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Town of Junior - Where most license plates end up! <<< Philippi Martial Arts - A tiger with a high metabolism! Sign outside of Elkins - I think they need spellling lessons! >>> |
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Verona
United Methodist Church
Saturday
Mar 31, 2001
| First of all, special thanks goes to Gordon White, one of the meet's
hosts for providing generous hospitality, allowing me to stay at his place
for the night.
This meet, in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley, was actually as far for me driving wise, as the Annandale meet. It looked a lot closer to Fairmont, WV on a map, but don't be fooled - it takes quite a bit of time to get over the mountains! That aside, the route was amazingly simple: I live right off of Hwy 250, and that would take me to Staunton. Verone is the next town north, on Hwy 11 which runs along the Shenandoah Valley. I left my place Friday just after noon, with the hopes of arriving by 6:00pm. I was hoping to meet the hosts at the Church, to help them set up. Well, it turns out that I arrived right on the dot, pulling up right next to Gordon McCrea. How's that for timing! Along the windy route, I did make a few brief stops: |
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Town of Junior - Where most license plates end up! <<< Philippi Martial Arts - A tiger with a high metabolism! Sign outside of Elkins - I think they need spellling lessons! >>> |
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| At the Church, I met our hosts Gordon McCrea, Gordon White, Chuck Bedall and Bruce Peterson. After all the tables and chairs were set up (whew!) Gordon White, Bruce and I went for dinner at Shoney's. It was a long day, so I was grateful for Gordon White to provide me with a place to stay. At his house, I remarked on his very interesting collection. Gordon does an awful lot of travelling and belongs to the "Extra Miler Club", so one of his interests is foreign plates - and he's got quite a collection, all beautifully mounted! He even introduced me to another hobby of his, vexillogy, the study of flags! I tried to introduce a similar "ology" for the license plate hobby: "licensology" - let us say that many of us prefer to be called "tin chasers"! |
 
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As usual, with these meets, the activity got well underway by 8:00am
when the doors opened. As one of the hosts, Gordon was one of the
first to arrive at the church. Let me first introduce our hosts:
Gordon McCrea (6114), Gordon White (3868), Chuck Bedall (5908), Al Brown (3351), and Larry Huffman (2198) Much to my suprise, Tom Dayton, of Western NY showed up! He drove over 500 miles to be at this meet, and if there was a long distance award, I'm sure he'd get it. Tom, owning a dairy farm of brown Swiss, to no suprise collects Farm plates. As you see below, he put together a cool display featuring a barn and silo! 
Tom Dayton and Chuck Bedall - two collectors of farm plates! Incidentally Chuck Bedall is also an avid collector of farm plates - probably why Tom drove so long to get here! Chuck also had an amazing display:
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I made a GR-RRReat find! |
Steve Raiche working out a deal with John Willard |
| Unfortunately I didn't get a shot of it, Scott Mitchell brought his
1966 m/c run, missing only RI and VT - very impressive. I couldn't
help notice that one his sons was on Team Tigger.
As with most meets there is a donation auction at the end. The stuff in this auction was quite good this time, with a number of Virginia graphics generously donated by Tom V. Smith. |
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The last of Boon's Thai plates |
| After the meet, when all the tables and chairs were put away, I was
invited, along with Tom Dayton to have a look at Chuck's license plate
collection. His collection is tucked away in the basement, it's a
shame he doesn't have more display space for his really great stuff.
Besides one of the best farm and schol bus plate collections in the country,
he also has an impressive Virginia run (just missing the first issue),
and '44 Fiberboard run. After the visit it was time to head home.
The Tiger in my tank got me home in 4 hours flat, once again over the mountains,
the way I came. There is no doubt I'll be back next year!
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