Minnesota Saab Club Newsletter June 2001

Let me begin by just saying "WOW" about the incredible turnout the club had for the last adopt-a-highway event on Saturday, May 12th. We had a record thirteen people show up at around 8:00 AM for the club sponsored breakfast at Little Oscar's. After we all split up to clean our respective sections of road, we began finding strange items lying about that stretch of hwy. 56. We found everything from a 96 grille, to an old wheel, to a bullnose distributor! About a dozen items total. Thanks for the laughs Aaron. :) After the speedy cleanup, we headed over to the nearby airfield in Randolph for a guided tour courtesy of Bruce Gaarder. What a neat bunch of gliders and planes! Around noon, ten of us decided it was just too nice of a day not to tour SE Minnesota and western Wisconsin. So we did! Greg and Paul led the way through the hills and valleys of Goodhue and Wabasha counties until we wound up in Lake City for lunch. Next, we headed on over to Nelson, WI for some truly scrumptious ice cream cones. Then we proceeded to explore all the twists, turns, and Texas crossings of Trempealeau, Buffalo, and Pierce counties, without even losing anyone! After making a few "other" scenic stops, we all wound up in Prescott where we refueled, and made plans for the next club tour. Details coming soon!!

Chris Haack has been working diligently on our articles of incorporation in his spare time. (What's that?) Thursday, we should all receive copies of the document, weather by e-mail, or at the meeting. We will likely need to vote on a couple of quick items before all is finalized.

There will be a regular scheduled meeting at the Har Mar Mall Ground Round on Thursday, June 7th @ about 8:00 PM, and you are all encouraged to attend. There will be many items for discussion, and the program this month will be presented by Dean Nelson. Dean will be gracious enough to share with us the finer points of reconditioning our old ball joints, tie-rods, etc., so that we may acheive a full life expectancy from these Saab parts. Immediately following, we will be watching a 45 minute video on the best cars of the 20th century according to "Car and Driver".

As most of you know, there is no July meeting due to the Independence Day holiday. There has been discussion, however, of supplementing that meeting with a couple of events in late June, or early July. Paul Poore has a tour route planned for SE Minnesota to be held (tentatively) on Saturday, June 23rd. We could also have a picnic/barbeque on that same day. Also, Max Levine has been kind enough to offer the use of his yacht near St. Cloud for a club event this Summer, and possibly even a ride in a plane! Ed Steltz also mentioned the wonderful car museum in that neck of the woods at the last meeting. All other ideas are welcome.

Dean Nelson is sponsoring the Swedish Classic rally on Saturday, August 11th at the Godfather's pizza in Red Wing. Cost for the event will be $20. For more details, you can contact Dean directly @651-636-3771. I am currently assembling a list of other rally and auto related events that will be occurring over the Summer months. I will make a distribution in a few days when it is complete.

The current treasury balance now stands at $749.35. The last expense was the club sponsored breakfast at Little Oscar's, and that came to $82.11. A great many of you renewed your membership at the last meeting. I will have an updated list available upon request at the next meeting if you need to check your current status. Annual club dues stand at $25.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Jim Childress for all of his effort, volunteering, and participation in the club these last few years. He and his red Sonett have attended nearly all events in Meyer and Princeton. Not to mention all the highway cleanups, rallies, and monthly meetings. Jim is moving to Oklahoma to enlighten the minds of our youth, and this will be his last meeting here. Thanks, Jim! :)