June 25th Meet and BBQ on Whidbey Island

It's time for a summer meet! We've been discussing this in the "next meet" thread and now have enough details for a new post.

Saturday June 25th is the day. We'll meet at my place in Oak Harbor around 10:00am for the BBQ. I'll provide burgers and hot dogs, and you're encouraged to bring anything else you want to eat. If some of you could bring chips, pop, salads, steak etc that would be great. I'll have some beer as well...please bring your favorite. We've a couple of weeks to discuss it.

Once everyone is there and we've all had our fill, we can decide what to do next. Photo ops are a must. We could head out to any of the recreation areas on Whidbey Island, such as Fort Ebey or Deception Pass State Park. We could go out on a fun run somewhere like Chuckanut Drive, which is only about 30 minutes from my house. We could just hang out at my place, even work on your car if we needed to. I have a big garage

About who to bring...everyone! Bring friends, kids, sig others, hitchhikers, whatever! The more the merrier! I live with my wife, a friend and six kids

so I really mean everyone is welcome. I have a big house with a big deck and a HUGE yard. We've had 50 people over before and it was no problem. If the deck becomes too small for the BBQ we can move to the yard. I have about two acres total.

We'll take a roll call a few days before the meet so I know how much stuff to buy. We can also discuss the rest of it in this thread of course. Please post...I hope to hear from all of you!

Hey guys. Thanks for the interest! I've been out a few days at my brother's wedding in Spokane, but I'll be back late tonight. I'll PM everyone interested my address for mapquest purposes. I need to check if it gives the right directions first. If it sucks I'll make up my own directions.

During this week we'll figure out who's coming and what everyone is willing to bring. We can also talk about what to do after the BBQ.

Beowulf, bring your rig on out and we'll change the oil...don't let that keep you from coming! The local Schucks has a few K&N oil filters in stock usually, so there should be no problem. Napa is always there in a pinch anyway. The local Wal-Mart sells Mobil 1 in the 5 quart jugs for less than $20 and are generally readily available as well.

Kerry, long time no see! Thanks for keeping those rotors. One of these days I'll actually get them from you! Good choice selling the Audi. Congrats on the wedding! How much is that ferry ride these days?

Good to see you too Llane! I was wonderring where you disappeared to. You've gotta come to the meet...you used to be the meet nazi!

I'll catch all of you later on tonight, possibly tomorrow.

Originally posted by kerrychin:

BTW, I got married!

Wow! Congrats! When did you get married? Lance and I just celebrated our 4th anniversary. I wish you two lots of happiness.

=) Christy

Originally posted by Outback Gal:

Originally posted by kerrychin:

BTW, I got married!

Wow! Congrats! When did you get married? Lance and I just celebrated our 4th anniversary. I wish you two lots of happiness.

=) Christy

OMG, THEY LIVE!

Hi to you, Lance and the little one. Should be around 1 and a half now, yes?

Hi,
I am new and considering buying a Countour. Can you tell me about the meet? I live near Mt. Vernon. Is it just Contour owners?

sweethome1000

I might have to ban myself by going off topic, but cut me some slack this time.

I met my wife 2 years ago in Asia while I was on foreign assignment, actually. She came to Canada for an extended visit by taking some courses at the University in 2004. We got engaged Dec 30, 2004 and married 12 days later. Now just waiting for Immigration Canada to grant her resident status so we can get on with our lives. It's a 6-9 month process. Hopefully in late summer she can move to Canada for good.

The Audi was for her, but I think we'll get something older and cheaper for her until she gets used to driving in North America. She learned to drive in the UK system, on the left side of the road and still has the tendency to want to drive on the wrong side of the road now and then!

I've started thinking about family cars now...one day I think a 2001-04 Audi A4 1.8T Quattro Avant (wagon) would be sweet. It would need a chip and exhaust for sure!

A 3.0L or 2.7T Audi would be nice but these 5V V6s really suck back the gas and these Quattros are heavy cars.

Right now, gotta recover some cash.

Kerry

Originally posted by Jean:
Hi,
I am new and considering buying a Contour. Can you tell me about the meet? I live near Mt. Vernon. Is it just Contour owners?

sweethome1000

Welcome Jean!

We try to have meets now and then, to show off our cars and to meet new friends. We've also had working meets, to help each other do some work on our cars.

This meet looks like it's going to be a good one, with Contour owners and Focus owners too. We might get some people driving from B.C. and Oregon, too.

If you're considering buying a Contour, this would be a good opportunity to see different models first-hand and to pick our brains for info about the cars.

Hope you can make it! (Send a PM to Shotwell for his address.)

Take care,
DDV

Congrats Kerry! Way to take the plunge.

Originally posted by Jean:
Hi,
I am new and considering buying a Countour. Can you tell me about the meet? I live near Mt. Vernon. Is it just Contour owners?

sweethome1000

Hi Jean, shotwell (the first poster) can send you his address, otherwise we'll be at deception pass sometime after the bbq. If you're interested in a contour that by all means come, that'll prove better than any non-owner opinion. You mentioned you saw a car with 120,000m for sale. Is is close to you or somewhere else? There'll be an assortment of cars like svt v6, v6 and 4 cylinder to look at and get thoughts on. And yes, non-contours can come for sure.

