2000 Pacific North West Imperial Meet

Imperial Home Page -> Events -> Oregon 2000

Florence, Oregon - Rhododendron Festival

May 19-20

The Cast

The Play!

On Friday Night we all met at 7pm at Bliss's Route 101 restraunt! Bob and I arrived first and didn't sit there long when we saw the Suede Imp Pull in! Mike, Linda and kids had arrived they all got settled in at the table and there comes Loren and Patty and Erik, then I see the Mercedes pull in! The dinner party was all accounted for, we had a great evening and called it a night around 10 pm.

I got up early the next morning as I had to wash the wagon and Mike got off to a great start by checking his vital fluids and snapping the hood release Cable.... He said his first thought was Alison said she did it with a butter knife, so that's what he did and before long he was off to the store to buy some fix it parts!

Mike, Eric(drove Titanic) and I(drove my wagon) arrived at 10:15 at the furniture store where we were all supposed to meet, to find Loren and Lee already there, and Erik pulled in a few minutes later and we were all standing there when Paul and Jane pulled in with their incredibly stunning 1961 we waited till precisely 10:30am and drove the 2 blocks to the show 30 minutes after registration had started and to my great surprise they had no room! Registration was supposed to be from 10am till noon, but apparently they had it filled up by 9:30am! So we drove around the block found a place to park for a few, Erik did some scouting and found us a dirt field to park in within 100 feet of the show! However we were blocked by the Giant OshKosh Snow plow and the porta-potties. Amazingly enough a number of Imperial lovers found us and we had a nice few hours discussing them. !

So since we weren't trapped in the show we left before it was over did the Mopar Parts/Car tour of a guys collection here in town. (Loren went to town and missed that event , so I wont have pictures up until I get my film developed) We all went to my house, ate a ton of food, took some more car pictures and then went to the cruise where we made 3 loops which took an hour and a half and then headed back to the house for more food! Loren and I uploaded pictures which you are looking at Below! Watched the Visalia video tape, everyone enjoyed Jim's '39 interview! Shared Imperial Pictures and literature! Finally called it a night around 11:00pm! Well You'll get everyone elses versions and I'll upload my pictures when they're developed and continue to update this page!

I hope the rest of the Pacific NW crowd will come join us next year!

Click on small Pictures to see Big Ones!

(pictures Courtesy of Loren, Eric R and Myself)

Loren Just outside of Florence stops and takes a picture of where he's headed!		And nothing like an Imperial in front of the Ocean. Loren's '64
We meet at the Furniture store	Chris, Mike, Leslie, Lee, Erik
Erik's 66 Viewed over my hood	Mike's 62, Loren's 64	Driving in Chronological Order
'61 and '62		'61 and '62
Parked at show		Mike and Linda's 62
67, 66, 64		Weird Semi-truck thing from 60's show the Highway Men
Panoramic View of Show		Imperials Hidden behind Porta-Potties and OshKosh Snow Plow
Loren and Patty take a break fromcar show and cruise Old Town,	Where the Harleys are Hanging out!
	Paul and Jane's 1961	1961
Side View	Fin With Mikey	Their Boston Bull
Lorens 1964
View of Cars and Beach	Interior of Erik's 66	He's only had it for 3 weeks
Erik Checking his Fluids	Love that Red Leather
The Interior of mikes 62	Love that Dash	Climate Control
Cruising	Erik Bringing up the Rear	Mikes Car
a One Owner Road Runner This car was Perfect!		A wonderful Desoto
	Mustang in Purple, that's what Loren gets for letting me take the pictures on the cruise!

Lorens Words:

Hello to all and thanks for the good wishes on our extended weekend trip to
the Northwest Imperial Gathering in Florence, Oregon.

I would like to thank our gracious hostess, Leslie, and her long suffering
husband, "I'm just along for the ride," Bob, for their hospitality while
Patty and I were in Florence. I also want to thank Leslie for motivating me
to get the car show season started early this year with a road trip from
Seattle to Florence.

The round trip from Seattle was 831 miles. I burned 56.7 gallons of high
octane fuel for round trip mileage of 14.64 mpg.! Not bad for a 413 cruising
at 75 plus on the freeway and 0.75 around the cruise loop on Saturday
evening.

