General Meeting – September 2019

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Corvettes of Bakersfield, Inc.

General Meeting

9/10/2019 at Three-Way Chevrolet

37 members in attendance. 

6:37 P.M.  Meeting called to order by President Larry Young.  Thanks to our sponsor, Three-Way Chevrolet, for the meeting room and the monthly financial contribution to the club.

Flag Salute: Led by Adrian Medina.

Guests: None

Birthdays and Anniversaries:  Acknowledged by Larry Young.

Refreshments and Prizes:  Tony Sparano provided the cookies and Brad Hayden and Michael Rouw brought the gifts to be given away.

The Ellisons were not here as Donna’s mother is gravely ill.  Dick Compton called Larry and said his wife, Barbara, is not doing well and it may be a while before he is able to return to club activities.  Larry requested we keep both these families in our thoughts.

Larry Young, being a car man, shared the most recent car hype in a car magazine and encouraged the rest of us to look into it.  Fifty-three years after the 1966 24 Hours of Lemans endurance race between Ford and Ferrari, a new high-speed biographical drama that depicts this duel is being released, Lemans 66.   

Minutes:  Carl Lange motioned to approve the minutes from last month’s meeting.  Denise Hollister made a second.  Motion passed.

Larry Young/President:  Larry reminded everyone of the Wine Run and Vettes For Vets Car Show.  Full participation by members is needed/encouraged.

Bill Dean/Vice President:   Not here.

Kim Miller/Secretary:  Nothing new to report.

Betsy Slauson/Membership:  New membership cards are here.  Please pick yours up.

Carl Lange/Treasurer:  We have $23,559.27 between the two accounts.

Sergeant At Arms:  Dave was not here, so John Silliman collected for “no name badges”.

Virgil Miller/Webmaster:  The website has been updated with the latest offerings.  Please check it out.

Adrian Medina/Social Media:  The blog is up to date.  Jack and Yolanda Atkinson took a corvette trip to Nova Scotia.  Don and Jeanne Allen recently returned from the Corvette festivities in Bowling Green.  Hope to be able to share pictures and details from both these trips soon.

Liz Zaninovich/Public Relations:  Stockdale High School NHS is lined up to help with the car show.  Permission slips will be given to the students to be returned with parent’s signature.

Danny Ellison/Events:  Not here.  Larry received, and shared, a thank you certificate from Toys for Tots for our participation in their cause last Christmas.

Larry also reminded members of the Corvette Owners Breakfast the 3rd Wednesday of the month and Firehouse Friday Nite Graffiti on the last Friday of the month.  More information can be found on our website.

Annual Wine Run – Twenty-nine have paid.  We need 32 to break even.  Please consider the trip and sign up soon.

Vettes For Vets Car Show –  Virgil gave out flyers for the car show to be passed out at other car shows within the community this next month.  He also provided an agenda for the Vettes 4 Vets car show so that members know what to expect at the event on 11/9/2019.

Christmas Parade – Do we want to participate this year?  The Board of Director weren’t really enthusiastic.  How about the General Membership?  The response was NO.  How about the

Veteran’s Day Parade –  There is a MOAA (Military Officers Association of America) meeting next week.  Tony will provide more  information as it becomes available.

“Breakdown Shakedown”  Larry is offering to host a morning at his shop on 9/21/2019 8:00am-noonish for members to bring by their corvettes and check them out for any services.  Half a dozen members showed interest.  Larry will provide coffee and put out more information in the coming days.

NCCC Governor – Greg Brott submitted his resignation.  This position requires attending four meetings a year (out of town).  Larry will attend the upcoming meeting on 9/14/2019, however, he can’t take over these responsibilities.  Linda McNitt volunteered to fill the vacancy for the club.  Larry will talk to her after the 14th and get her up to speed.

Prizes/Gifts – We have three events coming up before the end of the year that are will need prizes and/or gifts donated to them.  Larry reminded the members that those attending the wine run have been asked to provide a prize for the evening raffle.  The Vettes For Vets car show will need numerous prizes for the raffle.  Members are encouraged to reach out to the community for prizes or provide a raffle prize themselves.  Also, a raffle is held each year at the Christmas Party.  Attending members are encouraged to bring a prize. 

Christmas Party – The event will be held on 12/7/2019 at the Brighton Park Club House.  The cost is $25 per person.

Next month – Snacks will be provided by Melanie Mitchell and Bob and Shirley Vella will provide the prizes.

Harris Ranch Run – John Silliman will be leading the way on this run on 10/12/2019.  The planned route is to take Hwy 33 to Blackwell’s Corner, then to Coalinga to see their museum and from there to Harris Ranch.  Afterwards, for those interested, there is the option of going to the casino.  John expressed his appreciation to those who went to Camarillo.  A video of the trip was shown.

General Motors C8 Tour ­– A video of the trip to Merle Stone Chevrolet in Tulare was shown.  Fourteen of our corvettes participated at this event and were pleased with the hospitality.

Meeting Adjourned at 7:35pm

2019 Corvettes of Bakersfield Wine Run

2019 Corvettes of Bakersfield Wine Run

Many thanks to Tony Ennis and Chevy Garza for putting together the 2019 Corvettes of Bakersfield Wine Run To Paso Robles this past weekend. As usual, we had a great time with 9 Corvettes caravanning in addition to 6 “tin” cars, quite a bit less than the normally 20-30 Vettes that attend. The three wineries we visited this year were Jada Vineyards and Winery, Brecon Estates Winery and the Derby Estates Winery.

