Here are some of my favorite pictures from the Invasion and a bit of the story our trip there and back...
WEDNESDAY - June 13th
Jill's 67 Type 34 Karmann Ghia and my 66 Squareback all ready to roll out on Wednesday morning.
It is times like this that I am really glad I drive a Squareback.
Cruising down I-75 in Michigan.
We met up with Scott Butler and his son Dominic near Toledo after picking up our nephew Chase to be JIll's co-pilot.
Real nice pace, even if it is actually closer to 70mph due to the smaller than normal tires on the front of Sophy.
Lunch stop in OH. Just need a Notchback to complete the family.
Rest stop.
Just some cruising pictures.
Dodging thunderstorms. Never really got rained on....just a few sprinkles a couple of times.
Crossing into Kentucky after rolling thorugh Cinncinati, OH.
In Mammoth Cave State Park for the night. We got up early and did the first 2 hour cave tour before heading out for
the finally push to Scottsboro. I highly recommend checking out Mammoth Cave. Very cool.
THURSDAY - June 14th
Rolling out of Mammoth Cave State Park.
Thought this was a pretty cool shot.
Fueling up. It worked out great to pull the cars in nose to nose so I could fill them both up. I am sure we got some odd
looks as we pulled in. Of course, we always had several conversations about the cars with folks whenever we stopped.
Somehere in Tennessee.
Just about there.
The next series of pictures are all taken at the Earlybird
Get-together at Marion & Peg McDonald's beautiful new
home. They have quite the place with a 2700 sq foot garage to die
for, complete with hoist and A/C. I am really glad they had
cardboard sheets to place under all the cars. I would have hated
to have us all mark up the new driveway.
Knowles Richards' white 67 Squareback and Keith Park's silver 71 Squareback.
Dave & Gail Pallo's blue 72 Squareback Elwood and Dennis Stiefel's orange 72 Fastback Clementine.
Sarah Lind's yellow 71 Squareback Marigold.
Nice line-up.
Peter Schlaf's 71 Fastback
Alex Pegado's 69 Squareback.
Brandon Keith's 68 Square
Glen & Janice Fafara's 70 Fastback.
Scott Butler's turbo diesel powered 68 Fastback.
Jill's 67 Ghia.
Much of the oil from Scott's Fastback. LOL.
Daniel Duvall's 72 Squareback.
My Sophy, 66 Square.
Tim Shreve's 66 Ghia.
Larry Trasher's 68 Square.
Dexter Austin's 68 Square.
Marion McDOnald's 71 Fastback that he has owned since new.
Marigold!.
Clementine!
Elwood!
Hoth!.
Marion & Peg went all out for the Earlybord dinner. Food
as excellent and Marion's 2700 sq ft air conditioned garage/shop was to
die for.
FRIDAY - June 15th
Fridays are usually a free day to explore the local area and
such. Marion & Peg arranged a visit to the VW Factory in
Chattanooga for those that wanted to participate. It was a little
over an hour drive up there. We ended up with 25 Type 3s at the
factory.
It was a humid, foggy, early (7am) start to the cruise up to the VW Factory.
It cleared up pretty quickly though and we got to enjoy some of the
beautuful countryside as we rolled along. This really is a very
scenic part of the country and the roads are much better than up in
Michigan. Of course, that isn't saying much. <G>
VW Factory, Chattanooga, TN.
They let us park in their welcome center and didn't even have us put
cardboard or anything under the cars. I hate to think of hte crew
taht had to clean up that nice shiny floor after we left. It was a
welcome relief to be indoor and air-conditioned.
Keith Park's 71 Square, Glen & Janice Fafara's tan 70 Fastback, and Charles & Andrea Pack's 71 Fastback.
VW had this 73 Squareback in their collection. Lance McDonald's Yellow Rose was still younger!.
Chris Carson's beautiful 65 Squareback.
Sevy Price's 65 Notchback.
Dave & Jennifer Lynch's custom 69 Fastback.
Marion & Peg arrange a really nice box lunch at the VW Factory. Lots of space and A/C.
All 25 Type 3s that made the drive upto the VW Factory are in this shot.
