<VV> Was Tim's Buffalo Report Now Joes Yenko Report

[Joseph Robbins]

I'll add my two cents and do a me too on Tims report of the Twinsburg
Hilton. I have never stayed at a hotel that was as high quality as the
Hilton Garden in Twinsburg OH and that includes the huge Hilton in Chicago
which is over twice the price. 
I emailed the Hilton today telling them how friendly the entire staff was, 
The maids, the grounds people, all had a smile and asked if they could do
anything to help, it was unreal. The manager jumped through hoops making
sure things went smooth. He was at the banquet, got the police caravan
escort, and to top it off as we left the hotel, he was at the edge of town
waving as we headed to the track. Unreal is all I can say. I could go on but
won't, the car show was nice, a wide variety of cars and over 30 Stingers,
plus race cars and street cars, over 50 Corvairs easily.  The Super Cars and
race Vettes really added a nice twist to the show, those folks even stayed
for the banquet, a nice day for all. The track day was another good time,
being a pit flunky for Dan G. and BBRT kept my son and I busy but the sights
and sounds of the cars at speed will stay with me until the next Racers
Reunion. I could go on and on with details but I'll spare you. This was our
7th Reunion and I hope there are many more. It will be hard or impossible to
top this one, it was a real blast.

Joe Robbins

-----Original Message-----
From: virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org
[mailto:virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org] On Behalf Of Tim Verthein
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2006 7:07 PM
To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
Subject: <VV> Tim's Buffalo Report

OK, over on the Forum..matt asked about reports/experiences from
Buffalo.  Rather than try to type it twice....here's my report...

Happiness is Buffalo in your rearview mirror......

OK, I gotta say, it wasn't ALL that bad for us.  but we're now enroute
to home..near Gary, IN actually, and on to Oshkosh tomorrow then to
Minneapolis, then home up north.  Anyway.....

We had no trouble checking in to the hotel.  We had, a few days
earlier, called in and cancelled our room for Friday night, as we
decided to leave a day early and get Oshkosh on the list of things to
do. And they had our change in plans taken care of no problem.  We also
had no trouble with our convention registration. Our packet was waiting
for us, everything was in it.  the only trouble is...on our name tags
they had the wrong club listed...but since our club (Head of the Lakes
Corvair Assn, Duluth) was BRAND new when I registered (we have JUST
received our CORSA charter) it's very possible I had the number wrong
when I filled out the forms, but that was the only glitch there.

The hotel itself was about what I expected for an older downtown
facility. Although, we just checked in to the Super 8 here, and
commented it's nicer than the host hotel in Buffalo.  Here, we have
FAST wireless internet, in room fridge and microwave, and room to walk
in the room. There we couldn't even hardly get to the desk, as not
enough room to even pull the chair out.  The elevators were slow and a
pain in the ass.  Two were broken for a couple days. The parking ramp
was kind of fun to see filled with Corvairs, although the debris
falling from the ceiling into the parking area was a bit daunting. All
the staff we had contact with was polite and did their job well. They
weren't exactly friendly for the most part, but professional anyway.
They never restocked our room toilet paper, they never brought us
coffee for the inroom coffee maker unless we asked for it, and the wife
cleaned the shower before she used it the first time...there was black
ick in the tiles. But, hey, we're from northern Minnesota, we're used
to roughing it.  the TV remote never worked (even after we got them to
give us new batteries for it).

WE hated the downtown location. OK, I'm a small town guy, cities scare
me.  The fact that we'd pull out of the parking lot and instantly be
lost was very unnerving. To the point where we didn't even want to
leave the premesis.  We tried to get to a Denny's one night, wound up
in Canada. This kinda thing has GOT to be done at an out of the city
location.  I'm still recovering. I hate downtown, I hate traffic, I
hate being lost.  There was NO place to go that was handy from that
hotel.  You couldn't run to a family type resturant.  The resturant in
the hotel seems to have good food, limited selection and wildly
expensive. you couldn't stop at a handy store, get gas, choose another
resturanta, or much of anything. 

