| 21st National Corvette
Convention - Canberra 2009.
Easter 10 to 13 April
The four month plan of having
the C5 Tiger shark completed to drive to the convention came to a
halt two weeks ago because of a motorcycle racing incident resulting in
a few broken bones. Ali decided, lets fly down, not wanting to
miss out, so that we did alongside Dave, Barb, Brad and Sandy.
We arrived Friday morning, picked up by our driver in our convention vehicle, the KiaVette, checked in at the Rydges and then started to get acquainted with the ways of a convention ie: eating, drinking, catching up and telling stories with both old and new friends. Twenty members from our club made the voyage to help fly our flag and the Friday was also dedicated to John Webro's birthday. Bryan Wharton and new road trip buddy Bill Dixon had a lovely drive down in the C6 and as the weekend unfolded seemed to form a romance that blossomed! Bryan said that Bill even turned down the bed and laid out his slippers and jamas for him (look out Robin)! Ernie finally got the ZR1 on song in the lead up, and he and Sal enjoyed their blast down no doubt counting how many cars he overtook. Keith and Kaye had already done 4000k's in the C3 doing the central Victorian cruise and Kaye was looking forward to just sitting with me and catching up! Ron and Jean also spent the previous week getting the C5 to Canberra and were due for a rest upon arrival. Our Victorian members Betty and Ken helped Tony and Jenny empty the Landcruiser fridge everyday and we even adopted some Victorian club members who opted to be with us. Saturday was the "show and shine" and we elected to leave the KiaVette in the car park and hide it from buses (hey Brad). Ali and Sally set up a merchandise stall and used the talents of Barb to sell over $500 worth of our clearance items. We did well in the trophy hunt with Keith in the C3, Sue in the C4 and Bryan in the C6 picking up awards. Ernie said he had to wait until he got back to his room to get his award! The day finished with lunch and shopping in down town Canberra, Ali didn't even buy any new shoes, a bistro dinner back at the Rydges, happy hour and goodnite.... Sunday was a road trip day to "Goulbourn Hot Rod Show." The 85 Vettes from the convention made the 90 minute excursion with only the one C2 being put on a trailer to get home. I went for a blast out there in the ZR1, at one stage we were doing 505kmh, Ern tells me that the speedo is correct! The KiaVette tribe followed with no bus incidents, and once at the show our Corvette collection looked minimal against the 1000 hotrods on display. All us Corvetters had the same opinion, see one hotrod you've seen 'em all! We might have to do a road trip back though as Dave picked out a rusty sedan to turn into his next prodigy. I said I would help him with it as I have already thought about the colour......RED !!!! Sally and myself attended the presidents meeting in the afternoon and I think all the other clubs will be better off now after our input.... Sunday night dinner saw Barb spend some time in the naughty chair for her sales antics and Dave swears he had nothing to do with it!!! Bryan won a prize in a game for not having sex and Bill didn't comment and a few other members won prizes as well. Happy hour again, 21st cake and the finale speeches concluded the evening.
It was great to put faces to people not met before, look at cars not seen
before but to also realize how good the quality of the Corvettes in our
club are compared to the rest of the country.
Perth next year, Melbourne, Sydney and then back to us in 2013. We were already chatting about what we will organize before we left, hope the C5 will be finished for that one eh Dave................................... Cheers Peter
Special thanks to our photographer on the spot - Ernie |
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