The Meet

[Mavericke]

Nice pics guys... I didn't get many, but will post them here in a bit.

[jim]

We got home about 9:45 this AM after a long day on the road yesterday.
We could have made it in last night but after a long day,
much of it w/o ac in 97F temps we just didn't want to keep going.
We stopped at a Best Western and had the best room at the lowest price of the trip.
We ate at Colton's and had one (each!) of the best steaks we've had that didn't
come off our grill.
We put the Eagle in the shop that did the $700 ac work on it.
I ordered a Dynomax muffler for the 88.  I finally looked for the sourch of the exhaust noise.
The 88 isn't running well but it does run so that will come later.
We thoroughly enjoyed the meet but it is good to be home.  It's back to work tomorrow
after a week off.  Not a pleasant thought.
We have 50 or 60 pictures.  I'll sort out some to post.  What we have is about the same as what other people have.

[Mavericke]

Ok, I'll try to give brief descriptions... and breakdown the timeline for you.

 
Aprox 12am Fri/Sat - Here we are just getting ready to leave... after the most horrible radio install ever that caused a whole mess of issues, we finally finished everything and loaded up the car for the trip. This was about 15 minutes before I ran out of gas....

Once we ran out of gas too far from home to walk, but not far enough to reach a gas station with two toddlers... I had to call for help. They were in bed about 30m away from me. So I waited. The arrived with a gallon of gas, dumped it in and sped out of there (not in a good mood) and left before I actually started the car... the battery had been dead from the emergency flashers so I had to call them back and they had already made it far enough out of sight where I could no longer see them, but I sure heard the tires screeching... once I got the jump, we were on the road again. On our way out of town, I stopped at walmart to pick up a new video camera (and spent way more than I should, but I have needed it for quite some time for the house and the band). We also decided to grab some last minute snacks.

An hour and a half down the road, I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer... I hadn't slept the night before and I didn't want to risk it with the girls so we stopped at the I80 truck mall and I napped for a couple hours. We woke up about 7am and went inside for some Wendy's breakfast. The girls were not thrilled about being woke up and drug into the cold air... but once they smelled food, I was forgiven.


It was rainy for the rest of the trip and rather uneventful.


Once we got to Omaha, I called Brandon for instructions… they hadn’t made it to Kenney’s yet and I was sitting in a Menard’s parking lot so I decided to take the girls inside to change clothes in the bathroom and get cleaned up. I also took the time to pick up some butt connectors and stuff to wire up Brandon’s headlights. (which I spent the money on and we never got around to doing it, lol… but I’m not complaining – a car enthusiast can never have too many butt connectors and spades and stuff!) When we got done inside we headed back out to the car to snap a few shots in the daylight. It was really my first time seeing it in the daylight since we did all the work on it the night before.



Then, we finally met up with everyone else… I wanted to take pictures, but I couldn’t focus… when I saw all the Eagles pulling in I just froze! It was amazing… then we all took off to Kenney’s and hung out, I think everything has pretty much been posted on that part. The girls got to go for a ride on a golf cart and they are still talking about, lol! Doug, Nathan, Hawkeneagle(Ches) and I worked on my ignition upgrade and then we decided it was time for food… but first… a photo op with the Eagles! Woot!



And let me note that I gave Jim a VERY hard time because he absolutely refused to throw up the horns for the ANNUAL "horn pick".... finally, I get him to do it - even though it was like bunny ears on me, I was ok with that because he did it. Now, here I am looking at the photo and I am just floored to find that after all the argueing and considering that this is year THREE for this annual picture that i ask for at every meet... BRANDON AND JESS WERE IN LALA LAND AND NOT PAYING ATTENTION AND DI NOT THROW THE HORNS. YOU TWO WILL PAY FOR THAT NEXT YEAR. MARK MY WORDS! MUAHAHAHAHA THAT'S JUST WRONG! Brandon, I will forgive you (but never forget) since you hosted a great Meet... and Jesse... I will forgive but never forget for you as well, but we better work something out for that truck.

And some more shots on the drive to the yummy Mexican Restaurant!




