<VV> Tim's Buffalo Report

Fri Aug 4 18:33:29 EDT 2006

At the Buffalo Convention, was the Corvair "Concours" display ever outside ?

I went on Friday, and the only cars were on the second floor of the parking 
garage.  Pretty bad for picture-taking.

Some nice cars there though ...

Chaz

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tim Verthein" <minoxphotographer at yahoo.com>
To: <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2006 5:07 PM
Subject: <VV> Tim's Buffalo Report

> OK, over on the Forum..matt asked about reports/experiences from
> Buffalo.  Rather than try to type it twice....here's my report...
>
> Happiness is Buffalo in your rearview mirror......
>
> OK, I gotta say, it wasn't ALL that bad for us.  but we're now enroute
> to home..near Gary, IN actually, and on to Oshkosh tomorrow then to
> Minneapolis, then home up north.  Anyway.....
>
> We had no trouble checking in to the hotel.  We had, a few days
> earlier, called in and cancelled our room for Friday night, as we
> decided to leave a day early and get Oshkosh on the list of things to
> do. And they had our change in plans taken care of no problem.  We also
> had no trouble with our convention registration. Our packet was waiting
> for us, everything was in it.  the only trouble is...on our name tags
> they had the wrong club listed...but since our club (Head of the Lakes
> Corvair Assn, Duluth) was BRAND new when I registered (we have JUST
> received our CORSA charter) it's very possible I had the number wrong
> when I filled out the forms, but that was the only glitch there.
>
> The hotel itself was about what I expected for an older downtown
> facility. Although, we just checked in to the Super 8 here, and
> commented it's nicer than the host hotel in Buffalo.  Here, we have
> FAST wireless internet, in room fridge and microwave, and room to walk
> in the room. There we couldn't even hardly get to the desk, as not
> enough room to even pull the chair out.  The elevators were slow and a
> pain in the ass.  Two were broken for a couple days. The parking ramp
> was kind of fun to see filled with Corvairs, although the debris
> falling from the ceiling into the parking area was a bit daunting. All
> the staff we had contact with was polite and did their job well. They
> weren't exactly friendly for the most part, but professional anyway.
> They never restocked our room toilet paper, they never brought us
> coffee for the inroom coffee maker unless we asked for it, and the wife
> cleaned the shower before she used it the first time...there was black
> ick in the tiles. But, hey, we're from northern Minnesota, we're used
> to roughing it.  the TV remote never worked (even after we got them to
> give us new batteries for it).
>
> WE hated the downtown location. OK, I'm a small town guy, cities scare
> me.  The fact that we'd pull out of the parking lot and instantly be
> lost was very unnerving. To the point where we didn't even want to
> leave the premesis.  We tried to get to a Denny's one night, wound up
> in Canada. This kinda thing has GOT to be done at an out of the city
> location.  I'm still recovering. I hate downtown, I hate traffic, I
> hate being lost.  There was NO place to go that was handy from that
> hotel.  You couldn't run to a family type resturant.  The resturant in
> the hotel seems to have good food, limited selection and wildly
> expensive. you couldn't stop at a handy store, get gas, choose another
> resturanta, or much of anything.
>
> Now, taking into account what the clubs had to work with given that
> location, it was OK. I thought having the valve cover races and
> welcoming party on the navy ship was way cool.  The park for the
> concours and display was very nice, on the lake, and quite nice indeed.
> The track for the autocross was a neat facility.  Although I wound up
> not running due to clutch cable paranoia, things seemed to run OK,
> except I wondered why it was fair for some to have to run in the rain.
> My biggest beef from a clubs duty standpoint was the lack of good (or
> any) directions.  My god, getting anywhere was a scary nightmare.
> maybe not to people used to being in a city, but holy god man. The
> track was a long way away.  We got THREE different sets of directions
> off the internet, which were different than those provided by the club,
> but we got there.  Same for the park for the car display, etc. I
> realize the club folks have to deal with the city, and the perception
> of out of towners, but my god..if we didn't have in room internet and
