Our Chapter's October 23-25, 2009, fall event in Cumberland, MD was a smashing success.

Bill & Carol Conlon chose the Rocky Gap Lodge & Golf Resort, set in northwest Maryland near the border with West Virginia and Pennsylvania, as our meeting site. Rocky Gap Lodge, in addition to featuring a Jack Nicklaus designed golf course, sits on a 243 acre lake and offers 23 miles of walking trails.

We began arriving mid-Friday, October 23. A few of us arrived in later model Vettes, but only the Conlons were brave enough to travel the considerable distance in rainy weather in their C-1.

Saturday morning brought scenic drive a through the meandering back roads from Cumberland to the Western Maryland Train Station at Canal Place. While waiting for our train's departure time, we toured the museum devoted to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.

The train trip is a 90 minute ride up the steadily climbing route to Frostburg, MD. It is a wonderfully relaxing trip through pristine woods.

Upon our arrival in Frostburg, we had two hours to explore the town and have lunch. There are still places in the world where $3-$4 will buy you a hearty lunch. Frostburg, MD is one of them.

On our return to the Frostburg railroad station we got to watch the engine and coal car be turned around on a turntable, so that they could push us back down the mountain to Canal Place.

Saturday night we ate heartily again at the Lakeside Restaurant, after which Vic Bary and Don Whitehead - guitars in hand -led the group in some informal sign-alongs. Sunday morning, it was time for breakfast and then good-byes.

Our thanks to Bill & Carol Conlon for selecting such a first class site and providing a weekend full of things to do.

MASACC members from Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania gathered at the Cliff Park Inn in historic Milford, Pennsylvania, for our spring fling. The Cliff Park Inn was recently voted one of the 10 most romantic inns in the US by American Historic Inns. The rambling wood frame B&B with its wide porch and excellent meals did not disappoint.

Late afternoon Friday, we all assembled in the living room of the Inn for a complimentary cocktail and trays of hors d'oeuvres. We then adjourned to the dining room to sample the delicious fare prepared by the Inn's chef - a graduate of James Beard and the Culinary Institute. It's fair to say that no one left the table hungry that weekend.

Saturday morning we assembled for a drive through the country, on a route prepared for and guided by Brian and Donna Whitehead. Following picturesque local roads we visited Raymondskill Falls, and later Dingmans Falls in Childs Recreation Park. We walked the trails and visited the falls at both sites.

At the end of our touring we drove back to Milford to visit Grey Towers, a National Historic Site which was the home of Forest Service founder, Gilford Pinchot.

After another fabulous dinner, members Don Whitehead and Vic Bary brought out their guitars and led the evening's songfest. While spirited and fun, it's fair to say that neither Eric Clapton nor Jimmy Page need fear for their careers.

Sunday morning it was another sumptuous breakfast and time for goodbyes. For those of you that missed this great event, mark your calendars for October 24 - 26. Bill and Carol Conlon have put together a Fall event at the Rocky Gap Lodge & Golf Resort (http://www.rockygapresort.com) in Cumberland, Maryland.

When the “A Day at the Beach – Boardwalk Corvettes” event ended Sunday, September 21 in Ocean City, New Jersey, and 430 Corvettes had been evaluated, the announcer’s voice rang out, “Best C-1, Mike and Barb Boyer’s 1954 Corvette.” But I get ahead of myself.

MASACC’s fall event was held September 19-21 in Ocean City, New Jersey to correspond with that city’s weekend celebrations. It gave us the opportunity to enjoy our club’s activities and to supplement them with the great events that Ocean City had scheduled.

On Saturday morning, we gathered at the Ocean City airport to watch the air show and to participate in the classic car display. Dozens of aircraft were on display on the airfield, – ranging from general aviation (Pipers, Mooneys. Ryans) to exotic aerobatic aircraft, a 1930’s biplane, and an SNJ (The Navy’s version of the North American AT6 – the WWII trainer that all pursuit pilots learned their basic skills in). Aerobatic planes jinked about trailing smoke, model airplanes showed their moves, a banner dragging plane snagged a banner 2 feet off the ground and flew it around the airfield, and a lawnmower flew. And, classic cars paraded around the airfield. What wasn’t there to like?

After the fun at the airfield, we gathered together and set out on a Shore to Please drive prepared by Paul and Luann Catinella. We drove up the shore road to Margate to visit Lucy. Lucy is a 60-foot tall wooden elephant built by a real estate developer in the 1890s to promote sale of the property he had bought on the Jersey Shore.