SATURDAY - June 15th Invasion Day 1
Getting set-up for Day 1 of the Invasion. This is my
collection of Invasions shirts from each of the first 8
Invasions. They are each signed by all the Invaders from that
event. I added a 9th one over the weekend.
Jim Adney's 71 Square. Jim has driven a Type 3 to every Invasion!
Our hosts', Marion & Peg McDonald, 71 Fastback that Marion bought new from the dealership in 1971.
My 66 Squareback, Sophy. She is the only car that has been driven to every Invasion.
Jill Jaranson's 67 Type 34 Karmann Ghia.
Dexter Austin's 68 Squareback.
Jason Phillips' 70 Nothcback. This was my pick for the
"Artist's Choice" award. Just a beautiful mild custom You
don't see many late Notches around...especially as nice as this
one. Jason was also the high bidder on the custom artwork that I
donated, so I am going to get to 'toon this one up.
Larry & Terri Thrasher's 68 Squareback.
Dave & Gail Pallo's 72 Squareback, Elwood.
Glen & Janice Fafara's MegaSquirt-equipped 70 Fastback.
Keith Park's 71 Squareback that Keith has put over 200k miles on himself.
Hoth got the "Favorite Late" award from our hosts.
Brandon Keith's 68 Squareback.
Alex Pegado's 69 Squareback. Alex very graciously donated a bunch of ISP parts and swag for the charity auction.
Lance McDonald's 73 Squareback, the Yellow Rose. You will not
find a finer example of a late Squareback anywhere. If is likely
the youngest Squareback left on the planet.
...and it only has 5656 miles on it!.
The Yellow Rose was given the "Youngest" and "Lightest" (most stock) awards.
Sarah Lind's 71 Squareback, Marigold.
Sevy Price's 65 Notchback.
Scott Butler's turbo diesel powered 68 Fastback.
Robbie & Missy Johnson's 64 Notchback.
Knowles Richards' 67 Squareback. Knowles got the "Long
Distance" award again this year having driven over 1200 miles from CT
to get to the Invasion..
Dave & Jennifer Sharp-Lynch's custom 69 Fastback. They took home the "Darkest" award for the most customized car.
It has an airbag front beam, a great tiki themed interior with some
way-cool bomber style seats, and it has the last roof-rack that Pedro
Sainz made. They won it at the silent auction two years ago in
Prescott Valley, AZ.
Jon Hobus's 69 Squareback.
Chris Slaymaker's 71 Squareback.
Chris's car has the camping struts in it that really extend the sleeping length in the back of a Squareback. Very cool.
Peter Schlaf's 71 Fastback.
With color-coordinated luggage.
Tim Shreve's 66 Type 34 Karmann Ghia.
73 Squareback that I don't have in my Invader's list and I didn't
get an owner's name. Please let me know who you are and I will
update this.
Pete Rhodes' 63 Squareback. It was the "Oldest" award winner.
Chris Carson's georgous 65 Squareback. It got the "Favorite
Early" award from our hosts and it also got the first ever "Invader's
Choice" award as voted on by all the Invaders.
Chadd Magee's slammed, right-hand drive, 64 Type 34 Karmann
Ghia. This car is staticly lowered and was so low it was plowing
gravel as it pulled into the Invasion site.
Really interesting headlight rings. Not stock, but Chadd
doesn't know what they are from either. They really flow nicely
with the car's body.
Dennis Stiefel's 72 Fastback, Clementine.
Invasion site was great with plenty of shade and an occasional
breeze off the lake. IT was still really hot and the humid was
pretty brutal, but no worse than the conditions in Carthage, MO or
Colorado Springs, CO or Prescott Valley, AZ. The Type 3s also
brought they rain-repelling mojo with them too, as we had no rain over
the long Invasion weekend. Still haven't had rain on an Invasion
Day in 9 events. Just remarkable.
I really like this shot.
Overall shot of the site. In all we had 29 different Type 3s
on Saturday. When we include the Pack's Fastback that made it
down to the VW Factory on Friday, we had 30 different Type 3s
participate in the Invasion!
