2019 Western National Meet – Grand Junction, CO – July 10-14, 2019

2019 Western National Meet – Grand Junction, CO – July 10-14, 2019

The 2019 Western National Meet will be held in Grand Junction, Colorado and hosted by the Rocky Mountain Region. Monuments, Mesas, and Memories is the theme of Mesa County, and it truly embodies these words.  The Grand Valley was chosen for its scenic beauty, and offers something different than what we have experienced at previous meets.

The host hotel is the DoubleTree, Grand Junction, located at 743 Horizon Drive, Grand Junction, CO 80106.

https://doubletree.hilton.com/en/dt/groups/personalized/G/GJTDTDT-LCC-20190710/index.jhtml?WT.mc_id=POG

The room rate is $119.00 per night (plus taxes) for a standard king or double queen. The hotel offers free Wi-Fi, pool & whirlpool, fitness center, Bistro 743, and a lounge. To reserve your room call the hotel directly at (970)-241-8888 and ask for the “Lincoln and Continental Owners Club” rate. The cutoff date for room reservations is Wednesday June 19, 2019.  If you wish to arrive before the 10th or stay later than the 14th, please call Alex at 970-241-8888.

View and download Schedule of Events and Registration Form.

For more information and for  meet registration please contact George Malesich at 303-909-2853 or Jake Dout at 970-201-1644. Registration packets will be available soon so please check the website at www.LCOC.org for updates. We are still finalizing the events and other details, and more information will follow in the next issue of comments.

Downtown Grand Junction is home to dozens of outstanding locally owned shops, music venues, restaurants, and art galleries. Stroll Downtown Main Street with our tree-lined, pedestrian friendly streets complete with a large collection of public art, fountains, and historic buildings. So whether you’re looking for local cuisine, a unique gift, or a place to relax with the family, you’ll find what you’re looking for in Downtown Grand Junction.

Wednesday Welcome:

Registration will open at 10 AM and close around 6 PM. Starting at 6 PM, a welcome reception held outside on the Peachtree Terrace, with free hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar, will run until sunset.

Thursday Colorado National Monument Tour:

The Colorado National Monument is a treasure near Grand Junction that typifies the Colorado Plateau’s dramatic mesa and canyon topography. The plateau that forms the “mesa” part is a high desert-scape at the edge of the Uncompahgre Uplift, some 6,000 feet above sea level and 2,000 feet above the Colorado River. Side canyons into the mesa created by its tributaries make it something of a mini-Grand Canyon, albeit a smaller, more manageable, and less crowded version.

The National Monument designation signifies a natural or cultural feature that is part of the US National Park Service. Its scenery is grand: sweeping vistas, imposing monoliths, wind and water carved pillars, spires and turrets, and layered cliff walls that are a geology text come to life all below the big blue dome of the Colorado sky.

Friday Gateway Tour & John Hendricks car collection:

On Friday we will start with a driving tour. As we leave the valley and climb our way up to the top of plateau, the view back across the whole valley is a sight to behold. As we start our descent and work our way through Unaweep Canyon, the true beauty of the area starts showing you her wonders. We will arrive at Gateway Canyons Resort and make our way to the car museum.

The Gateway Canyons Auto Museum features a brilliant display of American ingenuity. Spanning every era of the auto industry, the museum houses the privately owned Hendricks Collection of nearly 60 spectacular cars. The models and surrounding displays offer a rare glimpse into the beauty and history of the American automobile. Featured among rare and historic automobiles is the 1954 Oldsmobile F-88 concept car. The museum is devoted to offering and celebrating the history, design and social impact of the American automobile.

Gateway Canyons is located in Unaweep Canyon, one of the most unique red rock canyons in the world. The word Unaweep is a Native American term meaning “canyon with two mouths.” It is thought that the ancestral Colorado and Gunnison rivers may have cut through the soft red sandstone of the Uncompahgre Plateau, exposing stone dated to Precambrian times. This is said to be the only canyon in the world that is drained by two creeks, East Creek and West Creek, sending water off in opposite directions. Much like the nearby Colorado National Monument, our area has special recognition in Colorado geology. Ancient rivers eroded the rock away, and exposed more than a hundred million years of geologic records and fossils of dinosaurs and early amphibians. After we complete our visit, we will head back to the host hotel.