She even had a brief period where her interior was rented as lodging. In the 1970’s, she was at risk of being torn down and destroyed (to make room for a condominium of course), when locals rallied round her, and raised the funds for her preservation. We’re so glad they did.

After our visit with Lucy, we drove down the coastal route, then turned inland and drove North again to the Tuckahoe Inn. While the wait for them to prepare our table for 22 was a bit longer than we would have liked, the food was fabulous, as was our server, Ashley, who had to attend to two large groups on a very long day. Thanks Paul and Luann for a great drive, and Maureen for the Tuckahoe Inn.

Sunday morning we gorged ourselves at The Varsity Inn and then set off for the airfield, once again, to await our turn to leave for the Boardwalk Corvettes show. The Atlantic City club has crafted show logistics to a science over 18 years of conducting the Ocean City event. They lined up 430 Corvette by club, in the order we would be staged on the boardwalk, and had police directing traffic all the way from the airport to the boardwalk 2 ½ miles away. At the appointed time cars began departing in a near unbroken line .

At 3 miles in length, Ocean City’s boardwalk is the longest in New Jersey. Lined up two abreast, 430 Corvettes stretched for nearly a mile on the boardwalk. It was a glorious 80 degree sunny day, and the boardwalk was as crowded as I’ve ever seen it on a July or August weekend. A fair number of sunbathers and swimmers were on the beach and in the water.

In walking the boards, I saw a number of beautiful cars and a few Question Marks. Kerbeck had their 1953 on display, a 1954 Toys for Tots car, and a nice ’61 or ’62 (I forget which) Fuelie. Our club’s 11 C-1’s accounted for fully 2/3s of all the C-1’s to be found (they’re just not making them any more) and drew a lot of positive attention. A couple of nice Split Windows and some great paint jobs, and then, the Question Marks.

Question Marks? How about the black ’54 with the huge blower sticking out of the hood, the jacked up suspension with the drum brakes apparent front and rear, and the roll bar that wobbled if touched? One can only hope this car goes from show to show in a trailer, and never sees the road. It looked like a death wish on wheels.

Then there was the ’64 “Shark.” Yes, I know that body style wasn’t introduced until 1968, but how else do you describe a ’64 with fins, a swimmer’s legs dangling out of the tooth-filled grill, and a shark tail that wagged back and forth. The “Black Widow” clearly had Peter Benchley or Bill Mitchell firmly in mind.

Late in the afternoon the awards were announced. They started with the frivolous and funny with a Boardwalk Corvettes member singing the first few stanzas of the song associated with the award. So, she sang the beginning of “Blue Bayou” for the Best Blue Corvette, and, well you get the idea. But then came the real deal, the best car for each Corvette series. And honors for the Best C-1 went to Mike and Barb Boyer’s black 1954, and the crowd signaled its agreement with their applause. The whole event was a lot of fun and really well organized and conducted.

After exiting the boards and wending our way back to our motel (the Forum Motor Inn) to watch a bit of our favorite team’s Sunday football game (Go Iggles!), we went to dinner across the street to the Tigerlilly Café in the Historic Landmark 1928 Homestead Hotel. The café was suggested to Maureen by our host motel, and it did not disappoint. Hostess and co-owner Donna arranged a wonderful dinner and we just loved the early 20th century decor and the artist’s attention she had lavished on our private dining room. Several members were so taken by the surroundings, that they may consider the Inn (which has 50 condominium rooms) for a future event.

The fall event was another great weekend spent with old friends (and old cars) and we look forward to the Holiday event, December 7 in King of Prussia. We promise that it will be a day to live in memories, not in infamy.

Tuesday is the normal arrival day as people begin gathering for the festivities. However, long before the first attendees arrive, MASACC stalwarts were busy behind the scenes setting things up. Brad Bean was busy establishing the MASACC “Outlet” with a number of clothing items and miscellaneous SACC

paraphernalia for sale. Mike & Karen Russo were busy setting up items for the silent auction. John & Joanne Battista were getting the registration table in order.

And, even further, behind the scene, Bill & Carol Conlon were setting up the secure parking lot for the attendee’s cars and trailers. And, we mustn’t forget the most indispensible member of the team– Mike Boyer. Mike was standing by, check book open and pen at the ready – ready to write the checks necessary to cover the convention expenses.

While this was all going on, the hotel staff was busy laying out the room for that nights scheduled MASACC Newsletter 2 reception. Heavy finger foods were advertised, but what showed up were the heaviest finger foods I’ve ever seen!!! We had the standard veggies, cheese and crackers, followed by a buffet line.

