AMC Events: Kenosha, Thursday, July 23rd, 1998

Kenosha, July 23rd, 1998

Thursday I headed out around 9:30am and saw my first hint of the coming event as a trailered Big Bag Green AMX (belonging to Dave Wormald of Massachusetts) rolled along with me for quite a few Ohio I80 miles. Along Rt.94 in Northern Illinois, I came across a red AMX, also being trailered in. I arrived at my hotel room around 3:30PM local time (after nearly killing myself trying to take a picture of the 'Kenosha' Exit sign while driving) and found my roommate, Al Stirbens, was already there. We exchanged 'Hellos' and off-loaded my 'stuff' into the room, then decided to take my rental car through town to get acquainted with the street layout (unlimited mileage on rental means I abused the privilege).

We didn't get out of the hotel lot before we found AMC metal waiting to be drooled over like this Rebel wagon. The trailered Red AMX was in our lot as was a white HumpsterAMX. Across the street were several AMXs, a Pacer wagon, a '65 Marlin and a Rambler wagon, all of which we had to look over before heading into town.

We made our way to the Holiday Inn (the AMO event's host hotel) to see what hardware was there..and the lot was stuffed full of beautiful rides...many trailered, many parked amongst the Brand-X stuff as if they were no more special than that (we all know they are!).

My heart jumped and smile widened when I spotted the familiar colors and shape of one '69 Rambler 4-door with Ohio plates...none other than Javlynn Sue Leair's car! I glanced around to see if she was nearby, then I decided to leave a note under the wiper.

Soon after, Al and I left to explore the area. We stumbled across the 'Javelin Restaurant' and took a few pics, including the nifty one below of a Matador sedan passing by....Kewl.

The main streets were fairly devoid of AMCs, but heading through the residential areas as darkness fell, we found one on nearly every block- not show cars. These were daily drivers, beaters and/or projects. Most looked to still be very much 'working for a living'.

No sooner did Al and I arrive at our room that evening, that there was a message for me from Sue. As I was dialing her room, a knock came at the door. She had stopped by, along with Bob Hodson, her good friend and fellow List member. We invited them in and spent quite a while chatting AMC and assorted other subjects before it grew quite late and we figured sleep was in order before the big swap meet Friday.

On to Friday...