Longhorn Cruisers Past Events

April 2005: On Saturday, 4-16-05, SnoopCruiser took people's choice first place at the Round Rock Show. The event was BIG! Longhorn Cruisers donated $1500.00 to help both Make-A-Wish and the American Cancer Society. Some of the club went to Port A for the sand castle competition. and lost their money in the Texas Treasure Casino. No one is talking how much money won or lost.

Jan 15, 2005. We had 10 cruisers and 1 SSR cruise to Burnet to catch the Vanishing Texas River Cruise and go out to see our National Bird, the Bald Eagle. We had one cruiser guest, Robbie Staples and his wife Sinoun in their Silver Cruiser. And the SSR.....that is Richard VanRiper's new toy, we called him lots of names cause we are all jealous. :-) It was a chilly day but clear weather. We first had AWESOME pizza and Italian food at a little outdoor cafe: Don Vito's Italian Kitchen located just a couple of miles from the River Cruise location. After lunch we headed over to the cruise to catch the boat at 2:30 pm. The cruise was about 2 1/2 hours long and was very relaxing. Unfortunately, the Eagles didn't show themselves to us, though we did get to see other sorts of wildlife.

Jan 8, 2005 We held our regular monthly meeting at the new Wendy's location in Georgetown located on the southbound side of I35. Boy were they busy!! The store does have a new look from other Wendy's locations and they were doing a really hopping business. They were so busy we ended up having a brief meeting in the parking lot so we would not disrupt their regular business.

DEC. Toy Run We had a wonderful turn out for the Harley Toy Run this year. We had 12 cruisers that came out: Tammy Meek, Kyle & Darla Redmon, Laura Crenshaw & Gerald Hudson, Jan Rodgers, Don Tutt, Mark & Sylvia Hammer, Linda & Wilbur Nichols, Bob & Debbie Kurzynowski, Jerry Johanneck, James Spiller, Bob & Connie Strange, and Rick & Linda Berglund. It was a wonderful day for a cruise, clear and sunny. We did start out the day with a good breakfast at Denny's Diner at Lakeline. Then headed on out to Big Dave's in Lakeway. They did arrange for a police escort again, but we did once again get kind of left behind in a couple of spots and so were a little late in arriving to the final destination of the Berger Center. We were joined once again by the Miata club, and there were a few classics that jumped in with us as well. After arriving at the Berger Center, several of us then went on further south to have a late lunch at The Salt Lick BBQ2004

Fall Cruise, 11/04 Though the weather turned out to not be so good, we did have 5 cruisers that braved Mother Nature. Tammy Meek, Kyle Redmon, Jan Rodgers, Laura Crenshaw and Gerald Hudson....and even Richard VanRiper came out WITH his cruiser. :-). We took Hwy 71 to Hamilton Poole Rd. Then took 12 down to Dripping Springs, followed 290 out thru Johnson City and then ended up in Fredericksburg where we stopped for lunch. We had lunch at a local German Restaurant there. Yum!! From there we headed south on Hwy 16 to Kerrville. We went thru town on 27, then ended up on 39 where we wound around the South Fork of the Guadalupe River. We finally ended up at 187 and into the Lost Maples State Park. We did get to view some fall colors along the route. It was a beautiful drive despite the weather and fun to get out with some of our friends.

Oct 31, Halloween Party at the Hammer's. There was ton's of food, and a haunted house they put together at their house for the kids to come trick o treating.

Aug 28. Goodie bag stuffing party. We got together at Snoop's house (Kyle & Darla's) to assemble all the goodie bags for the Lone Star Cruise.

Aug 14. Event planning meeting. Again at the Hammer residence to continue "hammering" out the details of the upcoming Lone Star Cruise

Aug 7. Pre-cruise test. We met up at the host hotel to again go thru our cruise to make sure of what we needed to do and to be familiar with the run come the day of the big event.

Jul 31. Event planning meeting. We met up at Jack's Back Yard, the restaurant that we will be holding our first get together of the Lone Star Cruise so everyone could try out the food and the location.

Jul 24, Event Planning meeting. We had a get together at the Hammer residence to continue "hammering" out the details of the upcoming Lone Star Cruise.

Jul 18, Test Cruise. We met up at the Red Lion, our host hotel for the Lone Star Cruise to take a test cruise for the upcoming event.

Jul 17, We had a promotional event at the Chateau at Onion Creek. We had about 10 cruisers present. We got some air time with a local radio station to promote our upcoming Lone Star Cruise event. And we got to meet Doug who runs the Photo Café, a vendor that we were considering for our event. He even took some test photos to show us his work. It was great!! Later that same evening, we had a planning dinner meeting at SnoopCruiser's house to work on the Lone Star Cruise.

May 30, Memorial Day BBQ. We hung out at Laura and Gerald's COOL house out at Lake Travis while Pop made some wonderful BBQ!!

May 1, Baby Shower for new cruiser Mia, daughter of Steve and Sandy was held at the Wendy's at Braker and Metric

Apr 24, Georgetown Red Poppy Festival Parade. There was a couple of us that tried to attend but due to inclement weather, the parade was cancelled.

Apr 17, Cruise to Bastrop. A group of us cruised over to Bastrop where we met up with the Houston City Cruisers and Alamo City Cruisers. We took a tour of the County Jail there. Then we headed to "The Yacht Club" for lunch. After that we went to the car museum in Rosanky, Tx. It was a full and fun day.

March 19-21, 2004 TEXAS CRUISER EXPO 2004 We met up at 11 am at Fuddrucker's at 1991 IH 35 N in Round Rock.. These are the folks that attended: Tammy Meek, Kyle & Darla Redmon, Bob Strange, Connie Strange, Tyler & Martha Crowder, Mark & Sylvia Hammar, James Spillar, Linda & Wilbur Nichols, Laura Crenshaw & Gerald Hudson For those that didn't get to go this weekend, you missed an AWESOME time!! 198 Cruisers from 11 states were in attendance. Tons of awesome cars, and of course all of our cruiser friends from all over the place. And of course getting to drive the track is just AWESOME!! Definitely a highlight.

2/28/04 Lunch at Bert's BBQ. We were invited to check out the BBQ that could possibly be served for our event. We checked out the pavilion location and it was beautiful and very much along the lines we are interested in. We met up at 10:45 at the Wendy's on Farwest, then cruised as a group over there at 11 am. NOTE: picked up the tab!!

