PAGE 7 CIMARRON TRAIL ZONOTES By J on J ones As a 14-year member of PCA, I have never attended Parade as a member. I was at Spokane last year as the Zone 5 Representative, but I had no car having flown in for the Board Meeting and didn’t stay until the end. This year will be the first year I will attend from start to finish, accompanied by my lovely wife Joy – her first Parade, too. Why? As I have noted previously, Parade was not the primary reason we joined PCA. We were mostly focused on technical information and contacts within the club to expand our knowledge of all things Porsche. We are both racing enthusiasts, and have been focused on Porsche’s racing exploits since the ‘70s when we courted. Many days at Lime Rock, where we grew up, were spent watching the Greggs, Holberts, and Keysers of the Porsche world triumph over all comers. The history of Porsche in motorsport is truly legend, and we are thrilled to be part of it through PCA, if only in a miniscule way. This year we decided to go all-in and experience our first Parade, mostly because it is in our backyard. Osage Beach, MO, is close by and the Tan-Tar-A resort looks great. We registered early (#53!), and we began thinking about what we wanted to do event-wise. I plan on driving my ’79 911 which is in pretty good shape, but at 39 years old you never know. So we decided to take it easy on the old girl, and focus more on volunteering to help make the Parade experience better for everyone. So far, we have signed up to volunteer for the Rally, Concours, and Autocross. We both enjoy the volunteer experience and are looking forward to meeting new PCA friends. While volunteering is important to us, I could not resist the opportunity to enter the 911 in the Concours. I have no illusions about the condition it is in, but I wanted to have the one time experience of preparation, presentation, and judging. As with most Porsche owners, I love my car and want other people to love it, too. We’ll see what the judges think. We found the registration process easy. I’ve heard there have been some problems in the past, but we had an easy time. We selected the dinners we wanted, the activities, and the volunteer opportunities in a simple, straightforward way. One thing we were cautioned about from veteran Parade-goers was not to overload ourselves. As we found out with the registration process, Parade offers so many activities, options and events that it is easy to get carried away with fun things to do. Since Parade is also our summer vacation this year, we tried to pick one or two activities per day and allow for some down time to just enjoy the resort. On the Zone front, we will host a Zone 5 party for all of the many Zone 5 people attending Parade. I will send out a separate email to the Region Presidents soon, but it will be at 4:30 on Sunday, July 8th, in the Grand Foyer of the Wingate Plaza. We’ll offer light snacks (the Welcome Dinner follows), and a cash bar. We hope you will join us and your fellow Zone 5 PCA members.
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