By Jeff Henry

While most of the group met at an IHOP on the north side of Indy at

8:00am Sat. May 5, Ruth Dougherty, Dave Tyminski, and myself were half

way to our first destination on this fun-filled weekend. The plan: Leave by 6:30; arrive at the Auburn-Cord-Duesenburg Museum by 9:00am. Take a quick look at the new addition to the Museum, pick up the Duesenberg Barker town car, and head for Eric and Vivian Lavine’s restoration shop arriving there hopefully around 11:00am.

At 5:10 am, I was seriously thinking about getting up. It was too early for an alarm to go off on a weekend!

When we gathered at Doughertys our schedule was working until the cat

decided to hide. This is the cat that sets off "Grandmother" Ruth’s

house alarm and upsets the police – who do NOT like false alarms. We

discovered Miss Kitty’s hiding place, she was put outside, and we left

somewhat late.

At 10:25 we filled the gas tank in Auburn, wheeled the Duesenburg onto

I-69 in Auburn and drove at a comfortable 65-mph. Oil pressure, check,

water temperature, check, generator, charging! The latter was of special importance to me since we had to get a "boost" from Matt Short at the museum. Matt was gracious to accommodate our early Sat. schedule.

We moved on to Lavine Restorations, and arrived at Eric and Vivian’s shop about 11:30 am. One could quickly become envious of such accommodations! Most of the other club members were already there when we arrived: Bob and Edna Fischer (’37 Packard Super Eight Sedan), Don and Bev Mc Callum (’33 Packard Eight Touring), Hugh and Sally Mcknight (’36 Cord 810 Sedan), Steve and Robbi Ortman (’32 Chrysler Imperial Rumble Seat Coupe), Jack Pecsok (’40 Lincoln Continental Cabriolet), Gene and Sally Perkins (’40 Packard Darrin), Bob Titlow and Helen Vogel (’37 Packard 8 Convertible Victoria), Bill Davis (’73 Rolls-Royce NC.), Bill Lurvey, Tom and Paula Hartz, Jay Kolb, Bill and Carolyn Greer, Dan and Susan Phenicie, Jim and Pam Ray, Dennis and Connie Sobieski, Fred Salmon, Dave and Rob Titlow, Ron Riffel, John Allie, Bob and Angela Westerman, Gene Menne, Bill Albertin and Floyd Hahn from the Spirit of St. Louis region.

At the restoration shop we ate a tempting spread of lunchmeats and

cheese, as well as pasta salad, potato salad, and a wonderful array of

deserts. We were able to spend a couple of hours at the shop visiting

with Eric and Vivian. We looked at one of the most complete and original Stutz sedans (NC) Bill Greer has seen as well as a couple of beautiful Packards.

For those who didn’t want to shop in Nappanee, the next leg took us past Amish carriages and RV manufacturers to our motel in Elkhart. The wind blew Sat., and the sun turned our faces red Sun.

Let’s get back to our schedule. Soon it was time to CARavan to S. Ray

and Linda Miller’s home and museum. The Classics, the clothes, even the Chicago gangster with his tommygun had us salivating. Dan Phenicie and others were snapping pictures. The musical combo played. More car talk. Bill Davis shared his knowledge of Cadillacs. Bill and Sonya Miller had arrived. What bittersweet ambience for what would probably be our last visit! We had our catered dinner in the garage after touring the antique-filled home. Stuffed chicken breast & veggies were topped off with cheesecake.

Then we moved back to the museum for more addicting ambience. It was dance time. The music, the mood and the magnificent motorcars proved irresistible. Bill and Carolyn, Bob and Helen, Bob and Edna began twirling around the floor. Eleanor Billey and Donald Filley had outdone themselves.