2/21/04: We tried out a test cruise for a possible to add to our event and discussed ideas.

2/14/04: Meeting at Wendy's. Discussed Event. Guests: John and April Redmon from Caprock Cruisers, Amarillo.

12/14/2003: Toy run with the Harley Davidson Group. We did this run last year and it was a big hit. Met at 7:30 am at Denny's Diner at Lakeline Mall area to have breakfast. We cruised from there to Big Dave's out 620. The admission was one unwrapped toy, they asked that there not be any violent type toys. Gift certificates were also welcome. The toys are benefiting The Austin Children's Shelter for abandoned, neglected and abused children of our community. www.austinchildrenshelter.org.

12/6/2003: Our December meeting was a HUGE event. We met at the Walmart at 620 and 183 at 5:15 to cruise as a group to the new Wendy's in Lakeway that is opening tomorrow. We gave a great show and lots of support to Wendy's. We worked on some more details for our event next September. Attendees: Richard VanRiper, Laura & Gerald Crenshaw, Tammy Meek, Kyle & Darla Redmon, Jerry Johanneck, James Spiller, Bob & Connie Strange

11/8/2003: Toys for Tots, Deerbrook Chrysler in Kingwood, 22655 Hwy 59 N. We were cordially invited to participate in the Houston City Cruisers Toys for Tots event again this year. They went for an all cruiser show and shine benefiting the Marine Corp Toys for Tots program. The entree fee was a new unwrapped toy to benefit kids that would not otherwise have anything for the holiday season. Attendees: Tammy Meek, Kyle & Darla Redmon, Jerry Johanneck, Ric Berglund, James Spiller, Terry Cavazos, Jerry & Gail Giese

11/1/03: 720 Round Rock Ave (620 & I-35) just west of I-35 before the railroad tracks. We continued to work out the details of our club hosted event next year.

10/25/2003: Breakfast: We will meet at Fuddrucker's in Round Rock at 9:15. From there we will cruise out to Sun City in Georgetown where we will have breakfast at one of the restaurants in Sun City. Attendees: Tammy Meek, Jerry Johanneck, James Spiller, Ric Berglund, Terry Cavazos, Bob and Connie Strange

10/18/2003; Texas Stars Parade, Rockdale, TX. Staging in Rockdale started at 8 am, parade kicks off at 10 am. Just something fun to do!! We can kick off the day with the parade, showing off our wonderful cruisers. The parade ends up at the fair grounds where there will be tons of stuff to see and do. Arts and Crafts, a Rodeo, Dances, Carnival. The theme of the parade is: Texas Stars - How They Shine. Think about if you want to dress up the cruiser towards that theme. Some of us now have the Texas Car Flags, we can use those, for anyone who doesn't have one yet and would like to get one you can find them at: http://www.carflag.com/ Attendees: Tammy Meek, Johnny Perales, Jerry & Tammy Johanneck, Linda & Wilbur Nichols, Kyle and Darla Redmon

10/4/2003: Monthly Meeting- Shared their ideas for upcoming events. IN particular, we need ideas on our event that will be held on Labor Day Weekend 2004

9/27/2003: Chrysler Route 2003 event- Sam Houston Race Park, Houston TX; organized by Chrysler, for Chrysler Owners. This was very similar to the event they held at Fiesta Texas last November. There were cars on display, and fun and games for the whole family. There was also be a special test drive course set up so we could test out the latest models.

9/19/2003: Pride of Texas Grapevine Getaway! - Cowtown Cruisers Hosted event--

Well we had an awesome event, what a great time!! We had five cruisers from Austin: Myself-Tammy, Kyle and Darla Redmon-Snoopcruiser, Bob and Connie Strange, Richard Vanriper, and Ric Berglund. I was lucky enough to be awarded 2nd place in the stock class of the car show. There was so much that was fun but one of our new friends from Caprock Cruisers who were there has recapped the event nicely.

Wanted to let everyone know that the trip to Grapevine was awesome. We all had a really great time! Friday Night we all went to Fuddruckers to eat, after that was the PT Cruisers light show. Lots of cool lights. One of the Cruisers had laser lights in the grill which was pretty neat to watch. Donnie and Karen Daniels had their lights and looked pretty cool and fit right in with the other Cruisers.

There was a guy named Frank Palmer that was pin stripping peoples Cruisers. (Frank is a Tattoo Artist and also does Graphics as well). Frank was really good at this and was busy all three days!!! You will here more on this.

Saturday we were Police Escorted through Historic Main Street in Grapevine and toured through Beautiful Grapevine Lake. From there we were off to the Dealership for the PT Cruiser Car Show. There were Several classes from Mild to Wild, Awards for Rear Shelf Displays, Door Prizes and lots of Music and Free BBQ that the Dealership prepared for everyone. Some of these people really put some time into their cars. After the car show we all headed to Grapevine Mills Mall. Shopped till time to go. What a big Mall this was. We had to be back at the Embassy at 6:00 pm so we could all meet and go to Dinner at Trail Dust Steak House. Mike stayed behind at the Embassy because Frank Palmer was going to do Kyle and Darla Redmond's Cruiser and ours. Kyle and Darla was having a snoopy put on the rear of their car and above it was Snoop Cruiser. We were just going to have ours pinned striped with a design on the dash board.

Getting back to this Steak House, don't know if ya'll ever been to this but it has a slide, lots of margaritas, ect...LOL anyways Darla wanted me to go down this slide with her and I thought we would be going down together as i'm scared of heights!!! Ding Dong I was so wrong. One at a time goes down this slide, let me tell you that little 4 and 7 year olds don't care if your scared or not, they want you to hurry!! Well I did go down and screamed the whole way. My legs were Jello and the picture wasn't pretty< lol.>

After eating the Awards Ceremony began. We had 2 Cruisers from our Group Win 1st and 3rd place!!!! Ennis and Leesa Penland won 1st Place in the Modified Stock. Donnie and Karen Daniels won 3rd in Rear Shelf Display. Congratulations on your winnings!!! This was their very first time going to an Event like this and they had a blast! They can't wait till the next one. During the Awards we had a call from Mike saying that there was a problem with the Snoop Cruiser. Mike said Frank thought they said Scooby Cruiser instead of Snoop Cruiser. (not good) Kyle and Darla were a tad upset. They stayed at Steak House till it was over then we rushed to get back to Embassy to see what was going on. Kyle gets out of Tammy's Cruiser with arms bolded out and starts heading to his Cruiser. Kyle gets there and sees what was wrote on the rear and he knew it was Mike pulling a Joke. All was good and back to normal. Actually Frank came up with the idea and Mike played along. Had a good laugh on that one, ppl were still talking bout it Sunday Morning.

