Our Tour to the 2012 Central National Meet

By Ken Bounds

After months of anticipation, the fun got underway August 11 with our traditional “Drivers Meeting” at Home Run Inn Pizza in Addison.  Ten V-8ers who were planning to make the trip to Branson, MO, attended, along with a couple who were not going.  We even had five Early V-8s in the parking lot.  After some tire kicking followed by delicious pizza, we had a short meeting to go over plans for traveling to Branson and ways we could assist while at the meet.

Because we had agreed to arrive early to help the meet organizers, Joe & Nell Kozmic – ’53 Mercury, Dan & Diane Pudelek – ’53 Victoria, and Ken & Carolyn Bounds – ’50 Convertible left bright and early Saturday, August 18.  This was the inaugural run for Joe’s recently rebuilt engine.  Our Flatheads seemed to enjoy the remarkably cool weather and we arrived at the meet hotel in Branson in the late afternoon after a fairly uneventful 550-mile cruise.  Although we made the same trip in 2001, the hills between Springfield and Branson had mysteriously become much steeper in the past 11 years!

As soon as we pulled into the Radisson parking lot we started running into fellow V-8 Club members.  Some of the first were our long-distance NIRG members Rick & Marissa Claybaugh with daughter Kim.  They had come early to help set up; with school starting they traveled back to Tulsa Sunday, but Rick soon returned with his ’34 Fordor and his brother Earl.  Other NIRG members arriving in the next couple of days included John & Este Scheve trailering their ’37 Tudor, Scott & Nicole Gilday trailering their ’41 Convertible, John Judge driving his ’51 Victoria, and Ron Steck driving his Porsche.

Before early registration opened late Sunday afternoon, we spent time in the registration room helping to fill meet bags and going over the registration process.  Here we met Mark and Jen Wheeler from Cornerstone Registration.  Cornerstone had handled the registration process for the meet; Mark and Jen would be the first people that participants would meet at registration as they started the check-in process.  Carolyn prepared several signs to direct arriving members to the registration room and to the downstairs raffle room.

During the meet, Diane assisted participants through the registration process.  Meanwhile the NIRG ran a 50-50 raffle throughout the meet; we thank our super salespeople, especially Nell, Ron, Diane, Dan, Este, and Carolyn for their efforts which contributed over $500 to the meet.  Early registration on Sunday was a big success as about 40% of the participants checked in.

On Monday the meet really began.  The guys took some time for car cleanup, getting the cars through the operational check, and checking out the small, but high quality, swap meet.  Meanwhile the ladies kept working – supporting registration and selling tickets.  The Your Choice raffle room, run by Bob York and first-time attendee Brenda Clyden, had some super items available.  Rick and Earl put up the “Snap-On Tent” adjacent to the V-8 parking lot; this proved to be a very popular venue all week.  A real treat was to see Don & Martha Robbins there; Martha has been battling cancer – this is the first meet she has attended since 2005.  Monday night brought the welcome party.  Although there was a snafu with the starting time, everything worked out and there was plenty of food for everyone.

Tuesday was a busy day.  The meet continued and the NIRG folks continued their support role.  The afternoon was filled with meetings: the Foundation Meeting, the President’s Meeting, and the Owners/Judges Meeting.  I survived my second President’s Meeting and had a lot of fun doing so.  The crowd was very receptive and had several good questions.  After dinner, we got into our V-8s and headed over to the nearby Dick Clark’s American Bandstand theatre where we saw Legends in Concert.  Everyone enjoyed the performances, but the Elvis impersonator seemed to be the fan favorite.  There was still plenty of time for evening relaxing and war stories under the Snap-On tent.

