POA Pontiac Owner s Association Newsletter Editor s note: Please email pictures to me for the newsletter! Take a few minutes and write down one of your experiences, tell me about your car! May 2016 Happy Birthday, America!
Diane s Notes President Chuck Merica called Pontiac Owners Association to order with twenty one members present. The rescheduled meeting, June 10th, 2016, was held in Ashland, Ne. at Breadeaux Pizza. President Chuck thanked Brad and Shelly Pfeiffer for making arrangements for the meeting location. Brad, in turn, thanked members for coming to Ashland. Chuck, Larry Davis, Kevin Wagner and Mary Schwanz each spoke on attending various car show, local and out of state. Brad Pfeiffer is looking for volunteers to help with judging at the Ashland car show, July 24. Please call Brad, if interested. 402-612-7620 Don Wahonick has 7 cars lined up for the Ralston parade. Three or more members could enter their cars. Give Don a call. 402-597-4114 Don will be e-mailing parade info as soon as he receives it. Is anyone interested in holding Pontiac banners during the Ralston parade? Larry Davis has re-scheduled the Pontiac Tech Day, at Plaza-GMC Buick, 120th & I St. for August 14th, 10-3 p. m. Members may park in a covered, employee parking lot, there are bathrooms available and the air conditioned showroom will be open. Knowledgeable Pontiac owners are needed for teching. Call Larry 402-895-6241 There will be advertising for this event with the goal of attracting new members. Shawn Kniesly has made it possible for club members to park in a group, Saturday, August 20th, at the Pontiac Challenge Drag Event. Show your Car Council book and pay half price admission. Chuck Roberts is now home from the hospital and doing better. He still has his '99 Firebird for sale. 402-734-1652 Rich Cummins, after a lomg absence from club meetings, reintroduced himself and his wife Natalie. Rich drove his recently restored '64 GTO. Check out the Calendar of Events. There are some local area shows that have been added, that may be of some interest. Don Wahonick motioned to adjourn, with Mary Schwanz, seconding. The ayes were all in favor and Chuck adjourned the meeting. The next meeting will be Friday, July 1, at Don Carmelo's at 7 p. m. Diane Rappl 2
I highly recommend that you join the Nebraska Rod and Custom Association. They work hard for the car hobby in Nebraska all year round. Dues are cheap and they don t ask much of your time. You can join on line at: www.nrca.wildapricot.org SOUTH TO LENEXA! At the last minute I decided to go ahead and join the POA Power Tour South to Lenexa KS for the Pontiac Appreciation Day put on by the KC Arrowheads. Barbara was on a mission from God in Kearney NE for the weekend and I had some surgery scheduled for the Monday following so...might as well take off and have an adventure, right? I got Buddy the dog boarded for the weekend, and Oreo the cat squared away, packed up the GTO and was ready to take off early Friday morning. The plan was for the gang to meet up at the junction of Highway 2 and I-29 at the Sapp Brothers at 1PM. I cruised down listening to some tunes and enjoyed the drive with the windows down on a sunny early summer morning. I miscalculated and arrived early and after a short wait, the gang started arriving. Tom and Diane Rappl drove their 70 GTO convertible, Bill and Mary Schwantz were in their Solstice, Chuck and Fran Merica were in the G6, Monte Hopkins chose his classic Isuzu pick up, and Hillis and Claudia Mathes were due to arrive in their 69 GTO convertible. Of course no one expected Hillis to be on time and he didn't disappoint. He had issues with the GTO and switched over to their Sunbird Turbo at the last minute. The rest of us decided to wait for them and had a light lunch and pie at Sapp Brothers. A couple of hours later the Mathes arrive and we head on out to the parking lot only to discover that our cars have been surrounded by a caravan of softball players headed