Jada is an old favorite with the Corvette club with their beautiful scenery and an upstairs patio overlooking the vineyards (and our Vettes). The daytime weather was still cool in the 60’s and the wine flowed freely as we went from one sample to the other.

Our next stop is Brecon Estate Winery with  a beautifully landscaped tasting area and a large patio. We enjoyed their wine and then later had our lunch break at the picnic tables down a grassy walkway. It was a very wonderful and relaxing atmosphere and the weather had warmed up to the gorgeous 70’s.

Our last stop for wine tasting was the Derby Estates winery. The building was originally built in 1922 as a warehouse and processing plant for the Paso Robles Almond Growers Association. The building went up for sale in 1936 and was owned by several businesses and associations where it became, eventually, in disrepair. It was in purchased by Ray and Pam Derby in October 2010 and completely renovated. Ray and Pam were retirees in Paso Robles who let their hobby of growing grapes and making wine become an obsession. A special thanks goes to Danny, our bartender, who gave us many an illustrious story of the making of the wines and of the landmark building. While most of our crowd drove off to check in to our motel to get ready for our barbecue, Danny enticed a few of us stragglers to tour the building and view the winemaking process. Danny was very hospitable and engaging and very proud of his work at the Derby Estates winery. 

As we arrived to the Best Way Inn to check into the motel, our barbecue caterer, Big Ed’s Bar B Que and Catering from Bakersfield, was already preparing our delicious meal of ribs, tri-tip, chicken, rice and salad. As the evening wore on, we struggled through our raffle in the now windy cold, chilly air. We appeared to look like the homeless, bundled up under blankets, trying to get through the evening. Generally we stay up till very late at night but as soon as the raffle was over, we all turned in early to our warm beds.

Thanks to Gregg Brott for this awesome video of our Corvettes of Bakersfield Wine Run. Click on picture/link to watch video:  http://web.photodex.com/view/2ppw47x4/?watch-2ppw47x4 
For hundred of more pictures, Click on our Flickr Page link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/158760832@N02/albums/72157711156455766

Breakdown, Shakedown at Larry’s Shop

Breakdown, Shakedown at Larry’s Shop

This event was a first for COB. Our president, Larry Young, graciously offered his shop to the membership to bring their Corvettes over to do some minor repairs. First he moved out his wonderful collection of Sunbeam Tigers and his partner’s Triumph TR7. That freed up three bays for the participants to work on their cars. One bay had a car lift which allowed us to get underneath and examine what was really under there. One by one we lifted up the car‘s to do some minor repairs or just to look and see what needed to be done. For instance, my car needed to have the front splitter repositioned after a minor bump pulled the bumper skin tabs out of its slots. Virgil made a very detailed examination of what gaskets needed to be replaced on his ‘54 C1. Note the excellent job of using speaker wire to secure his tail pipe. Don did extremely good job of polishing his car and wheels and Terri discovered the source of an assortment of noises underneath her beautiful ‘65 C2. She also got her engine timing adjusted. Annie had her interior trim worked on and Mark had his engine scanned for error codes. Chris Espitia did an excellent job of buffing Annie’s car and used his mighty muscles to take the lugnuts off of Terri’s Vette. We all hung around and looked at each other‘s vehicles and gave our expert opinions. We also enjoyed some coffee and donuts (thanks Larry) and some fruit salad supplied by Annie. There may even have been a can of beer here and there. Many thanks to master mechanic David Kielty for helping all of us and doing a majority of the work involved. Again, thanks to Larry for offering the use of his shop. It was a fun and fruitful event and we look forward to doing it again.

Click on this Flickr link for many more photos:  https://www.flickr.com/…/158760832…/albums/72157711007707973

September Members Meeting

September Members Meeting

Congratulations to our raffle winners at tonight‘s Corvettes of Bakersfield members meeting. They are Tony Ennis, Skip Schipper, Myna Stewart, Michael Rouw and Kathy Telese. Raffle prizes included two very good sized pumpkins as well as movie tickets, wine and a gift certificate to the Guild House. A couple of videos were shown of our most recent events edited by Danny Ellison and Gregg Brott. Good work guys! Thank you to all who attended our meeting. As always, it was very fun and productive.

For more pictures, Click on the link to our Flickr page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/158760832@N02/albums/72157710792527238

Chuy’s Cruise-In–September, 2019

Chuy’s Cruise-In–September, 2019

We are a hardy bunch! We had COB members with nine Corvettes braving the 103° heat tonight as we tried to scramble to find shade in Chuy’s parking lot for the weekly Chuy’s Cruise-in. In spite of the hot weather, we got to enjoy our root beer floats handily served by our beautiful Corvettes of Bakersfield ladies. These hard-working girls served up some mean root beer floats and made the gathering all the more bearable. Lots of Corvette talk of the new C8 that was revealed in Tulare the day before and lots of camaraderie as friends and families got together and had a great time.

Thanks to Lugnut Larry for his hard work in putting on this event every week as well as the Fire House event on Friday nights.

Click on Flickr link for more photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/158760832@N02/albums/72157710790100422