Chrysler Imperial Club Meet 2004 Rhody Festival Florence Oregon

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2004 Imperial Meet @ the Rhody Festival Florence, Oregon

Online Imperial Club -> Events -> Chrysler Imperial Club Meet 2004 Rhody Festival Florence Oregon

Cast of Characters:

Leslie & Bob Kettenhofen - 67 Imperial Sedan, 68 Ford LTD Wagon Florence Oregon
Erik Journey - 2004 PT Cruiser (None of his Imperials Run) - Drove my Ford Wagon to Show as penance Walterville Oregon
Eric Ruud - 72 Chrysler Newport, his 1963 wasn't road ready yet- Beaverton Oregon
Loren Erwin - 64 Imperial Crown - Official Home Brew Supplier of Rhody Fest 2004 Seattle WA
Brad Hogg - Bummed Ride in, Loren's 64, Eric's 72 Newport and rode Train - Winnipeg Manitoba
Lee & Caroline Dillman - Sold Mopar last year, forced to attend with son John Dillman in 72 Chevelle - Lowell Oregon
Robert & Nancy Dillman - 40 Plymouth Pickup - 2 Time Rhody Show Imperial Meet Award Winners - Yakima WA
Mike Sutton w/ sons Evan & Ryan - To Embarrassed to Drive 62 Imperial - Brings Dinged up 90's Dodge Pickup and Tools Instead
Rick Pennington and Friend Evan - 86 Cadillac, No Imperials but they're Big FANS - Southern Oregon Coast
Tim & Susan Davenhill - 1968 Imperial Crown - Surprise First Time Attendees - Salem Oregon

This year we're starting this page from Brad Hogg's perspective as he came all the way from Winnipeg Manitoba. He started out with a 32 hour train ride and was met at the Train Station in Seattle by Loren who picked him up in his 1964 Crown. Now Brad was supposed to pick up a Dart that he'd purchase last fall in Portland Oregon so that's where Loren and Brad head.

Train Station in Seattle	Loren arrives to pick him up	I-5 between Seattle & Portland	64 Hood Ornament at 55

	Loren at 55mph :-)		Loren, Brad and Eric Ruud meet up in Portland.

Brad uses laptop in Loren's trunk to look up address of Dart while Eric looks On....

Unfortunately when Brad arrives at Dart, it's not quite in running condition.			So Loren & Brad Continue on to Florence.

Road Construction	into Peterson tunnel	inside of Peterson tunnel	out of peterson tunnel

Loren & Brad arrive from Seattle	A shot of the Beach from the Deck	Leslie, Brad & Bob hiding behind Leslie	Loren's car at his Motel

I just want to say that it's the Cast of Characters that make this event so great. This being our 5th meet we've figured out what works and what doesn't. This year my Rhody Weekend, started out with Brad & Loren arriving Thursday night. They arrived in time for Pizza and an Oregon Coast Sunset... We laughed our way through dinner, hearing the tail of Brad's 72 Dart gone wrong, and then went and held the Ceremonial Unloading of the RhodyFest Beer specially home brewed by Loren. After a Ceremonial tasting of the Official Brew of Rhody Fest 2004 we called it a night. I had just headed for bed when I heard a tapping on my door, Erik Journey had arrived. We stayed up for another couple of hours, catching up, and then I officially called it a night. Bob had arranged it so I wouldn't have to work the next day, so I figured I'd sleep in......


	Bob & Loren do the Ceremonial Loading of the Rhody Fest Beer which Loren so kindly Brews each year.

Well sleeping wasn't to be, my phone is ringing at 7:30am and It's Mikey telling me he's in Woodburn and is cruising down I-5 with Eric Rudd. So I drag myself out of bed make coffee, Brad and Erik wake up, Loren shows up and we proceeded to make breakfast out of mini-donuts. Loren decided it was time to clean the roadkill off his car, and I wanted to pull out my backseat as my seatbelts had disappeared. Lo and Behold Brad pulls out the backseat for me, and there is the build sheet and all the decaying foam, that my upholstery guy didn't clean out when I had it upholstered in 1983. Actually besides being ecstatic to find the build sheet I found stuff from when my Grand Parents had owned the car back in the early 70's. Mikey and Eric arrived and we started on Titanic's Tune up. I only had about 9000 miles on my tune up, but the last time it was done, was right before Robb and I cruised it to Portland for WPC Nationals in 1998.

In Brads words: WhoooHooo what a great time! I want to thank Loren, Les and Bob for their great hospitality. It was great to meet Eric and Erik and of course Mikey and co. We got to initiate Les by having her change plug #7 on her 67 Imperial. Anyone who has ever done that knows what I mean. I got to provide the required ballast to lower the car enough for Les to reach the plugs. The Car art store was VERY cool! This is a must see for any car buff going through Florence. Les lead us on a scenic tour of the area, we got some good Imperial pics along the way. The car show was a little damp at first but it turned out just fine. It was good to see so many cars in attendance. The Cruise Saturday night was very cool. I never laughed so hard as I did when Loren, at the taunting of the street-side crowd, flipped the 64 into Neutral and "revved it up!".. I think the thrust off the 413's fan took out a couple bystanders. Everyone had a good laugh at that...not the least of all Loren. The award winning breakfast at Les and Bob's was a hilight! It was hard to say good-byes but we did and Loren and I headed up the 101 Coast toward Portland where I caught the Amtrak home again. Plan to attend next year if you know what is good for you! Brad Hogg - Winnipeg Manitoba Friday May 20th Tech Session, Cruise and Dinner

Mikey Checks out Titanic	Mikey's toolbox gets a CatScan	Titanic's Build Sheet	30 Years of Accumulated Crap under Titanic's rear seat.