Sunday we all headed back shopping at the Mall. We have 3 New Members Join our Club!!! They will be introduced at our next Meeting October 11th. Their names are Bear, Barkley and the Mysterious MS, a Dear Friend of the Penlands'. After Shopping and Meeting our newest Members we headed back to Amarillo.

April will be placing the pictures in on our Website for ya'll to see and hope you all had fun this past weekend as well. Once again Congratulations Donnie, Karen, Ennis and Leesa! <Hugz> Cindy"

8/9/2003: Monthly Meeting-- Due to Kyle and Tammy, being out of town to Cruise the Rockies in Colorado, we did not have a meeting this month.

We got to Amarillo as planned at approximately 5:15 pm. We stopped briefly at The Texan restaurant to rendezvous with the newly formed Caprock Cruisers of Amarillo. We had about 8 cruisers from the Caprock Cruisers join us at that point. From there we all caravanned to our hotel to get checked in for the evening, and then headed out for the Redmon Residence. The home of our Vice President, Kyle's parents. The Redmons' threw a wonderful hamburger cookout for the entire group. It was while we were at the cookout, that all Colorado bound cruisers got their Texas Car Flags. It was also at this time, that Kyle (aka Snoopcruiser) finally got to see Snoop's new hood. Wow is it awesome!! You have got to see it in person.

The next morning, Thursday, we were on the road again. We added one more cruiser to the caravan, Cindy and Mike Girty of the Caprock Cruisers. Headed up the road to Dumas and then Dalhart, and over into Raton, NM. From there it was a straight shot up I25 into Colorado Springs, CO.

Just outside of Colorado Springs, we stopped briefly to put up all of our Texas Flags. We didn't want anyone to wonder who was showing up. As we arrived at the hotel, we were greeted by more of the Texas contingent, as well as other friends. No doubt about it, we made a grand entrance!!

That night, some went to a pre-party picnic, some of us just settled into the hotel and started greeting others that were arriving for the event. Friday morning we got started early (or as soon as we decided to get up) :). After enjoying the complimentary breakfast buffet at the host hotel, many of us set to sprucing up the cruisers for a day of showing off. Those that didn't want to show their cruisers took this time to start exploring the many sights there are to see around Colorado Springs.

For those that stayed at the hotel for the day, the afternoon was spent voting on the cars, and deciding who we liked the best. Then we enjoyed the complimentary happy hour before either participating in the dinner banquet or finding food elsewhere.

Saturday was another fully day. We were up bright and early to once again, polish up the cruisers and be ready for the big event of the day.... a police escorted caravan/cruise out to Cripple Creek. We ended up having 141 cruisers in the caravan, spread out approximately 7 miles. The Colorado Springs Police escorted us to the edge of town. They not only stopped traffic and allowed us to go thru intersections on RED lights, but they also shut down part of I25 for the caravan. That was SO MUCH FUN!!! After getting outside Colorado Springs, we were on our own for a little while. We had another police escort in the town of Woodland Park. After that we were on our own again until we got into the town of Cripple Creek. There we were given 1st class treatment and parked downtown by special direction of the Cripple Creek police. All 141 cruisers lined the main street of Cripple Creek. While we were in Cripple Creek, mother nature decided we needed a thunder storm. So it did get a bit cold and dreary. From Cripple Creek, we tended to go our own ways to finish off the afternoon.

Saturday evening was the awards dinner and dance. Of the five awards given, two of them were to Texas Cruisers. The best stock went to Joyce and Glen Harrison of the Big D Cruisers and Best Tailgate Display went to Kaylynn and James Robinson also of the Big D Cruisers. Go TEXAS!! After dinner, there was an AWESOME oldies band that played for us. The theme of the dance was 50's, and a few of us took it all the way in the outfit/costume department. It was a lot of fun.

Sunday, it was time to cruise yet again. This time it was to see Garden of the Gods. The plan was to have a group cruise of the park, but we ended up taking more of a self guided/self timed cruise of the park. It is a cool place to cruise around. After that, it was again up to us to decide what we wanted to do. Many cruisers did have to leave sometime on Sunday to start heading home.

On Monday, many of the Texas group did caravan back to Amarillo together. Coming into Amarillo we had 13cruisers still together. And we performed what has now been deemed a Cruiser Ballet. As we entered downtown Amarillo, we went from single file, to two by two. And in doing so, we managed to hit all the lights just right and steadily parade thru all greens thru town.

After arriving in Amarillo, we rushed to get the cruisers polished up for one last get together. We were joined once again by the Caprock Cruisers. They arranged for us to have police escort through town to our event of the evening. We invaded a Sonic in Amarillo. We had approximately 30 cruisers at the sonic and even had one of the TV stations show up and do a little news article on the group for the 10 pm news. It was a great get together and Caprock got to have one of their first big gatherings of their club.

That evening, we started saying our goodbyes of the trip as we would not see some of our companions again on the trip. In the morning we continued with the goodbyes and took to the road once again to head for home.

What an awesome time we had!! I hope that you will be there for the next big cruise.

7/26/2003: Trip to Brenham, going to meet up with Houston City Cruisers--We toured Pleasant Hill Winery (tours start at 11:00 am) and did some shopping in downtown Brenham (1:00 pm) and then had lunch at the Southern Flyer Diner (2:30 pm) at Brenham Municipal Airport. At the winery you can get purple feet, a special T-shirt ("I picked, I stomped, I made some wine.") and a picture to show all of your friends. This "Pleasant" experience was only $20 per person.

7/4/2003: The 4th in Rosanky 3rd annual Pigspit Jubille and Fireworks Show at Owls Western Wear, located at the intersection of 304 & 535 in Rosanky, Texas (about 12 miles south of Bastrop). Roast pig and fireworks are free. Bring munchies and beverages and lawn chairs or a blanket. Last year there was a live band and dance after the fireworks.

