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<font size="3">Saturday March 19th at Mount Dora again for the 8th time in a row lived up to the claims of the Chamber of Commerce. </font>
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<font size="3">The whole show was simply fantastic from the outstanding 150 plus antique boats, the nautical Flea Market, the Woodie Car Gathering which produced 17 beautiful examples of these wonderful cars (including of course our 1948 Ford wagon,) the ambiance of the "town that time has forgotten" with its antique shops and craft fair and of course the endless appeal of our Amphis with included the midday traditional parade through a portion of the town ending with the mass Splash-In which the public goes wild over.</font>
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<font size="3">This event, the 8th Annual Southeastern Amphicar Swim-In was again the largest assemblage of Amphicars as well as the largest gathering of Woodie automobiles in the Southeasten United States and everyone who was there had a wonderful time. There was not enough time to adequately see and do everything, but smiling happy faces were everywhere.</font>
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<font size="3">The Show was spectacular and the weather was wonderful. It was sunny and though it was only in the low to mid-seventies, I am sureall northerners feltit was equivalent to a heat wave. We had 12 beautiful Amphicars, a super day of "swimming" and again, the public absolutely ate it up, standing in line for an hour or more for one of several of us to give them their "James Bond" Amphicar experience.One man who rode with me said it was the 4th year in a row he had ridden wtih me and another woman said she had been coming for 5 years, but each year her husband hadtalked her out of a ride. This year she was there without him and was thrilled with the splash-in and the ride.</font>
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<font size="3">Saturday night, the Amphicar Banquetwas again inown private room with a sumptuous All You Can Eat buffet. As before, the party wasagain ably MC'd by Dave Monier and was a roaring success encompassing comraderie, great food, great stories and the distribution of neat door prizes to happy recdipients . My own story was, I believe, one of the best which I'll relate here. To my absolute surprise and almost disbelief, as I emerged from the water with several passengers, who should walk right up to my driver's door but the man himself, Hugh Gordon. I extended my hand and he reciprocated and we shook hands and I said "Hugh, I'm delighted to see you. I had heard nothing of your being here, but it is wonderful to see you." He stood there, I must admit in relatively uncharacteristic fashion not saying anything as I rattled on. After another 30 seconds or so of little response, I kept staring at him and then said "You're not Hugh Gordon are you?" to which he replied "No." I then explained that he was an absolute look-alike for the man who owns the world's largest stock of Amphicar parts etc. and that to all of us, he was indeed "Mr. Amphicar." The man was very nice and as an after thought, I asked him if I might take a picture of him which I did. I failed to ask him his name or where he came from, but at the Banquet last night, I showed everyonehis picture on my digital camera and they were all astounded. 2 or 3 other members said that they too had seen him and had thoughthe was actuallyHugh in the flesh. So Hugh, If you read this, keep looking over your shoulder, because one of your "doubles" is out there !</font>
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<font size="3">Among some of those who come from farther away, we had Gord Souter from Canada and his wife Joanne, whom we got to finally meet (though they had stayed overnight with us the previous week), Dave "the Wave" Dehrer from Illinois and his dad, "Grampa Wave" as he called himself, the "Cigar Man" Capone from Illinois who was celebrating his release from his personally imposed "prison" as he has loudly announced on the "Amphicar Lovers, " Ron "the Search and Rescue Man" VonDracek from Indiana, Board Member Doug Parsons and his wife, Phyllis from Ohio and Florida, Ray and Chris Handloser from Michigan and Floridaand Ron and Val Green from Pennsylvania.This is not a complete listing, but the newsletter willprobably list allthe members who were there.</font>
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<font size="3">As an aside and a cute note, Peter and Cheryl Fredsall proudly brought their 8 month old conversation piece,"Arthur Peter" who did nothing but smile and charm everyone. Peter made the observation that it would be some time before Arthur Peter came to realize that riding in an Amphicar was something special because to him, it is simply a normal occurrence !</font>
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<font size="3">Hopefully, I've given the impression that any of you who weren't there really missed an outstanding show and fantastic weather for the 8th time in a row. We had3 Aqua Amphicars,2 White, NO light Blue, 6Red and the Greensnon-traditional but gorgeous medium dark Blue which I had seen at Hershey 2 years ago.</font>
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<font size="3">Vic "Captain Splash" and Carol Nelson with the 1967 Aqua "Split Personality." </font>