Brad, Myself and Mikey Set Points	Changing sparkplug #7		Loren and Rick look over Loren's 1964 Crown

Trip to the Art Gallery that specializes in Automobile Art "Art Like a Wheel" Photos in pictures are the work of Jacquie Wagenschutz.			Rick and I in Old Towne in front of Titanic

Since we had a couple people short on Cars Eric, Erik, Brad & Loren went to pick up my wagon from the Paint Shop which gave Brad an opportunity to drive Eric's 72.	Afternoon Cruise



	Mikey's kids on the Jetty Marker	Evan, Leslie, Brad, Mikey, Loren, Erik, Robert. Rick and Lucy in Front	The North Jetty

The Siuslaw River & the South Jetty	Nancy & Robert Dillman's 40 Plymouth PU	The Group at Friday Night Dinner
May 21 - Car Show, Mopar Yard Trip and Cruise

			Loren's 1964 Imperial Crown Hardtop
		Nancy and Robert attended for their 2nd time and both times took home a Trophy. Maybe someday one of our Imperials will place.
			Leslie's 1967 Imperial Sedan

		Susan and Tim Davenhill's 1968 Imperial Crown Hdtp including shots of the Elusive 67-68 Windshield washer Container, this is the first time I'd ever seen one.

Overview of the Group	1968 Imperial Crown & 1967 Imperial Sedan	1964 & 1968	The Gang sitting out in one of the non-rainy times

	Loren behind his 1964	Loren's 1964 Imperial Crown	Overview of Group in Rain

Erik & Eric	Brad Taking Pictures	Rear Ends	Brad & Loren's 1964
In Mikey's words: A big thank you publicly to Les and Bob for putting up...I mean, extending their graciousness and hospitality yet again to us at Rhody Days this year. Thanks to Loren, Erik, Eric, Lee and his wife and their son John. Jim the local Mopar guru, Lee's brother Robert & his wife Nancy, Leslie's neighbors and housepets , the Oregon Dept of Transportation for the paving project on Highway 126 (?) , the folks at " Art Like a Wheel " , the folks at Bliss Hiway 101 Restaurant for the huge discount on dinner - that will teach them to lose the tickets, and finally to everyone and anyone else I omitted, thank you too! An extra special thanks to Brad Hogg for making the trip all the way from Wintergreen Manitscolda , 31 hours by train!!! Next time Brad, don't be asleep when they change trains in Tuscaloosa. This was possibly the next best year we had, nice balance of cars and people and things to do. I salute Les for her diligence and determination in changing all her spark plugs - as well as taking all the plug wires off and not losing track of what plug or cap position belongs to number one cylinder! Perhaps an IML first? Nonetheless, it proves that it can be done!!! The weather was bearable, the cruise in was great and I felt privileged to drive Leslie's LTD Wagon as a stand in , leaving my car at home may have broken my curse of " what is going to break this year " that has been a problem since the first year we attended. The crowd response to the station wagon was intriguing to say the least, if it had not been for a broken motor mount I think I would have gladly honored the crowd request to do a nice burnout. Oh well...next year. We had a great dinner and then bonfire with beverages and dessert and stayed up waay too late but that's half the fun of it anyway. Sunday Leslie put the rumor to rest that she can only heat and serve by making a great breakfast for us and then it was time to cruise up the coast and then inland on to home. All of you folks who live even remotely close to Florence have NO IDEA what you missed......next year plan on being there or being square! Mikey 62 Crown Coupe - Yakima WA

Eric's 72 Newport		72 Newport Back Seat	Eric Draped in his newly acquired upholstery from SMS

72 Newport Taillight	Chevelle & Plymouth PU	John Dillman won a model in a drawing and it was turned out to be a duplicate of his 72 Chevelle	The Following Pictures are Misc other cars at the Show.



		After the show we made a pit stop at our local Mopar Collectors place, the following are the cars found there. He runs sort of a yard for wayward mopars....







Lined up for the cruise, and then a picture taken of Titanic from Loren's Car during Cruise. Although darn near everyone of us had a digital camera this year somehow we got almost no pictures of the cruise and Zero Pictures of the Bonfire... Oh well.......

The Gang on Sunday Morning before everyone headed home. Mikey, Brad, Leslie, Loren Eric, and Erik	Loren & Eric exchange Brad at McDonalds	View of Washington across the Columbia River with a cruise ship passing under the Astoria Bridge.
In Eric's words: I'd like to thank you for the great time this year and to let you know I got Brad to the train on time. We got to the station at 3:40pm. We saw the white '68 in Depoe Bay and later waved to those folks in Lincoln City as they were returning to Salem. Loren deposited the ever sleeping Brad into my car at the McDonalds in Lincoln City where I took advantage of my free fry coupon from the car show... those cheap Mopar people, ya know. Now I've really got to get to work on the '63! Thanks, again. Eric



These pictures were all taken by Brad from Loren's 1964 Imperial while driving North on the Coast Highway.