MyE28.com

The party is on, and I figure requires its own thread now! Nebraska_e28 just called to say he and four others are en route from Omaha, C.R. Krieger should be on his way here from Denver (although last word from him was from Fallon, NV, on 4-12...) and an invite was also sent to TheRealStig99 and his family, who are friends of C.R.'s.

The weather may make the evening interesting; L.J. said tornado warnings were issued for the Omaha area just before they left, and one had reportedly been spotted on the ground. The Nat'l Weather Service has dire predictions for a huge section of the heartland; definitely be keeping an eye to the sky and an ear to the radio. Here there's only a 40% chance of thunderstorms, but that also means a 60% chance of none, so I'm thinking it should be a good time.

I've never been to one of these get-togethers, much less hosted one, so I'm just winging it. I'm sure we'll find something to talk about & keep us busy; I'll be sure to post up some photos tonight/tomorrow!

Sub-scribed!

Sweet- we expect pics- have a good time!

I remember my first time...

Soooooo?

I had to bail. The same f***ing storm that I so cleverly bypassed to the north in California delayed me by about 5 hours on the first day of driving. That left me 5 hours short of making it to see the gathering in Castle Pines (Denver). I got there just ahead of the snow in the passes (Vail, Loveland) at 1:00 am. Totally wiped, but ably bolstered into driving condition by the magnanimous Ken H and Sandy. I set out today fully expecting to make Sioux Falls, but the damn storm that hates me finally got out ahead and whacked me in Nebraska (hours of hard rain, at least three hailstorms, etc). There was no way I'd make Sioux Falls before 11:00 pm, so I crashed out in Winner to wait out the tornadoes.

Well, I screwed something up big time here; went to add another post (see the next one below) but somehow ended up editing this one, so the brilliant treatise I wrote late last night ended up being gone, gone, gone. Rats. So I'll give it another shot, unless the Beamters can somehow resurrect what I accidentally dumped.

We had a beautiful day going in Sioux Falls yesterday; pleasant temps, sunshine until about noon, a bit breezy, but nice. Then it started to rain just a bit about a half-hour before the Omaha/Kansas contingent arrived.

Nebraska_e28 called about 12:30 to say they were just leaving Omaha, and there were tornado warnings and rain as they left town. There were five cars in all; Nebraska_e28 in his new-to-him e39 Touring, mholtmeier and his wife in their red e46 Touring, bhopp in his scwhartz e28, Wes(?) in another e28, and somebody-whose-name-I-can't-remember in the hot little S52-powered e30. They said it was raining on them almost the entire way here.

Russ Wiles & his wife joined us as well. Russ is a long-time friend of C.R.'s; they met years ago at an O-fest, and many others since then. He's one of the best local autocrossers -- he and his son TheRealStig99 regularly tear up the track in their e46 M3 Lightweight. The Wiles were planning to have C.R. stay at their house overnight, but C.R. called me about 6 pm to say he wasn't going to make it. He'd had several delays with rain and hail storms, and was still about 4 hours away, so was going to find a place to stay for the night and continue in the morning.



The rain wasn't heavy, but it put enough of a damper on things that we just hung out at my house. bhopp's car had developed a weird shake on the way here, so we broke out the floor jack & jackstands; Nebraska_e28 & mholtmeier crawled under to see what might be causing it. They both thought it was the rear diff, but it shouldn't be a problem for getting him back home to Topeka, so bhopp will likely be shopping for a replacement soon.




All in all I think things went ok. The rain kept us from driving as a group anywhere; it would've been fun to drive to the city's namesake for some photos or maybe to the local hot rodder's Saturday night get-together at a Hardees near here... Maybe next time?

I grilled up some burgers & brats, and we all had a bite to eat before the Nebraska/Kansas guys hopped back in their cars & headed south. The time went by way too fast.

Dave,
This is what you get when you irritate Gawd and you hold an e28 gathering in the early spring. He goes into one of His sulks and proceeds to piss all over everyone in eleven states.

This problem can only be rectified by having each and every one of the attendees immediately notify their boss that they will be Out of Town the first weekend in August attending the Second Annual "4 Corners for 5ers" lie-swapping and beer-testing colloquium to be held in Pagosa Springs, CO.
Attendance can be assured by contacting Neel at http://www.pagosalodge.com or 970-736-4141 for reservations.

Failure to Appear will be considered as prima facie evidence that you really don't give a flying rip about your fellow boardlings or that your whip has no kind of over-the-road reliability. Or both.

There are only 109 days until this shit-throw begins, so get on the prod.

1st 5er wrote:I remember my first time...

Probably the last time...

I had a great time and can't wait for our "Official Midwest Meet and Greet". I made it back to Topeka just fine, got home about 1:30 p.m. thanks to a little detour. I-29 is closed after exit 35, took a little while to get back on track. After Omaha the car deveopled a a backfire on decel. So I went fast the whole way home.

Dave, thanks again for hosting it's great to meet new people and put some names to faces. Thanks for snapping some pictures, I forgot to bring a camera.

Also, a big thanks to LJ, Mike, and Adam for there input and diagnosis. I am looking for a new diff, 3.25 LS of 3.46 LS.

[img][img]http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5079/7080572555_7a5a93f53b.jpg[/img]
Untitled by bhopp, on Flickr[/img]

C.R. finally made it to Sioux Falls today. He holed up in the middle of prime SD pheasant country, Winner, SD, after driving through some nasty thunderstorms yesterday. Over lunch he shared some stories of encounters with heavy rain and getting pelted by hail a couple of times. But we had blue skies & sunshine on tap for him when he left, hoping for an uneventful last leg of his trip.

davintosh wrote:C.R. finally made it to Sioux Falls today. He holed up in the middle of prime SD pheasant country, Winner, SD, after driving through some nasty thunderstorms yesterday. Over lunch he shared some stories of encounters with heavy rain and getting pelted by hail a couple of times. But we had blue skies & sunshine on tap for him when he left, hoping for an uneventful last leg of his trip.

Glad he made it safely!

A great meet, it appears to have been a success after all.

Glad to see/hear CR is going to make it.

1st 5er wrote:Glad to see/hear CR is going to make it.

That's what his wife said, too.

Saturday was a blast! Thanks for hosting us Dave! I think we proved the Midwest can pull off a nice event despite weather conitions. And yes it is true before we left Omaha I was told we moved into a Tornado warning & that one had been spotted on the ground in a neighboring county. It's always a great time to cruise/hang with some awesome company, not to mention depart/arrive with no speeding tix or breakdowns. Albeit we did have 1 close call just about 20mi south of Sioux City. Come to think about it, it's probably a good thing it did rain just to slow us down a bit.

Prior to leaving, we bumped into another Mike that just happened to be passing through the lot we met at. He just purchased an e34 & was wondering what was going on with all these BMW's in one spot. I did my duty & flagged him over. This hopefully will add 1 person to our next event! Chuck also stopped out to say Bon Voyage in his M5 as well.

http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z115 ... AG0359.jpg

Thanks for adding the photos, LJ! There's one car (the e34) & face I don't recognize from Saturday...



???

davintosh wrote:Thanks for adding the photos, LJ! There's one car (the e34) & face I don't recognize from Saturday...



???

OOps. You caught me while in process of doing a sniper edit.

That is Chuck in the picture. The e34 in the back belongs to another Mike that stumbled upon us.

I had fun and am definitely looking forward to future get togethers. Shoot, I'd be willing to host something at my house if everyone wanted to meet in Omaha.

It was great meeting you Dave, and your family. Thanks again for hosting!

They are addicting.