Storm and an Amphicar in the garage!

[Con Oamek]

Ken,

Wow, what a storm. 70 MPH gust of wind on the Golden Gate Bridge, 5 semis tipped over on the Richmond/San Raphael Bridge and, reportedly, a 105 MPH gust in the Los Gatos Hills near your place. We stayed inside all day and watched the wind and rain through the windows. It did minor damage at our daughter's here in San Jose, but the patio roof gave us pause as it tried to leave!

Really enjoyed visiting you and your Amphicars. Great to have three, all in their own garage; did you need to get one out during the storm? You have made some impressive improvements on your cars; I am looking forward to your write-up on how you solved the shimmy problem and now can mix it up on the freeway with the big guys. Mine prefers slow and easy!

I think your idea to get together at the Clear Lake Airplane Splash-In next Sept. is a great idea, It is about time we had another Northern California Swim-In. We had several in the
late '70's, but haven't done much since then. The Splash-In included a car show last year and a street fair along with lots of Amphibious airplanes. There were two Amphicars and we had a great time going in and out 5 different boat ramps in downtown Lakeport. The show was held on the 4th weekend in September.

Our Yacht lives at Clear Lake, so I should be able to help coordinate things. We spend our time there, at our home in Southern California and on the road in our motorhome; so I can take care of things in spurts. We are headed up there on Monday, I hope the weather is good enough to take the Amphicar out!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! See you on the water.

Con Oamek
Redlands, CA

 

[Ken Chambers]

Hi Con,

Glad you stopped over the other day. Great meeting you. A Clear
Lake splash-in in September would be great. I'll research the sea
plane fly-in date and reserve that time to be there. I'll keep you
informed. We should contact all the N. California Amphi owners well
in advance and also publish the meet in the club newsletter. I'm
getting excited already.

That storm yesterday was exciting. Really high winds up here on the
summit of our 2200' ridge. No damage at our place and we didn't need
to go anywhere so road closures and such didn't affect us.
Unbelievable, but we never lost power for more that a few seconds at
a time while millions of others were without.

Hope the weather clears up enough for your drive up north. Keep in
touch.

All the best,
Ken Chambers


On Jan 5, 2008, at 9:08 AM, Con Oamek wrote:

> Ken,
>
> Wow, what a storm. 70 MPH gust of wind on the Golden Gate Bridge,
> 5 semis tipped over on the Richmond/San Raphael Bridge and,
> reportedly, a 105 MPH gust in the Los Gatos Hills near your place.
> We stayed inside all day and watched the wind and rain through the
> windows. It did minor damage at our daughter's here in San Jose,
> but the patio roof gave us pause as it tried to leave!
>
> Really enjoyed visiting you and your Amphicars. Great to have
> three, all in their own garage; did you need to get one out during
> the storm? You have made some impressive improvements on your
> cars; I am looking forward to your write-up on how you solved the
> shimmy problem and now can mix it up on the freeway with the big
> guys. Mine prefers slow and easy!
>
> I think your idea to get together at the Clear Lake Airplane Splash-
> In next Sept. is a great idea, It is about time we had another
> Northern California Swim-In. We had several in the late '70's, but
> haven't done much since then. The Splash-In included a car show
> last year and a street fair along with lots of Amphibious
> airplanes. There were two Amphicars and we had a great time going
> in and out 5 different boat ramps in downtown Lakeport. The show
> was held on the 4th weekend in September.
>
> Our Yacht lives at Clear Lake, so I should be able to help
> coordinate things. We spend our time there, at our home in
> Southern California and on the road in our motorhome; so I can take
> care of things in spurts. We are headed up there on Monday, I hope
> the weather is good enough to take the Amphicar out!
>
> HAPPY NEW YEAR! See you on the water.
>
> Con Oamek
> Redlands, CA
>
>