2017 ALASKA OR RUST TRIP MENU:
<– Post Trip Items: Alaska Or Rust!! 2107 …. The Book –> | Post Alaska Or Rust Item: FCA Brazil’s Video of Hugo Vidal –>
2018 EAST COAST TRIP MENU
<– Day 20 – Friday May 18th: Reunion Day 1 | Day 22 – Sunday May 20th: Hittin’ The Road –>
UPDATE: This almost-one-year anniversary was the final event of the Alaska Or Rust Crew.
About half the Alaska Or Rust Crew. There were drinks and plenty of laughs on Saturday night.
Day 21: Saturday started at 5am and went to 1am Sunday morning. It was great to meet so many fans of my wife (I think she’s more popular than I am) and, of course, fans of eWillys. I appreciate everyone’s support, including the purchase of the shirts, books, stickers and posters. I nearly sold out of everything, so that helped cushion Day 1’s purse theft. Much appreciated! Here are some photos that Ann took (as I had no time):
By some miracle, the bad weather stayed away until Saturday evening and the wind remained pretty calm. So, that was a great relief! The crowds came early Saturday morning and remained so until about 2pm.
Thanks to Keith for dropping off this copper mesh for the DJ-3A gauze air filter.
Sales slowed by about 2pm, Yet, folks were still approaching me to tell me the jeeps they’ve purchased on eWillys or why they enjoy the site so much. I never did get the chance to check out many of the jeeps, but I did get to eat lunch thanks to Bill and Jim.
While I worked my booth, Merlin and Joe led a team to build an L-head as a demonstration.
Later on in the afternoon, I broke free of the booth to check on the presentation equipment. We were supposed to have a large screen TV, but what I found instead was a 32″ Samsung TV sitting on a counter in the presentation room, a room we thought might have 50 or more people. Obviously, that small tv wasn’t going to work. I found Bob Christy he had a talk with hotel staff. Then, magically, they found a huge projection TV and put that in the room. Problem solved.
The rest of the evening was a blur. I did a practice a presentation run at 5pm, We at dinner at 6pm.
Dinner and raffle prize room.
Cowboy finally got his copy fo the Alaska Or Rust book. That man sure likes books!
Ann and I won the Reunion’s coveted(??) Hard Luck award (no one could touch our first day-of-trip losses, sealing our win, lol).
We won the Hard Luck Trophy. Such craftsmanship! Bob Christy is truly an arTist!
It also doubles as a hat:
After door prizes were given away between 7-8pm, folks streamed in for my Alaska Or Rust/ Hugo Vidal presentation.
For some reason, I was billed in the Willys Reunion brochure as the “infamous David Eilers”, My wife teased me greatly about that, as infamous isn’t something I am normally called (except maybe by my ex’s?). Here’s an example of some definitions of infamous. Despite the Reunion’s low opinion of me, I must have some qualities they liked? After all, they did invite me to give the keynote presentation.
Waiting for more folks before beginning the presentation. We had a full house.
Me at work …
The presentation focused on Hugo Vidal’s 1955 trip and how he was an inspiration to us on our trip. I’m not a particularly funny guy (I can’t remember a joke to save my life), but somehow I got the audience to laugh and once that happened, the forty minute presentation seemed to take no time at all to finish (I’m pretty sure they were laughing with me, and not at me …).
The Alaska Or Rust crew members who were in the audience weren’t shy about aiding (or correcting) the presenter as well, which made it all the better.
One of the things I announced at the end of the presentation was that Hugo’s book about his adventure will be available very soon. Here’s a photo of the cover and a look at a note Hugo wrote for the back cover.. I’ll provide more information on the book at a later date.
As I understand it, no video was taken, so if anyone has some photos, I’d love to get them. After the presentation and talking with folks, I finally got a chance to unwind from the weekend. The Alaska Or Rust crew came to my aid with some vodka and Clamato. Then, we laughed and drank under our pop up canopy for hours as rain storms came and went. No one seemed to mind the rain, as we were laughing to hard to care about getting wet. I finally gave in at 1pm, and Ann and I went to bed.
It was a good day. Many thanks to the Reunion Staff who helped put on the show, especially Bob and Mindy Christy!
Bob on the left with Mike and Ian.
Mindy hard at work.
On Sunday we will drive to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. More on that and the schedule for the remainder of the trip on Monday morning.
2017 ALASKA OR RUST TRIP MENU:
<– Post Trip Items: Alaska Or Rust!! 2107 …. The Book –> | Post Alaska Or Rust Item: FCA Brazil’s Video of Hugo Vidal –>
2018 EAST COAST TRIP MENU
<– Day 20 – Friday May 18th: Reunion Day 1 | Day 22 – Sunday May 20th: Hittin’ The Road –>