Now, taking into account what the clubs had to work with given that
location, it was OK. I thought having the valve cover races and
welcoming party on the navy ship was way cool.  The park for the
concours and display was very nice, on the lake, and quite nice indeed.
 The track for the autocross was a neat facility.  Although I wound up
not running due to clutch cable paranoia, things seemed to run OK,
except I wondered why it was fair for some to have to run in the rain. 
My biggest beef from a clubs duty standpoint was the lack of good (or
any) directions.  My god, getting anywhere was a scary nightmare. 
maybe not to people used to being in a city, but holy god man. The
track was a long way away.  We got THREE different sets of directions
off the internet, which were different than those provided by the club,
but we got there.  Same for the park for the car display, etc. I
realize the club folks have to deal with the city, and the perception
of out of towners, but my god..if we didn't have in room internet and
our iBook with us, we would have never got anywhere! But the events
themselves (once we found them) seemed to be organized and in
appropriate locations. GOOD DIRECTIONS are the key to happiness for out
of towners.

I feel bad for anyone who may have been there with a family. Kids in
this atmosphere would have driven me to the edge of insanity. 

Spent a lot of time in the vendor area..always going back to buy more. 
Always.  It's like..heck..might as well grab some oil filters.....and a
spare belt.....and more note pads.....as long as I'm here...haahaa. 
this morning I was after a spoiler before we left..we wanted to get on
the road early...and about 8AM no one was manning the Clarks area yet,
but i could have easily walked off with half the inventory if I wanted
to. but they were on duty shortly there after and I got my spoiler and
we got on the road. 

I should mention we blew most of a day at Niagara Falls, and that was
GREAT, so there's something to be said for having your event at one of
the 7 wonders of the world!

One other beef was the parking ramp.ticket thing.  Nothing anyone could
o I guess, but once we figured out the system.....take a
ticket..park..go inside and have it "activated" then that ticket works
to open the gate to get out...sometimes anyway...then when you come
back, get another ticket....go have it validated...maybe it works
again, etc....we have a whole lot of those tickets now!

But, despite all this we had fun.  The hospitality room was great,
always full of people, plenty of pop and treats. The goodies on Canada
day were extra yummy. It was keen to get to yack with a lot of Vair
folks, met some I knew only on the internet, and a few I had met in
Iowa.  Lots of GREAT cars, especially at the autocross....the Team
EArly guys were my personal favorites. The club people we dealt with
were all polite, friendly and helpful.  Now, of course we don't know
why/how that facility got chosen, but considering what they had to work
with the club seemed to do OK (except for DIRECTIONS!!!) yes. the Super
8 I'm sitting in right now is nicer, even though the guy at the desk
hardly speaks english...but he is pleasant.

OK..on to the Yenko review.  We went strictly as spectators.  A very
professional hotel..almost to the point of being to ritzy for me.  the
beds in the room were the most comfortable beds we have EVER slept on
in our LIFE on this planet, the pillows too.  i don't know what they
all were, but my god we've never slept that well or that comfortable. 
having the show at the hotel was great. We could just wander out and
look at cars. Everyone was polite, club members and staff. The facility
was superb. And the BEST BEST PART was finding a Cracker Barrel half a
block away. We'd never heard of them before, the food/atmosphere was
beyond excellent..we went back every night for three nights!  That'w
what I'm talking about..have your events at a hotel outside of town,
with gas/food/stores etc in the area that you can GET to without a GPS.
it was great to get out to Nelson Ledges and watch the cars run. 
Toward the end one couple running a flag station (or whatever you call
it) invited me to join them to shoot photos, and they were chock full
of great SCCA autocross stories.. We had an EXCELLENT time in
Twinsburg.  Even driving up to Cleveland to the Rodck and Roll Hall of
Fame was not too bad, and it was worth the trip.

OH..yeah..and the VV meeting was OK. Some unintentional
highlights....the room lights going beserk was interesting. I noticed
other meetings got a SCREEN for their power point presentations..Garth
had to use the WALL.  We killed a lot of time introducing ourselves
(but it was fun) and spent a bit of time talking about the VV
operation, covering costs, value to Corsa, and then ran out of time
before we got to much further into it, but Garth met up with a lot of
guys outside the room after to continue.  Fun to put faces with the
names, etc.

OK...remember...you asked!
Oh..and apologies to VV'ers...I'm posting this there to. (and versa
visa)
Oh..and I think all the pinks to my photos are posted and working at:
http"//www.edselmotors.com/vairtrek.html
just click on the "viewing screen" link....if you haven't already.

Tim in Merrillville
(yesk, that's MERRILLVILLE)



===
You *can* repair a flip-flop with a capacitor!
===

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