Florida Corvette Club Inc. - The Most Active Club In Florida

Vettes by the Shore 2005

June 10 - 12, 2005

Three Corvettes left around 7:30 am on Thursday June 9 2005 from Bob & Ellen Malizia's home for our recent adventure. Bob & Ellen in their 95 Coupe, David & Lisa in their 98 Indy Pace Car and Patrick and Karen in their 77 Coupe decided to see what kind of fun we could have for a long weekend. We traveled the scenic route, which proved to be beautiful, up Hwy 19/98 and then following Hwy 98 along the panhandle. We stopped in Pt. St. Joe for lunch at a marina restaurant where the food was excellent but the service left something to be desired.

It began to rain while we were eating and of course the cars got pretty dirty driving in the rain. We also discovered that not far from our lunch stop the scenic became gridlock as we drove through Panama City Beach and into Pensacola. We jumped on I-10 in Pensacola and scooted across Alabama and before we new it we were in Mississippi. We reached our hotel a hot, tired, thirsty group so after we checked in we headed to the pool.

We had a few beers, swam and joked with the Chattanooga Corvette folks before our stomachs began to remind us that we had not eaten in a while. We drove a short trip down the road and went to Roadhouse for dinner, as we were driving in and noticed that there were no cars in the lot we asked a guy outside if they were closed. His response was "Nope, we are open for you Corvettes anytime". We sat and ate and had a great time joking with the waiter who was great. They closed at 10 pm and we didn't even sit down until 9:45. Back to the rooms afterward as we knew we were going to be busy the next day.

At 6 am the next morning everyone was up and washing the cars in the parking lot of the hotel before we drove next door to the coliseum. We had just gotten the cars dried off and went back to the rooms to pick up our passengers when it started to rain again. Figures! We decided to drive over and see if they would let us in early and luckily they were feeling bad for our wet selves and they did. All day Friday was spent detailing and cleaning the cars (16 hours total was rumored) and other than a side trip to a convenience store by Bob and Lisa it was an uneventful day. The group took a shuttle to Boomtown Casino for dinner and some light gambling that night but everyone was pretty well worn out and the show was to begin the next day so back to the hotel with a side trip to the convenience store again (at least Patrick didn't have to walk).

Saturday we did some last minute touch up on the cars since they decided to turn the lights up and we could now, we wandered around to see the other cars and judging. The Party was that night and everyone cleaned up nice, had a few drinks (some had more than a few), dancing and some awards were given out. Each of our members won a sponsor trophy to display with our cars the final day of the show.

Sunday dawned way to soon for some of us, we ate breakfast at the hotel and walked over to the coliseum again to dust off the cars and see if they needed to do any re-judging. We hung out, made some new friends, took pictures and went to a few seminars until the auction and trophies. Then came the moment of truth, was the 16 hours of cleaning good enough for the judges?? I guess so, since each of our member's cars took home 1st place in their class!!

David & Lisa won 1st place Concourse Street 1997-2004
Bob & Ellen won 1st place Street & Show 1984-1996
Patrick & Karen won 1st place Street & Show 1968-1982

Patrick and Karen had to head back on Sunday but the rest of us decided to head to the Beau Rivage for dinner and to hit the slots and it was awesome! We drove back on Monday were tired but happy Vetters.

We will definitely be going back next year.