So shotwell should we make a time, for those not attending the BBQ, to be at deception pass or the beach? 12? 1?

Originally posted by Jean:
Hi,
I am new and considering buying a Countour. Can you tell me about the meet? I live near Mt. Vernon. Is it just Contour owners?

sweethome1000

Come on out! You're absolutely welcome! It'll give you a good chance to check out the different flavors of Contour (SE, SVT, LX, etc) and meet up with some of us.

Cris'pus, I don't think I can nail down a time to meet at Deception Pass. I would recommend that we meet at my place, no matter the time. I'm going to send out PMs today with my address and cell number. If there are any last minute concerns the day of the meet feel free to call me.

The only new news I have today is that I have secured a BBQ grill!

It's the big round charcoal type. It should be big enough to crank out some food!

I'm going to start a seperate roll call and what to bring thread. Please let me know!

The car is in Snohomish county, and my friend told me it needs a tune up for sure and an A/C recharge. Why does a car need an A/C recharge? Could it be a leak? I worry about the expense of fixing it if it is a leak? My car's A/C just went out and I don't want another car that does not have working A/C. Is it best to have the carm checked out by a mechanic? Who is good in Everett?

Originally posted by Jean:
The car is in Snohomish county, and my friend told me it needs a tune up for sure and an A/C recharge. Why does a car need an A/C recharge? Could it be a leak? I worry about the expense of fixing it if it is a leak? My car's A/C just went out and I don't want another car that does not have working A/C. Is it best to have the carm checked out by a mechanic? Who is good in Everett?

AC units do need to be recharged from time to time.

Originally posted by kerrychin:
I might have to ban myself by going off topic, but cut me some slack this time.

BANNED!!!

Oh, wait...you're the moderator. That's great news you have Kerry! Congrats!

I just sent PMs out to everyone I've seen post in the NW forum in the last year or so, and then some. Maybe this will bring some people out of the woodwork so to speak. Wouldn't it be interesting if I could get Lance, Shaun, Sadeeq and Rob (QBert) in one place at the same time! Who cares what they drive anymore? It's been years!

I'm getting the feeling from some of the posts and PMs that 10:00 may be too early. Do we need to push it back to 11:00 or noon? That isn't a problem at all, just let me know what you want to do. I'm easy

*troll in*

Im in

/Troll out

Originally posted by Beowulf:

OMG, THEY LIVE!

Hi to you, Lance and the little one. Should be around 1 and a half now, yes?

Yes, Yes we do. Sorry we've been incommunicado for so long, but an active one year old will do that!

She is actually 14.5 months right now. Running all over the place.

Originally posted by kerrychin:

I met my wife 2 years ago in Asia while I was on foreign assignment, actually. She came to Canada for an extended visit by taking some courses at the University in 2004. We got engaged Dec 30, 2004 and married 12 days later. Now just waiting for Immigration Canada to grant her resident status so we can get on with our lives. It's a 6-9 month process. Hopefully in late summer she can move to Canada for good.

Kerry

Wow, so she's not with you right now? Did you meet her on that trip to Hong Kong? Lance and I are all too familiar with that process! Lance's Dad applied for his US visa to move back here from Canada in March of 2002. He finally got his visa on November 24, 2004! Unfortunately during that time he couldn't cross the border, so he missed the birth of Alexa as well as my neice.

That is so exciting, and hopefully the process will be nice an speedy for you two.

Shotwell - Have you talked to Sadeeq recently? I'm sure they've been busy, since Kamal is just over a month older than Alexa.

-Christy

Originally posted by 1slo30:
*troll in*

Im in

/Troll out

Ack i wish you still had your 3L my buddy wanted to see if if you came! Glad to see yea back!

Lance and Christy need to show up this weekend. There will be little kids around ( I think)

Yes, Lance and Christy, you should come out here tomorrow! There are already going to be at least 10 kids here, so Alexa won't be an issue. I got a PM from Sadeeq a couple of days ago saying he might be able to make it. I'll be sending him another PM tonight as a reminder. I'm hoping 1slo30 will show as well. I got a PM from him, and he's really close to me...like 15 or 20 miles.

It's not too late guys. Everyone is welcome!

Mike

Sounds like fun, guys!!

Too bad, I can't come. I promised myself I wouldn't drive the SVT until I sell the Audi, so I wouldn't be able to keep up with you guys anyway.

Have a great time.

Kerry

Originally posted by Outback Gal:
Wow, so she's not with you right now? Did you meet her on that trip to Hong Kong? Lance and I are all too familiar with that process! Lance's Dad applied for his US visa to move back here from Canada in March of 2002. He finally got his visa on November 24, 2004! Unfortunately during that time he couldn't cross the border, so he missed the birth of Alexa as well as my neice.

That is so exciting, and hopefully the process will be nice an speedy for you two.
-Christy

Hi Christy,

Holy cow! 2.5 years to get the visa!? That's too bad gramps had to miss that.

GREAT news, Michelle got her Canadian permanent resident visa a few days ago! It took 4.5 months....not bad. Soon I can actually live in the same country as my wife! We're looking at August.

Kerry