37th Annual Ecklers Chevy Classic Convention

Nashau, New Hampshire

On Tuesday, June 25, Jim and Linda in their ’57 210 sedan, David & Bonnie in their ’69 Camaro Pace Car, Bob Clark in his ’64 Impala SS, Butch & Sissy in their ’57 BelAir and John & Janet in their ’57 BelAir, left Maryland to meet up with Paul & Lynda in their ’55 BelAir in Nashua, NH for the 37th Annual Ecklers Chevy Classics Convention. The forecast was for hot, hot, hot, and we hoped it would be bearable for those of us without a/c. Well, we got our wish, but not in the way we hoped – after about 3:00, we drove in and out of rain and for the last 3 hours of our drive we were in torrential downpours complete with thunder and lightning. At about 5:00 it was as dark as night. We finally arrived in Nashua at about 9:00 pm. And were met with a great treat – the hotel was wonderful – large and very new. And it had a great restaurant on site, so once we unloaded in the pouring rain we didn’t have to leave again to get some good food.

On Friday, we went to the Anheuser Busch Brewery in Merrimack, NH and had a great time! Although this is a smaller brewery for Anheuser Busch, it is a training facility for Clydesdales and we got to see some Clydesdales. It was very cool! And we really enjoyed the samples of the Anheuser Busch products! David tried to make himself the center of attention by “oopsing” one of his samples! Most of us had had too many samples to notice!

Our visit was plagued by lots of rain – waves of rain – oceans of rain. But we made the best of the situation anyway! The folks at East Coast Camaro Club did a fantastic job of providing a wide array of things to do – bus trips to the mall, a scavenger hunt, a Women’s Oasis, bingo, seminars, cruises. And the hotel rocked with spacious modern rooms, a restaurant that rocked, and lots of parking.

Saturday dawned bright and sunny for the Show & Shine. We enjoyed the wonderful sunshine and drank up the rays while watching our cars be judged (or not, if you were in Cruiser Class). Something a bit different – this year (and maybe past years and we were not paying attention) Ecklers invited 1949-1954 Chevys to the Cruisers Class. In fact, they were lenient beyond that as a 1937 Chevy was entered and won a Cruisers Choice Award. We were additionally confused when a Nomad with no interior and the headliner flapping won 1st Place in their class and scored 974 Points with a Platinum Certificate. Whatever.

On Saturday, after the show, we cruised out to Kimball Farm for yummy ice cream and food and fun. If this place were close to us, we would be there every weekend!!

On Saturday night, we enjoyed a rockin’ dance with the band Over Time. Congrats to Butch & Sissy who won the Saturday 50/50. Whoo Hoo!

Sunday morning dawned, and we headed to the awards ceremony after loading up our cars. Congratulations to:

Butch & Sissy in their Reddawg ’57 who won 3rd Place and a Platinum Certificate with 970 Points in Custom Senior.

Bob Clark who won 1st Place and a Gold Certificate with 964 Points in Modified Senior with his ’64 Impala SS.

David & Bonnie who won 1st Place and a Platinum Certificate with 990 Points with their ’69 Camaro Pace Car.

Congrats to Classic Chevys of Nova Scotia who took Club Participation with 12 cars and 28 members present. Congrats to a couple from Kansas who won Long Distance with over 1,600 miles driven from Kansas in their ’57 Chevy.

Although the quality of cars was top notch, we were disappointed in the quantity. Was it the rain? The distance? We are not sure, but there were only 95 cars & trucks there for the week plus 27 cars & trucks there for the Saturday only display. We found it a bit weird that cruisers who traveled hundreds of miles to the show were competing with local cruisers who may have traveled a mile for one day as well as trailered “cruisers”, but Ecklers makes the “rules”. If you don’t like it, don’t bother to go to an Ecklers show. Speaking of which, the 2014 show will be July 2-6 near Cleveland, OH and hosted by the Ecklers reps. The flyer should be online soon at www.ClassicChevy.com, although that is surely a misnomer considering that now almost any Chevy is allowable at any Ecklers Show.

After a quick awards ceremony on Sunday morning, we were able to roll out at about 10:30 am. Paul & Lynda had already departed on Saturday morning due to other commitments (can you say “work”). The rest of us headed out and stopped in Bennington, VT at Hemmings. We toured their museum and the gift shop and took some photos. Then we stopped at the Moose Place near Troy, NY. They lured us in with broken promises of ice cream. Unfortunately, their ice cream machine was broken and they were not able to satisfy our craving for ice cream. So we drove. We were told that I84 was the quickest route to take to Scranton, PA. Don’t you believe it! We all need to tighten and adjust our cars due to the horrific condition of I84. We would have been much better taking the same route we took on the way up. Plus there was flash flooding on I87 to get to I84and no place to stop and eat. We were so glad to get to Scranton for the night.