on a road trip to a tournament. Why they thought parking in and around a group of classic cars is a good idea, I don't know. We finally arrived in Lenexa that evening. As usual Hillis was leading the charge and his choice of route led to me being completely lost. We always wind up where we're going but sometimes we take the "scenic" route. After a bit of discussion the gang headed out to a BBQ place no one had ever heard of. It was good, not great BBQ in a nice informal family place called Smokey Joe's. It was empty when we arrived but completely full when we left. The portions were enormous and I don't think anyone cleaned their plate. Since everyone agreed that we had to abide by the club by laws a stop at a Sheridan's Ice Cream parlor was mandatory and the cold ice cream on top of the spicey BBQ hit the spot. We always seem to have some sort of disaster or near disaster on these trips and this time Monte Hopkins provided the drama. Seems he had a run in with the bathroom door in his room and found out that the door was really efficient at removing the nail from his big toe on his right foot. There was lots of blood and Monte succeeded in convincing the hotel staff not to call the cops because of the blood in his bathroom. He made a makeshift bandage of a clean handkerchief and after breakfast he got some attention and first aid but I know he was uncomfortable the rest of the trip. The day of the show the weather was spectacular! Bright sunshine but not too hot and a bit of a breeze which picked up as the day went on. Of course our trip to the car show in the parking lot of a Bass Pro Shop was delayed because we had to go to a pie parlor in Overland Park. It was in old Overland Park and they were having some sort of Saturday celebration and the streets were full of people enjoying the weather. Our caravan took the most indirect route and we enjoyed an extensive tour of Overland Park and surrounding countryside. Finally we arrived at our destination and found parking nearby and we bought a bunch of pie and sat at sidewalk tables eating pie and watching the locals. 3
SOUTH TO LENEXA CONTINUED... When we finally arrived at the show, most of the parking lot was full and we had to scramble a bit to find parking spots but we settled in. The host club, the KC Arrowhead Chapter of PO- CI has done this before and it was very well organized and a lot of fun. No big judging, awards, etc, just park your car, walk around looking at some fine Pontiacs and a lot of socializing. The weather was amazing and everyone had a great time. Our own Rocky Rotella had been asked to come down and provide a "talk" but it was decided that he would just hang out under a canopy and talk with folks. He had a large group of enthusiasts around him all day too. I met some of the KC club members and renewed old acquaintances. We all had a great time. There was a large turn out of really nice cars and a performance by a Blues Brothers act that was actually pretty good. The show broke up early leaving plenty of time for us to gather the group and plot our dinner strategy. Of course we attracted some attention and wound up having Tim and Penny Dye of the Pontiac Museum and Smoke Signals join up as well as some members of the Arrowheads. We went to Kansas City Joe's BBQ (formerly Oklahoma Joe's) for dinner with the whole gang. This is one of those cafeteria style places where you wait in a long but quick line, get your food on a tray and then hope for an open table. We had no problems and mostly got to sit together. The food was great, the conversation was stimulating and we laughed a lot! Ice cream afterward of course! We all retired pretty early Saturday night and were up and on the road back to Nebraska the next morning. Again the weather was amazing and I drove the GTO with the windows down and the stereo blasting. We all kind of split up after crossing into Iowa and made our way home. A great and fun trip for sure. We often have issues on these