This past weekend's festivities

[1PROGTO]

Fantastic! Mike Thanks so much for putting all this together for all to enjoy. ALOT of behind the scenes work went into pulling this off and Mike - You Da Man! We got things kicked off Thursday when a bunch of the gang got together at Stellar pizza in G'Town to send our buddy Royal Botkin off to Cali for a trip. Friday Mr. Wangers and Dave Anderson rolled into town and Mike took care of all the shuttling and logistics of getting them setup for the weekend. Saturday was the Dyno test & tune in Kirkland and again looks like some good runs were made by club guys. Sat. afternoon/evening was our annual club Holiday bash. A short meeting was held and then straight to dinner, which was great. Afterward was Jim Wangers great presentation on the demise of GM and Pontiac and the outlook for the future. Then was the awards presentation for the special and funny awards given out every year to those deserving members. Lonnie, as usual you brought the house down with your awards presentation. Great job! John Bozony took home the top honor of NW GTO Legends Member of the Year. This guy went to every club event it seemed, and took on the job of club newsletter editor - thanks for the great work. Mark B. you were a great part of this as well and thank you for helping the newsletter have new life. A great read folks.

Sunday was the much anticipated car collection tours. Gary McKays collection in Tacoma started things off and man...unbelieveable is all you can say. Gary shared some great stories on many of the cars and finished things off by firing up his brand new 10 second factory Mustang Cobra Jet drag car with open headers. As Mike B. can attest - that baby opened the ears of all. Off for a brief lunch break at Red Robin in Des Moines, before heading a short hop to Gordon Apker's great collection.

I think everyone would agree that the weekend was really awesome. Again Mike - thanks for putting all this together. I know the job was not done for you as we all left Sunday. You took Jim back to the hotel and made sure he got off today for the flight back home. Much appreciated.

This is what a great club is all about.

[Mark B]

I was sorry I couldn't make the action on Sunday, it was my grandaughters first birthday and I didn't want skip out on that. Sounds like it was a good time! If those that took pictures would send them to me I will put together a DVD for the club so that those that couldn't attend could enjoy too. Some could go in the newsletter too!

Speaking of pictures I'm looking for old club pictures days gone by..... See the thread Old Pictures.

[MikeS]

I will post some pics here soon and send the whole mess to you Mark.
Yes it was truly one of the best days I can remember as a club member.
We got to see stuff Sunday that most folks will never get to see.
I felt genuinely lucky to be a part of things.
Jim asked me to pass along his sincere thanks to you all for inviting him up to be a part of things again this year.
He had a great time visiting with everyone and raved about the Sunday tours.

I wanted to say a special thanks to you guys who braved the bitter cold Saturday to run your cars on the dyno at Carb Connection. You guys made the event. I learned a lot as a spectator and it was great to see guys runnin what they brung. Alex was a great host and wanted to pass along his thanks as well.

Lonnie and Dad were outstanding as always, Saturday night. Hope you all took your snow men home as mom and Betty worked on those for a week. Thank you ladies for all of your help with the dinner.

John B. - congratulations on winning the Employee of the Year award. Your support of the news letter and attendance at every club event we were a part of is very much appreciated.

[miltvine]

Mark - I took a bunch of pics and you can have copies of any of them you want, but they are all about 2 meg and that jams up the email system pretty much. What would you like? Want me to pick some of my favorites and send you small versions?

Want me to mail you a CD? Want to stop by Tukwila and pick them up on a thumb drive?

Milt

[Mark B]

Milt
I can bring a portable hard drive with plenty of room for all you have. I forgot exactly where you are at though, it's been a while since I wa there.

[miltvine]

http://www.seattlebindery.com/HTML/Directions.htm

Mark - I'm around most of the time from 6:30 AM to around 3:30 PM. Let me know when you want to stop by to be sure I'm here.

Milt

[Mark B]

Thanks again for the pictures Milt!

[miltvine]

Mark - no problem. Feel free to use any you can find on there that are worth using. I think your delete key will get a workout with most of those, but there may be a jewel or two buried in all that mess.

Milt