2009 Route 66 Mother Road Festival September 25-27

[kevinfier]

Made it home, no problems.

Thank you John & Connie for another great weekend in Springfield.

Kevin

[broszzy]

Yup, we made it home too. I cruised 75 to 80 all the way home made it in just over 3 hours. Thanks John and Connie we had a great time.
Pat and Tammie

[lezliewk]

I made it home also. The GT just cruzed right along,On the trailer.

[sawdust]

took an easy cruise home. took about 4 hours and a quart of oil.

[dcm013]

I got home a couple hours ago. The Manta ran fine and the weather was sunny all the way. Despite the weather Sat. it was a fun weekend.

I'll see some of you again in a couple weeks in the other Springfield.

Thanks for a great weekend John and Connie!

Don

[manta73wi]

Hey All - The Manta performed pretty well all the way home; we pulled in around 6. It cruised the highways beautifully, and just had a few times of lumpy idle while stopped. No white smokescreen, which is a very good thing! My wife said "You know, this is a really comfortable car!" Must be those corduroy seats. We took some time puttering along Old Route 66, and we ran a few errands in greater Chicago on the way home. It was neat to see the "thumbs-up" from passers by as we cruised along. Marie really enjoyed meeting everyone. I keep telling her Opel people are the best, and now she knows it is true! A huge THANK YOU to John and Connie for all the work that went into getting us organized for another successful meet. I'll be posting some pics later tonight and tomorrow.
-Jeff W.

[Aardvaark]

Thanks to John and Connie for another great weekend and Opel gathering.
Except for a case of flaming hemorrhoids by trips end, I had a great time talking to everyone and looking over their Opels!

[Gordy]

A great weekend for sure! Thanks John and Connie!
Stayed and watched the awards presented. Paul won 1st place in the Opel group, John and Connie won 2nd, and Hans took 3rd place. Congrats to all!

What a pleasant trip home it was Sunday. Beautiful day and wide open highways. Glad everyone made it home safe and sound! Gordy and Chris

[rmstirm]

Hello All,

Taylor and I got home around 5:45pm. We stayed to watch the awards. Congrats to Paul, John and Hans. The trip home went alot faster than the trip to the show on Saturday...this time we didn't make a wrong turn! It was nice to have Taylor do all the driving. Too bad we couldn't drive the Opels; but next year we will AND perhaps bring the whole family. Thanks John and Connie for organizing everything. It was good to see everyone and talk Opels! Taylor enjoyed meeting other Opelers. Please wish us luck in getting Taylor's Manta ready to drive. He is anxious to start driving it to school for his senior year. Take care everyone and Happy Opelling!

Randy (and Taylor) Stirm

[opeljohn]

Well another Mother Road weekend has come an gone. Maybe an apt quote for this one is that in each life a little rain must fall. On the whole it really was not a bad weekend. Skys cleared for the friday cruise and we had a good group for that. We did not get to eat before the cruise so everyone was ready to eat when we hit the Golden Corral buffet after we regrouped at the hotel. Not bad food and plenty of it,had to go to the hotel and do 12 oz curls to work it off. A couple of our group went downtown to catch the entertainment and came back a little later to have a few. Unfortunately for me the GT decided to start running on about two cylinders as we left the restaurant. When I went home at about 11pm I tried to burn the cobbs out with no luck so I was up til 1:30 am finding my stash of parts and doing a tune up. Saturday morning was foggy but looked to be clearing and we left the parking lot with 11 Opels and a Sky. I had been told we would have the area in front of the A. Lincoln Library by one of the event people. Somebody forgot to pass that on to the gate guy so we got directed all over the place before we actually got taken to our spot. Even then we almost did not get enough space for all our group, after a little haggling we got to put three of our Opels on the other side of the street. I think the list of who all showed went like this.
Tom Cavataio 72 GT
Hans and Gerta Goering 72 GT
Kevin Fier 69 Kadett Wagon
Jeff and Marie Widder 73 Manta
Don Mclean 74 Manta
John and Connie Dickerson 72 GT
Pat and Tammie Brozzy 73 GT
Mark Paar 75 Manta
Paul Tipton 69 GT
Gordy and Chris Klug 70 GT
Eric Schmidt 69 GT 1.1 L
Bill and Karri Hoffmann 75 Manta
Jerry and Joan Willis with the american version of the new GT (SKY)
Also Randy Stirm and son Taylor joined us after a quick sightseeing tour of Effingham IL.