trips but they group is really good at rolling with the punches and we rally around anyone having problems. We always laugh a lot and tease one another and most importantly we drive our classic Pontiacs! You really should think about joining the group for the upcoming Eastward HO! trip to the POCI nationals in July! CALENDAR OF EVENTS Fri. Sat. Sun. June 17-19, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Back to the 50's Car Show, State Fairgrounds, MSRA.com Sat. June 18, Onawa, IA. Blast From The Past Graffiti Night, 4-10 p. m. keeponcruisin@hotmail.com Sat. June 25, Lincoln Haymarket, Day at the Hay Car Show, Good Guys, 8-5 p. m. good-guys.com July 1, POA meeting, 7 p. m. Don Carmelo's, ice cream cruise following the meeting Mon. July 4, Ralston parade, club activity. Don Wahonick maryanddon@cox.net Fri. July 8, Papillion, Cruisers for the Breath of Life Car Show, 6 p. m. 72nd & Hwy 370 402-651-1066 Sat. July 9, Fremont, Cruisers on Main St. Car Show, 8-4 p. m. $20 entry fee www.johncfremontdays.org Sun. July 10, Omaha, Sweet Cases For Sweet Faces Car Show, $25 donation, Don & Millie's, 144th & Harrison, 4-9 p. m. Kevin Wagner 402-677-5182 Tues.-Sun July 12-17, Bettendorf, IA. POCI Nationals. Click on Great Cruise Across Iowa, leaving July 13. Sat. July 23, Ashland Stir-up Days Parade. Contact Brad Pfeiffer 402-612-7620 Sun. July 24, Ashland Stir-up Days Car Show, 12-3:30 p. m. Club activity. Registration $20 ashland-ne.com/carshow Sat. July 30, Omaha, Hot Cars Under the Stars Car Show. Registration 5-7 p. m. 402-731-9671 Sun. July 31, Gretna Days Car Show, 8-3 p. m. entry $20 402-680-6698 Sun. July 31, Louisville, Last Hot Sunday in July Show-n-Shine, 9-3 p. m. 402-234-7705 Fri. Aug. 5, POA meeting, 7 p. m. Don Carmelo's. Ice Cream Cruise will be announced. Thurs-Mon. Aug. 4-8, Norwalk, Ohio, Ames Performance Pontiac Nationals and Swap. Hillis Mathes Sat. Aug. 6, Papillion Drive to Survive Car Show, 9-3 p. m. $20 donation, 72nd & Hwy 370 rkolb@centurylink.net Sun. Aug. 14, Omaha, 120th & I St. Pontiac Tech Day, Plaza-GMC Buick, 10-3 p. m. Larry Davis 402-895-6241 Sat. Aug. 20, Pontiac Challenge Drag Event, I-29 Exit 35, admission fee 1/2 price with Car Council book. Shawn Kniesly 402-739-1442 Sun. Aug. 21, Pontiac Show and Shine, Lincoln, Restore a Muscle Car, entry-food for the Food Bank dave@restoreamusclecar.com Sun. Aug. 28, Millard Days Car Show, 135th & Q St. www.millarddayscarshow.com 4
Club Officers President: Chuck Merica (402)731-0494 chuck_merica@hotmail.com Vice President:Don Wahonick (402)597-4114 maryanddonw@cox.net Treasurer: Mary Schwanz (402)763-8537 Secretary: Diane Rappl (402)796-2395 Board Members: Alan L. Fanning 18 (402) 721-6875 Kevin Wagner 18 (402) 677-5182 Tom Rappl 17 (402)796-2395 Bruce Breitkreutz 17 (402)891-1589 Gus Frics 16 (402) 490-2038 Lynn Lueder 16 (402) 339-8681 Historian: Harry Allen (402) 697-0970 Newsletter Editor: Alan L. Fanning nelilgto@msn.com Show Co-Chairman: Hillis Mathes (402)427-7323 Bill Schwanz (402)763-8537 Advisors: Activities: Don Wahonick (402) 597-4114 Overhead Cam Pontiacs: Jim Black (402)597-8625 gtojr@cox.net Appraiser: Bob Ryan (402)681-2968 Meetings: info@usaautoappraisers.com First Friday of each month 7:00 PM Don Carmelo s, 1024 North 204th Ave, Elkhorn NE (unless noted below) Visit us on the web at: https://nebraskapontiacowners.wordpress.com We re also on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/ OmahaPontiacCarClub 5
Pontiac Owners Association is a group of people who really like Pontiac cars. You don t have to own one to join. You don t have to be a gear head, we tend to be more of a social club than a hard corps greasy hands group. We are family oriented and welcome new members. Contact anyone listed on the previous page for information or just come to a meeting. Pontiac Owners Manual Alan L. Fanning 502 Johnson Rd Fremont, NE 68025 Next Meeting: Friday, July 1st, 7 pm, Don Carmelo s 1024 North 204th Avenue, Elkhorn, NE 6