6/21/2003: New plan.....Invite to Jeff's Pool Party with the Houston City Cruisers. There will be a show and shine at Deerbrook Chrysler in Kingwood starting at 10 am. Then it is off to the "Hotel California" aka Jeff Taylor's house for a pool party.

6/14/2003: A PT Wedding - Corpus Christi. Here is the invite and story from Miguel:

"The attraction between two PT CRUISERS lead up to marriage. I, Miguel live down the the road from the girl with the silver PT CRUISER. We both were eager to talk to each other, but never had the chance. All we would do was the friendly PT WAVE at each other when we would pass by in our PT CRUISERS. One day, I got brave enough to ask her out on a date. So, when I called Margo and told her this is Miguel she did not know who I was until I mentioned my RED PT CRUISER. From then on we became close. We would argue on who's PT CRUISER we would take out. So, to solve that problem we decided to take turns on which PT we would go out in. We thank Chrysler for this attraction on our PT CRUISERS. If it wouldn't have been for the PT maybe marriage wouldn't have been the outcome of this attraction. So, now I have found my soul mate and have my chameleon cruiser. Now, the question is who's PT Cruiser will we choose to leave the Wedding Party that night??? The wedding is June 14,2003 . Hope everyone can plan to come. "

5/31/2003: Breakfast at El Arroyo. El Arroyo didn't open until 10 am. Who on earth is not open on a Saturday morning for breakfast until 10, I still don't understand but it is true. So we ended up moving the get together over to the Denny's Diner on Lakeline.

5/17/2003: Party at Laura & Gerald's. Laura and Gerald hosted a Cruiser party out at their home on Lake Travis.

5/10/2003: Meltdown 2003 an Austin Area Show and Shine. Round Rock at the RPM Indoor Raceway. PT Cruisers: Street, Mild, Full. Two live Bands. Indoor Racing. Best of Show $100. Bikini Contest. Tailgate Magazine Coverage, Street Source Coverage. Indoor Racing. For more info see: http://www.killershow.com/jp

5/3/2003: Hill Country Cruise. A cool place out on the far side of the lake called Shades. It takes some cruising to get there so I thought it would be fun to do, we head out 1431 over to the far side of the lake and can end up at Shades, it is a restaurant with kind of a tropical flare but basically American cuisine, burgers and fries.

4/19/2003: Breakfast at IHOP. Well, the plan this time is to invade the IHOP of our very own member, Gail Giese, Nutman's wife. We are going to go a little earlier than we have been because IHOP is busier than Denny's, on the flip side, they are faster in getting the food out.

4/12/2003: Monthly Meeting-BlueBonnet Cruise. We had the picnic pavilion that held 25 people and plenty of parking. There was water front view of the lake. There were picnic tables and grills. There are also nearby bathrooms. There is NO electricity. It was a fine time of year to go view our well known Texas Bluebonnets. For updated info on the best viewing from TxDOT, their hotline to find out the best viewing is 1-800-452-9292. This month we held our meeting as part of the cruise while we were picnicking

4/5/2003: Cruise to Salado. Well, we had a wonderful drive and scenic tour into the countryside. It turned out to be mostly farmland and not much in the way of wildflowers but it was still fun. We had 10 cruisers in attendance. When we got to Salado, we all kind of went different directions to check out the Wildflower Art Show and have some lunch.

3/29/2003: Cruise to Killeen cancelled, New plan!!! We had intended to cruise out to Killeen to wish JB well on his way to the Middle East, but since he got shipped out before we could go, we ended up just having a get together at Fuddrucker's in Round Rock. We had a good time and even celebrated Lindsay Johanneck's birthday with SpongeBob Birthday Cake.

3/22/2003: Breakfast at Kerbey Lane Cafe Diner. This was our last time to get to see JB before he was shipped out to Iraq. I understand this turned out to not be a great choice for breakfast get togethers, so we will not use this location again. But at least we gave it a try, other ideas are welcome.

3/11/2003: PT Studios Closing event. Well, this event was the final tada for the PT studios event here in Austin. It was an invitation only event and later in the evening. We were not a very peppy bunch by the time the event got under way, but it was kinda fun to go as it was during SxSW so there were lots of interesting people to see. We got to see Greg and his wife Brandi one last time, they were in charge of showing off the Electric Blue GT Turbo for Chrysler at the event.

3/8/2003: Monthly Meeting. Shirts were handed out to those that needed them and we sold some additional shirts. We discussed Cruise the Rockies: most of us are planning on staying at the host hotel. If someone wants to try to split a suite they need to get together and make those plans or find alternate rooming elsewhere. There were two suggestions for cruises: A bluebonnet cruise to Salado and to participate in a Poppy parade in Georgetown. We are getting both these events on the calendar. We raffled off several items. The winners of the meal deals were: Tammy Meek, Jerry Johanneck, Bob & Connie Strange, Rick & LInda Berglund. Wilbur & Linda Nicholalso one a meal deal as well as the Framed stitching of the club logo donated by Hometown Threads. Alice & Dan Fisher won the Streetglow lighted tailpipe donated by Streetwave of Cedar Park. Tyler & Martha Crowder won a set of undercar neons donated by Streetwave of Cedar Park.

3/1/2003: Meet and Greet at Sonic in Giddings. And here is the bonus!! A note from our friend and cocruiser Jeff Taylor of the Houston City Cruisers: "Street Race Challange" ! If you have a PT (RC version) a one class drag race ! Plus! Model PT People's Choice Contest ! Plaque for Fastest Racer and one for Best Model! Should be a riot... So we are 30 days out! Tune up those PT's and see you there! Giddings, TX.. Where Austin Meets Houston! for the best little PT Street Meet in Texas! " So get out your mini PT's :-)

2/27/2003: PT Studios showcase party at Ludwig's. Here is a premier event in our city, the main purpose of these events is to help promote the Turbo. These events are scheduled only for six cities across the country. Check out the article at this site for details: http://www.ptcruiserlinks.com/arcnews/39.html

The members in attendance were: Tammy Meek, Kyle & Darla Redmon, Brenda Bruce, Bob & Connie Strange, James Spiller, Richard Van Riper, Rich Little, JB Thomas, Bryan & Lisa Wheeler, Glen Colby, Jerry & Tammy Johanneck, Jerry Giese.

a. Presentation of Wendy’s sponsor plaque to Dave & Jason the local owners of Wendy’s.

b. We went over the availability of embroidered items at Hometown Threads, Jean the owner was also in attendance

c. Miller Lite is sponsoring us for 2000 koozies that will have their logo as well as the club logo on them in 4 colors.

d. The neon light being donated by Design Electric is still in process but we should see it soon.