The Invasions have always been as much about the people as the cars. Here are some random shots of some of the Invaders.
Dominic Butler, my nephew Chase Norbury, Knowles Richards, and Scott Butler.
Me with Marty Salerno, driver of the Type 34 Ghia drag car Karmageddon.
Stephanie Stephan.
Gail Pallo.
Jim Adney's better half, Melissa.
Alex Pegado getting the "Russ Wolfe Memorial Award". We have
given this award out the last few Invasions to someone that has had a
significant impact on the Type 3 community, just as Russ did. ISP
West and Alex are one of the few suppliers out there that really cater
to our unique little cars.
Lance McDonald and the "Lightest" (most stock) award.
Dave & Jennifer Sharp-Lynch getting the "Darkest" (most custom) award.
Chris Carson getting the "Favorite Early" award.
Keith Park getting the "Favorite Late" award.
Pete Rhodes getting the "Oldest" award.
Lance McDonald again getitng the "Youngest" award.
Knowles Richards getitng the "Long Distance" award.
Jason Phillips getting the "Artist's Choice" award.
Chris Carson getting the "Invader's Choice" award.
Our fabulous hosts Peg & Marion McDonald.
Don Dorough, Jason Phillips, and Sam Collison .
This is the real reason for the Invasions!
This is the line-up in the parking lot of the venue for our Saturday
night INvader's dinner. Really nice line-up of Type 3s' So
many that we had to spill into a second row.
Handing over $1812.50 that was raised for our Invasion Charity, The
ARC of Jackson County.
That was $400 from the sale of the t-shirts, $495 from the sale of the
33 custom hotwheels that Henry Verrydt made, and $917.50 from the
silent auction. Huge thank you to all that donated items and bid
on them.
marion & Peg went all out on the catered dinner and the venue was great and air-conditioned.
We also did Jim Adney's Mechanic's Quiz again this year. Jim has 25 different Type 3 parts in small bags. The goal is to properly identify the parts by feel only. This is always lots of fun.
SUNDAY - June 17th Invasion Day 2
Sunday is always a much lower key day as many of the Invaders have
to leave early to get back home for Monday work and such. We
still had a dozen of so cars and a few more folks show up. It is
great time to just relax and learn a bit more about the cars and each
other.
Jim Adney had a nice Tech Session covering brakes and other details of the Type 3.
I got a chance to pinstripe Dave & Jennifer's custom Fastback as
they won the bidding for the pinstriping in the slient auction.
Peter Schlaf and Glen Fafara.
Sevy Price has his whole family there.
The Price princesses.
Peg & Marion McDonald and Geln Fafara.
Marty Salerno, Lance McDonald, and Henry Verrydt.
Sarah Lind and Melissa Kepner.
This guy was around all weekend making rachet.
The finished stripes on the hood...
...and the decklid.
I also got a chance to tag Glen & Janice Fafara's Fastback during a pinstriping/lettering tech session.
One last mini Invasion for lunch at a local Mexican restaurant.
16 of us for lunch.
Homeward bound.
Great pace, but eventually had to slow down a bit as Sophy was
leaking a little extra oil at those RPMs and it was dripping on the hot
exhaust causing puff of blue smoke. At closer to 3500 RPM and 70
mph it was much better.
Clicking off the states on the way home...
Beautiful sunset somewhere in Kentucky. We made it as far as Cincinnati on Sunday.
MONDAY - June 18th
The final push home.
Welcome back to Michigan. Only another hour from this point.
Dropping off Jill's co-pilot, our nephew Chase.
He was huge help on the drive and at the Invasion. He is
already talking about coming wiht us to the next one and maybe working
on the 69 Square I have waiting for me in the back of my garage.
Bakc home safe and sound.
Just under 1600 miles round trip for each car. No issues with either one. Average right about 25 mpg with each.
It was great Invasion. Looking forward to winding down for a little bit and then it will be time to start planning for the 2020 Invasion which will be our 10th. Hard to believe we have been doing this since 2002!
Thank you to all of the Invaders, our fabulous hosts, all of the
family members and friends that make this such a fantiastic event year
after year. See everyone in 2020....somewhere!