And on the way home… we stopped at the I80 truck stop again 


 

[mick]

Got the last of my pictures up! And my two little videos (down at the bottom).

http://s994.photobucket.com/albums/af69/83regaleagle/2010%20International%20Eagle%20Meet/?start=all



You are being watched!


Right on! Merciless Meping is representing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ65kUho0Jk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8sAjZzniMs

[j2sax]

Mav,

The Eagle's Nest will have a great time at next year's Cordova Meet.   I have already made an arrangement with Jock (National American Drvier's and Racer's Association President).  What's great about it is that it is one of the largest gatherings of AMC's in the country every year.  Not only that, there are already many activities revolving around AMC's.  

It would give you the opportunity to meet AMC'r's from all around the country.  The swap meet has established AMC Vendors and the rest of us, of course.  The opportuniity to see a 7 second Gremlin, a 12 second Wagoneer, and AMC's of every era blazing down the drag strip!  It really is quite a great time.  

The one AMC that is underrepresented is Eagles.  In all my years attending I have only seen two!  

I normally show up on Th night.  A bunch of us gather at the sponsor Hotel.  The Hotels are all in Le Claire, IA, just across the River from Cordova, IL.  I am always at the Holiday Inn Express while the bulk of attendees stay across the road at the Daus and Comfort Inn... there are special rates for attendees.  

There is a fire pit and lot's of conversation from old friends.  On Friday, there is test and tune at the dragstrip and plenty of fun.  The Swap meet gets going and we all enjoy the races and hang out.  (I have commited to race a late AMX next year along with some other friends from St Louis who are fixing up cheap drag machines as well, so no Eagle for me there... probably bring an 80 AMX with a 401 setup to hit the strip!)  I am hoping to find a place for some light wheeling for Friday during the daytime.      

Saturday is the AMC "Gambler's Race", swap meet all day and other makes start showing up in the afternoon.  There is an all day car show and the awards are given out at the evening.  We generally break into groups and have dinners in Davenport, some go to casinos, but everyone has a fond farewell and heads out Sunday Morning.  

I will send the event Flyer as soon as it is available and start a thread.  

[IowaEagle]

Great photos everyone!   Jesse -- Cordova sounds very interesting and fun!   A lot of incentive for many of us (including me) to have their Eagles ready.

[mick]

The story from our trip.

We left Casper Thursday morning around 7:30am.  We made it in Nebraska around 11am and continued east.  We were clicking the miles off pretty good.  We have ran out of fuel in Nebraska before, so this time I filled a 2gal can just to be safe.  Just East of North Platte you go under the archway.

We pulled into the campground around 7pm and quickly got camp set up before dark.  Camp consisted of 2 tents, one for me and the kids, and 1 for all the gear.


We had been talking to J2sax earlier and he said he'd meet us at the campground.  We drove up to the KOA office, and I immediately spotted Eagle taillights parked at the office.  It was Meping.  We met her and her dad Mark, and we decided to wait for Jesse to get there.  We were all hungry so once Jesse got there we went to Sonic for a quick burger.  After Sonic the kids and I went to Walmart for a light for the tent.  I have a round light that has 20 leds in it, and it wasn't working.  I figured it was batteries, but I didn't want to take any chances and bought a new light and some batts.  It was the batts so we had light and now I have an extra.  I also picked up a 6 pack of tall boy High Life's and had a few back at camp.

Friday

Got up to see a beautiful brown wagon at one of the cabins.  It was Ches/Hawkin and his wife.  Plans were made to meet at Cracker Barrel for breakfast.  We had a good meal and Jim was commenting on how his car had developed a hard start condition on the trip.  We went out and messed with it a bit.  I found a vac port which was not capped.  Put my finger on it and said, try it again.  It fired right up, and for a second I thought that was the extent off his starting problems.  Alas I was mistaken, and it struggled to fire up again once shut down.  We figured we should head back to the campground and have a closer look. Where's Mav?




We found he needed to replace some of the fuel lines and the filter was full of detiorated line material.  Fixed him up and did some more tuning, and ignition timing stuff.  Last I heard it was starting good.  Here's Jim driving the wagon to the parts store.


Ches worked on Brandon's car and made improvements there also. Still no Mav.