1. Darla Redmon is researching our options on possibly getting a cabin for the whole group to make it more cost effective for all that are going

e. Sad to say, our event coordinator, Mike Murphy has stepped down, need new one, there were no volunteers at the meeting.

a. Lisa Wheeler advised we could get more info at www.tpwd.state.tx.us and regarding good timeframes to go.

5. Tammy offered to keep handling the coordination of the events; there were no objections.

6. There was a suggestion that we check into getting some windshield screens with the club logo and website address to sell to club members and to promote the club.

a. Expenses included website server charges and the initial order and set up of the embroidery with Hometown Threads

b. Miller Lite shirts and koozies - various people: Lisa Wheeler, Gerald Hudson, Laura Crenshaw

e. For next time: large framed stitch out of the logo donated by Hometown Treads

1/18/2003: Breakfast at IHOP. Well, we had an awesome turnout despite the cold weather. We invaded the IHoP of our very own Nutman's wife Gail and took up a good section of the store. Lets see if I can remember correctly of who was present: Kyle & Darla Redmon, Jerry, Tammy & Lindsay Johanneck, James Spiller and his sister, nephew Josh, and Josh's friend, Richard VanDiver, Bob & Connie Strange, of course Nutman Jerry Giese and Jodi, Gail's daughter, and a huge welcome to our new member Brenda Bruce who also came out to join us. After a wonderful breakfast, we went different ways, several of us went over to Highland mall for a little bit and guess what, as we pulled in there comes an Inferno Red and the driver and passengers heads turned as we passed them. We did speak with the driver and gave a card and hopefully will see them soon.

1/11/2003: Monthly Meeting. Held at Wendy’s Parmer and Mopac at 5:00 pm First, we have new cards to hand out to folks with club information on them, we had a large batch printed up, if you need some or need more, please contact me and we will get you some. We discussed what color logo to use for general use such as silkscreen t’s, letterhead; whatever is for general use and not just one individual. It was decided to take one week to consider and then we will make a decision based on the feedback of everyone. We discussed the need to copy write and trademark the club logo. Since the cost is little to none and it will give the club some management and control over who does what with the logo, it was decided that we would do these things for the club.

I passed out copies of the preliminary by laws, Glen is also going to post them to the website for consideration and feedback. We will have follow up discussions at a later time. We discussed club leadership. It was acknowledged that Glen wishes to step back from being President and only continue on as our Webmaster. I, Tammy Meek, volunteered to take over the role of President and it was affirmed by those members present. Kyle Redmon volunteered to be Vice President. And Mike Murphy to be our Event Coordinator with the help of Laura Crenshaw. We still need more ideas for events. In particular, an event hosted by the Longhorn Cruisers to invite all of our Texas Cruiser friends to. Mike Murphy is going to work on that.

We announced that myself, as well as Kyle and Darla have already starting making plans to attend the Cruise the Rockies event being hosted by the Colorado Cruiser club. This event is scheduled for the weekend of Aug 8-10. We will need to leave early on the AM of the 7th, returning probably on the 11th. We also know that at least a few of the Houston City Cruisers are also making plans to attend and we are going to coordinate our attendance with them. Anyone who wishes to attend please start-making plans and let us know so we can all coordinate our efforts. Kyle Redmon went over the sponsorships that he has been working on inc: Wendy’s, Streetwave Tire & Wheel, Design Electric and some that are in the works still.

Kyle also went over the shirt purchase that we want to make, we have an embroider shop that can do a minimum order of 10 shirts, they have to have all the same color logo for that run of 10, after that we can order the shirts or jackets or hats or what ever everyone wants on an individual basis. We will be able to proceed with this once we have decided on the main logo color we are going to use for the club. Will also be able to move forward with getting general club shirts lined up/purchased. Jerry Johanneck presented the window stickers he has been working on; it is the same as what Brian Wheeler had originally worked out with one minor modification. These will be made available at one per member with attendance to events and also for purchase of $5 for each additional. Jerry did explain that he could make them in a number of different colors, what ever someone may want. I have the sample sheet available for review by anyone who would like to see it. The design was approved and Jerry will move forward with producing the stickers. Glen advised he received a call from Maxwell dealerships to discuss past happenings between the club and Maxwell, those discussions are still in progress and we will keep everyone advised. Glen also recounted that the club account has remained the same since our last meeting.

We held a raffle of a few items, Rich Little provided raffle gifts of a couple past issues of Cruiser Quarterly, we raffled off a couple of mini cruiser models and some t-shirts. The result was e$49 to add to the club funds. Attendees: Tammy Meek, Glen Colby, Kyle & Darla Redmon, Jerry & Tammy Johanneck, Bryan & Lisa Wheeler, Laura Crenshaw & Gerald Hudson, Bob & Connie Strange, Gail & Gerry Giese, Mike Murphy & Major, James Spiller, Rich Little, and a special guest, Brenda.

12/15/2002: Toys for Tots - AUSTIN. What an event!! They think there was more than 1000 Harleys and other bikes there, for car type clubs it was us and about 10 Miata's. We had the great honor of getting to load up all the toys that everyone brought and deliver them to the truck that was downtown for final disbursement at another location.

After delivering the toys, some folks went on to other things, probably getting ready for Christmas. We did have 5 cruisers that decided to head out to the Saltlick for a late lunch. All in all, we had a great day of cruising, great weather and great friends.

12/14/2002: Breakfast at Denny's Diner. What a great turn out!! We filled the whole back room with our group, if I count correctly we ended up with about 17 people total. Next time it is off to IHop to invade Gail Giese's domain!! :}

12/7/2002: HOUSTON CITY CRUISERS PRESENTS: Inaugural Toys for Tots Show & Shine. Well, I took us the scenic route over FM 1488, but we got there right at 12. There turned out to be about 25 cruisers, and about 25 other vehicles there at the show. Jeff and the rest of the Houston City Cruisers did a great job and the event was very well organized. Best of all was that it was for a great charity to benefit kids who may not otherwise have a Christmas. And even better for us: We met JB Thomas from Ft Hood in Killeen here.

