Monte Carlos in Attendance

The 2018 Western Meet
by Aaron Dodsworth

Thursday

Our 15th annual Western Meet was held in The Dalles, Oregon at the Cruise the Gorge event. The area surrounding The Dalles had been plagued by a few large wildfires in July and early August and it was our hope that everything would be contained in time for the meet. Luckily everything was fine when it was time to travel to the area. April and I drove to Oregon in our 1971 SS454 with no issues but we visited several gas stations between home and The Dalles. We arrived at the hotel on Thursday afternoon and were greeted by some members who had arrived earlier that day. It was HOT! The weather app on our phone stated that it was 104 degrees but feels like 111! Due to the excessive heat the club settled in the hotel breakfast room for pizza rather than having it out in the parking lot as we traditionally do. We figured that it would not be too hot by the time we were done, but it was still too hot out at 8pm for us to sit in the parking lot and chat. Most of us then went to the comfort of air conditioning in our rooms. I eventually came out at 10pm to greet a Pat Trottier and Wayne Good who had just arrived and the outside temperature was bearable by that time to sit out there and chat. The forecast looked much cooler the next few days.

Friday

Friday was all about cruising and the weather was not as hot with a high temperature of 96 degrees. First we had the cruise during the day throughout the Hood River area organized by Matt Hilla then there was the evening cruising in Downtown The Dalles.

We left the hotel in the morning for the famous Rowena Loops. This is an amazingly curvy road that took us up to the Rowena Plateau where we stopped to take in the beautiful panoramic view of the Columbia River Gorge. After some time at the top of the viewpoint we continued back down toward the river to Port Marina Park in Hood River. We took photos of each member in their car with the scenic backdrop and watched the sail boats head out from the marina. The cruise route then led us through downtown Hood River up toward Mt. Hood and stopping in Parkdale for some ice cream. Again our cars attracted a lot of attention parked in a row along the side of the road. Our last stop for this cruise was lunch at Marchesi Vineyards in Hood River. The group spent a fair amount of time there as it was a great spot to sit and enjoy our lunch with some wine in the shade. Once we were back to the hotel it was time to relax and prepare for the evening cruise.

The Cruise the Gorge event had their Neon Cruise through downtown The Dalles on Friday night. Our hotel is right between the two one-way streets that are part of the downtown cruise loop allowing us a great view of the cars from the parking lot. Some of our group participated in the cruise while others sat back and enjoyed the sights and sounds as they rolled by. As the evening settled in the cruise was cut short due to a shortened ’55 Chevy driven recklessly, hit a parked car, flipped on its roof and caught fire. The fire was put out quickly but there were a few pedestrians hurt in the incident. We were informed the next day that the driver was in jail and the authorities will throw the book at him. We spent the rest of the evening swapping stories in the hotel parking lot as we always do.

Saturday

The car show took place in the shade of the tall trees in Sorosis Park. We had 17 Monte Carlos at the show and the weather was sunshine and 85 degrees. We signed up a couple new members at the show and had a great day. When it came time for the Cruise the Gorge awards Jack Young was called up to accept an award for Best 70’s and Derry Wright received the long distance award for driving his 1970 SS454 over 1,000 miles from Saskatchewan, Canada. The FGMCC also received the club participation award and I was able to make a short speech about the club during the awards ceremony.

Sunday

There was another show on Sunday in the town of Dufur. After a nice drive through the rolling hills of Wasco County we set up for another relaxing day at the Dufur show. Jack Young, Jay Marsh and Tom Kelly all received some hardware at this show before we drove back to The Dalles. Jack and Jay’s awards were for 1970’s modified and stock but we’re still scratching our heads as to how Tom won the 2000’s class with a 1970 Monte Carlo.In the afternoon we walked over to the restaurant next to the hotel for the FGMCC awards, door prizes and dinner. Everyone walked away with something from the banquet before going back to the hotel for one last night of bench racing in the parking lot.