Home from Waterfest

[jarrett@rpa.net (Jim Jarrett)]

On 7/22/02 8:50 PM, "doug czajka" <scirocco16v@europe.com> wrote:

> I pretty much agree with everything that has been said about waterfest this
> year.  Here are some of my key points.
> 

Me, too.

Here's my spin.

"WORST WATERFEST, EVER."

This was my 6th Watefest.  As of right now, I'm not going back next year.
(My mind may change...)

For me, it was just a whole series of things that added up to having the one
thing I have looked forward to all year be sadly disappointing.

-It RAINED, *A LOT* on the trip down.  I mean A LOT.  We headed out from
Rochester on Friday, and hit the torrential storms that swept the area
around Binghamton, and they continued the whole way.  That caused our
caravan to get badly fragmented, and in fact, Cathy Boyko's son broke down
and we didn't even know it because we got so separated.  I felt really
really bad that we didn't stick together....

And all that water caused everyone (except Ben Harder's) car to run like
crap.  Or uncovered a whole lot of little problems that added up to me
seriously wanting to just dump my car and get a bone-stock Accord.

-Ramada Hotel #2 SUCKED.  Its location was awful -- nothing within walking
distance, the rooms were bad, and then the whole bad scene with the burnouts
and cops and idiots trashing rooms and the pool.  We all started switching
to it because #1 filled up....I kind of regret that now.  Certainly, being
with everyone else from the lists (scirocco.org and Volkswagens of Toronto)
was the point, and I enjoyed that, but it's just not cool to have a bunch of
cops swarming over the place.

A suggestion (Daun? Jason C?) made was that maybe next year we try to find a
hotel just for the scirocco.org group....as much fun as the hotel parking
lot hangout is, I don't think anyone will argue with me that the scene is
getting worse every year.  Maybe we should just get our own place where we
can enjoy the best part of that.

-Except for the fact they got moving on the judging right away, it continues
to be a huge problem.  First of all, they screwed up my class totally,
putting me in modified Rabbit instead of modified Convertible/Cabriolet.  SO
I know next year to wear a color-coded tube top to score points, I guess.
(That's an unfair characterization, the car that got 1st place WAS very very
clean. I'm just bitter and doubting myself now that I really DO have a good
car).

Now, the venue, the number of cars, the exhibition area, and the number of
vendors was very, very good.  Not thrilled with $5 burgers, but this was by
far the best place I think WF has been held.  If they could just find some
hotels in a nice part of New Jersey....


/===============================================================\
| Jim Jarrett,Rochester NY      '93 Passat GLX, '84 Scirocco    |
| mailto:jarrett@rpa.net         '81 Rabbit Convertible 16v     |
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