The first thing I want to say: what an AWESOME turnout! we had 12 cruisers for the meeting 13 come out, we even bumped into the Black woody folks from Lexington that we first met in Giddings (that makes 14 counting them).

The Club meeting was held at Gatti-Land in Round Rock, TX. The meeting was chaired by Glen Colby, President, and was co-chaired by Tammy Meek, Vice-President. The following topics were discussed or acted upon at the meeting:

1. Club logo revised. The revised Club logo was presented by Bryan and Lisa Wheeler. They had worked up both a monochrome version for use as a window decal, and a whole slew of color versions. Bryan had researched the colors that each model year PT Cruiser was available in, and made a logo in that color. Since our logo is based on the grill of the PT, Bryan added the bumper across the bottom and made the bumper black or body-colored, based on the option for that year. For example, the 2002 PT came with black bumpers for all colors, with the exception of the Dream Cruiser, which came with an Inca Gold bumper. Bryan made the Inca Gold version of the logo with a gold bumper, and all of the other ones were black. The idea is to let individual members use a logo that is the same color as their PT, which is a pretty cool one. The circle around the logo has been dropped. The longhorns were retained, along with the "PT Cruiser" above the logo. The bumper was added, and the club name is displayed on the bumper. A vote was taken, and the revised logo was gratefully accepted. A big thanks go out to Bryan and Lisa for taking the time to do this for us!

2. Club Name put to a vote. As announced back in August, a discussion and vote was made on the Club Name. The history of the current name was reviewed, and suggestions taken for the new name. After a discussion and vote, the name "Longhorn Cruisers" was adopted. The website will soon be changed to reflect this fact, as those domains (.com, .net, and .org) were available. Longhorn Cruisers reflects both the city we are based in (Austin, TX), and reflects the club logo, which has been extremely popular with everybody from Day One.

3. Regular Club Meeting adopted. We also discussed the difference between an 'event' and a 'meeting'. Club events are fun little things that the Club will put on at random intervals, and the sole purpose of those events are just to get together and have a good time, with no formal club business taking place. A Club meeting will be held as an event, but with the pre-designated purpose of conducting Club business. These notes are about a Club meeting, as we are setting Club policy and procedures. Club meetings should always be documented with Club minutes, and these minutes will be emailed to all members, and posted to the website. It was decided that a Club event will take place the second Saturday of each month. Every third meeting, i.e. once a quarter, the event will be a Club meeting, and Club business will be conducted. Having a regularly scheduled meeting will give people a chance to perform long-term planning if they want to come to an event, as they now know the second weekend of each month will have an event or meeting. By this schedule, we'll have events in the month of December and January, with the February one being a meeting. Of course, we will continue to have lots of other random events on the side :-)

4. Club events vs. PT-related events. Rich pointed out that we have tons of events listed on the website. True, there are lots of events posted in the Events area of the website, but not all of them are events put on directly by the club. A lot of them, for example, are PT Studios events that we have out there just for your information, but they are not something the Club is putting on itself. Glen Colby (the webmaster) will change the website to make this difference easier to see, so that Club events are differentiated from PT-related events. The change will be made after Dec 1st.

5. Club Charter. At the time of the meeting, we called these Club 'rules', but on reflection, it really seems we are talking about a Club Charter, or Statement of Purpose. Tammy Meek gave a brief description of what happened out in Houston to their club. In a nutshell, a subset of their membership felt like their club was not going in the right direction, so they broke away and formed their own club. Unfortunately, the breakaway was not an amicable one. Tammy suggested that we clearly define what the Club is, and what our purpose is, so that such an incident does not repeat itself. The members present at the meeting agreed, and the decision was made to draft up something to discuss and vote on at the next meeting. Glen and Tammy will get the draft going, and the draft will be discussed with anybody who cares to listen at all Club events, and as a final draft is reached, will be emailed to the membership for feedback. By the time of the next Club meeting in February, we should all have an idea of what will be presented to the membership for a vote.

6. Current Club Leadership. Glen asked for feedback on the current structure of the Club leadership, which consists of Glen as President and Tammy as Vice-President. Everybody present was content with the current setup, and no changes to the existing structure were felt to be needed. No additional offices were felt to be needed, so we'll continue with the way we are for now. As the Club grows, the issue could be revisited.

7. Club Treasury. After proceeds from the night's raffle were added to the total, the Club coffers now stand as follows:

After getting a dba in the new Club name, a bank account will be set up for holding this money. In the meantime, Glen Colby will continue to hold the club assets, which also include the new member t-shirts and hats as received from Maxwell Chrysler.

Feedback was received that too many events are stationary; not enough 'cruising' from one location to another was taking place. Duly noted, thank you, and we'll get more events to involve 'cruising' ;-) Always feel free to throw suggestions for new events at Tammy or myself. We won't make you do it just because you thought of it, so don't be afraid to speak up! We just want to get new ideas.

In a totally unrelated note, it was learned that Kevin Worfe is no longer General Manager of Maxwell South Chrysler. Kevin was the founding President of the Club, who you last heard from in the termination letter from Maxwell in June of 2002.

Motorized cruiser: won by Jerry & Gail Giese; 3rd Brake Light cling: won by Bob & Connie Strange; 65th Anniv Krispy Kreme commemorative poster: won by Richard & Susie VanRiper; Grand prize - $20 gift certificate to Macaroni Grill w/2 movie passes: won by Rich Little

Glen & Linden Colby;Tammy Meek; Mike Murphy; James Spillar; Kyle & Darla Redmon; Connie & Bob Strange; Bryan & Lisa Wheeler; Gail & Jerry Giese; Jerry Johanneck; Richard & Susie VanDiver; Rich Little; Patti Kautz-Gattiland Cruiser; Art, sorry I don't know your last name, will update later.

If I missed someone: I apologize just let me know and I will update the listing.

