WOW!!! You guys out did yourselves again! The weather reports were iffy all week, it poured on Friday night and Saturday morning, and we still had 150 Corvettes attend the cruise... I guess if the weather was sunny on Friday we'd still be counting cars!!!

OK - here are the stats:

150 Corvettes.

We collected $1,218.00 for Toys for Tots.

We filled to overflow, four Toys for Tots collection boxes and had some toys stacked up on the ground around them.

We collected $157.00 for St. Judes as part of a modified 50/50. The other $157.00 went to the "Young Marines" (who assisted us with parking and awarded a trophy to the NJ Corvette they liked the most... ). The winner of the raffle, John Wiz, received a nice Cutter and Buck sweatshirt from West Coast Corvette along with a cap from the Corvette Assembly Plant.

215 people were fed at Brookside. I've never seen lunch go so smoothly. We may have hit the lunch bullseye. Please comment on lunch for me so that I know what you all thought of the new setup.

We took our group shot before lunch like we did in the spring, and I had several positive comments on that. Should we just make this the standard? Maybe I can find us another spot where we can all fit so that we don't do it at the same location every time...???

Andy Bolig had enough time in the afternoon to shoot 6 cars for upcoming articles in Corvette Enthusiast Magazine. Additionally, he informed me that the cruise would be a story on it's own!

So that's the official stats. Now, here are my personal thoughts:

Those of you that attended the cruise are just plain wonderful folk. To have attendance like this with weather like we had on Friday night and Saturday morning is downright astounding. For those of you that were unable to attend, this cruise was pretty much a "Who's Who" of Corvette forum. A whole bunch of us "Old CF Farts" turned out to say hello to Mikey and Anne and that was just great. We blew away all the old attendance records and the Toys for Tots people were absolutely thrilled with your generosity. I had never heard of the "Young Marines" before this cruise. I guess they are similar to the Boy and Girl Scouts, but are military orientated. They were a fine group of youngsters who did a great job helping us to direct Corvettes onto the parking lot. Maybe we'll be able to make them a permanent fixture to both cruises...

Some of my opening remarks were difficult for me and I inadvertently forgot to mention that Mike Cummins had dedicated this cruise to the memory of his mom Elaine, who was killed in an automobile accident shortly after the spring cruise. He and his dad Dave did the honor of leading out the group and did an outstanding job of parking us at Stony Man and Brookside. Way to go Mike! (OK Mike, now get me a ride in a new ZO6 car. )

And I so very much appreciated the bursts of spontaneous applause for Mikey and Anne during my remarks as it gave me a few seconds to compose and continue. You people are great...

Thanks to all of you that helped with doing goodie bags, parking, door prizes, etc. If I start to list names I'm sure that I'd forget some so I will just leave it as an open "Thanks to All!" Special thanks to Jack. Your tireless efforts to promote Mikey's recovery are heartwarming and shows just how nice a person you are. Thanks buddy.

I enjoy seeing each and every one of you and hope to see you all in the spring. Thank you so much for coming. I will post my pics late Sunday night. In the meantime, here are a few of them:

 

Jim - OUTSTANDING JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In addition to the 6 cars shot, there will be a few more surprises shot from the event
Wait until you see the pictures we got while the group headed down the mountain and of the C6 *driving w/ in the limits* for some great action shots ( ...but whose limits )

Lunch was the best and smoothest so far Jim, and I have been doing these Skyline cruises for more than a few years w/ the group - this WAS the BEST!
Enjoy!

 

Jim,

Glad to see this Fall Skyline was such a success - sorry to have missed it...

 

We missed you guys...

 

All went great again Jim
Next time I will drink with the vest on
28 plus vettes on the side street
Lunch was smooth and the road was dry enough for just a tiny weeny tisy bit of fun.........and the tunnel

 

Fantastic job Jim!! It just keeps getting better and better.

We had a wonderful time.

Thanks for giving us Corvette enthusiast another exciting and worthwhile event for which we are able to appreciate ours (rt 211) and others cars.

And thanks for being one of the nicest and most caring people I've ever met!