Accompanied with a bread and cold cut table. And, after that we had a fabulous desert table.

There was even plenty of food left after about 130 convention attendees had eaten their fill. There was something for everyone and if anyone went away hungry – it had to be a deliberate act on their part.

As a part of the evening’s festivities, attendees were supposed to wear clothing that would have been in style when their car was new. Unfortunately, since most of that clothing would now be about 50 years old – it has either been disposed of, or it no longer fits. However, Brad Bean looked particularly resplendent in his college letterman’s sweater.

As a side bar, the disk jockey had set up a camera and took pictures MASACC Newsletter 3 of all comers during the evening. Here Frank Paschal poses with the very photogenic Dianna Celesky from the hotel staff.

This would be a good time to mention the hotel and staff – since our last convention, the hotel has changed hands and is now a part of the Sheraton Chain. The hotel staff could not have been more helpful – whatever we needed was made available – as if by magic. You hear people say – “Service is my middle name” but you soon find that they really don’t mean it. The Sheraton Chain can be very proud of the folks at the Harrisburg/Hershey hotel as they truly understand what service means.

Wednesday dawned with a line up and caravan via back roads to Carlisle to visit the Chip Miller collection of Corvettes – currently in the care of Chip’s son Lance. Along the way, we stopped in the rolling Pennsylvania hills at a gas station for a top off and an opportunity to look at and discuss C-1 performance characteristics.

Beautiful country, and marvelous weather – Ron Whitmoyer did himself proud with his route selection .

Arriving at Carlisle we parked in the normal Solid Axle parking area – very strange to be on the Carlisle Fair Grounds before it is covered with Corvettes, vendors and people.

The Miller collection is housed in a small garage, small but through the use of 4-post lifts, etc. every available inch of floor space is used.

We owe a big thank you to Lance for opening the collection for our visit as well as giving us a “play-by-play” rundown on the cars and their histories. While the cars were neat, I found the collection of “niece” cars (one for each of Chip’s nieces) to be particularly interesting.

So, back to the hotel for a SACC provided lunch – again, far more food than our hungry wayfarers could eat. After lunch

Larry Pierson conducted a tech session on the solid axle wiring harness. He emphasized the differences between original wiring and the replacement/reproduction wiring available on the market today. Towards the end of his presentation he gave us a run down on the plans for the Southern California Sponsored 2009 SACC Convention in Ventura, CA. It is still early, but clearly, these guys are well on their way to putting together another memorable SACC event.

After the tech session – your convention planners had decided – “enough of the fun and frivolity!” And, it was time for the annual SACC business meeting. Actually, it was a pretty good meeting and I’ll let Ken tell you all about it in the next issue of On Solid Ground.

So, once the meeting was behind us – it was time to eat again. After the previous evening and the finger food, we were certain that the hotel could not top that with a sit-down dinner. However, we were wrong! Plenty of good food for all.

Brad Bean, SACC Vice-President and Convention Planner Extraordinaire, introduced the guest speaker for the evening. Bill Miller is one half of Carlisle Productions. Bill gave us a run down on how he and Chip happened to come together to start a little car show/vendor opportunity in central Pennsylvania. Clearly, they didn’t know what they were starting when they held their first event.

Dinner was also the last chance to bid on silent auction items.

For those of you that don’t know – Karen & Mike Russo run the auction – they gather auction items and convince people to bid. Ultimately, all proceeds from the auction are donated to the Chip Miller Charitable Foundation which goes to fund Amyloidosis research.

Thursday started early with a caravan to the AACA museum just outside Hershey. If you have not been there – you should make it a “Must See” on your list of things to do before you die. For the ladies that would rather take advantage of the opportunity to forage for good deals at the loca l retail outlets, rather than look at “old cars,” a bus was available to take people to the Vanity Fair Outlet in Reading.

Our museum visit started with the obligatory group photo. Mike Boyer had set this up with the museum and they had a cherry picker on hand to get the intrepid photographer up high enough to get all in the picture as well as he managed to get the Hershey Kiss vehicle to the display to add a little more local color.

One of the museum volunteers gave us a guided tour of the museum and provided some history on the vehicle in the exhibit. The museum has one Corvette, a VERY NICE black C-1. And, this year’s special display was “Tail Fins”– it was so nice to see those huge old cars of my youth.

After the tour we gathered in the museum lunch room for a box lunch of sandwiches and a presentation by the Museum Curator, Jeff Bliemeister, (I hope I have that correct! Editor). He discussed plans the museum has and where the cars come from that are on display – a behind the scenes tour, if you will.