11/21/2002: PT Studios showcase party at Stubbs. 801 Red River. Time: 6:30-8:30 PM. Featured artists: Visual Artist: Jonathan Faber. Fashion: rubypearl Band: Dames Violet

11/16/2002: Meet and Greet at Sonic in Giddings. We headed out at about 4:30 for Giddings, it was a beautiful fall evening. We met up with 5 cruisers from the Houston City Cruisers there at the Sonic. It was a very fun evening of showing off our cruisers and visiting with friends. We had a bunch of folks just passing by that just stopped by to check us out, including a Black Woody from Lexington, a Patriot Blue from Austin, and even a DPS Cruiser(ok, so it wasn't a PT :-)). We also celebrated Kyle Redmon's birthday with a cake featuring the Snoopcruiser (Kyle & Darla's cruiser). A huge thanks to Laura Crenshaw and Gerald Hudson for suggesting this event idea. It was a blast

11/9/2002: Wurst Event Ever! (WurstFest in New Braunfels). This is one of the more fun German festivals in the country! Events at Wurstfest tend to go on all day long, so the plan will be to convoy down, and see what there is to do once we get there. There is a schedule of events for November 9th at the Wurstfest website: http://www.wurstfest.com/nov09.htm. (That's a clickable link, BTW).The weather for the weekend looks like it is going to be fine; maybe we really have gotten rid of all this rain. Glen and Linden will be going, along with the two kids. We'll prolly shoot for leaving in the morning from Austin. If anybody has any advice as to what some of the 'must-see' aspects of Wurstfest are, please let Glen know as soon as possible.

11/9/2002: Salt Lick run. Well, this was just an impromptu get together, with the plans being formed starting Thursday night when we were at Club Deville. We ended up with an awesome evening as far as weather was concerned, and three cruisers in attendance. Thanks to Kyle & Darla Redmon for the suggestion.

11/7/2002: PT Studios showcase party at Club DeVille. Well, it was another fun get together. We had a fun time hanging out, seeing the interesting fashions, then most of us went off to Stubbs a block away for some BBQ. It was a beautiful evening after a bunch of wet rainy weather. And a special thanks for Jerry and Gail Giese our new friends we met in San Antonio who came out to hang with us.

11/2/2002: Chrysler owners day at Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio. Well, it would have been an AWESOME event, if it hadn't rained. It was a cold, rainy day that was pretty miserable, but despite that, we had a great turnout!! And I for one had a great time. There were also representatives there from the Houston City Cruisers and the Lone Star Cruisers. We did the best we could to stay warm and enjoy the camaraderie of the day. Chryslers had a great set up planned with concept cars on display including a Panel Cruiser that was beautiful, plus some historic examples of Chrysler products. They had face painting planned, as well as temporary tattoos for the fun of it, they had a little test drive course set up, though it was hard to really get the feel of the Turbo due to the small course, but fun none the less. Six Flags was fun for what we got to do there, some of the rides were closed due to the rain, but big thanks to Darla for getting us on the best ride there: The Poltergeist!! It was way cool!

11/2/2002: Texas Classic Car Show. Rudy's Country Store on 183. When: 9 am to 3 pm The show is to benefit Make a Wish Foundation, they are welcoming cars of any kind, old and new. They recommend entrants be there no later than 8 am. There is a $25 entry fee for entrants. Of course anyone is welcome to come out just to check out the cars. I plan on being at the Breakfast at Denny's, just wanted to let everyone know of this show however. If you would like more info on this event, visit: http://home.austin.rr.com/texasccs/

10/26/2002: Cruise to the Brazos Drive In (Granbury TX). Well, I went to the drive in night and it was fun. There was preshow entertainment, there were members of the Cowtown Cruisers and the Big D Cruisers there, and Me! :-) While it was overcast, it turned out to be a good drive in night. We had a few other cars there besides cruisers, there were some Fords of the 50's and a Chevy Avalanche group.

10/24/2002: PT Studios showcase party at Lucky Lounge. Well, we didn't get the VIP parking this time, but even PT Studios barely had room for the turbo. That said, it was still a fun event. It is just cool to get together and hang out. Looking forward to the next one!!!

10/19/2002: Breakfast at Denny's Diner. Well, It was a very rainy day, pouring in fact, but there were a couple of us that were diehards and came out anyway. It is always fun to see our other cruisers@@

10/11/2002: Alamo City Cruise (whole weekend in San Antonio). What an awesome event!!! Three of us started out from Austin to caravan to the event, the others met us there. We all started gathering at the host hotel at around 4 pm on Friday afternoon. There were 50+ cruisers in attendance and 2 prowlers.

At 6:30 all the cruisers gathered together and caravanned to Harper's Burgers and Brew, when we got there, the parking lot was already full of many other cool cars, corvettes, hotrods, 4x4's, any kind of car that a car enthusiast might want to see. This is a regular Friday Night event for them. We hung around, had burgers, visited and checked out all the cool cars.

Saturday morning, we all gathered back at the host hotel to head out on a Hill Country Fun rally. There were probably about 30 cruisers and 2 prowlers that went on the rally. Another part of the overall group decided to do the optional Missions tour, they said that was pretty awesome as well. We went up through Bandera, off some really back roads and into Kerrville. Some of the views were just spectacular!! After that we had free time to do what we pleased. Some of us went into Fredericksburg, others took some time out.

Saturday evening different folks chose to do different things as well. Some went to the races, some out to the Riverwalk. Whatever we decided to do, it was fun!!!

Sunday morning came very early for some of us, :-)), but it was also fun. We gathered at another of San Antonio's car hang out spots, The Pig Stand. We polished up the cruisers and voted for each other in different categories. The organizer of the event, Robert Carter did a wonderful job, he is a great guy and got very emotional after the event was over, kudos to Robert. After the awards around 1ish, we all said our farewells and headed out to our respective destinations.

10/9/2002: PT Studios kick off showcase party at La Zona Rosa. We got news from Ricky Larsson of the Lone Star Cruisers that he had some invitations to PT Studios invitation only kick of party for this day. He had only gotten them the day before and was unable to attend, but got a hold of Glen and posted a note in the talk forum to let us know that we could use the invites. The event is being held in 6 cities to promote the PT Turbo. They had a beautiful Electric Blue Turbo there on display. PT Studios allowed us special VIP parking right in front of the door. They showcased some local talent: artwork, fashion and music. It was a fun evening.

9/28/2002: Longhorn Rod Run (Spring Tx, Saturday and Sunday) Well, no one decided to attend this event. While I am sure it would have been fun, they only allowed cars up to 1975 to enter!!!! Drats!!!! I had been looking forward to this, I apologize for not getting enough information on this event. I am learning.