 

Jim, it was great as usual. For me it was tiring, waking up at 3:00am and going to work, getting off at 11:00am, take a shower and hit the road only to get stuck in some major traffic. All that wore me out that while we were doing the goody bags and commenting on the rain, I didn't know my passenger window was open all night!

Lunch at the Brookside was great although a bit pricey. I did have seconds though, so that should tell you something.

I hope I'm correct in saying that nobody got a ticket yesterday and although maybe we weren't supposed to, I do have an in car video of two people doing a burnout in the tunnel. They shall remain nameless to protect the guilty.

It was cool to watch the magazine shoot and even funnier when other people would drive in and park next to the cars getting shot! One guy almost hit a tree screeching to a halt to get into the parking lot and then proceeded to park in front of the camera. He was kindly asked to move, so he left instead.

I am so glad that Mike made the trip, he and Anne are probably my two favorite people that I've met on this forum, I consider them family and there isn't anything I wouldn't do to help them.

I'm going to go on record here and state that the Days Inn in Luray will no longer be my choice of hotel on Saturday night. I'd been better off going back to Front Royal, more choices for dinner. Ever drive through Luray on a Saturday night? I don't know what town we ended up in, but it was 11 miles west of the hotel in the middle of the darkest road I've been on, and it was on a blind curve halfway up a hill.

Good food though, but the other reason is, Days Inn didn't have HBO or anything similar so I was stuck between CMT,VH1 and MTV, nothing else had anything interesting.

The ride home was uneventful except for the two girls who wanted gas money from me and the old lady who asked me to set the clock in her brand spanking new C6. She only had 150 miles on it and was cruising at 100 mph before she stopped for lunch. She is a multiple vette owner and has owned vettes since 1978. She says screw those foreign cars, she wants only vettes. I asked if she would adopt me.

Hopefully with any luck, I'll make the spring cruise, it's been about three years since I made that one.

Thanks again Jim for everything you do(and thanks again for the water).

 

Thanks Jim

 

I just want to say, again, what a great time I had today. Jim, you did one HELLUVA job setting this up. I know Toys for Tots and St. Judes will deeply appreciate your efforts, and I gotta commend all the Forum members for their generous donations. This cruise is definitely a permanent fixture on my calendar, both spring and fall.

GREAT JOB!!!!!

 

thanks for setting this up, jim!

it was wonderful and i can't wait til the spring cruise!

i do have a few constructive comments tho...

unfortunately, i didn't hear the change in plans at the morning meeting and missed the group pic... but as a result, was one of the first few to the lunch spot, so not all was lost. lunch seemed a little pricey for the sandwhiches etc, but i think the buffet was their "normal" price (read as "limited options + tourists = higher prices").

may consider "the mimslyn" in luray for lunch in the future? actually a VERY nice place and is only about 5 minutes further from the brookview. they also have banquet facilities etc, and may get better food for same or less $$?? just an idea...

the procession to the park was pretty good. the people leading the pack in large groups need to remember to go extra extra extra slow, because the groups invariably tend to spread out, and then the people at the back are speeding to catch up.

again, it was wonderful and thanks for your effort!!!

 

Sonny, I didn't see you yesterday(or if I did, I don't remember).

I was joking with the Brookside about their "Corvette Tax"

I like the Brookside, but we are getting to be a little too large of a group. Yesterday's outdoor "BBQ" was a good solution, but we are now running out of parking spots.

We may have to do like those marathon runners and have them pass out lunch as we drive by and eat on the fly!

 

Jim and all the helpers-- The best yet. Thank you sooooooo much for all you do!

 

JIM and Linda, Great job!

You guys are my heroes, 150 Vettes, wow what a turn out. Don't know what I'd do if that many showed up to one of my events

Brookside prices did seem a little high, like there was a Corvette tax and the food could have been warmer.

AND let's not forget IRON 82, Mike. HE did a great job helping with the parking, etc.

Look for us on the Spring Cruise.

