{Chrysler 300} Lafayette 300 Meet

I just wanted to express my thanks and gratitude to Kelly LeBlanc and Mark Artall, and everyone involved in organizing this very fine meet in Louisiana (our first one in this beautiful state!). They took such great care of us.

We started with a visit to Avery Island where we toured the Jungle Gardens and Tabasco Brand facility. Some hardy souls sampled the work in process right from the oak barrels. The Sweet and Spicy was my favorite. For dinner, Kelly showed us the proper way of peeling crawfish after very generously bringing them to us freshly boiled. Very tasty and worth the effort.

Friday saw the group visit an incredibly fascinating gentleman nicknamed Turbine Ted for all the groundbreaking work he does powering vehicles of all types with turbine augmented power. The car collection was eclectic with modern and classic, but all with significant power available at the rear wheels. Following this was a tour of the Joseph Jefferson Mansion and surrounding Rip Van WInkle Gardens, a serene and picturesque place with a very interesting history.

While the weather forecast looked challenging, the rain and storms amazingly held off most of the meet during our activities and the Saturday car show weather was excellent. Our Beautiful Brutes drew much public attention and Mark's dad brought his beloved Buick to the show. The nearby farmer's market gave me the opportunity to buy some fresh local pecans to take home to roast.

The Awards Banquet was a lot of fun too, with some excellent prizes for some lucky Club members.

While I had to leave too early to sign up for the swamp tour, many did and I'm looking forward to hearing the report on how many alligators and different bird species were spotted.

Again, a big thank you to Kelly and Mark. What a treat it was to spend such quality time with our Chrysler 300 family and especially to meet and make some new friends as well. What a great club we have!

Very 300ly,

Mark Obermann