This last Wednesday afternoon, Sally and I drove down to Windsor to see Myke and Mary in their home bunker. We spent a wonderful evening with them as well as with Geoff Bottoms (of giant HUP fame) and his wife, then the next morning traveled to the Canadian Transportation Museum and Heritage Village site (see
http://www.ctmhv.com for reference) where we met with its director, Mickey Moulder, for breakfast then a comprehensive tour of the facilities.
The bottom line is that we WILL be co-hosting a small military vehicle event in conjunction with their old car show, on the aforementioned date of
Sunday, 06 September. The CTMHV site is simply amazing! It is one of the best-organised small museum setups I have ever seen, anywhere. Because of the diverse nature of the museum, there is much to attract both wives and children, with both ancient cars and very old historical buildings; there are also licensed dining facilities available, as well as bathrooms with showers.
As mentioned, this particular show is primarily for old cars, so there will be hundreds there as well as our small military enclave (about 14 vehicles expected to-date)... it's a start for us. BTW, there is also a swap meet there for the show, so you can buy or sell bits as you wish.
Sally and I will be arriving either Friday evening or Saturday morning, and will be camping through the weekend. Mickey has assigned us a laager for our military vehicles in the woods close to the main pavilion, where we will also camp; anyone coming down for the MV part of the show is welcome to join us! Our plan right now is to set up a BBQ for Saturday evening, so please join us if you can! In the meantime, if you'd like to drop off your vehicle on the Saturday, let us know when you're arriving and we'll ensure someone is there to meet you. If you're not planning on staying, some of us will be there overnight as security, so no problem with that.
The long range plan (which will be written after this first show), is to set up an annual military-vehicle-only event on the site, co-hosted by both MLU and the CTMHV - I think this will be an ideal venue for southwestern Ontario collectors, attracting both those who never make it to central Ontario (because of distance) as well as drawing from a potentially huge pool of US collectors within range of Detroit.
Shortly I shall be posting a map of the site as well as further information on the event itself. Please stay tuned! Even this first small event will be memorable, so come out if you can! I can only reiterate that the CTMHV is an outstanding organisation with a sincere interest in developing a positive relationship with the military vehicle community, which I heartily endorse.
You may contact me or Myke directly for further information on the event - we hope to see you there!
Jif