Wednesday was Concourse Day – the reason we spent all that time getting our Early V-8s ready.  After the Judges’ Breakfast, we drove about 4 miles to the concourse location, the Tri-Lakes Center.  The vehicles were arranged on a scenic hillside; they looked super from the roadside, but the hill made walking a little difficult for some.  The ‘37s were arranged in front of the concourse to honor their 75^th year.  The meet organizers had thoughtfully arranged the ladies event at the same location as the concourse.  After their luncheon and quilting presentation was complete, the ladies had the option to go out to the concourse to enjoy the cars.

Both Joe and Dan served as judges at this meet – Joe was on the ’49 -’53 Mercury team while Dan served as Deputy Judge for the ’52 - ’53 Fords.  Meanwhile, Carolyn spent most of the day in the tabulation room recording the Touring and Touring A ballots.  Again, her system worked great and quickly produced the voting results.  Yours truly had one of the more difficult, but certainly most fun, jobs – selecting the President’s Choice.  At 1:00 we presented 75^th Anniversary certificates and commemorative license medallions to each owner showing a ’37 Ford.

After the concourse wrapped up, we cruised back to the hotel to prepare for our evening event.  We had a scenic drive of about 7 miles over Table Rock Dam to the sternwheeler Branson Belle.  There we were treated to a delicious meal and a terrific show.  The quality of the acts was outstanding.   Comedian/magician Christopher James kept the audience in stiches and even pulled V-8 Club member Cathy Tobako up on stage.  Carolyn was put on the spot as well when musical group The Showmen added her to their act.  We were all wowed by unique aerial violinist Janice Martin, a Racine, WI, native.  Prior to the show we had a chance to walk the ship’s decks - some of us even paid a visit to the wheelhouse.

Thursday was finally a day to sleep in.  We had a relaxing day of visiting; there were over 150 members registered from 29 states – it was great to see them all.  Raffle ticket sales had dwindled down to a few and there was time for lucky winners to pick up their Your Choice Raffle prizes.  Joe won one of the most coveted – a stained glass V-8.  As usual, the Snap-On tent was popular.  In the afternoon Carolyn and I helped get the trophies organized for the evening’s presentation.  Meanwhile the V-8 Club was welcoming its newest member, Earl Claybaugh - he finally took the plunge.

At 5:00 we all began gathering for cocktail hour and the awards banquet.  This was very relaxing after the hectic pace of the week.  It was my honor to introduce dignitaries in the audience and to present several plaques to co-hosts John McBurney and Bruce Nelson, to key committee heads, and for the hard luck and long distance awards.  Carolyn received a plaque for printing and graphic design – she designed the meet logo!

As the concourse awards were announced, I had the pleasure of presenting the awards to the happy recipients.  All NIRG members who showed vehicles received awards.  The evening began wrapping up with Chef Buddy, who kept us fed all week, drawing the winning 50-50 ticket.  A lucky Larry Menard of Wisconsin took home $535 – congratulations to him.  And a big “Thank You” to all the NIRG members who sold over $1,000 worth of tickets. 

At the end of the presentation I had the honor of presenting my President’s Choice to Bill & Mary Ann Whites for their gorgeous Dalmation Green 1937 Ford Coupe.  Bill’s is a great story.  He purchased the ‘37 in 1993 and first had it judged at the 1996 St. Louis meet. When the judges took off 300 points, instead of being upset, Bill worked hard to make the car better.  He showed it at two more National Meets, each time getting closer to the Dearborn level.  Finally, persistence paid off and at the 2001 Brainerd Meet Bill was awarded his first Dearborn.  Congratulations!

As we said our good-byes, we looked forward to seeing our friends again.  Maybe on the National Tour, at next year’s Spring Fling, perhaps at the Grand National in Lake Tahoe.

Friday morning we packed up for the drive home.  We were out of the hotel by 7:00 am and on the road.  We didn’t encounter any problems, except that Dan’s car was really guzzling the gas.  No doubt he has already addressed the problem.  Joe’s rebuilt V-8 ran great – this had to be a relief after struggling with it last year.  We happily arrived home around 6:30 with fond memories of a nice meet and the desire to do it again.