9/21/2002: BREAKFAST @ Denny's Diner. We met up at the Denny's Diner on I35 at 9 AM today. We had 6 cruisers and eleven people in attendance. I want to thank all those that came out. Once again, I enjoyed visiting with everyone, I also appreciated having a great reason to get out early on a Saturday instead of sleeping in. I hope that everyone else enjoyed coming out as well.

What a wonderful drive!! We had 7 cruisers in the group today, including new member Pat DeVeau from New Braunfels who came out and met up with us in Stonewall at Becker Vineyards. We headed out 290 to Stonewall. Just before Stonewall we took a little scenic side road that took us through LBJ Ranch, there were many picnic spots overlooking the Pedernales River, even saw some Bison there.

Then it was on to Fredericksburg where we tasted a very large selection of wines at Fredericksburg Winery. For lunch some of us chose to have Mexican, while other's chose to go with German fare and then we had a little time to check out a little bit of the town.

Last, we headed north of Fredericksburg to Bell Mountain Vineyards. And a couple of us finished off the trip with a scenic drive back through another part of the Hill Country Trail (Got to dodge a couple head of cattle on this part, ok so they were just close to the road, not quite in it, but we were careful).

9/11/2002: Dinner @ Fran's.Was a GREAT turnout with 10 cars present!! I really enjoyed having everyone come out on this very American day. Sorry to those who got caught in the Congress St blockages, I had no idea that was going on. I hope that all that came enjoyed it as well. And Welcome to new members Brian and Lisa Wheeler who came by to check us out and show off their new GT Turbo!!

The meeting went off on time on Saturday. The Houston crowd rolled into the parking a little after 2pm, actually. The rainf forecast was a blessing of sorts, in that we had the parking lot basically to ourselves:

That's pretty much a line of just the Houston folks there. (By the way, click on the pictures for a larger image.) It rained from about 3pm to 3:30, with most of the rainy period being a light patter. You'll see by some of the other pictures that the pavement was drying out as the day went on.

1. The past year's history involving Maxwell was explained, and their involvement with the club was put to an informal vote. Nobody voted to keep them with the Club in any way. I can now say that the Club has officially backed my earlier feelings on this matter, and we'll contact Maxwell with the appropriate letter at a later date.

2. I recited the list of Club assets that Maxwell turned over to me. They are 550 tattoos of the Club logo, 350 car-decals, 35 Polaroid pictures of the May 2001 event, 17 XXL white T-shirts with Club logo, 4 XL T-shirts of the same, 5 beige 'Club Officer' caps, 1 XL and 1 L 'Club Officer' polo shirt.

3. A vote was taken for Club President, and that duty/honor/burden has fallen to me (Glen Colby). I accepted with the condition that we review the situation in February 2003 to see if somebody else is wanting to take over for a while. In the meantime though, I agreed that for continuity sake, I would stay on until our Club identity (as well as procedures) have a chance to come together.

4. Tammy Meek volunteered to help me out with organizing club events, so I stuck her with a Vice President tag before she came to her senses. Tammy is also our first new member! Woo hoo! Tammy, thanks for stepping up, and welcome to the Club!

5. I relayed an invitation for the Club to merge with the PTCC based out of Dallas. They are one of the two 'major' national clubs, and Mark Godwin, their director, was kind enough to call and offer two door prizes for our meeting Saturday. Very briefly put, their membership comes with a $39.95 per year fee, for which you get a decal, a magazine, and the events are covered by the umbrella organization's liability insurance. It is a situation that all of us present felt was too close to what we just left behind with Maxwell, so the vote was taken to remain independent. The one thing they could have offered us, liability insurance, can be purchased 'a la carte' for specific events at a very low cost. We'll keep our dues in our pockets, and use them on ourselves by ourselves.

6. Tammy has contacts which we're going to tap to set up a non-profit DBA for the Club. After the Club gets this status, we'll set up a bank account and set up a Treasurer to keep their eye on things.

7. Mark Godwin also informed me that Chrysler is going after the clubs to take the 'PT' and/or the 'PTCruiser' ouf of their names. It looks like my decision to change the Club address to www.TexasCruiserClub.com was a lucky one! :-)

8. Membership dues were approved at $40 per year. My original knee-jerk reaction to Maxwell's treatment of us where I said 'No more dues- ever!' proved to be an impractical one for the Club, and those members present Saturday agreed to implementing annual dues. Dues for existing Club members will work like this:

1 year members have this current year at no charge to make up for 'The Lost Year'. Their next dues will be due 1 Aug 2003.

5 year members are a similar story. Their next dues will be due 1 Aug 2007, if they live that long!

By the way, your 10% discounts were sold to you by Maxwell, so they should honor them for as long as your membership card to the old club states.

9. Club Name vote! At the meeting, we considered Longhorn Cruiser Club, Austin Cruisin' Club, Capitol City Cruisers, and the current Texas Cruiser Club for names. Nobody had any strong feelings about any of the others, so we stuck with Texas Cruiser Club for now, mostly because I have the whole website built around it right now :-) We'll have a whole big newsletter/email about the name later this week. Promise!

10. Finally, I can't begin to thank enough the kindness and thoughtfulness of the Lonestar PT Cruisers from Houston. What did they do? They drove through nasty rainstorms to get to Austin. They lined 'em up and parked 'em, even thought they weren't pristine! They offered nothing but support and encouragement, and seeing their camaraderie helped ALL of us who attended see what we'd like our Club to be like someday. Jeff Taylor, their fearless leader, got right off of his plane (he's a commercial pilot) in Houston and drove straight to Austin, still wearing his uniform! Now that's dedication!! Jeff pulled a big surprise as well, raffling off 4 genuine Cuban cigars that somehow made it into the country and splitting the proceeds from the raffle with Austin. Jeff, thanks so very much! Your generosity is SO very much appreciated! Our Club now has $65 in the kitty! Woo hoo!! :-)

Doubtless I've forgotten a few details; I will post those as I remember them, but for now these are what I can read from my hastily scribbled notes from Saturday afternoon. Our next event is the August 24th fun run, which has about 6 or 7 cruisers signed up so far. Please contact me if you're planning on going. I'll post more on THAT event here in the next day or two.

Thanks to all for their support and encouragement, and thanks to those who showed up and made this a great meeting, even with the 20 minutes of rain!