We soon adjourned and returned to the hotel where people prepared to “Head for Carlisle” and the last official act of “Convention 2008” that act being the presentation of the check to the Chip Miller Foundation. Between the proceeds from the silent auction and a small donation from MASACC we were able to provide a check for $3,000to the foundation. Pictured from left to right are Brad Bean, Mike Russo, Karen Russo, Lance Miller, and Judy Miller.

That’s it guys! A great time and if you missed it – better luck next time! See you all soon in Ventura.

30 MASACC members and friends arrived in style - in 13 C-1s and two late model Vettes - in White Marsh, MD (a suburb of Baltimore) for our spring event. Friday evening found us dining at the Bayou Blues Café, across the street from our host hotel. For our Saturday morning Tech Session, we toured the Allison transmission plant (technically part of the GM Powertrain Division) in White Marsh. The White Marsh plant assembles transmissions for light and medium duty trucks, both of which are automatics. One transmission is for gas and diesel trucks, and the other is for hybrids.

Maureen had arranged for a bus to take us to Baltimore's Inner Harbor for the afternoon. On the drive in, we passed Babe Ruth's house, and stopped to let some of our group off at the B&O Train Museum. Once at the Inner Harbor, we all scattered and went our separate ways to see the Aquarium, shop, view the old ships (a submarine, sailing ship, and a lighthouse ship), etc.



We headed home early as we had reservations at By the Docks restaurant where the dinners were everything that we had been led to believe.

After dinner we adjourned to Bengies Drive In for an "evening at the movies." Unfortunately, we were unaware that Bengies has a rule that "absolutely no photographs are to be taken!" As we waited in line to get into the drive-in, Maureen took several pictures of ours cars under the theater sign.



Suddenly a voice rang out, "Hey, no pictures in the drive-in." And, the next thing we knew "That's it, you're out of here, all you Corvettes are out of here!" So, 13 Corvettes drove through the box office line, out the exit and back to our host hotel for an evening of socializing in the lobby. The whole experience will become of part of MASACC lore.

Sunday, the meeting adjourned and those of us heading north stopped at Havre de Grace to tour the Lighthouse and Maritime Museum.

Colonial Williamsburg is a magical place any time of year, but during the winter holiday season it's especially so. The historic area is decorated with wreaths and decorations.

Saturday evening, 32 club members and friends converged on Colonial Williamsburg. We met for dinner at Christiana Campbell's, one of the historic area inns, directly behind the Capitol building at the foot of Duke of Gloucester Street.

After dinner we went on a Ghost Tour of the historic area.

Saturday was pretty much unstructured until the evening, with members free to roam the historic area, shop at the many outlet malls, or do whatever they chose.

The crowning moment Sunday were performances by fife and drum corps and other period entertainments followed by the fireworks.

The Grand Illumination was followed by a lovely club dinner. This was the second holiday weekend we have done as a club, and the turnout and the feedback suggest that it will not be the last.

The 50th Anniversary display included Mike and Karen Russo's beautifully restored stock 1957. We were also pleased to see several Chapter members' cars chosen as Celebrity Picks from the Fun Display.

Friday night, most of our thirty attendees met at the Triumph Brewing Company, the food was delicious, as were the featured beers.

Saturday morning, at 9 AM, we gathered at the Aaron Burr house parking lot for our Tech Session - a visit by Dave, AJ, and Phil of Blue Sky Classic Cars (www.blueskyclassiccrs.com, 973-691-8000), a Budd Lake New Jersey restoration shop that specializes in Corvettes. Don Whitehead raised his

long-standing WCFB carb tuning question. After listening to the idling car, they recommended closing down the idle circuits of the second four-barrel. Since the secondary idle circuit isn't needed as the first carb takes care of everything until about 2/3's throttle.

After the tech session, we had several hours to explore New Hope and have lunch, before reconvening for the road trip. Maureen, with the help of Don and Pat Whitehead, had mapped out a 45 mile round trip up the Delaware River, with a stop at a classic ice cream parlor midway through the trip. The trip up the Pennsylvania side of the river was scenic and provided shade from the sun. We met at 5 PM at Esca restaurant, which is situated next to the Pennsylvania Canal tow path. The excellent Italian dinner was served family style at 2 large tables set up just for us. Afterwards, we adjourned to the ample backyard of the B&B for a wine tasting and general conviviality.

Then it was time to head for home. With 30 members in attendance, and 16 C-1s present, our New Hope outing will rank among our more successful weekends.