> our iBook with us, we would have never got anywhere! But the events
> themselves (once we found them) seemed to be organized and in
> appropriate locations. GOOD DIRECTIONS are the key to happiness for out
> of towners.
>
> I feel bad for anyone who may have been there with a family. Kids in
> this atmosphere would have driven me to the edge of insanity.
>
> Spent a lot of time in the vendor area..always going back to buy more.
> Always.  It's like..heck..might as well grab some oil filters.....and a
> spare belt.....and more note pads.....as long as I'm here...haahaa.
> this morning I was after a spoiler before we left..we wanted to get on
> the road early...and about 8AM no one was manning the Clarks area yet,
> but i could have easily walked off with half the inventory if I wanted
> to. but they were on duty shortly there after and I got my spoiler and
> we got on the road.
>
> I should mention we blew most of a day at Niagara Falls, and that was
> GREAT, so there's something to be said for having your event at one of
> the 7 wonders of the world!
>
> One other beef was the parking ramp.ticket thing.  Nothing anyone could
> o I guess, but once we figured out the system.....take a
> ticket..park..go inside and have it "activated" then that ticket works
> to open the gate to get out...sometimes anyway...then when you come
> back, get another ticket....go have it validated...maybe it works
> again, etc....we have a whole lot of those tickets now!
>
> But, despite all this we had fun.  The hospitality room was great,
> always full of people, plenty of pop and treats. The goodies on Canada
> day were extra yummy. It was keen to get to yack with a lot of Vair
> folks, met some I knew only on the internet, and a few I had met in
> Iowa.  Lots of GREAT cars, especially at the autocross....the Team
> EArly guys were my personal favorites. The club people we dealt with
> were all polite, friendly and helpful.  Now, of course we don't know
> why/how that facility got chosen, but considering what they had to work
> with the club seemed to do OK (except for DIRECTIONS!!!) yes. the Super
> 8 I'm sitting in right now is nicer, even though the guy at the desk
> hardly speaks english...but he is pleasant.
>
> OK..on to the Yenko review.  We went strictly as spectators.  A very
> professional hotel..almost to the point of being to ritzy for me.  the
> beds in the room were the most comfortable beds we have EVER slept on
> in our LIFE on this planet, the pillows too.  i don't know what they
> all were, but my god we've never slept that well or that comfortable.
> having the show at the hotel was great. We could just wander out and
> look at cars. Everyone was polite, club members and staff. The facility
> was superb. And the BEST BEST PART was finding a Cracker Barrel half a
> block away. We'd never heard of them before, the food/atmosphere was
> beyond excellent..we went back every night for three nights!  That'w
> what I'm talking about..have your events at a hotel outside of town,
> with gas/food/stores etc in the area that you can GET to without a GPS.
> it was great to get out to Nelson Ledges and watch the cars run.
> Toward the end one couple running a flag station (or whatever you call
> it) invited me to join them to shoot photos, and they were chock full
> of great SCCA autocross stories.. We had an EXCELLENT time in
> Twinsburg.  Even driving up to Cleveland to the Rodck and Roll Hall of
> Fame was not too bad, and it was worth the trip.
>
> OH..yeah..and the VV meeting was OK. Some unintentional
> highlights....the room lights going beserk was interesting. I noticed
> other meetings got a SCREEN for their power point presentations..Garth
> had to use the WALL.  We killed a lot of time introducing ourselves
> (but it was fun) and spent a bit of time talking about the VV
> operation, covering costs, value to Corsa, and then ran out of time
> before we got to much further into it, but Garth met up with a lot of
> guys outside the room after to continue.  Fun to put faces with the
> names, etc.
>
> OK...remember...you asked!
> Oh..and apologies to VV'ers...I'm posting this there to. (and versa
> visa)
> Oh..and I think all the pinks to my photos are posted and working at:
> http"//www.edselmotors.com/vairtrek.html
> just click on the "viewing screen" link....if you haven't already.
>
> Tim in Merrillville
> (yesk, that's MERRILLVILLE)
>
>
>
> ===
> You *can* repair a flip-flop with a capacitor!
> ===
>
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