Weather in Florence and on the trip was great except for Sunday in
Washington. Friday started overcast in Seattle but never rained during the
drive to Florence. We left at 11:00 AM and took our time. Drove straight to
the diner in Florence and were only a few minutes late for our 7:00 PM
reservations. Saturday started out with the typical costal skud in the AM
but burned off early. My nose and forhead will probably peel from the
sunburn I got Saturday afternoon. Sunday was bright and sunny in Florence
and north up the coast. The weather degenerated as we got closer to
Washington. We crossed the Columbia at the western-most bridge from Astoria
and drove into a dark overcast. By 2:30 PM we had to turn on our headlights
to be seen on I-5 and were driving in roof high fog from rain thrown up by
the tires from thick traffic.

The car show in Florence was fun but was in a parking lot with no shade. I
was glad not to be trapped within the confines of the show since our time in
Florence was so short. If Leslie hasn't come to her senses by next year,
Patty and I agreed we should go on Thursay and come home on Monday to miss
all the traffic and have time for some of the other fun things we saw to do
in Florence.

I saw and heard more Harley Davidsons than at any time since I had my 1952
Harley 45 in the late 1960's. If you looked at the photos Leslie posted
you'll see I skipped the trip to the Mopar Collection in Florence for a trip
to "Old Town" where the bikers and their bikes hung out during the day.

I also think the most fun part of the weekend was the cruise. I offered to
chauffer Bob and Leslie around the loop and they kindly agreed to ride in my
'64. It made the cruise much more fun for us because Leslie could tell me
which way to go when we got separated from the cars in front of us by a stop
light. Bob and Leslie also filled us in on some of the background
information about the town and its residents as we went around the loop.

The first photo Leslie posted does not do justice to the magnificent views
we saw while driving down the Oregon Coast. I could have filled the 12
megabyte memeory card in my camera with photos before I got to Florence if I
hadn't decided to wait for one shot on the way into Florence. Next year I
would like to suggest the Imperials cruise up or down the coast to some
scenic points of interest as part of the weekend activities.

Anyway, the weekend was great fun. Roam'n Red performed without a hitch.
Patty and I made some very nice new friends who all have real nice cars. I
certainly hope the First Annual Northwest Gathering of Imperials is one of
many in a long series of Northwest Imperial Gatherings.

Thanks again to Leslie and Bob and to the sponsors of the Rhododendron
Festival.

And in Mikeys Words:

Hi all,

Its great to be back, though it was a great trip to Oregon and my family and
I had a great time at Leslie's house at the first annual Northwest
gathering. A big thank you to Leslie and Bob, who were gracious and patient
enough to put up with us for the weekend!! By the way, Titanic looked great
to me, haze green is prettier in person than in pictures.

We loaded the 62 with nearly 1000 pounds of people, luggage, , picnic
basket and cooler, tools, spare parts and vital fluids and headed south
early friday morning. The trip was great and other than fuel consumption
being a bit high over the pass southbound, we were off thru the wilds of
Oregon. The Imp ran better than I expected and other than some Dexron now
and then, we cruised along to Florence. Friday evening we had a great time
meeting everyone at the local 50's diner, the owner was impressed / shocked
and amused that our great suede beast had made the trip........seeing as he
drove a non Chrysler car I just let it slide and chalked it up to ignorance.

Saturday morning I ran an errand, and after getting back to Leslies, I
wanted to check fluids. Lo and behold - my hood release cable broke!!!
After the initial curse, I thought " Alison had this happen......I need a
butter knife!!! " Thanks Al, if it wasnt for talking to you in the past
about this, I would have really panicked! It was an easy fix and soon we
were at the car show......only to find out they were full!!! We found a
suitable place to park anyway and enjoyed the cars in spite of the fact we
werent in the show.

That evening we cruised the town, it was a blast! A symphony of harley
davidson engines ( a personal favorite) waited for us in old town Florence.
The crowd seemed to be having a great time and it looked to me like the
bikers, the college kids, the locals, ........you name it, were having a lot
of fun. Even the local cops were enjoying it, which made sense since they
were outnumbered 700 to 1. Les and Bob provided a great meal that evening,
and we were entertained by a video of the Visalia meet - personally the JC
Martin footage of Jim and his car were the best part of that.......I was,
and still am, awestruck by the work Jim has done on his 39.

Sunday we hit the road north along the coast, the view was beautiful but
the road was not designed for a car the size of an Imperial. Hopefully the
oncoming drivers got past the terror of seeing us in their lane now and then
in the corners. Seems they had no trouble getting out of the way though.
Overall, 865 miles on the clock, 3 tanks of fuel and 4 qts of
dexron............it wasnt the fastest trip I have ever made in this car,
but after 38 years I didnt really want to overdo it and risk having to push
the thing - literally.

Well, this is much longer than I anticipated......thought Id just highlight
a few of the events of the weekend!

Take care everyone.....

Mikey
62 Crown