Corvette's at the
World Space Expo
Kennedy Space Center
November 2007
For Sale or Trade
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Our primary destination for this planned Tour
was the Flywheelers Park in Fort Meade, FL. (100
Photos on photos page, Link in left margin.)
On the 25th of February, five (5) model A’s left
from the Kissimmee/St Cloud area. In Haines City, we met up with four
(4) more Model A’s who left from the Orlando-Casselberry area. They
arrived late. Their group had one vehicle that had trouble. It turned
out to be just a blown fuse. This was enough to award Tony and Carol
Martin the coveted Lulu-the-pig award. This award is given anytime a
vehicle causes the convoy to stop, other than for a pit stop, disrupting
the tours planned schedule.
We all then caravanned down Hwy 27 to our
scheduled lunch break at Beef O’Brady’s in Lake Wales. There we met up
with Clem Dowler and his Model A. We enjoyed a great lunch and continued
our tour. We arrived at the Econolodge just south of Avon Park at about
3 pm. This was about an 80 mile trip for me.
At the hotel, as we think about it now, a funny
incident occurred. Jerry Isibell parked his model A on a slight incline
and forgot to set the brake or put it in gear. He then went over and
began talking with another guest at the hotel who brought a replica of a
1901 Model T in the back of his pickup. As you probably already
surmised, it suddenly started to roll backwards towards Bill Burton’s
Model A. A large group of the other model Aers ran over and stopped, the
runaway “A” before it caused any damage.
Happy hour was set up in one of the rooms. Most
of the group ended up setting up their chairs out in the parking lot in
front of the room. It started to rain, but this didn’t dampen the
spirits of the group. We gathered under the overhang and Clem had us all
in stitches with his - Nay and Yay joke about “My Aunt Susie, she died
last night.” It took some of us a very long time to catch on and a few
never did decipher what was different between nay and yay.
Do to the gracious acts of two members who
agreed to share rooms Van and Ann Maddox, drove down in their POV and
joined in on the fun. Reservations were made in advance, that we all
would go to a near by restaurant for our evening meal. This turned out
to be quite a disaster. One table with six members had a great waitress
and good service and food. The other two tables, or the other twelve
members, including myself, had Broom Hilda for our waitress. She came to
the table with an attitude. We ordered our meals; and one and a half
hours later, we still had not been served. After a talk to the manager,
by Claudia, we got served. Most of the food served by Broom Hilda turned
out to be as bad as the waitress. Claudia again took the ball and ran
with it, that is, again she spoke with the Manager. She was very
defensive, making many excuses as to the bad service and food, but
conceded that if we were not satisfied, she would not charge those not
satisfied for the food.
After that we returned to the motel to continue
with Happy Hour. Claudia surprised her husband Bill with a birthday
cake. It was also Ann Maddox’s birthday, so a special day was had by
both.
The next morning we all got in our cars and
drove to the Fly Wheelers Park which was about 15 miles away. There we
were greeted by Wild Willy. We all parked our vehicles in his used up
car lot as he called it.
At 10:30, we were lined up and made a parade
around the 100 acre park. We were greeted with lots of applause and
thumbs up. After the parade, we went back to the Wild Willy’s Used Car
Lot and parked our cars. Wild Willy then had someone watch our cars
which allowed all of us to wander through the park. He told us that we
should go down the block and we would be there just in time to see a
model “T” be put together and running within just 5 Minutes. We watched
and I got some good shots of this. They had 5 men. Wheels, frames,
fenders, etc. were scattered in the area and together they did in fact
put the “T” together and had it running in a little over the 5 minutes.
This was amazing and fun to watch. We were only able to cover a very
small part of this park. It would take at least 2 days to see all the
antique exhibits, vendors, tractors, live entertainment and enjoy the
food. I never knew there were so many different models of flywheel
tractors. At about 4 p.m., we all loaded up and headed back to the
Motel. It seems Shirley had put my hood down when we were taking some
group pictures. She did this quickly and did not latch the hood down.
She forgot all about it until after we started driving back and noticed
the hood moving. She was afraid that the hood would fly up. She advised
those in the caravan that we had to stop our vehicle to properly latch
the hood. We all stopped to fill up with gas on the way back to the
rooms. At that time, they advised me that, I was lucky enough to receive
the coveted Lulu-the-Pig Award because I stopped my vehicle and
therefore delayed the tour.
Again a Happy Hour was set up. Some of us wanted
to get some thing to eat and the Burtons and the Hood’s went to Sebring
to a Barn Hill restaurant. There we enjoyed a good meal. We all went to
bed and arose to a rainy day. We all had to load up and travel back to
the Orlando, Kissimmee areas. When the Wendlings came out of their room,
they found their car decorated with balloons as Al called them, but I do
believe there is another name and use for them.
On our way home, Tony and Carol had their car
get water in the distributor. Of course, Tony had to stop and dry the
distributor, so they were the lucky ones and ended up getting
Lulu-the-pig back.
A great time was had by all. The trip was about
215 miles total from my house, and those from the Orlando area had quite
a few more miles. We had two cars get misdirected but they made it home
safe and sound. All and all a great time was had by everyone who
ventured on this tour. A great big thanks to Jeff and Debbie Stewart
(the tour directors for 2005) for all their work planning this tour, I
am sure it was not a small job.
All are now looking forward to the next road
tour, which is scheduled for next month at the Villages. Van Maddox is
working with the Stewarts to arrange the activities associated with this
tour.
See photo page in left column.
Ron
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