2000 Meet

Pigeon Forge, TN

September 15-17, 2000

FGMCC Invades Pigeon Forge, TN!

1st Annual FGMCC Meet
Pigeon Forge, TN
September 15, 16, & 17 2000
The Grand Rod Run
Members Present: 4

Over the weekend of Sept. 15, 16, and 17, 2000 the FGMCC met in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee , which is in the heart of the Smoky Mountains !  We couldn’t ask for a better weekend for cruising to the Grand Rod Run where thousands of Classic and special interest cars came to cruise and mingle with others that share the same hobby.  On Friday I had the pleasure to meet a guy named F.D. who owned a certain dark purple metallic 1970 Monte Carlo which was painted all over.  All of the bumpers and trim was the same dark purple.  It was a rather unusual and an eye-catching ride.  Later that day, I walked down the parkway meeting several other 70-72 Monte Carlo owners and telling them about our club.  This proved to be an exhausting long walk.  It took all day and part of the night to walk down the parkway and see all the rods and muscle cars.  There were thousands upon thousands of them there.  Now, the next day I was greeted by a fellow FGMCC member in a 1972 Monte accompanied by a HUGE stuffed Tigger!  His name is Konrad Shaaf and after driving 10 hours from Illinois on Friday night he met me Saturday morning early.  Konrad, F.D., my girlfriend (now wife) Jennifer, and I had a great time talking about our Monte’s and looking at other muscle cars.  Later at lunch we walked down the road to Ponderosa.  Then we proceeded to walk on down the parkway again, all the while telling every 70-72 Monte Carlo owner to meet us at 6:30 PM to cruise the parkway in a line of our beloved first gens!!  While walking we saw Andreas Kwetkus and his wife roar by us in the fast lane!  Andreas was in his home state of Tennessee .  He owns a 1971 Monte Carlo with several nice mods.  We finally all came together that afternoon and sat around chatting waiting for 6:30 .  By this time the parkway was absolutely filled with classic chevys, fords, mopars, and every thing else you can think of from a blown geo tracker  and Mercedes benz to a Cadillac HURSE painted with flames!  If you can dream it up, it was there!  So we all got ready and pulled onto the parkway.  People, I tell you, this was really slow slow traffic because I cant stress enough how big this event is.  Yeah, it was the biggest traffic jam I’ve ever seen in my life, but ya know what? Nobody cared! Everyone was in muscle car paradise and it was great to sit there and hear the observers say “hey there's another one, and ANOTHER ONE” about our Monte's And what kid wouldn’t love that big TIGGER’s head poking out the window of that first one! Ahh and to smell those fumes of the oncoming occasional Pro Street Dragster, it was amazing.  By the time we inched to the Grand Resort, which is about halfway down the parkway, our montes had been running near idle off and on for nearly 2 hours.  Then we opted to get in a faster lane which moved much faster but the people standing near the road watching couldn’t see us as good. (oh well.)  But thanks in part to our Chevy’s big long air fan shroud our montes ran cool the whole night.

L-to-R Andreas’71, FD’s70, my70 (Kevin) and Tig's 72!!

Cruising for that long really works up an appetite, so we stopped at Beach House Grill to get some munchies.  After getting back to the Hotel, all of us got together to kick back and view some of the cars going by.  It got crazier and crazier the later it got.  People were doing burnouts left and right. As you looked down the parkway you could see smoke clouds and hear the lope of a big engine with a major cam and exhaust.  I cant think of a better means of entertainment. 

Sunday morning we all got together for a club photo shoot.  We went up into the mountains to a locale where you can look over into a valley where Gatlinburg is.  It is a beautiful location and a great place to make some pics. We all put on our  FGMCC club shirts and got some pics made overlooking the scenery.  The drive there through the winding roads was very fun and produced a lucky shot from my digital camera shown below.