I had planned to wait until after the first of the year to start a thread on this but have had others suggest that with it being the 07 National Meet the sooner the better. I know I will need some imput from those of you who plan to attend on what you wish to do. More about that later.
First things first.
Where : The International Route 66 Mother Road Festival , Springfield IL.
When : Sept 28-30 2007? I'll get to why I put a question mark after the dates later.
Club Hotel : The Route 66 Hotel and Conference Center , 625 E. Saint Joseph St. Springfield IL, 62703. For reservations call ( 888-707-8366 ) or ( 217-529 6626 )
Route 66 Hotel Conference Center Banquets Meetings Conventions Hotels Springfield, Illinois. We have a block of rooms reserved under the Opel Motorsport Club. Room rates are ( 72.00 + tax reg room ) ( 130.00 + tax Executive Suite ) per night.The Hospitality room is tied to one of the Executive Suites, room 147. We do need one of our group to rent that room. There is another Exec. suite on the other side of the Hospitality room #155 that would also be good to have one of our group in. If anyone wants it a third Exec. Suite is available room #171. 30 rooms are held in that block as of this writing.
Info on the event will be at
Route 66 International Festival but has not been updated as of this date. Basically this is a three day event that is part Car Show part Downtown Street Festival. Friday evening there is a cruise from an eastside location to the downtown area. Saturday and Sunday the cars are parked along the downtown streets for the public to view and for the folks who hold the event to judge.
What we as a club have typically been doing the last four years goes like this. We try to meet at the club hotel on Friday by 4.30-5.00 pm and drive to the Maverick Steakhouse for dinner. Those who wish to be in the Cruise then drive a short distance to the staging area at the D.O.T. building. Once the Cruise begins we have the option to go all the way downtown or bail out as we pass the hotel. Sometime during the evening the Hospitality room is opened for an informal meet and greet session. Adult beverages have been known to be consumed at that time.
Saturday morning we try to get everyone to meet at the club hotel and drive to the downtown show area together. There is a nice Breakfast Buffet at the Hotel and other places close to grab something. If you can't make this early morning meeting no sweat. Just show up at the gate, register if you need to and tell them you are with the Opel Group and they will park you with us. Later that day we do a door prize drawing and an Awards Presentation. This is one area that will need to be talked over. Last year we had 5 awards, Best Opel, Best GT, Best Manta, Best Kadett, and Farthest Distance driving an Opel. Carlisle and the OMC picnic both had more categories. I think we can get more awards if we look to have a large turnout. The next problem is dinner on Saturday night. Once again if we have a large number of people I will need to explore some options. We have used D'arcy's Pint the last couple of years but it may not work for lets say 50 or 60 people. Last year after dinner we came back to the Hotel and some folks worked on cars in the parking lot while some kicked back in the Hospitality Room. That brings me to why I put the question mark by the dates. Since this is the " National Meet " how many would be interested in showing up Thursday night and doing some Tech stuff and some parts swapping in the Hotel Parking lot Friday before the Cruise. Just an Idea for you all to chew on. We will go down to the Show Field again Sunday Morning and the show is over early in the afternoon which would leave some time to do something as a group for those who can stay.
So I guess what I need right now is for those who think they are going to make it to do your reservations, and post on here so we can start to get an Idea of how this is going to shape up.
Thanks
John Dickerson