Eckler's Reunion/C5 Registry, Fall 1998
More pictures from John Wakefield (C5R# W0718); his are the large format pix. Look on down the page!At least two caravans (that I know of) made the drive south a little more interesting. John Wakefield (C5R# W0718) drove from Fayetteville, TN to Atlanta to link up with me and my friend Ken; we all drove down to Jacksonville on Thursday and hooked up with Dan Douglas (C5R# V0003), his brother Peter and Kent Cartner (C5R# W1092) at a sports bar on I295. Dan, Peter and Kent continued on down to Merritt Island while Ken and I spent Thursday night with friends in Jax.
When we got to the Days Inn in Cocoa Beach (the "official" meeting place) there were many, many C5s and C5Registry Members in attendance. Gene Bjerning (C5R# V0066) owns the Days Inn and was a generous host. He provided a great welcoming cocktail party at the hotel.
At 3:30 we all caravanned to a huge drag car show (well, we weren't in drag; it was the cars, you see). You should have seen the C5s strung out along the highway for miles! We stopped traffic (in all senses of the word). After a few hours digging the cars (including some terrific customized jobs) we caravanned to an outdoor pavilion for a C5 Registry Bar-b-Que. What a great job that Peta Adovasio and Suzanne Drennon (and others) did putting this great event together!
There was great food, an excellent DJ couple playing all kinds of music and (as always) great comraderie.
But wait, there's more! After dinner Dan and Peta invited anyone who wished to come to their home for coffee and cake. Thinking (by now) that few would accept after such a busy day, I'm sure they didn't expect many to visit.
More than 30 cars caravanned (again) from the park to a mall staging area and then to Dan and Peta's home.
Visualize this; wer'e all lined up in the mall in front of JC Penny and the mall security guy comes by in his scooter. A million dollars worth of C5s and he's worried that we're some kind of gang plotting to break into the JC Penny's!
It's really too bad that it was dark; you should have seen 30+ C5s clogging up the cul-de-sac at Dan's house! Another great party and a great end to Friday's events.
Bright and early Saturday morning (8am) we built the final caravan of the weekend for the 10 mile trip from the Cocoa Beach Day's Inn to Eckler's in Titusville. In true Dan/Jake fashion, they'd arranged for Eckler's to rope off a huge area for our cars. The C5 Registry was the featured group for this big weekend. The C5 Corral was the biggest reserved area and, again, there were wall-to-wall C5s. We were fortunate because by mid-day Saturday attendees were walking 2-5 MILES to get to Ecklers.
Ken and I left at mid-day (pressing duties in Atlanta on Sunday) and, sadly, I got few pictures. I'm sure someone will contribute more pictures and more words; if they'd like me to put them up I'd be happy to do so.
A GREAT C5 weekend! I renenewed friendships with a bunch of C5ers I'd previously met at Route 66, Carlisle and NCM 98 -- and met and was able to put a face with many others that I'd seen posts from here on the 'Net.
I sold out of the casual shirts I brought but still have quite a few of the golf shirts in all sizes. And of course I'll be ordering more of both types plus the new Official C5 Registry sweatshirt. If you're interested, click here to check 'em out and/or order.
C5-Ya!
Chaz, (C5R# W0526)
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This is Ken Swinney (left) and John Wakefield (C5R# W0718) loading John's 98 Targa up with C5 Registry Shirts. |
| John's car has never been garaged -- and looks perfect. |
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And my car doesn't look too shabby, either! |
| Here's the shortest possible caravan just about to pull away on the road to Merritt Island! |
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This is the Friday event where dragsters from all over collected in a huge field. This is between two aisles of strictly C5 Registry members. Mine (of course) is off- camera in the left row... |
| Even mo' C5 Registry members! |  |
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John thinks that this car began as a C4 Corvette. Guess the owner had a different(?) idea... |
| One of the great things about Florida is the fabulous sunsets. This one was Friday on the way to the C5 Registry Barbeque. |
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We're only here to eat but Mark Murphy (C5R# W0698) just had to wipe down his car (that's John DeGeus (C5R# W0419) waiting for Mark to finish so Mark can start on John's car (the Carmine Targa behind Mark's)... |
| A bunch of cars at the bar-b-que. That's Bonnie Young, Steve Williams (C5R# W0608) and someone's dismembered head... |
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Here's a bunch of folks lined up for the food (C5ers will always line up for food). |
| Here's the only picture I took where you can actually SEE the food! |
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Here's Jake (C5R# V0002) confirming what we already knew; C5 Registry "official dealer" Bruce Glueck (C5R# V0100) and his wife are "Number 1" with the Registry! |
| Matt Hart (C5R# V0060) and his bride- to-be joined us for one slow dance.
And I never got close enough to them |
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This was the "party" table. And, yes, a good time was had by all! |
| Steve (C5R# W0608)can even have fun even when completely asleep... |
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And good evening from the Chaz, Bonnie and Steve Show! |
| Here is the lovely Suzanne Drennon about to carve the C5Registry cake at Peta and Dan's house. |
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If you want a picture of the whole cake when when surrounded by C5ers you gotta shoot fast. Obviously, I wasn't fast enough! |
| At Eckler's on Saturday morning; C5s here and behind me as far as the eye can see. They really treated the Registry like royalty. |
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Looking the other way at the C5 Corral at Eckler's. |
| Heading back home at the crack of dawn on Sunday. Florida sunrises are every bit as beautiful as the sunsets. |
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