible. We had a great time. Cecil also owns a maroon/black ’50 Crestliner and a ’36 Ford Cabriolet. This is just too spooky.
We really can’t say enough about the number and quality of cars on the concourse. There were many Dearborn cars, many concourse cars that would become Dearborn cars the next day, many Rouge cars, and plenty of Touring. There were several 3-window coupes, quite a few Mercurys and Lincolns, and even a lot of shoeboxes. Very impressive.
After the concourse we took a ride over country roads to a barbeque at a farm owned by NVRG member Jim Cross. There was entertainment and an opportunity to view Jim’s large collection of Fords, Buicks, and other antique cars and memorabilia.
On Sunday we had a real treat – a tour of the National Air & Space Museum’s massive Udvar-Hazy center at Dulles airport. A steady rain put a damper on a photo opportunity of all the V-8’s in the parking lot, but the view inside was spectacular. We just don’t have the space to describe the incredible collection of aircraft (both military and commercial), engines, rockets, and spacecraft. From the earliest attempts at flight at the time of the Wright Brothers, to the awe-inspiring Enola Gay, to the French Concorde, to the SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance plane, to the space shuttle Enterprise. If you ever have the chance to be in the DC area, don’t miss the opportunity to spend some time at this museum.
Sunday night we had an enjoyable social hour followed by the awards dinner. We were joined at our table by John McNally with his wife and daughter. John’s immaculate ’32 3-Window Coupe just happens to be featured in a two-part article in the last two issues of the V-8 Times. There were plenty of speeches and presentations. The long-distance trophy was awarded to someone in the NIRG group. There was some concern that we may have doctored our mileage a bit, but I don’t think they were ready to offer odometer repair – we were pretty close. Anyway, the trophy was initially awarded to Joey Novak, but upon later review was “re-awarded” to the author.
All the NIRG V-8’s brought home awards: Dan Pudelek received a Rouge Medallion, Joey Novak a first in Touring-A, Ken Bounds a second in Touring, and Joe Kozmic a third in Touring. Nell Kozmic won the centerpiece, a very-nicely done ceramic jug with a V-8 logo.
Monday morning we began our return trip home. Fortunately, we had no problem at all with traffic leaving Northern Virginia and the Flatheads performed flawlessly all the way home. Needing a little fuel, we left the Interstate for a loop through Hancock and one last chance to exchange a wave with Roland as we drove by. Of course, we had to hit our traditional rainstorm in Ohio, but it was not as bad as last year’s. We racked up about 525 miles and called it a day near Montpelier, OH. With just over 200 miles to go, the final leg of the journey home on Tuesday was a snap, with everyone arriving safely before noon.
We thank our co-hosts Cliff Green and Hank Dubois, along with the entire Northern Virginia Regional Group, for their hospitality and for setting up some exciting events during the meet. After four straight years of attending the Eastern National Meets, it is time to skip next year. But that doesn’t mean we won’t be heading east. Next year we will be off again to the Grand National Meet in Dearborn!