We went to a Pizza place for dinner. I had a few beers so Jesse drove.  Here's Jesse taking the reigns to the wagon. Still not sure where Mav is at, pretty sure he isn't going to make it.





And closed out the evening with a campfire, friends and a few more beers.  I almost forgot to mention the storm that came through.  It was crazy.  Winds, rain, lightning, all the reasons I by good camping gear.......CABELAS TENTS ROCK!

Saturday-

Gloomy day, no sun, but plenty left to do to Brandon's car. After appetites were eased at Cracker Barrel, Brandon changed some headlight buckets.

 
We got word Mav was 100mi out and getting closer.  4hrs later we finally meet up at Menards, but not until after a healthy game of Frisbee.  It was also at Menards that Meping picked up the "Merciless" title after cutting Ches off in the parking lot.  We headed out to Kenny's and continued the wrenching session.  Jim put in Brandon's headliner, Jesse and I looked at Mepings steering, and Mav did a TFI ignition upgrade, and I went for beer and some Arby's.  It had only been like 7hrs since we ate breakfast, but I figured I better get the kids something to eat.  We also made a stop at a parts store to get some stuff for Merciless.


After all the repairs had been done we took some photos, and went to dinner at a Mexi restaurant.











Saturday night a few of us hung out at camp for a while.  Then it was off to bed.

Sunday-

Nothing too exciting, just packed up camp.  My favorite, packing a wet tent.  Didn't see the sun until west of Ogallala.

[IowaEagle]

I am sure there will be more than just racing.  Its a great chance, from what I hear, for AMC'ers to get together aside from the racing.

[83Eagle!]

Cordova sounds good to me. 

Mick, I like the action shots of us all driving to Aztecca.  Those are nicely done.  Glad you and the kids made it home safely. 

[mick]

Cordova sounds good to me. 

Mick, I like the action shots of us all driving to Aztecca.  Those are nicely done.  Glad you and the kids made it home safely. 

Yeah that one of you is killer!

Cordova could be a blast!

Glad to be home safe too, thanks.

[jim]

Please allow me to make a minor correction to Mick's statement about Brandon's headliner.
Jim didn't do it alone.  WonderEAGLE and Brandon did their share, too.
Thanks to all of you for the great pictures.

[jim]

Well, get ready.  Here come more pictures.

[Mavericke]

Great pics guys... I wish I could have spent more time with everyone - was really looking forward to hanging out more on Sunday, but we will have next year.

We do need to figure out something about this Cordova thing... I don't want to be stingy and say "Hey i already called next year to hang out at the sanctuary!" and sound like an @ss.... but, Hey! I already called next year so everyone can visit the Sanctuary. I've put alot of time into this place already in preparation for the Meet and I've set some things in motion already... not to say that it can't be changed, I mean it's not a huge deal... just saying because I'd still like to host it here. With that being said... I've always wanted to do a Cordova Meet... I said that last year but no one was interested in making the drive to Galesburg and then back to Cordova, which makes sense because there wasn't much incentive to do both and I have more connections here... now, with the Sanctuary I think we have more reason to be here than last year... so, I think we need to figure something out pretty soon before I make too many more plans here, lol... I mean, I'm cool if it's moved and I'm DEFFINITELY ok with having someone join me in setting it all up - but we need to work out some details asap.

So, for this... I'm going to move everything to the 2011 board for discussion and a possible vote. I actually started the thread months ago... Follow the link below... if you visit it in the next hour - come back again later, I'm doing some work on it. Let's leave this thread for discussions on this years meet and keep everything for 2011 at the lin below. Thanks guys!

http://forums.amceaglenest.com/index.php?topic=31931.0

[Mavericke]

FYI... Cordova is only an hour from the Sanctuary.

[j2sax]

Sorry, Mav... didn't see anything about your proposal until this week.  Back in March I had posted that I would run with the 2011 meet at Cordova and did not see any posting to the contrary. 

I still think the Cordova event is something no AMC enthusiast should go without seeing at least once in their life and it is already such a well organized ,established event that has welcomed us with open arms! 

Regardless, we will see what happens. 

Have a great weekend, my firiend and glad you adn your little cuties made it home safe and sound!