 

Jim and crew: great job again. This is our third cruise and they get beter each time. Can't wait til next spring. Seeing more and more faces that I recognize from other parts of the state and country. Your comments were very touching and I am sure meant a great deal to Mikey. We were glad to catch up with our friend Mike and his dad; Elaine so loved the last cruise.
Have a good and safe winter and we'll see ya in the spring. C5 XTC

 

Sonny

We typically due Mimslyn in the spring, as long as the grass is dry they have plenty of parking [think big hill ha ha]

 

Actually, we did the Mimslyn just once, which was this spring. The food was indeed cheaper and they could seat pretty much all of us at once. Although we didn't get served much faster then at Brookside, we were in line inside. Also, they had adequate rest room facilities.

Having said all that, they cannot accommodate 100 cars in their parking lot. Actually, they have more of a parking driveway then lot. Fortunately for us, the lawn was dry this spring and we parked on it. But if it had been wet, we would have been screwed as the lawn is pretty much a hill. During the planning of that event I called the Mimslyn a couple of times. I usually felt as though I was putting someone out with my questions. They assured me several times that they could accommodate 100 cars. Then, unknown to me, they had a traveling antique show scheduled for the same day and most of the available parking was already taken when we arrived. On the other hand, Brookside calls me to set things up and they are always upbeat and friendly.

We rode out on Friday and spent the night in Front Royal. We had lunch at Taco Bell. It costs $11.00+ for some tacos and we could feel our shoes sticking to the floor as we walked to our table. We paid $13.00+ to have burgers and chips with 200 of my best friends on Saturday. Although the individual items did seem pricey, they are comparable to other tourist places.

Another eating problem I am faced with is that I never know how many people are coming. I asked for a headcount and got the typical 50% number that we have got in the past. 70 cars said they were coming and 150 showed up. It is a weather-dependant event and I have to find a place to eat where I can tell them that we'll have between 40-250 people, and that I'll firm up that number the morning of the cruise. Both the Mimslyn and Brookside are fine with that. Mimslyn ran out of the main buffet item in the spring. Frankly, they ran out of that item and the first substitution as well. That's not a problem, but it just goes to show how hard it is to plan for this event. I would love to find a place off US-33 so we could change up the cruise a bit. But then I'd get an earful because we skipped US-211. (And I'd agree on that one!!!)

I am always looking for ideas to prevent the cruise from becoming stale. Keep the comments flowing as I read all of them. Thanks for all the help.

 

I thought it all went extremely well. The outdoor barbecue was a great idea at the Brookside. I had been there a couple weeks before and couldn't figure out where you were going to put 100+ Corvettes. Now I know. And there really was room for more. And even though I had to do a bit of an off-road excursion to leave, the 'vette handled it like Ivan Stewart. (Good thing the grass wasn't wet.) No complaints from me.

I didn't think the prices were too high and the wait was fine. I live in the area. Seems about right. I skipped lunch during the Spring cruise and it sounds like it was the right choice!

Another option might be the facilities at Skyland in the park. I'm not sure how many people they can hold but they do have quite a bit of parking and a lot of restaurant space. Their restroom facilities are quite good as well. You might check it out for future events.

I noticed you (Jim) were getting a little choked up during your speech regarding Mike. Sir, you did better than I ever could have in the same situation. There was no doubting your sincerity.

Did anyone else notice it was easier getting into the park this time than in the Spring?

I'll be back in the spring... hopefully with the '82 again.

Jerry

 

Great Job Jim!!!!!

This was my second cruise with you and it was even better than the Spring. However, if the car count goes any higher, we will have to find a new location for the group photo! I also loved the way those tourists scrambled when they saw they were going to be trapped by all those Vettes!

As for the complaints about food prices at lunch......welcome to Northern Va people. The prices were in line and not a surprise to me.

P.S. The tunnel was awesome with my new Corsa's!

Anybody remember this butt?

 

Having 3 lanes open this time was far better than the usual 2 lanes

 

There wasn't a change of plans. We were scheduled to go directly to Stony man for the group shot. On my way to that overlook I did notice that several Corvettes stopped at some of the earlier overlooks to take pictures. Maybe some of those decided to go directly to Brookside and you followed them? Not sure. Sorry you missed the pic.