Friday evening we will have a cocktail hour, then a banquet and auction.

Saturday Car Show:

Saturday will be our traditional Lincoln car show with judging and exhibition. We are working with the hotel to hold a wine tasting of locally vinted wines in the afternoon. We are still putting this together, so please stay tuned for more details.

Later that night we will have the cocktail hour and the awards banquet.

 

Sunday Photos:

Sunday morning John Walcek will be photographing the award winners, so get up early and polish those trophies.

Lincolns visit Albuquerque’s High Desert By Bob Johnson

Lincolns visit Albuquerque’s High Desert By Bob Johnson

At the 2018 LCOC Board meeting it was proposed to select Albuquerque, NM as the site for the 2018 Western National Meet.   The dates October 17-21st was selected for the meet. This was one week after the Annual International Balloon Fiesta, October 5-14th, when hotel room rates returned to normal.  I volunteered to be the Meet Chairman for this meet.  What a challenge, 1400 miles away from my home and only 16 LCOC members in the whole state of New Mexico! The LCOC national would put on meet with the New Mexico region being the host; in theory that should work. This was a rehab of the New Mexico region and was the greatest effort I’ve taken on with the LCOC.  We had a small but great meet, thanks to key efforts by Bill Fletcher and Jim Fletcher.  They led the Driving tours, did the Field layout, did the Mechanical Judging, and made the show field numbers. National Director Dave Gustafson did the name tags, meal tickets and meet booklets for this meet, with Jeanne Talbourdet doing the meet registration, so this was a truly a  National-produced event. Other key LCOC members who worked to make meet a success were Dennis LaGrange as the auctioneer, Joan Denney as auction clerk and 50/ 50 tickets sales person.  Chris Gray, Janice Eby and Mary Johnson also sold 50/50 tickets. Acting Chief Judge Paul Temple ably filled in for Steve D’Ambrosia who is recovering from major surgery and cancer treatments.

The theme for this 2018 Western meet was October in the High Desert and the ABC’s of Albuquerque – Atoms, Balloons and Cars. We toured to the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History and the Anderson Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum on Thursday and Friday. On Saturday the weather returned to sunny with normal temperatures in the 70’s for our traditional Lincoln car show.  An added bonus was we invited the local TBird and Cadillac car clubs to visit and park adjacent to our show field.  Ten of their cars were parked there; this is what the old car hobby is about.

We had 20 Lincoln’s judged and 5 more exhibited with cars for all decades on display.  The Meet bought Jock Finley back into LCOC after absence of five years, with a goal to show four cars.  Only one made it, but it was a beauty, a 1939 Blue K Sedan.  At the awards banquet Paul Temple announced the Elliston Bell Award winner: a yellow 1978 Continental Coupe owned by Michael and Diana Vickery from Junction, IL. The People’s Choice Awards voted by meet participants were:  First Place to a Black Satin 1967 Lehmann Peterson Limousine, Tom and Terry Machado, Stockton, CA; Second Place to a Capri Blue 1940 Continental Cabriolet, Eric Freeh, Alamagordo, NM; and Third Place to a Red with Black Top 1952 Capri Hardtop, Mike and Joan Denney, Tulsa, OK.

On Sunday morning John Walcek photographed the major trophy winners with their cars for Continental Comments using the arches of the hotel as his background.  The day was not over for those that wanted to travel to Jock Finley’s home in Estancia, about 60 miles east southeast of Albuquerque, to see his unique car collection.  Dave DeGeer, transporting Jocks 1939 Lincoln, led the way. Twelve people were treated to many beautiful cars, several being Lincoln’s. Then it was time to say our final farewells and Mary and I headed back to Shafer, MN.

Hopefully, the New Mexico Region is back on track with Matt Martinez becoming the Region Director, assisted be Dave DeGeer, Nick Manole, Tony Carson, Jim Deck, Paul Bowman, Gerald Gerken and Eric Freeh.