SCSN Caravan 09 eNews

No. 22 - 12/16/08

>>>TOP STORY<<<

>>Tire Raffle III Ends<<

Our third fund raising raffle for a set of Goodyear tires concluded last weekend. At the SCSN Organizing Team meeting at "Commander" Sherry Maples house last Saturday, Captain Hib Halverson picked the winning ticket. Jim Holland, of Rosamond. Jim owns an '05, is a member of Antelope Valley Corvettes. and was on the '03 and '99 Caravans. The Organizing Team appreciates the support Jim Holland and our other two raffle winners have given the Southern California/Southern Nevada Section of the Caravan.

Tire Raffle IV will be run in mid-to-late January of next year. Be watching the eNews for notification that the raffle had begun. The prize for Raffle IV will be the same as the other three: the opportunity to buy four of any Goodyear passenger car or light truck tire for $750.00.

The SCSN Organizing Team wishes to thank Goodyear Tire and Rubber for donating the tires we are selling to raise the money we need to stage the event.

>>>OTHER NEWS<<<

>>Q409 Council Meeting<<

The SCSN Organizing Team's "Commander's Council" met for the final time in 2008.

The big news at that meeting was "Lieutenant" Jim Estoch's presentation on the "Southern Feeder Caravan" which will start from San Diego on Friday morning 28 August 09. This Feeder will bring Caravaners from San Diego County and Western Riverside County to the main Caravan's Departure Event in Ontario that night.

The San Diego Feeder will start at Bob Stahl Chevrolet in San Diego and proceed to Oceanside for a lunch stop. From there, the group will drive to Temecula and from there to Ontario. Anyone needing more information about the San Diego Feeder should contact Jim Estoch by emailing jumbodistrib@yahoo.com or by calling him at 951-699-0162.

Plans are also being laid down for a Ventura Feeder. Tentatively, it will begin in the Oxnard/Ventura area on Friday morning, will stop in Thousand Oaks then proceed to Ontario. More information on the Ox/Ven Feeder will be released later.

Another important issue came up at the Q409 Meeting and that was hotel bookings. Our hotel booking system has been in-place for some months now but indications are that there is still some misunderstanding about how registration for the National Caravan, which Caravaners must do with the Museum, differs from hotel booking which must be done separately. Please remember, and tell any of your Caravaner friends to remember that if you're registered for the Caravan doesn't mean you're automatically booked for rooms.

The Gorilla Travel Network is booking rooms for the Southern California/Southern Nevada, Texas Panhandle/Oklahoma, Central Texas and Arkansas/West Tennessee Sections of the 2009 National Corvette Caravan.

The contact person at Gorilla Travel is Ron Cohen. The best way to contact Gorilla Travel is by email to gorillatravel@aol.com

In your email please supply the following information:

  • Your name and contact info including phone number and email address
  • Number of rooms desired
  • Cities in which you want to book rooms
  • Dates on which you want to book rooms
  • Number of people in each room
  • Special requests (handicap, Internet connection, etc.)
  • Credit card number and expiration date
  • Caravan Section and Corvette Club affiliation

The alternative method of contact is to call Gorilla Travel Network at 888-811-APES (2737), however, expect telephone bookings to take longer.

No credit cards will be charged at the time the reservations are made. When you give Ron Cohen your credit card number that simply guarantees the room. Your card will be charged only when you check out or if you cancel after the deadline set forth in the following cancellation policy...PLEASE READ: The last day to cancel any hotel reservation made by Gorilla Travel Network for the 2009 Corvette Caravan without possible charge is Friday, May 22, 2009. Hotel reservation cancellations *after* that date *may* be subject to charge to the credit car given to guarantee the reservation. Whether the card gets charged will depend on the hotel's ability to resell the canceled room. if it can be resold; there will not be a charge. If it can't be resold; the guaranteeing card will be charged.

All beds will be single Kings or Queens. Alternatives (two twins, two Queens, rollaway, etc.) may be available, but you MUST request them in your email to Ron Cohen.

All rooms are non-smoking.

If your email to Gorilla Travel has all the correct info, you'll get back from Ron Cohen, an email acknowledging the receipt of your information along with confirmation that you have a room. What you won't get is an assignment to a specific physical room in a hotel or motel. You will get that at a later date, probably late next Spring. The reason we're holding off on assigning specific rooms is we don't yet know how many Caravaners we will have and to assign physical rooms we need to have a better understanding of that than we do now.

If you're registered for the Caravan but you haven't booked rooms...DO IT SOON.

>>Gas Way Down--What's Up With That?<<

Back in late 06, when the 2009 National Corvette Caravan was announced, 91-oct gas was about $3.25 a gallon and the price was rising with no limit in sight. Back then, in a survey The SoCal/SoNev Caravan Organizing Team did on our web page ( http://www.corvettecaravan.com/ca-southern/ ), we asked how many people would go on the Caravan if gas went to four bucks. The answer was over 90% "Yes". Next, we asked the same question for $5.50 a gallon and the yeses were down in the high 70s, but still a majority.

Since we ran that survey, the price of gas continued to skyrocket, hitting a recent high back in mid-June of about five bucks. Since then, the cost of premium unleaded has fallen, seemingly at the same rate as the Dow Jones Industrial average. Our Section Captain, Hib Halverson, told us, "This week, I put 91-oct. gas in my ZR-1 for $2.10 a gallon. Wow. You gotta go way back to '04 to find gas that cheap. Hell, I'm gonna plan a drive trip to somewhere over Christmas just to enjoy the novelty of buying gas at 2004 prices."

By late August, 2009, will the price of gas be back up to the stratospheric level we saw last summer? We think not. On the other hand, the low prices were seeing now are an anomaly driven mostly by the deep recession we're in right now. Our guess is by Caravan time next year we'll be at $3.50 a gallon...a lot better than the $4.50 we were thinking it would be.

Bottom line: Caravavaning will be cheap! Tell all your Corvette friends to sign up for the trip!

>>Holiday Greetings<<

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all Caravaners from the SoCal/SoNevSection Organizing Team.

Caravan info: email to captain.socalcar@pop.charter.net




Need past issues of the eNews? Go to:
http://www.corvettecaravan.com/ca-southern/


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