It was not bad when we got to the event but the rain and wind did move in for awhile, no problem Opel Folks are troopers. Some of us have been to Carlisle we can handle it. Around 4:00 pm it cleared off again and the event judge showed up to look our cars over. The last couple of years we have had two sets of awards for this event. One set of our own that we do on Saturday afternoon and an official set for the event presented on sunday. Up til this year we have done our own participant judging for all awards and I believe we did a good job. I think my feelings were vindicated this year by the fact that the independent judge hired by the event picked same winner we did. Anyway we did our own thing Saturday and it went like this. Tom C. slightly edged out a couple of others to win the longest drive in an Opel award. Paul T. took home the Best GT award, Jeff Widder claimed the Best Manta award, and Kevin F. was our Best Kadett award winner. We had some fun with our door prize drawing after that and I need to thank Gil Wesson of OGTS for most of those. Also I want to thank the other participants who threw a few goodies in to the sack for the drawing. After all that we were ready to call it a day and head to Top Cats Chill & Grill for dinner. Although it was a bit slower this time I think everyone enjoyed a good meal and a chance to talk with Opel friends old and new. Once again it was necessary to go back to the hotel for 12oz curls. Not sure how long that lasted as I needed to catch up on lost sleep.
Sunday could not have been better. Clear skys nice temps and a short day. The awards were started at 12:00 noon. It took a little time but when the Opel Class was announced it went like this, 3rd place to Hans G. , 2nd place John D. , and our first place Opel was Mr. Paul T. After the awards the folks who had stayed talked a little but the time had come to hit the road so we said our goodbyes and fired our Opels up.
Paul your award is in the hands of Randy Stirm and I think you have to arm wrassle him for it, Hans you need to get me your mailing address.
Connie and I want to thank all those who came. For those of you who could not make it this year we hope you can join us sometime in the future.

[tekenaar]

. . . just curious, but that "American version of the new GT (SKY)", what year and "Roadster or Coupe"? . . . inquiring minds want to know! . . . anyone else own one of the only 2,000 Solstice Coupes produced for 2009?

My Kadett sprint goes in the shop today for door repair and repaint. Picked up a replacement door at Rodney's yesterday. Thanks to Kevin for use of his Hinge-Pin tool sent here by Gary, who had it on loan before me. I'll return it as soon as my door swap is finished . . . uh, send back to Kevin or Gary?

[Aardvaark]

Originally Posted by tekenaar . . . just curious, but that "American version of the new GT (SKY)", what year and "Roadster or Coupe"? . . . inquiring minds want to know! . . . anyone else own one of the only 2,000 Solstice Coupes produced for 2009?

It is a gorgeous black on black 2008? Sky Turbo roadster. Jerry told me they traded in their non-turbo roadster on it. It's in the pictures posted in the 2009 Springfield event photos.

[sawdust]

Mother Road Festival

YouTube - springfield 09 0001

YouTube - springfield 09 0001

[lezliewk]

Once again Hans. you do a GREAT job on that

[Gordy]

Fantastic You Tube piece Hans! You put a lot of effort into those vidieos, and it is appreciated! Gordy

[broszzy]

Yup! Hans, you da man. Great job

[Aardvaark]

Thanks Hans! I'll have to wait to watch it until I get a new computer that supports flash 10.0 Hopefully in a couple of months.

[Mach1Tom]

Nice pics Hans. Thanks.

Thanks to John & Connie again for another fun weekend of Opels & friends.
Sunday when I left I drove to Chicago for a couple days. I big thanks to Bill H. for letting me follow him back North. I was able to follow him on the highway to about 2 miles from my cousin's house when I exited. The last 45 minutes or so we were ziggin' & zaggin' in & out of traffic. The GT kept right up with his Manta. I drove back to Pgh on Tues in the rain for over 7 hours.

Have to get ready for the trip out Philly way this weekend.

Thanks again,
~ Tom

[dcm013]

Great job Hans! First time I've been on you tube! I think....I hope......

Although I'm sure it was just because I happened to be in front of Kevin's wagon

Don

[Bill Hoffmann]

I also thank John and Connie for hosting another great event and Hans for posting the photo montage. Kerri I also had a nice trip back, making good time. Tom and I indeed had a little fun around Chicago, but you almost have to switch your driving style to get anywhere, especially with all the "Sunday drivers". It's funny - I also drove east (to Youngstown) in the rain on Tuesday, but probably later than Tom, and slower, as I was in a fully loaded rental truck. Unfortunately, I couldn't spend another weekend away (for the PA festivities) and returned home yesterday. Maybe next year.

Bill

[opeljohn]

Hans
Thanks for the you tube contribution, you and Jeff Widder do a great job of showing folks what the event is like. I will try and post some pics myself after next week. One last thanks to everyone who made it to the event and for those who may want to be here next year the dates are September 24-26 2010. Lets get enough Opels to fill the road in front of the A. Lincoln Library.
John

[lezliewk]

We are going to be the again, on my birthday again next year, Great bday gift to myself and a lot of thanks to you and yours for getting this thing going. Great fun

[lezliewk]

One more thing, Randy came by today and brought my Award to me. I was shocked at getting that. But WOW, NICE

[sawdust]

Just arrived. Thanks John for the speedy delivery. And WOW is an understatement. This one does not go out in the Dog House, but up
with some of my other trophies.

When it gets approved.

[heavijac]

hi im new here in the opel world i saw the cars at the show and they looked great i had never heard of these cars before that ... now im working on buying a opel gt so thank u all for showing off your cars