Club Meetings

January: 1/8 - Club Meeting

Victoria Clark let us on a discussion of the top automotive museums in the country and in Arizona. It was especially interesting to learn that club members have visited the majority of the museums.

Top National Museums

The National Automobile Museum (Reno, Nevada)

The Henry Ford Museum (Dearborn, Michigan)

Owls Head Transportation Museum (Owls Head, Maine)

Mullin Automotive Museum (Oxnard, California)

National Corvette Museum (Bowling Green, Kentucky)

The Antique Automobile Club of America Museum (Hershey, Pennsylvania)

Muscle Car City Museum (Punta Gorda, Florida)

Petersen Automotive Museum (Los Angeles)

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame and Museum (Indianapolis)

Lane Motor Museum (Nashville, Tennessee)

Arizona Museums

Hall of Flame Museum of Firefighting (Phoenix)

Penske Racing Museum (Phoenix)

Scottsdale International Auto Museum (Scottsdale)

Franklin Auto Museum (Tucson)

Martin Auto Museum (Phoenix)

February: 2/12 - Club Meeting

Our February meeting, as usual, was a Valentines celebration. There were flowers for the ladies, as well as, candy, cookies, and many other goodies. Also, we enjoyed a "measure" of the bubbly.

Victoria Clark gave us a very interesting perspective on some of the history and legends associated with the holiday. Much of the history is unknown (from a "guys" perspective, anyway) except we know what's expected of us. For those interested in learning more about what Victoria presented, clink HERE for an interesting article.

Victoria, also, brought a sample of her extensive collection of Valentine's cards, as the following pictures show.

March: 3/12 - Club Meeting

Dr Sam Butman from the Verde Valley Medical Center (VVMC) was our guest speaker this month. Dr. Butman is Chief of Staff at VVMC and is a cardiac specialist. He is, also, involved in planning future medical care services in the greater Verde Valley community.

The first part of Dr Butman's talk centered around existing services provided by VVMC, particularly the Sedona Campus. It was very informative and resolved a number of misconceptions regarding services available at our local facility. The second part of his talk was to solicit our input to future medical services.

Dr Butman's talk was very informative and entertaining.

April: 4/9 - Club Meeting

Carole Dvorak spoke about the history of Fort Verde at this month's club meeting. She came in period costume along with her husband George. Carole and George are from the Hold The Fort association of volunteers that is responsible for sponsoring fort activities and helping maintain the fort.

Camp Verde is one of the forty two Indian war forts and is, probably, the largest and best preserved of the remaining forts. Fort Verde was established as a temporary fort in 1865. The first permanent structure was built in 1871 and used as a fort until 1891.

Please visit the Fort Verde State Historic Park website for all information and activities.

May: 5/14 - Club Meeting

Bob Zimmerman was our speaker at the May meeting. Not only is Bob a car club member but, also, an avid motorcycle enthusiast.

Bob showed slides and narrated his adventures on his Arizona to Arctic Circle (Alaska, that is) and back to Arizona. Over 17,000 miles on motorcycle. Quite an adventure...!

June: Annual Picnic in lieu of meeting

July: Summer Hiatus - No Club Meeting

August: 8/13 - Club Meeting

Suzanne Fuqua, Executive Director for the Humane Society of Sedona (HSS) came to speak to the group. Suzanne has been at our Humane Society since May 2013. Before that, she served as Director of Behavior and Training for the Santa Fe Animal Shelter from 2011.

The Humane Society of Sedona is one of the most effective at placing forever pets for a community of our size. Started in 1966 (a very good year), HSS continues to thrive and grow because of the dedicated staff and volunteers. The new building completed in 2008 provides an efficient temporary care facility animals in our community.

Please contact them directly if you'd like more information or would like to volunteer.

September: 9/10 - Club Meeting

Jerry Showalter representing the Big Brothers & Big Sisters (BBBG) came to speak to the group. Big Brothers & Big Sisters is designed to help kids determined to be "at risk" for a variety of reasons. BBBG matches these kids to volunteer adults using a very rigorous selection process designed to enhance compatibility and need of the child. The adults must undergo an extensive background check, as well, to ensure the safety of the children. The resulting match "Big-to-Little" is designed to provide a mentoring relationship that benefits the child in ways they cannot attained in their normal family relationship. Jerry says that the relationship with his "Little" is very rewarding and, likely, to last for many years.

There is a desperate need for volunteer adults to mentor kids in the Sedona-Cottonwood-Verde Valley area, particularly men volunteers. There are approximately 30 children on the wait list. The general time commitment is eight hours per month.

Jerry says that BBBG is in the top 10% of nonprofits for effectively using monetary donations.

Congratulations to Jerry for being the State Big Brother of the Year.

Please contact them directly if you'd like more information or would like to volunteer.

October: 10/8 - Club Meeting

Ed Mezulis from the Sedona Fire Department spoke to the group this month. Ed is a paramedic for our Fire Department and brought some of the equipment used in the ambulance during emergency calls. He has been with our Fire Department for a number of years and seen the improvement in patient survival. The advanced technology tools allow paramedics to directly communicate with emergency room physicians at the Verde Valley Medical Center. This provides the necessary information to physicians to make the diagnosis while the patient is in route to the hospital. The hospital can have the necessary facilities prepared and ready for the patient when the ambulance arrives.

Ed Mezulis was the paramedic that responded to the aid call for Larry Currie's heart attack this spring. Had it not been for Ed's skill and the tools available on the ambulance communicating with the cardiologist, Larry would not have survived. Remarkable...!

