Hello 300 fans,
We all know that a Rob Kern meet is going to be a fantastic meet. Rob never fails to disappoint. I'll spare the hyperbole as it is not my style. One of our smaller meets, it allowed more intimate socialization and camaraderie among the members attending, which is a huge benefit of attending ANY meet! The indisputable fact is that we not just a club, we are family. Nowhere was this more evident than at Bartlesville. As my buddy Randy Thorne said to me after the banquet, now comes the time that is both happy and sad. I guess bittersweet would be the appropriate term. We have to say goodbye to our friends and fellow "300 nuts," but we also cherish the time we had together as a "family" and look forward to the next meet And we did have a great time!
The rather apocalyptic weather forecast turned out to be incorrect, and except for a rainy night on Wednesday and only light rain on Thursday morning, the weather was really good for a meet. This allowed us to fully enjoy the great activities that Rob arranged for us. I'm a big fan of history and architecture and the Wednesday visit of Woolaroc and the Phillips mansion was really special. Among many things we learned, we discovered that Frank and Jane Phillips not only had a beautiful home, they were Chrysler people! The tour guide told us that as many as four Chryslers once occupied the large detached set of garages! unfortunately, none of those cars remain.
Bartlesville and the surrounding area is beautiful, with rolling hills, lakes, and wooded areas. The town itself is very historic, with beautiful old homes and buildings. On Thursday we visited nearby Pawhuska, and that also is neat little place with a very attractive, historic and vibrant downtown. I didn't venture out to the Drummond Ranch (went to the Cowboy Museum instead), but I understand it was really cool as well!
On Friday night we all attended Rob's signature event: Letter Car Jeopardy. I had never had the pleasure of attending one of Rob's prior Jeopardy events, and it turned out to be boatloads of fun! I was privileged to be a contestant, and after getting the hang of it, I guess I did pretty well at answering (albeit forgetting to state the answer as a question, and messing up a J question of all things).
Saturday was a nearly perfect day for the car show, and the local CDJR dealer could not have been more accommodating. While we didn't have a huge turnout of cars, what we had was fantastic, including a never before seen mostly original Cameo Tan E coupe, a beautiful Marti Gras red G coupe from new member Kirk Smith (driven up from Dallas/Ft. Worth), Kelly and Mark's fabulous Cloud White C coupe (new to most of us), and more. Most notable to me about the show was not the number of cars, but how much our members and non-members attending enjoyed seeing the cars and how much they enjoyed the event. We had a couple new members join the club, and all of us made new friends. That is a very important aspect of our meets irrespective of size. There are always new (to us) cars, members, and prospective members to meet and enjoy time with.
The banquet was at the hotel and I must say, while I'm not generally a huge fan of buffets, the food at this one was outstanding! The Tiramisu dessert was like that which you would find in a fine Italian restaurant, perhaps better - I kid you not (no bs, it really was)! Members also brought in some really cool stuff to be auctioned off after the banquet as well.
Of course, we also had our "parking lot" gatherings, which is a quintessential aspect of our meets, spoiled only by getting busted by the Casino management for drinking alcohol in the parking lot, which evidently was verboten. Oh well, it wouldn't be a real meet unless one of us "radicals" causes some trouble!
My wife was unable to join me for the meet due to illness, but after I described what I saw in and around Bartlesville, she has suggested that we go back some time so that she can see it as well and further check out the area. I will say this - and just my personal bias - but I was very impressed with what I saw of Oklahoma. Should we ever relocate to a warmer climate, Oklahoma is one of the few states that we would ever consider. Folks are friendly, cost of living is reasonable, and it is a neat mix of midwestern, southern and western culture. I really enjoyed the visit. A HUGE thanks to Rob and all involved in orchestrating this meet!
Carl B.
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