November: 11/12 - Club Meeting

Erma Bombeck (aka Victoria Clark) is alive and well. Erma/Victoria gave us a spirited presentation of Erma's life history, including her time in Arizona.

December: Annual Holiday Party in lieu of Meeting

Events and Tours

January

1/25 - Alcantara Winery Tasting & Tour and Lunch at 15.Quince Grill & Cantina: On January 25th, club members experienced what could be called a 2-fer event. We, first, went to Alcantara Vineyard & Winery to taste their marvelous wines. The weather was a little wet and chilly, so we didn't get to do much touring of their facility. We'll have do this again when we have better weather. The second "leg" of the 2-fer was lunch at 15.Quince Grill & Cantina. As you can tell by the following pictures, the group really enjoyed themselves.

February

2/22 - NHRA Arizona Nationals @ Firebird Raceway: On February 22nd, David & Rachel Lombardi, Marv Wiegand and Steve Blank journeyed down to the Firebird International Raceway to enjoy the first day of racing at the 2013 NHRA Arizona Nationals event. By all accounts, Firebird lost their lease, and this was the last year for this event. The Firebird facility is absolutely huge. Friday is used for the preliminaries. We were able to see all the cars' initial runs without the massive crowds. It was busy enough on Friday. Touring the pits was a treat. It was amazing to see the top fuel funny cars and dragsters with the crews at work. The engines had the heads off. Clutch packs were on another work bench. Two hours later everything was back together, and they were clocking speeds in excess of 320 MPH in under 4 seconds. There is no way to describe the incredible power when these cars "launch". You have to be there. The "big sponsor" racing teams go to the races "in style" with four to five tractor-trailer semi trucks loaded with their equipment. The small race teams have just a pickup and car trailer and have to work on a "blue tarp".

March

3/16 - 43rd Annual St Patrick's Day Parade: March 16th was the day everyone had their "blarney on" for the Sedona celebration of St. Patrick's Day. The parade was small but did not lack any enthusiasm. The Sedona Car Club had 12 cars entered in the parade which was one of the longest entries. Everyone had a great time.

Following the parade, we had lunch Mongo's Mongolian Bar & Grill which is new in the Village.

3/23 - Litter Lifter

April

4/6 - Al Moss Memorial Garage Sale Rally **To Be Rescheduled**

4/20 - Bashas' Display: On April 20th, we had the 3rd Annual Car Display at Bashas' in Sedona. We had an outstanding turnout of club members and guests. There was quite a variety of cars and owners. Beautiful weather and lots of "car conversation". A big Thank You to Bashas' for their hospitality on a Saturday afternoon. I think that they enjoyed the show as much as we did.

May

5/12 - Mother's Day Brunch: Reservation for 40, please...... Another fantastic Sedona Car Club turn-out for Mother's Day. Brunch at the Junipine Resort Cafe was delicious, again. The setting is spectacular - nestled in the midst of Oak Creek Canyon. Sunny day, cool breezes, beautiful drive in the canyon.

June

6/11 - Annual Picnic: The annual club picnic was held, again, at the Chavez Crossing Campground. This little-known gem is in the heart of Sedona and can be easily reserved for family or group events. It was an amazing day. The weather was warm, but there was a cool breeze under the sycamore trees. Ahhhhhhhh, sunny day, cool breeze, great picnic food and cold beer (or wine)...! The food was catered by Rick Kimberly and was great, as usual. You can tell the food was enjoyed because folks were busy eating and ignored the camera.

6/23 - V-Bar-V Tour & Lunch @ Vintages Grill, Rimrock: This car club adventure was a tour of the V-Bar-V Heritage Site which is, probably, the best example of Indian rock art in the Sedona and Verde Valley area. We had a docent available to explain science's current understanding of the site. This included symbol meaning and how the Indians interpreted various equinox and solstice events as displayed on the rock art in their daily lives.

Following the tour we had lunch at Vintages Grill located in Rimrock and very close to the V-Bar-V site.

July

Summer Hiatus - No Club Meeting

August

8/20 - BBQ and Brew Tour - Lumberyard Brewing Co. (Flagstaff): This car club adventure was an "eating and drinking" tour of the Lumberyard Brewing Company in Flagstaff. We had a leisurely drive from Sedona up Oak Creek Canyon which is always enjoyable. The weather was cooperative, as well. You just never know during monsoon season. There were about 31 participants, although it was difficult to "count noses" in such a large crowd.

The Lumberyard Brewing Company is extremely popular with the locals. Having such a large group show up for lunch and a tour must have been scary for the staff, but they did great.

September

9/21 - Annual Car Show: See 2013 Car Show page for more details

October

10/23 - Wine Tasting & Almost Halloween at The Asylum: This car club adventure was an "eating and drinking" tour in Jerome. A small group of us enjoyed wine tasting at Cellar 433 . Then, we met up with the whole group for our "almost Halloween" dinner at The Asylum Restaurant .

A fun time was had by all. Especially, those that attended to the wine tasting...!

November

11/02 - Litter Lifter

11/10 - Seven Canyons Car Display & BBQ: The Seven Canyons Golf Resort invited the Sedona Car Club to participate in their members only BBQ mixer event. Twenty member cars participated. The weather was cooperative, and the setting was beautiful.

December

12/07 - Cottonwood Christmas Parade: The weather was threatening freezing rain. So, we canceled our participation in the parade. We all met for lunch at Quince in Cottonwood, as planned.

12/10 - Christmas Dinner: This year's annual Christmas party was held at The Golden Goose Cafe. We had a great turnout. As you can see in the following photos, we had lots to discuss, eat and drink. We collected approximately 50 new toys that were donated to the Sedona Food Bank.